Death Note - Vicarious Killer *NEW*

[DillonTaylor]

My second AMV!

Of course, any feedback is greatly appreciated!







My very first AMV

Any criticism or feedback is greatly appreciated!

[CodeZTM]

You know what, I enjoyed this pretty well. I had a few issues with it, but in general, I think you had a good [and focused] concept and executed it fairly well. And a good/focused concept will get you places.

The first thing I'd like to point out is that you really shouldn't watermark your videos like that. It's ridiculously distracting and takes away from the enjoyment of the videos. If you do want to watermark, make it invisible or hidden to the naked eye.

Next, I think your scenes could have used more movement and far more cuts. The scenes lasted very long and could have used some more cutting and hitting with the mood of the music. Like at 1:07, when the music begins to change its tempo a little, and you've still got the same scene playing, and its a very static image.

The inclusion of L and the FBI cops kind of hurt your concept. Up until that point, I thought that you concept was about Kira's world and his obsession with godhood and making his judgement throughout the world, and you'd kept a lot of good focus until that point. When L and the cops gets introduced, it's sort of just a little odd to see them so suddenly introduced, without much context for it. A scene showing them investigating Kira would have provided that, and given him a reason for killing them off.

Lip flap, or the act of talking when in the middle of a scene without it begin intentional lip sync, was a problem at times. This can be masked out, especially in the scenes they had/were in.

The flashback scene at 2:26ish is totally out of context and was weird to see. People who haven't seen the anime will not really understand why he's spazzing out.

But on the whole, it was pretty well done for a first AMV. You did a lot of things right, and I think you did a generally good job with it. I think more experience in the field will help fix the issues I mentioned, as its things that editors learn in time as they get more AMVs under their belt.

Oh, and MAJOR kudos for reading the announcement rules and announcing your first video properly.

Nice work, and welcome to a-m-v.org!

[DillonTaylor]

Thank you for the feedback!

I'll definitely take this feedback to heart when developing my next AMV. To be honest I'm not much of an editor. I have the right tools, and I'm used to using them for other types of projects (Fandubs, etc.) but... My main career focus is on voice acting. However, THIS project got me interested in making AMV's. It started as a fan trailer of sorts, but I realized it was almost more of an AMV by the end of it. I also realized that I loved editing clips from my favorite anime to match with music, especially if that music holds a meaning within the context of the show.

Hopefully I can improve my editing skills and perhaps make creating AMV's a hobby

[DillonTaylor]

I'm sorry if bumping is against the rules, I didn't see it. I know you can't make a new thread until a week has passed so I posted my newest AMV in this one

[CodeZTM]

No, you did the right thing with making it in the same thread. This is a copy/paste from what I'll put in the OP, so I thought i'd place it here too.

First off, that's a much better watermark. Although I think you shouldn't have it at all, that's a much more visually appealing one, and much more acceptable. I also don't have any complaints about visual quality.

Sync wise, I think it was ok. It's a really fast song to edit with a pretty static anime that doesn't move much or have a lot of action, but you did your best in that regard. More movement and shorter scenes would have helped you out. Like in the parts of 1:42-1:50, you've got a lot of busy movement in the music, but not much going on on screen.

The only real complains I wanted to notable point out was when you started doing the white flashes at :23-:26. After the flashes, there wasn't any scenery changes, which kind of made the white flashes more or less unnecessary. I'd like to make the same complaint from around 3:28-end with the beats with the drum thingy. Plus, if you're going to try and sync it with that kind of notes, you need to make sure you hit the notes perfectly, and make the transitions from each scene beat to something new/interesting, instead of the same scene over and over again.

I also think some of the scenes were a little weird out of context. 3:15-END was kind of a late-game concept to throw in there with Kira being the student and all normal when you've spent a majority of the AMV showing him as the insane "OMGIMAGONNAKILLCHU" killer. A wise editor once told me "There needs to be a reason for every scene you choose".

Also something I want to note [this is something I don't do on first videos] is that it's conceptually unoriginal. Death Note [almost immediately after being released in the US] has had probably thousands of videos exploring the same themes as in your video. So pretty much anything with death note [outside of Cross/Fade's video last year] has been done to death. So you might consider either coming up with a fantastically unique concept, or attempting something else.

But I'm glad you're having fun with it. That's essentially what the hobby is for.

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[DillonTaylor]

Thanks for the feedback again! I really appreciate it. Practice makes perfect! I've got one more Death Note AMV in mind and then I'll certainly expand my concepts when I can make the time or get the right inspiration.