I only began editing last year, though I'd been watching amvs since 2004 and totally love the idea of them. The only drawback for me was that I didn't think I'd have the patience to complete one myself. I did it the first time, then thought I'd never do it again. Boy was I wrong there. As I make more and more of them, I get at a sense of all the little intracacies that go into the process.
When I did my very first video (yes it was a Naruto), I was so pleased with it. I look back at it now and eventhough I actually don't like the show as much, I still like the video. Sure, there are things I'd change. The clips were way long and I didn't understand how simple but effective a crossfade would be (though I had the "fade to white" down pat :-p); but I think the idea was there for the scenes to fit the theme of the song. At that "place that shall not be named" it still has many more views than my second amv probably ever will, as well as faves and downloads. I've even gotten comments from people saying they cried. Even
I didn't cry about it. But I won't lie that it can be pretty fulfilling to know you've struck an emotional cord with a viewer. That was 5-days well-spent
. w00t for WMM, though it seriously crashed my Windows completely in the process of making the video, and I almost lost everything.
That was the closest I got to tears. 5 days, gone. Oh the pain.
By the time I got to my second video earlier this year, I'd ditched my old 2003 Compaq Presario 2100 and got a Macbook Pro. One of the first things I toyed with was iMovie. Sure it provided many effects, but most were cheezy so I just decided I'd stick closely to the beat with my clips and condense a 50 episode series into 3 minutes. Overall I still like my video, but I did get a bit flash-happy. Still, for my 2nd amv, I'm pleased with it. Took about two months to work on compared to my first one (though I had technical difficulties). With that in mind I knew it'd only get more complicated.
After the second one was done, I knew that I really loved editing, so decided to give myself an early birthday gift, Adobe CS3. Made my newest video with that one, but I mainly did it to get familiar with what I could do with Premiere. I like this new video and I toned it down a lot from my 2nd one. The org treats it nicer too with more views and higher ratings, but this one has its flaws too.
But I'm noticing in the process that after every video, I just want to do more the next time around. I'm buckling down to tackle After Affects now to do some things for my next amv. It'll be nothing ground-breaking necessarily (and I already know I will likely not be an effects guru, rather more of a story teller), but it works for the vision I have as a whole. I think with editing you gotta look at
you and what
you want to do rather than what other people want because if you do that, you're just going to find that they want different things. I have friends beta my stuff all the time and they throw out different ideas. What I listen for is a consistent point that they make and work on that, but if overall they think it's pretty good, I'm going to stick with what I have because afterall, it's
my video.
Overall, I say that looking at my old videos gets me in the mood to see what I can work on next. I still have a lot to learn so I'll have a lot to look forward to for the next video and the next one and the next, etc.
