How do you storyboad\plan your amvs?

[spk1983]

I usually pick the song, then when an anime comes along that strikes as being a possible idea to work with it, then I just watch through the anime 2-3 times consecutively, and start picking out scenes that could potentially work for key parts of the song...but I never write it down, just store it in my head....

From there, I improvise on remaining scenes, to try to give it some flow.

[kablay]

If I can't envision at least a good half of the song, I won't even bother trying to do it. >_>

OMG YES. That's why I hate requests sometimes (when I choose to do them, which is rare), because sometimes the song doesn't go AT ALL. But yeah, the song has to at least be relatable to the clips in that I don't have to make up a whole new story that doesn't even have to do with the original story. I HATE when people do that! When they do that it's like it could be any two/three/one/whatever people and it doesn't even matter who the people actually are in the AMV! But anyway...

Sometimes I do plan the whole video in my head, but most of the time I just have a basic idea of the video and then really get a solid feel for the mood and theme of the video after around the first 30-60 minutes of the video. The same thing goes for effects and patterns and stuff. I usually have a pattern of effects I use over and over again (with a little surprises here and there) for each video, and that helps retain the theme and makes the video more "whole," if you know what I mean.

[DriftRoot]

So...in other words, I am not doomed for eternity b/c I don't use classic storyboarding? *glares at blabbler*

I have found through unpleasant personal experience that storyboarding can pose a huge obstacle to my AMV endeavors.

1) Things rarely if ever go the way I envision. Whether it's me imagining "perfect" scenes that don't actually exist or expecting to be able to pull off effects that cannot possibly be pulled off...well...it's hard to argue with the fact that until I try something, I really don't know if it's going to work. Found this out recently, and I would say as a general tip to ANYONE attempting ANY AMV - make sure you can make "that" scene you've got in mind before you go throw yourself into making everything else.

2) I work, creatively speaking, in an evolving manner, and from many years of experience I know this is how I do my best work. I am good at evaluating and re-evaluating things on the fly and coming up with creative solutions, I am not so good at following rigid instructions (self-imposed or not). Doesn't mean the final results won't have an underlying structure or seem to reflect extensive planning, but just because something LOOKS like it's been storyboarded doesn't mean it has been.

3) I don't generally make good decisions about how to go about doing something until I've exhausted all other options. This is one reason it takes me so long to make AMVs - for even basic scenes it's pretty much routine to spend hours and hours experimenting with alternatives before settling on what I feel is the "best" option. I'm not good enough to know instinctively what the best option is.

All this aside, I heartily endorse storyboarding for certain projects and certainly would recommend it for people who work well that way. Just attempting storyboarding can be valuable, since even if the storyboard itself never rises to the level of being an accurate outline of the end product, the ideas garnered through the process easily can. Storyboarding makes you think about what you're doing, which is a good thing.

[micktam12]

Find inspiration.

Get a song
Get the anime
Read the lyrics to see if it matchs
Think of sequences that can be a good fit
(if im doing one) Think of some effect sequences that will match it.

Then all of that is editing and creating.

[qyll]

I never really have a solid plan before I start editing. However, I do hold a general idea of what I want my AMV to look like. When I find a good song + anime pair, I'll walk around and listen to the song for a few days and try to see where specific scenes of the anime might sync well to certain parts of the song. Sometimes, I'll just listen to a song I really want to edit to and identify which anime fits best with it. For example, in my BECK AMV, the song is Heavy Metal Drummer and the first 17 seconds of the song is a sunny guitar/drum intro. When I listen to that intro, I always imagine sticking my head of out my car window and watching buildings pass by, wind in my hair. Lo and behold, the BECK OP had some of those exact scenes that I wanted, so it was a no contest when I chose the anime. But besides those special parts of the song, I just improvise and try to edit from the start of the song to the end of the song.

[blabbler]

blah blah blah

GNNNNnnnnnnnNNNnn...

FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUU...

don't you back down now, there'll be hell to pay.

|:

[Castor Troy]

99.5% of the time I imagine a scene for a video, it doesn't exist in the show.

[Nya-chan Production]

99.5% of the time I imagine a scene for a video, it doesn't exist in the show.

99.5% of the time I imagine a scene for a video, it does exist in the show.

Luckyyyyy~

[Castor Troy]

99.5% of the time I imagine a scene for a video, it doesn't exist in the show.

99.5% of the time I imagine a scene for a video, it does exist in the show.

Luckyyyyy~

And when that scene actually does exist, it ends up being much shorter than I expected.

[machina21]

A method i've started to do is to make a "dirty" rough draft version of what Im doing. Basically I take the anime and make low quality rips of the episodes. Bring it into Premiere and from there plan out the AMV, scrubbing through and picking out what I think is best.

This allows me ahead of time to get the timing and see how things can be arranged and what-not. This also helps for when I finally decide to rip the high quality clips. I know what I want and where to get it. A little more work on the front end but it allows more smoother production time for me.