Thoughts on choosing when to edit a song

Inaaca · Post by **Inaaca** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 10:02 pm

I've been thinking lately about how a common critique with AMVs is that the songs are too long.

I got one recently on my last AMV saying that the song I used for my drama vid (approximately 4 min, 15 sec) was too long and got boring. I hadn't even considered the possibility of the song being too long, having felt that it was of normal length.

I started wondering why it is that songs are considered too long at all. I can understand a comedy video that utilizes only one joke is best kept short so that the joke isn't exhausted. However, some of my favorite action, adventure, or drama vids are on the longer end of the spectrum, and are very well done.

For my next video (action/adventure) my song choice is 6 minutes long. I was looking at how I could shorten it and I could probably shave it down to about 4 and a half or so without too much difficulty. But I started thinking about it, and started wondering what exactly was wrong with a 6 minute video anyways. I wouldn't mind editing to the full song and being able to use all it's parts, and I think the series is long enough. After thinking about this for a while I decided I needed some outside opinions on this.

What factors do you think makes the shortening of a song necessary? What are your thoughts on longer amvs, and what's wrong with them, if anything? I'm basically sitting on the fence on this one as far as where to take the audio of my next amv, so any outside input to inspire thought and discussion would be great.

post-it · Post by **post-it** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 10:19 pm

.. the duration of the song has nothing to do with the AMV's evaluation .. there ARE many factors to consider. Shortening the Song to 1:30 works best for Action Types while Romance should take place within 3:15.
.. the human mind can only comprehend forty-five seconds at a time. Too many cuts shorten that time to twenty-two seconds.
.. if they like the View, then its never long enough.
.. if they hate the View, it will bore them within five seconds.

unless you know how to make the AMV with one song and finish it with another, to distort time duration, a six minute AMV will bore them to death >_<

-- just an observation of what I've noticed at different AMV Conventions.

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 6:02 am

If the video source is starting to run low on available scenes or by using the entire song you start to dilute your video concept, it's probably a good idea to edit it down. And there are some songs that are, or can get, repetitive after a certain point and should probably be edited.

4 minutes is what I consider the average length of AMVs. But tastes vary, and for some people certain music and/or videos will start to be less interesting after a certain length.

Ultimately, it's really dependent on how well edited and how focused is the video concept whether the length becomes an issue.

Inaaca · Post by **Inaaca** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 10:27 am

Hm... I think I'll need to plan out my whole video on paper to get a better idea of how my concept will play out with the song. If it does end up stretching my available footage too thin, than I'll definitely have to shorten the song.

If not, I'll probably be tempted to go the fill 6 minutes, though that's probably not the best idea considering the responses in this thread, heh... I don't consider the song repetitive at all, but I'm not exactly convinced that my editing is good enough to keep the interest level up, either.

Though I guess I'm still thinking about it, I haven't really come to a conclusion yet...

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 5:59 pm

My considerations are:

1) Do I have enough good, relevant video footage to fill in the entire song?
2) Can I keep the video interesting for the full length of the song?

If I can't answer "yes" to both 1 and 2, I'll edit the song down if I can do it reasonably cleanly.

In fact, I've done it <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... 020">on</a> <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... 5">five</a> <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... eparate</a> <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... casions</a> <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... 35">now</a>, and I don't regret any of them.

And by the way, there is NOTHING wrong with a 6-minute-long AMV if it's done right, no matter what other people may tell you about attention spans. <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... 59">Here's your proof</a>.

Inaaca · Post by **Inaaca** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 10:17 pm

Hmm... I think one of the problems is I'm just worrying a little too much about what others will think, but I suppose that it's good to have an idea of the general consensus too.

I think I have a pretty good idea of what factors will affect my decision at this point. I just need to finish rewatching the anime, and then I can really get down to planning out my AMV and make some solid decisions.

Thanks for the responses, they've really helped, and I'll check out those linked videos as well.

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 11:28 pm

For an audience it really depends on if the video is simply good or not. If something is well executed, the length of it is impartial (within some boundaries). Not very helpful, but it's all there really is too it when you're approaching 6 minutes in length. If you can sustain the high quality editing (with a cohesive element - like a deep story) for long enough, people will continue to watch. Ultimately, standards for what is "good enough" tend to go up with length. The longer a video is, the more there is to find fault with.