Balkan Bleach Box - Bleach AMV

[PristineSneakers]

Hello! The description from the video profile is copied and pasted here. After looking at the video through the preview just now, I realized that when I made this WMV file last night specifically for uploading to this site, I must've mistakenly loaded something other than the last save on the project. The only difference I am able to spot is minor though, it's the absence of the opening image in the video having a blur effect that clears itself through the sound of the record scratch as the song begins. It's minor enough that I'm inclined to leave the upload as it is, and I've provided a link to the video on youtube in the description that has the intro intact. I suppose if anyone on here cares enough I'll delete the old one and upload a version that has the intended intro (?). The idea is there though, I hope people on here enjoy it, and any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks ahead of time, to anyone who takes the time out to watch!

Video:
Song: Ya Man
Artist: Balkan Beat Box
Anime: Bleach

I'm should say from the start, I don't have the highest hopes for this going over well. Not because I'm not pleased with it (because I am proud of it and pleased with it), but because it's a pretty unusual song, not only for an AMV, but in general. Most people who have seen it like it, and those people comment on liking the song. People who don't like the song say that it makes the video an unwatchable mess. I know that I have seen many AMVs that I have enjoyed despite not being a fan of the music in it, but I think that when it comes to this one in particular, (at least) appreciating the song is a must for enjoying the video. I liked the idea of doing an AMV set to an instrumental, and had a few in mind. After hearing this song on the album a few times, I decided this definitely had great potential for an AMV, and after a few more listens I was dying to make it happen.

I knew I wanted to see 2-3 fights go back and forth to the tune with the progression of:

prelude > showdown > battle > deciding moment > finish

The first thing that came to my mind was Soi Fon vs. Yourichi for parts of the battle that, ironically, didn't all make it into the video (the most important ones did, luckily). When I realized how much shorter that fight was than all the others I had in mind as possibilities, I decided 3 fights was the way to go, despite the threat of having too little time to get the portions I wanted to include while sticking to the format and timing/progression of the song. Plus, after listening more I realized that the structure of the song lends itself to be split into thirds more than into halves, though it could be done either way.

I used Premier Elements to make this. I bought it months after I made my two videos a couple of years back, but my computer couldn't really handle it well, and it was disagreeing with all the clips I had spent a long time gathering. I never did figure out why. Having recently gotten a new laptop, I decided to fire it up and tinker with it until it made sense. While it is technically superior to my previous videos posted on here, it is not by leaps and bounds. I really used close to no effects in it at all, mostly speed adjustments. I did get my feet wet though, and towards the end of the video's completion I had picked up some tricks that will definitely benefit my next project, which is guaranteed to be far more technically demanding.

There are subtleties having to do with the situations of the characters as the scenes switch over that I tried to include in the video, and that I'm not entirely certain are noticeable if one isn't actively looking for them. Something had to give though, and if I tried to hard to include those elements I wanted to, I felt like it would damage the entire feel I wanted the video to have, which was to move along well to the rhythm of the song and correspond to all of it's changes in mood/feel.

Overall I'm pleased with the product, and I hope other people dig it too. Either way, any feedback would be appreciated. As I said, despite the fact that I've gotten mostly positive responses so far, I'm prepared for the fact that some people really just won't like it, so it's ok to lay into me if you want to. Enjoy!

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If you want to watch on Youtube instead of downloading, you can see it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QssBjxRiRZU

[PristineSneakers]

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EDIT
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Ok, it works. Thank you QC #3, for letting me know, and for watching.

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Double-edit
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Oh, and I forgot to mention to QC3, the majority of those subtitles were actually ones that I wanted there..... But not all of them. It was kind of annoying to have the ones I didn't want around, but I don't have much of a choice since the DVDs aren't out in the US yet. I considered searching out these episodes in their original format, but I already have them all on my HDD.... But I hear you on that.