Our Tapes (Collab Con 2012:1st place)

[NIGHT 2]

Обалденно... просто обалденно.

[ProjectBarcodeError]

interesting. the story's well made.

should be a easy win.

[alien762]

Wonderful! Work of art

[bombush]

You really can push the boundaries of awesome can't you My jaw dropped so hard my lower floor neighbours' chandelier fell right into their dinner!
There were arguably few places where the composition felt a little bit strange but overall this is both storytelling and crossover at its very best.
The VCAs are going to get really interesting.

[Kevmaster]

I laughed at 1:20. Does that make me a bad person?

For some reason I couldn't take this video serious. The story/concept is way too cliché for me and while the scene manipulations surely look pretty in pictures, I felt like that was all that was interesting about the video. Some scenes just look too hilarious to evoke any emotion other than laughter. Scene changes and overall editing felt rather weak, especially in terms of video flow and depth. Also 1:55 - seriously? Looks almost as bad as the crap I did in that video for hot coffee.

[xDreww]

I laughed at 1:20. Does that make me a bad person?

For some reason I couldn't take this video serious. The story/concept is way too cliché for me and while the scene manipulations surely look pretty in pictures, I felt like that was all that was interesting about the video. Some scenes just look too hilarious to evoke any emotion other than laughter. Scene changes and overall editing felt rather weak, especially in terms of video flow and depth. Also 1:55 - seriously? Looks almost as bad as the crap I did in that video for hot coffee.

Yes you are a bad person.

[Renato]

*rewrites his ranking list for the top AMVs of 2012 for his blog*

After watching that, I don't know what series I was looking at anymore.

My word, that was brilliant editing to the point where a story was told just brilliantly. The concept was brilliant and very original, the scenes used were correct, and the transitions and effects used definitely set the tone for a serious/drama AMV, along with the song choice.

I watched Metamorphose a while back and I thought that was brilliant, but the game was brought up and I thought this was an excellent AMV, and I would have to put it #1 on my list for 2012.

This AMV here was made with a lot of dedication, patience and time with so much creativity involved. Definitely inspired me. Great work!

[Emong]

I also prefer Metamorphose due to the fact that it's more abstract than this. It's always a danger in original storytelling that you end up constructing the storyline in a way that's way too linear and obvious to allow for any sense of depth. It's as if the only thing important is to just get the story told in a consistent fashion without much consideration for other merits. I don't think that amvs which "follow" the plot of the anime itself have the same problem, at least usually, because it's actually extremely difficult to capture the whole scope and lenght of the story of the anime in a single amv. Therefore amvs tend to be abstract by their nature, that is, if you measure abstraction by the consistency and linearity of the storyline. They usually just capture the mood, maybe some generic trends of the anime's plot or antagonisms between certain characters etc. This produces a sense of depth, the illusion that behind all these images there's a lot of stuff going on that's just invisible to the audience.

The problem with Our Tapes is that you tried to tell a long and complex story - a girl who dreams of becoming a popular musician meets a boy, they fall in love, the girl gets hit by a car, her dreams are shattered and she's ridden by mental problems up the point of attempting suicide, and finally the boy rescues her and they even get engaged in the end - in such a compact form as an amv. Even though it's technically impressive that you even managed to get the story told (!) it nonetheless leaves something to be desired. This is because you simply show too much. Everything is laid down and explained in such a precise manner that if there ever was a sense of something deeper going on it's all dispelled in the end. There's much that could have been done in other ways here. By simply scrambling the story, by telling the same story in a non-linear way (by starting from the accident and using flashback sequences for example), the impact would have been much better. Another way that you could have done it would have been to simplify the basic plot and leave it on the background. This way you would have had much more time to delve in details instead of rushing through the story.

Now all this probably sounds like I'm some envious guy who just saw something utterly impressive and needed to level down the awesomeness so he wouldn't feel so inferior (and this is of course true) but the amount of time and effort both of you put into this signals that you might want to hear some other feedback too than just "OMG AMAZING EFFECTS!!1!". It's still one of my favorite amvs of the year, right behind Metamorphose.

[AimoAio]

I agree with Emong to some extent regarding the abstract issue. The story was too clear, so instead of me watching and interpreting what happens on my own, it was more like everything was spoonfed to me. Personally I prefer it when there's some space left for imagination that might help instigate a discussion or at least, leave something as an afterthought that'll act as an incentive for me to rewatch the AMV but I couldn't really see or feel something like that from Our Tapes.

That being said, the technical aspect of this was absolutely splendid. The composition of each scene was beautifully created, the colouring and blending work were fabulous and helped in creating the sense of the scenes being realistic and not customized. If I wasn't an editor and/or haven't seen the majority of the anime/scenes used I would actually think this was just one series so I applaud you for the effort that went into creating such wonderful scenes.

So yes, it was a good AMV but not something I found particularly awesome (aside from the technical part) or would really rewatch but good job nonetheless.

[irriadin]

I don't want to be like "me too me too!" But I have to agree with Emong and Aimo. In telling your story, you don't leave much to the imagination. I find that the most interesting videos allow your brain to "fill in the gaps" with your own ideas. Metamorphose was more mysterious and felt a little more nuanced because you weren't exactly sure what *exactly* was happening at times. It leaves a certain degree of interpretation to the video that makes it fun to rewatch.

But in any case, I still enjoyed this video because the color effects, lighting, composition work and scene choice were fantastic.