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Michael Rubino
UWRT 1101
Agosta
2/19/2015
Video Editing's Seclusion
A true video editor, whether he/she be an amateur using a cheap windows movie maker or a
professional using final cut pro, is aware of the fact that the editing process is a careful, meticulous
procedure that requires an absurd level of patience and long-term dedication. It is a hobby and/or
profession that demands consistency in quality amongst multiple projects. If this flow of work should be
interrupted, then the quality degrades the more time that passes without practice. The steps to the video
editing process are not easy and work can become impeded if a person is familiar with my sort of
lifestyle. It is a lifestyle that involves halfhearted commitments that drain a considerable amount of
time. It is also a lifestyle involving individuals who unintentionally (and intentionally) curb the editing
process with their own opinions. Video editing can be a rewarding hobby despite its frustrations. It
involves a social interaction that is still currently rather unique but plans to soon become a norm in
society. Video editing is arguably one of my most fulfilling literacies that I have ever developed due to
the community involved with it and the feeling of success upon the completion of a project through all
of the ups and downs that come with it.
It was an unusual occurrence in highschool to come across a certain rare individual that just
didn't seem to belong to one or two groups. This individual doesn't conform to the prominent groups of
athletes, stereotypical preps, tech geeks, etc. There is actually such a thing as an athletic nerd. I use the
term nerd simply because it is a common reference to someone who has an interest in something that
is part of a so-called geek culture. I happened to be one of these athletic nerds. I played sports all year
round in cross country, baseball, track, and wrestling. It was the same back in middle school. If the one

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year back in elementary school counts, then I have been an active participant in sports every season of
the year for eight years straight. So yes, I suppose one could consider me an athlete. One would
probably even assume that I was obsessed with sports. Unfortunately, this was not the case. I was also
on pretty much the exact opposite side of the spectrum. This is a side that hardly anyone even knew
about since I was considered a star athlete. My athletics, ironically enough, overshadowed my true
interests and a culture that I practically adored. I was involved in another world that people would dub
as nerdy. I watched Japanese animated shows (also known as anime) every chance I had and I was
perfectly content with watching the shows with the original Japanese voice actors with subtitles lining
the bottom of the screen. I spent money on manga (comic books) and built up a massive collection on
my bookshelves along with my Harry Potter books and Stephen King and Dean Koontz novels. My
athlete friends would be shocked when they walked into my room to see posters of games and anime
characters instead of ones involving the Yankees or Henry Lundqvist. Many of the members of the band
class I attended were pleasantly surprised when they saw me pull out a manga during a free study
session when the instructor was absent. However, my status as an athletic nerd with varying talents
was a bit of a double-edged sword. Then youtube came along.
The online community began to call a new breed of video by the acronym AMV. It stands for
anime music videos, a video that is exactly as its name suggests. AMVs are videos edited by people
using anime shows and synching it to music. I can still clearly remember to this day the first AMV I
ever saw. I had already dug myself deep into this Japanese animation community in the United States
and I wanted to be a direct contributor. The video inspired me to leave my comfort zone of anonymity
and to really try something different. I decided to start simple and embraced the suggestions of the
people who had made tutorials online concerning AMV editing. I started with the basics and used a
free editing program known as Windows Movie Maker that came with my Windows operating system. I
wanted to make a video using the same show that I had previously viewed in the other person's work

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with one goal: to do it better. It took me weeks to make that first video. I am a person who is not easily
satisfied when it comes to my hobbies. Having even one small clip not in synch with the music was
unacceptable. When I sat back and reviewed the video after about the fiftieth render, I finally felt it was
ready. I made a youtube account and uploaded the video. Within a few days I was receiving comments
from people about the video and I began to gain a decent number of subscribers. The reception was
better than I could have hoped. It was overwhelmingly positive. This is when I thought to myself, I
really might actually have something here. But I had no one to share my success with at the time. I
thought that my parents might find it pretty cool that I had found a hobby that really took some
creativity. Afterward, I felt I had made a huge mistake.
Let's say my parents were less than thrilled to hear about my video editing involving anime. At
the time, they were already aware of the fact that I was interested in Japanese cartoons. They were
the type of parents who hated things like video games or anything else that they saw as a waste of time
and energy. They viewed anime as something childish and nothing that a highschooler should be
interested in. I would always find it amusing when I would watch an anime show on the computer and
a mature rating would greet me in the top left of the screen. Yes, it is all for children indeed. But I
digress. They saw this new hobby as something that would get in the way of things that were more
important, like sports and school. To my dismay, where I was obsessed with the world of the internet,
my father was an absolute sports fanatic.
I shut away the discouragements from my mother and father and continued with my editing
undeterred. I eventually established myself in the community of some moderate AMV editors and even
created a skype account so I could discuss anime and editing techniques with my new friends. We even
set up dropboxes with each other so that we could send previews of our work to each other to receive
critiques before we actually uploaded it to the internet for all the viewers to see. A few months passed
and I graduated from Windows Movie Maker and moved on to a professional editing software known

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as Sony Vegas Pro. A Sony Vegas editing program is like candyland to a video editor. I was now able to
break away from the limitations of my old program and I moved on to mastering more advanced
editing techniques that polished my video clips and allowed for so many more possibilities to wow
the audience. Soon I was not just satisfied with uploading videos to youtube. Many of my online friends
began to discuss conventions that were taking place all over the country that would soon be
showcasing AMVs in contests where the fans could watch it together in person. There were even prizes
for the editors who won the contests. But I had a problem. How could I possibly create a video worthy
of these contests when I spent most of my time at school and sports?
My father was a strong believer in not just playing sports but also watching sports. The only
way an athlete could reach his/her true potential in a sport was to learn from those who were better. I
can't argue with this because I believe this reasoning is sound. This didn't change the fact that I didn't
care if I reached this full potential. My father would always urge me to sit down and watch a baseball
game or analyze a video of a college coach explaining a certain wrestling move. I refused most of the
time, and if he persisted, sometimes it would be vehemently. I still feel to this day that some sports I just
simply did not enjoy. I truly believe I somewhat enjoyed baseball, cross country, and track, but I am
still so skeptical about my wrestling years. For one thing, wrestling, arguably, consumed my life. I
didn't edit during the Winter season because I never had the time. My life consisted of: wake up, go to
school, attend wrestling practice, finish my homework, go to sleep, repeat. That was it day in and day
out. Even my Saturdays were swamped. I had no time to do what I truly wanted to do. It was
frustrating. I found the quality of my video editing plummet when I could return to it once the wrestling
season was over. I didn't necessarily lose the techniques themselves per se, but my steps became clunky
and the editing clearly wasn't as smooth. It got to the point where I felt as if I was making up for lost
time when Spring came along and I spent more and more hours sitting at the computer. My parents
would get on me about this, but I was determined.

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My hard work paid off towards the end of my senior year. I was finally able to submit one of my
AMVs to a contest in Florida. I was unable to attend the convention in person, but some of my internet
friends would be attending and they assured me that they would collect my prize for me if I happened
to do well. I received a phone call from one of these friends and I remember she was practically
screaming with excitement as she told me that my video had won the prize for best action. I received a
certificate with my name and the title of my video saying that I had won at the convention and I also
received a bunch of other prizes as well. I was ecstatic. My friend sent me everything by mail and I
showed it to my folks. I just couldn't contain myself. This time telling them was not a mistake. The
physical evidence got them to question what my hobby was really all about. They even went so far as to
perform research on anime music videos and discovered how much work and patience it took to finish
a project.
I continued to edit for more contests and my editing abilities earned me my own little spot on
youtube that became pretty popular. My parents were much more understanding of my hobby even if
they did still think anime was childish. It was enough for me that they actually even began to support
me in my endeavors. My video editing branched off into other literacies that I developed as I became
more involved in the various communities. I eventually picked up an impressive USB microphone that I
used for voice acting on a couple of channels on youtube. I even joined an editing comedy group that
uploaded a video a month as collaboration projects that involved funny skits. Things were going well.
College arrived and that was when my work took a long standstill.
AMV editing involves using music. Music is copyrighted. It doesn't matter if you have a
disclaimer in the description of your video or if you even put it into the video itself. One day I logged
into my email and found a message from youtube that said my videos held copyrighted content from a
third party. As a result, my videos were removed and my youtube account was expelled from the site.
All my work on youtube, everything, was gone. It was not surprising that I was distraught. Losing that

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account meant that I had lost all my subscribers and my association with other editing groups.
According to the internet, I no longer existed. It was funny that my parents were the ones who
encouraged me to get back into the editing when I stopped for a while. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it
anymore. It seemed like all my work was gone. I look back on it now and see how foolish of a notion it
was, but it was understandable since I was depressed about it. How could I come back from this?
AMVs had gotten so popular and hundreds of people were now into it. I would just become lost in the
mix. My parents said that if it was something I was truly passionate about, then I could bounce back
and regain my former status. My internet friends concurred with this. They did everything within their
ability to get me back on my feet. I was already considered an exceptional editor. All I needed was for
my editing to do the talking. My internet friends advertised a new channel that I had set up on their
own channels and in no time at all it seemed I had returned to where I was before, or perhaps even
better. It was at that moment that I realized that there would be obstacles to constantly impede my
progress with this hobby in the future, but they could be overcome.
There was something special about this hobby. It wasn't just that I was good at it, but I was able
to interact with people who had a similar interest, something that was difficult to find at school and in
sports. I felt like I really fit in somewhere. When a person really feels like he/she belongs doesn't that
mean the enthusiasm and commitment rises too? It seems logical.
Nowadays I don't edit nearly as much as I used to. I am just a person who has far too many
interests. When people say that there aren't enough hours in the day, I will be one of the first people to
give an exasperated sigh and say, Ain't that the truth. Right now I am writing fiction which, funny
enough, has quite a bit of anime undertones to it, and it shows with the fanbase. I occasionally help
some of my old friends out with their own projects and from time to time there will be a viewer who
notices my username in the description of a video and says, Hey, I remember that guy. I've found
that this is one of those literacies I have developed that I will be going back to over the course of my

life. I
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believe it is the first time I have ever had an interest that has stuck with me for so long or gives me that
mindset. I will continue to edit over the course of my life and it will continue to develop. I will also
have that little mark on the internet and a memory etched into the minds of many fans. I look forward
to finishing another video.