Yer Guns, Put Them On (2012 AMV)

[Brakus]

First thing right off the bat. I had no idea of irriadin's video when I completed my AMV until after AnimeNEXT. This video's title is not a slight to his extremely excellent video, and I absolutely recommend you check his video out. This show needs more love, and he gives the video so much care and love for the show.

Sengoku Basara is an extremely hot-blooded show depicting a very different telling of the events that took place during the Warring States period of Japan.

The song I used, simply known as "Nadeshiko (Rock)" in English, lends itself almost perfectly for a show like Basara. However, don't look for any lyric sync in this video. I wanted to tell a cohesive story, establishing the main characters, the main antagonists, and a story that puts them together pretty nicely, without having knowledge of the show, or Japanese history for that matter. It is extremely fast-paced for the most part (except for the intro and the bridge after the 2nd chorus), so there's a lot of fast action things going on in this video.

Although I'm telling a story that should easily be picked up, I also used this video to remind people that War Is Not Fun And People Do Get Hurt Or Worse. When FUNimation put out Season 1 of the show, the tagline for it was "The only thing better than a battle is a WAR!" Yes, the show is highly entertaining, and Michael Bay may very well be very jealous of this show. But even this show briefly reminded the viewer of the peripheral effects of war. I don't want to bash people over the head with that though - I just want something that the viewer can get into.

And given the very wide fandom of this anime, as far as the kinds of things they're into, I would hope this can pique interest in the history of the Warring States period, its participants, and perhaps the supposed relationships with each other during that time. I hope something about my video appeals to you in some way.

This video was supposed to be my Otakon video for 2012. It didn't make finals, but it will be making appearances at smaller conventions around the country (I hope). Enjoy.

[CodeZTM]

I enjoyed this video. This video had the high paced action, but also had a nice story behind it that introduced us to the anime. Although I feel like it really gave a lot away in terms of story. The ending was nice though.

The sped up scenes were noticeable at around 3:05. The black bars on each side could have been cropped off for your audience. Visual quality, while not bad, had some minor issues that could have been addressed (the lines looked really blurry on some scenes, but fine in others, and I kept spotting mild cases of interlacing here and there).

But still, I enjoyed it a lot. I really liked the mood/atmosphere of the AMV, and the scene selection really added to the drama of the AMV, and the action sequences were well put together and matched well with the music.

Between this AMV and irriadin's, I seriously want to check this anime out now. It looks cool.

[Starcoffin]

Great AMV, I would also suggest this series. The best way I can describe it is "Dynasty Warriors: The Anime".

[irriadin]

Between this AMV and irriadin's, I seriously want to check this anime out now. It looks cool.

Do it!

Anyhow, I like this video. You give a very comprehensive approach on a lot of the themes and story elements present in the first season of Basara. Scene selection is the strongest part of the video; it's very well done and I particularly like how you used some of the slower scenes, like with Masamune and Kojuro drinking sake after the first episode. Quite mood enhancing and perfectly chosen for that part of the song.

Some of the sped up scenes made the lipflaps very apparent, unfortunately (like at 3:42). Video quality was passable, but as Code says, could have been better. Some scenes seemed to be slowed down too much and they became choppy (see 1:07). Could have done without the white flashes, but it wasn't anything too egregious.

Despite the technical issues and some of the editing choices, it's a good video and you do a great job of encapsulating the first season and exploring the themes present in Basara. More exposure and love for this show can never be a bad thing, either!

[Brakus]

Thanks for the feedback, guys! I'm telling you, the most frustrating thing about putting this video together was to work around the almost incessant lip flap from certain scenes. I felt like sometimes these samurai would just not shut up for a little bit!

Now, I think there were some scenes that I think the lip flap would help the viewer fill in the blanks about what the characters are saying (mostly the interactions between Yukimura and Masamune after the bridge), because I like to have the viewer make up the story in their mind. But there were just certain scenes that I just could not work around the lip flaps for.

Still, I had fun putting this together, especially the preliminary "grunt work" I did as to how I wanted to tell the story, what scenes to use, etc. Again, this show needs more love. I can only hope efforts like mine and irriadin's help in that cause.

[Castor Troy]

Good stuff!

I liked the pacing and while the lip flap was noticeable, I don't think it harmed the video at all.

[Kevmaster]

I did think though the lip sync harmed the video. In case you can't work around it, there's the possibility to mask a still frame of the characters closed mouth on top of the actual scene. That way you still have your wanted scene but no lip movement.

What I liked about this video (having the other one in mind) is that video and source actually seemed to get along. What I didn't like were the hardcuts on the drumbeats. I'm not a fan of hardcuts to begin with and if you simly change images on drumbeats by hard cuts, I feel it's taking out every kind of flow you've developed earlier.

EDIT: I meant lip flap of course.

[Brakus]

I did think though the lip sync harmed the video. In case you can't work around it, there's the possibility to mask a still frame of the characters closed mouth on top of the actual scene. That way you still have your wanted scene but no lip movement.

I did think about doing that, but because of the pan shots in the beginning of the 2nd verse, the lip flap from Nagamasa seemed unavoidable. Looks like I might want to start looking into After Effects or something

What I liked about this video (having the other one in mind) is that video and source actually seemed to get along. What I didn't like were the hardcuts on the drumbeats. I'm not a fan of hardcuts to begin with and if you simly change images on drumbeats by hard cuts, I feel it's taking out every kind of flow you've developed earlier.

An early feedback I got shortly after I completed the video was that the video seemed too frantic at times due to the hard cuts on the beat. While I felt the hard cuts were done so that I could keep the pace of the faster parts of the song, I can see how it can be a bit of a barrage on the viewer. I still wanted a fast pace. I think the way I handled the scene transitions during the bridge of the song (Nagamasa being shot, the battle aftermath) using dissolves on the beat instead of hard cuts kept the pace fast while considering the sudden mood change of that section of the song. When the pace started to pick up shortly after the bridge, I went back to using cuts. I tried to take advantage of the way the song changes gears, as it were, during the song.

Thanks for the feedback!

[Brakus]

(removed. see next post for explanation.)

[Brakus]

Edited to remove brief rant. I'll just chalk up my not making finals at other conventions to just plain bad luck.

All I will say is "Bad luck often brings good luck", and whether or not you liked my video, I just want to say: Thank you, and again, thank you.