Boogiepop Phantom :: Trails; SMJToX :: Aquí

[datSilencer]

Hello everyone. datSilencer here.

I write from Mexico, and I’d like to use this opportunity to introduce two videos which I created at remarkably different conception times.

The first one is called “Trails”



This video was created during Christmas last year (while I had some break time from work). A brief description is included inside the video’s profile.

The second one is called “Aquí”, which is actually the title of the song used in the video . This is because, at the time of completion (somewhere in 2002), I still couldn’t think about some meaningful title for it.




Feedback about these two entries is warmly welcome.

Finally, besides sharing these two entries with you, I would like to ask this.

Do you know if, besides written tutorials on how to make AMVs, there are any video tutorials which try to outline the fundamental skills and processes needed to create an AMV?

I ask this since I’m pondering about the idea of creating video tutorials about this as retribution of what I have learned by reading, experimenting, and looking at other Anime Music Videos.

So if you guys happen to know about such instructional sources (or lack there of ), please let me know.

I thank you for your time and feedback.

[Ingow]

I don't think that there is anywhere a catalog of organized video tutorials for AMVs, there are some flying around by hobby ytube people and on the org for some technical issues in particular but nothing major as far as I know.

About your videos the Boogiepop one was definately the more interesting one. The typography at the start was a bit weird but it picked up later and started to blend in more nicely. Apart from that I would've liked it to have a bit more content-wise to offer instead of just being eye candy.

The Saber Marionette one seemed like it was all over the place, my eyes couldn't really focus on anything and it went by more like a background video rather than something that would really catch my interest and bind me to my chair.

[datSilencer]

Hello again. Just got back from work.

Hehehe, well yeah, I definitely have to agree about the eye-candy you know? I mention this because I don’t feel I’m particularly clever or skilled on coming up with direction ideas, not even so in 2002 when I did the SMJTX video lol. I feel as if that one was more like an exercise in story telling with effect mash ups . So in consequence, it ended up being a complete spoiler party hehe.

So there you go. However, I’d also like to bring up a point and possibly a question about the Boogiepop video I authored.

First of all, I'd like to discuss that, for most AMVs I’ve seen, I have noticed that their content and main ideas are usually guided in most part by the lyrics of the song. And while I’m totally neutral about this, I would definitely appreciate it if someone could cite some examples of good instrumental AMVs which display clever direction and mixing of available visual (the anime) and audible (the song) material without resorting to lyrics.

I guess this would also help me in part to understand if this may just be a subjective perception of mine, or if this is really the current guiding principle for AMV authors.

This brings me to my particular instance in Boogiepop – Trails. Here, the song “Six days” by DJ Shadow contains this huge instrumental gap in its middle section and some supporting lyrics at the beginning and the end. At times it felt as if I was just staring at a blank canvas with nothing more than the organ and guitar beats moving around, precisely the moment when I decided to resort to text play.

Now, if we also bring in the fact that most of the time, the available anime source footage may not necessarily contain what we would expect or wish to blend in with the music to create a new concept, then things can get a little more difficult to put together. But personally, this seems more challenging to me.

For example, I would have considered the option of drawing my own anime shots with the characters reflecting what I’d like to see at a particular moment, but I guess it would have taken me very well over a year to go that way hehe.

So anyway, after stating this, I now would like to ask you guys if you may happen to know about some recommended practices or methods to create good direction concepts which have worked for you in your AMVs. Again, any feedback here is highly appreciated.

Finally, I think that if there are not a lot of instructional materials about the whole process of making an AMV, I might as well start thinking about something to fill this gap and hopefully, leave something useful to anyone interested in creating this kind of videos.

Well, that’s it for me at the moment. I thank you again for your time, and I’ll keep in touch.

[Ingow]

And while I’m totally neutral about this, I would definitely appreciate it if someone could cite some examples of good instrumental AMVs which display clever direction and mixing of available visual (the anime) and audible (the song) material without resorting to lyrics.

How about taking a look at this thread?

Plus a personal classic favorite of mine, and a pretty good example for this, would also be:



Personally it's hard for me to figure out what kind of advice you're looking for, adding general direction is usually tied to either creating your own plot or relying on the original anime storyline. Usually editors use storyboards beforehand to construct a script for what they want to happen in their videos and what kind of general concept is supposed to be shown. You seem to be more speaking in design terms which isn't really surprising considering your output, but 90% of AMVs are still fanvideos, which means that even when the visuals are for some dance/electronic videos in the foreground there is always somewhat the main idea behind it to produce something for the other anime fans to enjoy, instead of being JUST eye candy for everyone.