AMV Salad 5: Happy Meal (Nekocon 14, here we come!)

[Warlike Swans]

First off the clips are great!

On the order of clips;

-The "snorkwhore," the moomin clips (hippo ^_~), the longer clip should come first because the 2 second one is a continuation of the story.
-I really like the Duck hunt at the beginning.
- I really like the Princess and the Frog/Sailor Moon clip right before the 1-800 contacts

in order of precedence I think the clips should be broken up by:

- fitting into the theme vs random clips
- all the sailor moon clips need some distance from each other
- intermixing long vs short clips
- intermixing song vs spoken word
- old anime vs newer anime
- and maybe editors


I want to ask about the aspect ratio, we tried to put our clip in the 4:3 without letter-boxing (though we failed with one) but if the letter-boxing isn't a problem I want to put the Code Geass 1-800 contacts back into it's original ratio since it changed the timing of something.

On the Cuppycake one, should we remove the "very good honey" line?

I agree with about the Tuna clip needing to be shorter maybe about 30-45 seconds. I also agree the audio is really soft on the I Can't Believe it's Not Butter

Some of our favorites - the Duck Hunt, the Touch Me, the Azumanga Daioh Cake, I'm too Sexy, the L song, K-on Metalocalypse, the Code Geass American Dad (love the smile at the end), the Kay Jewelers, the Star Trek and the Sailor Moon Bubblegum

The Ranma Staring Contest and the Stapler Family Guy clips are GENIUS!

[SammySamaProductions]

Started the download before I left and am now about to watch it! Though I have no doubt that I will be rolling all over the floor before the end ^_^ as far as the "Running Gag" for this year goes, does everyone get to participate? I know last year was the Geico commercials but I didn't find out about it until it was too late. I have a couple ideas involving the explosion idea but just wanted to make sure it wasn't delegated to a few specifically. didn't want to step on any ones toes...

[SammySamaProductions]

I had skimmed over the comments left before I watched the Beta and noticed krvabo's comment on the butter commercial, which I had no idea you were actually going to go with after the response I got from running it by you. Don't get me wrong I'm thrilled it was put in but I will also make it a point to raise the volume if that's an issue and clean the lip sync up a bit, perhaps make the butter bigger in the background too or something. I also thought in the Kung Foo Staring contest I had taken care of all of my glitches, but apparently I've missed one at the beginning. I will take care of that and send it back to you as well.

I really have no opinion as to order of the clips (Not too good at that sort of thing ^_^) but I'm hoping the addition of my opinion will help you organize them ^_^


My Opinion of the clips:
-I Loved the angry beavers clip ^_^
-The "I don't see any hope" MacDonald commercial was great, but is there any way we can make the audio a bit louder? Or was it just on my end that it sounded awfully quiet?
- The Ouran Kenan and Kell clip (pretty sure that's what the audio's from but correct me if I'm wrong) Was hysterical! I thought it was a tad bit on the long side but the "I Droped the screw in the tuna" had me going every time!!!
- The LOL cats themed clip was rather comical.
- The underwear clip was awesome!
- The Pokemon/How to train your dragon clip was so adorable! Very well done ^_^
- The Kay Jewelers commercial was awesome!
- the mnemonic clip has forever ruined my memorization of the 13 colonies.... ^_^
- Phantom of the Opera/Sailor Moon clip was so unexpected. Well done!
- The unicorn robot spoof clip was nice ^_^
- Spider Pig was very cute as well as the TMNT clip ^_^
- The Touch me and Sailor moon/Frog Princess clip was comical
- 1800 contacts was epic! "They can't have my brand!"
-The Count/Jiggly Puff clip was epic!
- Loved the Muppet Babies and Toys-r-us commercial. Though I would have them spaced a bit apart (I do know they were arranged alphabetically for this)
- Star Trek was just hysterical!!!
- I agree about the extra black space at the end of "any note", perhaps consider the extra space to be removed?

[Gaelstrom]

First off, Deuce, for the love of god, learn2XVID ^^ 1 gig for a test render's a bit crazy

Anyway, I agree in general with everything posted. I'm sure stuff like the black at the end of videos like my K-on metalocalypse video will be taken care of when things get organized, Deuce was just dropping clips in as given for now so we could see them.

I'm just going to go in order with my assessment in the spoiler tags.
I'll star my favorites. I laughed at quite a few due to initial surprise, so I may not remember my initial reaction since I watched it through a second time. Some of them do need some work to make them stronger to reach a certain level of quality, so please take a look. The purpose of all my comments is to go from as general an audience feel as I can perceive. Since i don't know some sources, some clips affected me differently, and we have to be aware of those people as well.

Spoiler :

*Duck Hunt: Wonderful surprise, slightly-too-long buildup that made it that much funnier because of it.
Hetalia burger: Bit too specific to having to know the anime I think, but many will get it. Otherwise it was well edited and amusing.
Excel construction: For me, a bit too close to the original. I'm always wary of parodying a parody anime, because it's redundant.
*Hetalia Small World: I loved the first verse. After that it lost a lot of power, but not too much.
Hetalia Happy Meal: Very nice, but I'm nervous some of the softer lines will be lost in the big room.
Tenchi gotta pee: Little long, but the payoff was worth it.
*Death Note explosion: One of my favorites. To be honest, I'm now wondering if this is a contender for an explosion running gag.
*Screw in Tuna: Actually I loved this one, but it starts around 3:10-ish, and should more than likely end at 3:53. After "OH THE HUMANITY!!" when he's flailing. Now here's my problem, the earlier scene choices weren't that good for when he starts losing it and screaming, but some of the later ones felt much stronger for the screaming. I believe not only should this be brought down to that time, but some of the later scenes should be used instead because they're clearer. All in all, very well done.
*L Ring my bell: It's one of those that just needed to be done
4chan meme statements: This was funny in the first shot, the rest weren't anywhere near as good. Cut out all but the first one, the fapping one, and you have a wonderful 'pallet cleanser' clip that can go just about anywhere to bring the energy back up.
Death Note Troll Face: Having seen it before, my initial reaction was a chuckle, but your editing made it that much more solid. Well done ^^ And of course as you said, the music at the end will be taken care of with final editing.
*So fluffy 1: Hell yeah ^^
*Black Butler Troll: Mad credit for this one. I haven't even seen Black Butler at all, and know nothing about it in the slightest, but this is an absolutely excellent standalone involving obviously something that you really should have seen the series for, but definitely works even for people like me. Great job, this will hit a large portion of the audience.
K-on No Underwear: This one COULD be a great one. Certain notes are hit well, but this REALLY needs more time to match the lips to make it work as strongly as it could. As krvabo says, it gets choppy at the end. You should find other footage to hold the note and spend a little more time matching some lip flaps, especially with Mio on her back on the grass, since it's still. The clip will be a major hit if you can spend some more time, but right now the audience becomes aware of the change in footage timing and takes them out of the moment so it ends up drastically lowering the power of the joke.
*Azumanga in room: You've revived Osaka as being fucking perfect as a batshit crazy character. I nostalgia'd all over the place. Thank you for this clip ^^
*Train Charizard: In the middle it slows a bit, after "You can't even throw one of these" but then you salvaged it with the "Thank you for nothing, you useless reptile." Great work. Lots of excellent connective irony between sources.
Chiyo Lazytown: Okay, I love it. But the editing is severely lacking. I know it's a tad tough to lip-sync, and it really depends on what programs you have available to you, but this clip has a major problem in those obvious cuts in the sense that it will cause people to go 'oh, what the hell was that?' when her neck snaps back like she was hit by something. And the lip syncing is a bit lazy (no pun intended), in that I can see you basically grabbed and repeated the same lip flap timing in certain sections without matching. Please take some time to sync it, I'll be happy to help any way I can. Even if you're using Movie Maker, we can help find ways.
Pokemon Electric: Not lol funny for me, but definitely brought a smile to my face ^^ Another good amusing one that will work for a pallet cleanse.
*So Fluffy 2: Caught me off guard, even if it was obvious, because I was distracted by the moans. Good job ^^
Haruhi funky town: Okay, this one has the same problem as the K-on underwear one. It needs more love. Just a couple hours more work at most. You can use footage reversal as your friend here, it'll allow extra lip flaps if you don't overdo it. Right now it's a good clip, the initial reaction is funny, but then it takes me out of it when I see the lips not even close to matching.
*Kung Fu Staring Contest: I love it so much, because I cannot for the life of me tell you if it's too long on the hold or not ^^ If it was shorter I'm sure the payoff wouldn't be as much. Not sure how Kung Fu Panda did it, so this is my first time seeing it. And good use of the audience too, definite brownie points there.
*Haruhi Kay Jeweler: Irony at its best. Thank you.
Mnemonics: Too long. As of right now in its current form, I'd want this one cut. My issue with this one is that the presence of anime in it at all is pointless currently. If you had the male teacher be the narrator, it'd be so much better. Especially when he says "Please come over for gay sex" and when he brings up cocaine and heroin. He does have enough footage to work with to make it work better. Right now you basically just put Osaka there because she's spacy, and the connection is weak, and it's just really slow without some kind of interaction. The clip may do okay, but the audience will be bored rather quickly and this one doesn't offer anything in its current form that will keep them guessing what comes next.
On a boat: Kind of weak. The obvious Noah connection is the only reason it works at all to me. This is another one that not only have we done before, and it was a stronger clip back then, but it's too rare for most anime fans in the audience to get. I'm sorry, but my vote is to cut this one.
Robot Unicorn Attack: Okay, this one is tricky. AMV Hell 4 overdid this joke and it was rather disliked, same with the Halo song usage, so I'd say this one could actually hurt us. Now here's the thing. Because of that, this one is PERFECT to end in an explosion. You even have them running into the star. If we speed up that footage of that section so the audience doesn't catch on too quickly, then this one could be used very easily for an explosion running gag.
Swiper no swipey: Very good.
Can't believe it's not butter: Again, very good, but yeah, audio should be normalized. I can help with that using soundforge if you want.
Shira: I honestly didn't find this one to be that great. The joke landed when she said 'twin sister' and the rest was just there. I'd want this one out personally, since we're flooded with Sailor Moon this year anyway. At the very least shortened, because the joke lands much sooner.
Spider pig: I don't know... the audio may be too quiet to be understood in the room. I couldn't even hear it really, I had to strain, and if you have to strain to get a joke, it doesn't work. Once I got the connection, it was still a bit slow. Honestly I'd just grab the audio from the simpsons of Homer singing it and make the clip only like 10 seconds long and choose a key shot. And don't be afraid to speed up the footage just a bit, but not too much. Otherwise, my vote is to cut it currently.
*Ninja Squirtels: Perfect.
Princess Tutu too sexy: Very good, but I'm on the fence on the length. But I'll trust that the audience will be into it.
*Azumanga cat: Okay... definitely... good ^^
Friends on the other side: Starts exceptionally slow, the ending speeds up. I honestly don't know how to feel about this one. I'm on the fence about leaving it in, but I'll let everyone else decide on this one. I don't know the source, and that means that if you don't know the source in the audience, this one will lose a lot of impact.
*1800Contacts: Easily one of the best ones without a doubt. This one should be given VIP placement, that's for sure.
Insane kid: Hate this song. And because of that... I think it made me like it even more ^^ And with the ending, I liked the "Very good honey" too because it was so ironic. And actually it cleared the negativity of the scene as well, so kept good humor.
*My buddy: Eeeexcellent. Need to know the series to get full impact of course, but the visuals work enough to bring in the majority of the audience.
*SuckySucky5dollah: Fucking perfect. I'm actually not sure I agree the other one should be first, because I guarantee you, after this clip, whatever clip starts next will HAVE to have a slow start, because the audience will be in deafening laughter. And much of it was because we're completely not expecting ANYTHING. This may sound strange, but in order to keep this one as hilarious as it is, I'd even opt out of keeping the longer one. But I like that one as well. I'd put the Friends on the Other Side Sailor Moon clip after this one to pad the slow start.
*Breasts miniatures: Great one.
Gankutsuou jigglypuff: Not too fond of this one. It has no real ironic connection for me. The ending is the best part, but the audio is cut off and it kills it. This one needs to fix that ending at the very least.
Prostitute Hippo: Okay, I think it doesn't feel connected to the other clip because it's a different audio sources. This one is amusing, but I can tell you right now most people will only be half listening because they'll be going "What the fuck is this show?" The other one, however, is UTTERLY HILARIOUS! You have no time to even wonder what is happening, you just lose it because the creature fits perfectly with Cartman's voice.
Paprika babies: I never liked muppet babies, but I was proven wrong about the Fraggle Rock clip last year. This one I can't say much on until I see it in action.
Toys R Us: This one fits a bit better I believe.
Keroro Gunsou Communist: Not a very strong clip in my opinion honestly, lot of still shots, strange fades, and odd timing. My vote is rework or cut it.
*Haruhi Star Trekkin': Another clip that love dearly, but needs work. The lip syncing NEEDS work. It's very spastic to the point that you have trouble following it without the lips to keep you grounded. It starts feeling like just another clip, when in reality the character you're seeing is the one speaking. That's crucial for fast talking clips like these to make sure you prove to the audience a character is speaking. Please spend some more time solidifying the lipsync because this one is one of my favorites.
*Kick ass Chew Bubblegum: Awesome. Especially Sailor Moon's face at the end.
Winter Wonderland Sailor Moon: First time through, wasn't sure. Second time through, love it.
Gundam You're Gay: Not the best clip choices, but the lips work in general. It'll be an amusing clip, probably, but not one I prefer myself.

The rest are mine, so no point in my comment on them ^^

I agree about mixing up all the various clips to make sure a single anime isn't next to itself. That's one key, unless it has an ironic connection. And of course, just like last year, interspersing different genres of musical and talk so things get mixed up. Use your best judgment Deuce, I'll hold off on choosing what goes where until you have a test render and I'll give my impressions from there. But as usual, slower ones up front, sandwiched between faster ones, and the more energetic ones a bit later to keep up the energy.

[SammySamaProductions]

Can't believe it's not butter: Again, very good, but yeah, audio should be normalized. I can help with that using soundforge if you want.

I was going to ask if there was anyone who could help me with that ^_^ I can send you the pieced together audio that I have if you could possibly clean it up a bit and make it louder? I had tried my best but don't have the resources to do so and it was the best audio quality I could find. Though I was happy you approved of so many of the ones I sent in Was trying to make my contributions stronger than last years slap chop infomercial weakness.

[Gaelstrom]

Can't believe it's not butter: Again, very good, but yeah, audio should be normalized. I can help with that using soundforge if you want.

I was going to ask if there was anyone who could help me with that ^_^ I can send you the pieced together audio that I have if you could possibly clean it up a bit and make it louder? I had tried my best but don't have the resources to do so and it was the best audio quality I could find. Though I was happy you approved of so many of the ones I sent in Was trying to make my contributions stronger than last years slap chop infomercial weakness.

Sure, go ahead and send me the audio for the full clip, as well as any pieces you may have in a rar. I can normalize the main clip, and if necessary I can use the other pieces to enhance the original.

And one thing that passed my mind, we can actually use "It's so FLUFFY!!!" as a running gag. It's got several of the key elements, and can also be used ironically, like someone holding a corpse or something. We also already have two clips of it. It's not the strongest, but I definitely enjoyed both clips even after seeing them twice, so with limited time and availability, we can now choose between fluffy and explosions.

Speaking of explosions, I loved the Death Note one. That one could actually be changed to Second Impact (using my previous example) and everything else could remain the same. In fact, we could actually make Mello the reason for the explosions ^^ Anyway, just thinking in text.

Go ahead and send the audio and I'll work on it sometime this week. I have a ton of work to do on these intros.

SPECIAL NOTE!!!

Any of you whatsoever who would be willing to find me footage in any series of characters going towards or away from the camera, I'm in need of footage to do it. I'm working on the titles in 3D right now, but this week I'll be focusing on getting characters out of footage. But I need help getting those footage sections.

Here are what I'm looking for for the time being:
-Gintama first intro clean
-Golden boy (5th episode I think), the section with the bike scene where he's flying off the bridge
-Love Hina episode where she punches Keitaro out of the bath in his towel and he flies toward the camera (may be later in the series), also the episode early on when he's in school and sent flying, bouncing off the walls and into the camera. I actually have the Love Hina DVDs, so if someone could even find the locations of that footage for me, it'll save me some time in searching.
-Those of you who worked with Sailor Moon footage, there should be some scenes where at least one of the Sailor Senshi fly toward the camera, like in the Pegasus intro in AMVS4, that one could work, but I'm sure there's a stronger shot.
-Any other footage you notice just watching anime, especially from popular anime with characters everyone can recognize.

I need all the help I can get, since i don't actually know how much time I have, just... not enough ^^

[SammySamaProductions]

I will track down the original source audio for you as well as what I actually used for the clip. If I sent you a copy of the clip itself would that work too?

I second the "It's so fluffy" gag idea (if even a mini gag), so many implications for that one *snicker*

[Squancho]

SammySamaProductions
No, go ahead and make your 'splodey clip.
I'd like to see what everyone can come up with.
I'll make one, too.

Warlike Swans
Like I said, this video is just a preview so we can see what we have and discuss where things should go and if anything needs to be adjusted for individual clips.
I see there are a few things that need cleaning up.
I can also make adjustments to the volume for each clip where needed.
And if you wanna send in a revision to the Geass entry that's good.
I'm not so hung up on aspect ratio to compromise the quality.
Keep the line at the end of Cuppycake.

Damn...all those responses before I could post this one.

Anyway, maybe the authors of the clips that have been scrutinized can step in and let us know what your thoughts are..?

[Gaelstrom]

I will track down the original source audio for you as well as what I actually used for the clip. If I sent you a copy of the clip itself would that work too?

I second the "It's so fluffy" gag idea (if even a mini gag), so many implications for that one *snicker*

Clip is fine. I can extract a wav of the audio and work with that.

Oddly enough, when I read what you wrote, I actually combined ideas in my head and pictured "It's so fluffyyy!" *Click* *BOOOOM!!!!*

[SammySamaProductions]

I will track down the original source audio for you as well as what I actually used for the clip. If I sent you a copy of the clip itself would that work too?

I second the "It's so fluffy" gag idea (if even a mini gag), so many implications for that one *snicker*

Clip is fine. I can extract a wav of the audio and work with that.

Oddly enough, when I read what you wrote, I actually combined ideas in my head and pictured "It's so fluffyyy!" *Click* *BOOOOM!!!!*

Pure Genius!!! Fluffy bombs!!!!