1:1 Exchange (Work in Progress)

[themastr1024]

I've been working on this for the past week and I really need some feedback on it from people I don't know because the people I do know don't really understand AMV's too well and won't say much besides "it was good" or "it made me sad." I need real feedback on the transitions, what sort of effects could be used, or if there are any remaining timing errors. If you leave something good, I promise I'll do the same for you!

btw, I know YouTube isn't the best place to be linking you guys to (based on other posts I've looked at) but it's the only place I could think to put it.

Video: Catharsis (http://youtu.be/1VVI-hSk_uI?hd=1)
Category: Drama
Anime: Clannad; Clannad ~After Story~
Song: Daylight
Artist: Matt & Kim
Creator: themastr1024

[Kariudo]

Linking to youtube is ok since this is a beta/work in progress. I've edited the title of the thread to make it more clear that this is a WIP.

It's getting a bit late for me tonight, but I'll try to set aside some time tomorrow to give this a look.

[CodeZTM]

If you're looking for hosting, try Dropbox, which offers a download link for everything you put in it. Plus, it's free 2 GB of free space.

I'll give this a review tomorrow morning.

[Eake4]

I'll try to set aside some time tomorrow to give this a look.

Same here, expect a comment on youtubethis post from me tommorow.

[Kariudo]

The only real issue I have with the timing is the clip at 0:24. The cut is properly timed, but the rubber band hitting the box and the box falling over aren't. I'd like to see that part of the clip slowed down so you can sync the rubber band & box to something. The tempo of the song is quick enough that finding something to sync to shouldn't be a problem. You could use a jump cut as well.

I was expecting a different style of song when I looked at the title and the anime. It's just way more upbeat than I thought it would be. If you're up for putting more work into this one, I think that using more jump cuts could work really well for this song. You don't need to put it everywhere, but this song is begging for more motion in the overall video.

0:00 - 0:10 After watching this section several times, I think that this bit is too jumpy. I'd suggest making things flow a little more here. Might be as simple as adding a cross-fade.

0:10 - 0:19 This section might benefit from an extra clip or two. Just something to add a little contrast to the beginning of the song.

0:19 - 0:28 The dramatic change in color inherent in the clip at 0:19 is very good at marking the entrance of the rest of the lines in the song. Adding more clips, and/or putting in some jump cuts, until the bass line comes in at ~0:22 may turn out nicely. I like the transition at the end of this section.

0:28 - 0:38 The first clip of this section should probably be synced to the last bass hit after the transition, seeing as how the transition used the bass line. If you're not going to put more motion into the video, then the body of this section works just fine. I think adding a bit of zoom to the transitions at the end of this section (0:35 - 0:38) is called for.

0:38 - 0:57 I don't really have much to say in this section beyond more motion plz.

0:57 - 1:15 is a "slow" part of the song, but it feels like there's very little contrast between the pace of your video before, during, and after this section. Putting some slow pans in here, perhaps synced to (what I assume is) the trumpet in the background, should provide some good contrast. The transition out of this segment of the song works well for me.

1:34 - 1:51 is another part of the song that is more mellow. Try to slow things down a bit accordingly. The sync gets a bit loose at 1:41 - 1:47, but I'm not really bothered by it that much. The transition back into the upbeat portion of the song works as is, however, I think that if you added more clips at the end of the section (pretty much at 1:51, synced to each syllable of the lyrics "and in the daylight") it would work even better.

1:51 - 2:11 After looking over this section many times, I think what you have right now is very good in terms of pace and mood. The clip of Okazaki smoking in the parlor at 1:55 is a bit long in my opinion. The only thing I can think of doing about it is to add another clip before it, and push back the transition from Nagisa + Okazaki to end on the bass hit at 1:54.

2:11 - 2:30 This might be a good place to pick up the snare drum for sync. This feels like the most energetic section of the song to me. I want to say the same thing I've been saying throughout this entire post (more motion!) but I can't think of much else (clip-wise) that you could use with the string of clips in this section.

2:30 - end Can't think of much to say about this last little bit.

Overall, not too bad. The sync is pretty solid in all but a few spots, and the elements that you have in the video right now work pretty well in my eyes.

Hope that helps

[themastr1024]

Thank you so much! I am definitely going to take most (if not all) of your suggestions and implement them into my AMV. I really appreciate you taking the time to write such a long opinion on the video. I watched it again and you were right, it definitely lacks motion. Though I do have one question... by jump cut, do you mean leaving the clips as they are without transitions to link them?

Also, if you want the opinion I owe you, just link me to something!

[Kariudo]

You're welcome!

A jump cut is where you use the same scene, but there is some abrupt change in a portion of it.
The first thing that came to mind is one of the entries I got into my AMV contest for Anime Milwaukee back in February.


0:50 and 0:54 is a great example of a jump cut
also
1:05 is a good example of internal sync, which is what I'm suggesting for your video at ~0:24

and remember that it's your video...you don't have to do everything that I'm saying (or any of it, really). Some suggestions may work, others may not.

You don't have to leave me an op. I just did this out of goodwill
If you'd like to just watch "I Mustn't Betray" (click the picture in my signature), that'd be cool.

[Eake4]

Kariudo posted many things that I posted but these are my opinions

Originality: 8/10 Quite unique in sense of editing however flow isnt all that original. Thats not important here though because when I watched you Beta, it felt like I rewatched the entire series of Clannad and Afterstory and to be honest, I felt a bit tearyeyed, Very very good job!

Visual Quality: Seeing how this is only just a beta I won't give much opinon on this just yet, however I will say it looked very nice and I hope the full thing is just as good.

Audio: 9/10 Superb even though this is only a beta, the music quality has taken over me. Just one thing, during the ending the last fade was a tad bit fast.

Action Sync: 9/10 Although not all beats you intended to hit on got right on target, many of them were off by a just a few frames and that may even be my own reaction speed so welldone here!

Special Effects: 8/10 The speeding up of footage at times seemed a bit awkard but when I re-watched it several times, it felt much less of a worry and even seemed to flow together with the AMV. In the final edit however please keep some (not all, because some were nicely done) of the older footage back to its original speed? @01:25 instead of speeding it up, you could have just the last bit there or have the scene extended.

Effort: 10/10 I can clearly tell you worked very hard even for a beta, You worked very hard to keep the mood in and I like that! I hope you continue to use this skill instead of becoming lazy like me

Re-view-ability: 10/10 I've seen it about 4-5 times and its still so catchy! have you seen Skittles by Koop? This is almost as addicting as his AMV

Overall: No comment just yet but from what I've seen Ill give this somewhere between a 9 to a 10. Blow me away in the next edit so I can give this an 11/10

As I've mentioned before the AMV made me feel like I was re-watching clannad again and that is a very good thing since Clannad and Afterstory are one of my favourite anime series. Good Job, you've earned a new subscriber on youtube

Since this is a 1:1 exchange may I ask for an opinion on

[themastr1024]

I made sure to leave the opinion on the video opinion thing.

[Kevmaster]