AMV Salad 4: TV Dinner (next stop - Nekocon)

[Kireblue]

Did you try rendering it as a Lagarith uncompressed AVI, and then running it through Zarx264 from the AMV app? The AVI file will be HUGE, but Zarx264 will make the mp4 file a fraction of the size without loosing any quality.

[moonbunnychan]

Oh man, this is looking fantastic. I'm so excited for Otakon.

Was it just me or was the sound really low though? I assume that's not the case for the real thing. The other thing that crossed my mind though was...you know how when you put something on a screen it cuts off the edges? I dunno how the final is gonna be, but that may be a potential problem for the Southpark one and to a lesser extent the Brady Bunch one.

And also on a VERY minor note, the Geico Haruhi comes right after another Haruhi clip, which is a touch redundant, so it should probably just bump one back. It's not a huge deal though.

Thanks for moving the Princess Tutu one, it works so much better.
Also the way the Haruhi emails now is brilliant. It's so sudden and unexpected. Absolutely LOVE it.

I actually like the noise...it reminds me of the old non cable tvs I'd sometimes watch as a kid when you'd change the channel lol.

moonbunnychan: I fixed that glitch in the teaser clip by splicing the first half of the first version with the second half of the new one. You'll see later today when the final beta is released.

Ya that's totally fine. I'm not picky. Also like the noise you put at the end. lol.

[Gaelstrom]

Was it just me or was the sound really low though?

Good call, it actually was very low. I'd forgotten because I had turned it up so much. But part of it seems to be the loudness of that test pattern noise. That was deafening, the rest seemed much lower.

And also on a VERY minor note, the Geico Haruhi comes right after another Haruhi clip, which is a touch redundant, so it should probably just bump one back. It's not a huge deal though.

Nice catch. The "number two" clip can probably be tossed back a couple vids, since after that Geico one is the Thunderbirds one. So behind Thunderbirds could be a good place for it. There's a lack of shorter clips at the end anyway, and we probably don't want the Money clips too close together I guess.

I actually like the noise... ...at the end.

While I honestly can't stand this recent test pattern noise, I do admit at the end it fit absolutely perfectly Especially with that screen effect. It somehow just enhances the 'power' of the supreme Money ^^ It's also not as jarring because the Hypnotoad noise is already pretty intense.

Oh yeah, Deuce, one last thing I noticed. With the White Meat clip, I think the test pattern may have been brought back a bit too far. I think it'll be in a good place halfway between Bet 3 and Beta 4's timing.

Edit: Just had another thought. If the Naruto Captain Planet clip got a ROFL as you mentioned in the beta notes, I don't know how long the laughter went on, but it may be beneficial to move the Barry the SlapChopper one to after the Tenchi Geico one if the audience really lost it like I think they will (still love Naruto Captain Planet one ^^). May not have to move that far, but it will put a bit more distance between the Tenchi Geico and the Pokemon Geico, which are only a couple clips apart from one another. Idealy the Tutu one would go sooner, making more space throughout the whole production between Geico commercials, but that's not necessary.

[Squancho]

Just got word from Otakon. They need the Salads ASAP.

As a result, I need to know if there are any changes which you feel ABSOLUTELY MUST be made as opposed to the ones that are "not that big of a deal." I want this puppy in the mail Monday; no later than Tuesday because space is filling up in the fan submission / parody showings.

We can continue to fine-tune this but Otakon needs it now. I'll readjust the volume levels, see if I can relocate the test pattern noise from before, and finish the closing credits (BTW, changing their format will require rewriting the entire thing) for sure before sending but I wanna make sure there's anything MAJOR that needs done other than that for now.

It's crunch time now...

[moonbunnychan]

The only MAJOR thing that occurred to me was what I mentioned my last post....how when stuff gets put on a screen it cuts off the edges, which would adversely affect the South Park one and Brady Bunch one.....so maybe they should be scaled back to where it doesn't cut the edge.

[Squancho]

The only MAJOR thing that occurred to me was what I mentioned my last post....how when stuff gets put on a screen it cuts off the edges, which would adversely affect the South Park one and Brady Bunch one.....so maybe they should be scaled back to where it doesn't cut the edge.

I never noticed that / don't see it when I play it back. I'll burn a copy and see if it happens on my TV nonetheless. Otakon requires 720x480 resolution or they'll scale the video size up (which we all know will degrade the visual quality). Not sure what else I can do unless it's something on your end?

Is anyone else seeing cut off edges?

[Gaelstrom]

Here is the list of final changes I believe are important/easy enough that will achieve a benefit plain and simple:

A) First and foremost, I'm sincerely of the mindset that the test pattern should be changed back to either the reeling noise (AMV Hell 3.14), or the noise from AMVS3. Both work, I prefer the reeling noise from the original. I do agree with moonbunnychan that the new one does work well at the end.

B) Credits should be shifted to list format to remove confusion. The last beta proved to me that they are not going to be boring like you initially were worried about, but if you confuse the audience by making the layout unnatural, then they will get frustrated with them. The production tags were played very close to one another in some instances, which means you have some leeway if it lengthens the credits a bit, which it shouldn't by much if at all.

C) One Piece Neighbors clip moved to after the Jamaica clip.

D) Barry the SlapChopper moved to after the Tenchi MuyoGeico clip so people can ROFL through the end of the Naruto Clip.

E) "Number Two" Haruhi clip can be moved to behind the Thunderbirds clip to put more space between the last geico clips and prevent two Haruhi clips from being together.

F) I think it would be better to move the newer Slap Chop clip earlier so the slap chop clips aren't so close together. Perhaps swapping it with one of the shorter clips near the beginning. This one is a last minute thought and not truly necessary, but it's worth considering if you can think of a clip that would work to swap with.

G) Lastly, please check the sound balance for your renders. I know White Meat sounded very low, and I normalized the audio for all my clips before sending, so they all should be right at the 0.0 decibel range. Perhaps a quick run-through the salad to see if any of the audio is unbalanced and bump it up/down to match the rest? It seemed fine during Beta 3. May have been thrown off by the new test pattern noise.

H) Case you missed it before, White Meat's source was "Comedy Central Presents: Steve McGrew", same as the Clannad "Your bread sucks" clip.

Everything else I think is excellent and ready for viewing. Either way, great work everyone!

moonbunnychan: I'm away from home now, but when I get back tomorrow evening I'll throw this on my screen and see what happens. What resolution is the monitor/screen you're using? That may be a factor. This is the same resolution as the last ones if I'm not mistaken.

[moonbunnychan]

Ah, I guess I'm the only one who knows about this. I found out about this at a contest I had an amv in a couple years back...the hard way.
This wiki article is largely talks about it on tvs, but it also happens when something is burned onto a dvd and then projected that way: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_area

[Gaelstrom]

The safe frames have been shifting in concept a bit due to the new technologies available. The bleed areas appear to be much less... annoying on more recent TVs. Computer monitors haven't really suffered from this, but yeah, safe frames are still a good thing to consider if for no other reason than protocol. I haven't noticed any tremendous problems in recent years at Otakon myself to the best of my memory, but really the most important thing about the safe frames is the text aspect. Part of that exists for comfort reasons too, it feels very compositionally unnatural to have text too close to a border.

Really as long as nobody put the focal points too close to the edge of the title safe, I think we're good. I don't have a great connection, so again I'll have to check tonight.

[moonbunnychan]

The South Park one has text like, right on the edge, and the Brady Bunch one is right up on the edge as well, though that one will just look odd as opposed to having something important cut off. Really it just depends on what kind of set up they're gonna use, but it's better to be safe then sorry.
I know in Sony Vegas there's a menu right above the preview window that looks like a # for overlays, you pick the safe mode one and it shows you where the lines are. You're pretty much ok so long as nothing is inside that first area from the edge.