NEW: Rubik’s Cube (2026)
Performed by Athlete
Theme: Tin Man (2007) (Azkadellia/Zero)

My Rating: Five stars. I’m very happy with this one.
Background: Like What We Left Alive, this video is a tie in with a fanfic, Reparations. However, unlike the previous one, it leans on atmosphere rather than literal re-telling. This story has a very rich physical environment – a rebuilt post-war Finaqua, now a military base of rehabilitated Longcoats, led by Azkadellia, Zero, and her four Majors – and that was what I wanted to play with visually in this video. The story also has an interior and intimate recovery storyline that does not lend itself to video, so a linear representation of the story wouldn’t work. I set out to include enough breadcrumbs for the central arc that readers could enjoy it, while keeping them subtle enough that the video could also work as a standalone for people who just want to invest a few minutes in something satisfying on its own merits.
Geeky Things To Note: The entire video is made with generated footage. I have done that once before, but this one went to a different level because I designed a full world of environments, uniforms, and supporting characters as well. The element referencing prep took almost as long as generating the videos themselves. For this one, I deliberately designed Azkadellia and Zero to be a bit more removed from their onscreen portrayals – they are a little closer in age than their actors in this story, and onscreen Azkadellia has a fragile broken-doll edge that I really didn’t want to emphasise for this story, for reasons that will be clear to anyone who reads it. The other geeky point I would make is that for all three of these videos that link in to a story, the generated footage is of actual scenes from the related works. There is virtually no generic-romance or generic-atmosphere filler footage. I have tried doing that and it simply doesn’t work. I do think intentionality matters a lot for working meaningfully with generative footage.
Programs Used: Kdenlive.
Sources: Tin Man (2007) (inspiration) and generated footage, mostly in Kling 3.0.