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

[SammySamaProductions]

I've run into an issue.
There's no way I'm gonna be able to avoid certain editors' clips from being placed next to each other because a few turned in a bunch and the rest just a few.
To this end I'm gonna do the following.
Rather than formatting the end credits with the editors' names attached to each clip, I'm proposing I lead off with listing the editors' names and then running down the clip information in order of appearance.
Otherwise, at some point, you're gonna see a string of clips by the same editor.
I'm positive this is gonna be the case anyway once we get to the part where we adjust the timeline for flow and consistency.
I could also swear I had more clips in the AMVS5 folder than I'm seeing but may be just me..?
Anyway,...back to work.

I can zip all mine up and send them to you again if you want. I will also look through what footage I have for explosions and guys walking away from them. I figure Full Metal Panic would be a prime candidate but haven't really seen people walking away...but I shall sort through what I do have.

[Gaelstrom]

I can zip all mine up and send them to you again if you want.

I'll do the same... tomorrow... I'm still recovering from my seminar, and I was trying to edit and falling asleep. Every day counts, so I hope I can pull some of these off. What does everyone think of the before-posted gundam clip?

[SammySamaProductions]

What does everyone think of the before-posted gundam clip?

I loved it!!!!!!!!!!!

[Squancho]

One thing I will say (as a new beta renders) is we have plenty of explosions, whether incidental or inserted..
BTW, that "Any Last Words?" clip was a great closer!
I'm also gonna hold off writing the credits until we establish a timeline.
Having to rearrange these things is such a pain in the arse I can't even tell you.
Anyway, tomorrow I will post the new beta.
I want input about what the order should be.
AMA is only ten days away... *dies*

And I was just informed I am now THIS YEAR's new AMV DH for AMA.
More pressure...

[Gaelstrom]

Deuce, here are all 6 DVs of the ones I've created for you, just to make sure you have them. This has the intro DV as well, which I just realized I never remembered to render and send to you, sorry about that. Shouldn't be too important, but I'm pretty sure we'll be doing at least one more render.

davidkrein.net/Gaelstrom_AMVS5_DVs.rar

Also, one other thing I just spent like... 10 minutes throwing together, because I saw the first episode of Hetalia, and this popped into my mind. The footage is NEARLY un-altered... which is why I thought it was so hilarious ^^ But as such, if you all like the idea, I can make it work better. I just need to breeze through hetalia and find some good extra footage to make this work.

Considering the content though, before I spent any extensive work on it, I needed to run it by the rest of you. Think it's worth it?

davidkrein.met/HetaliaTest.rar

[SammySamaProductions]

I have zipped and am uploading the file right now. I will send it to you in a PM here on the org Deuce, just figured I'd send all my clips in case one got lost in the shuffle. There should be 13 or 14 total in the folder including my production tag.

[Squancho]

Rendered last night:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=F4LO64BX
214mb

[SammySamaProductions]

Rendered last night:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=F4LO64BX
214mb

Well I guess I'll wait and see if they all made it in there or if you even need them. No sense in clogging your inbox...and thanks for the much smaller file size!!! *goes off to download and watch*

[SammySamaProductions]

Reaction to the new clips:

-- The clip after the duck hunt one has some audio issues. I don't know if it was just me or not but I think it's a "My buddy" clip but can't make out a single word. Just got that much from the tune of the song. Can the audio be cleaned up on this please if we decide to use it?
--The jelly filled doughnut was kind of a "What the hell? That was completely random." I don't know how to react to this...Just kinda seems thrown in there an pointless...
--I loved the mixing cup explosion! lol
--"I whip my head back and forth" was rather amusing. Perhaps place it after a long slower clip as just a "WTF was that" reaction.
--Are we keeping the first "rebel dick" clip? I like the second one better but was unsure if we are keeping both of them. If only one then the second should be used IMHO.
--Barney Library clip was quite amusing but a bit too long IMO.
--Knife Wrench...EPIC!!!


Old clip comments:

--was the audio raised on the "I Don't see any hope" Clip? Seems like I can hear it better than last time. ^_^
--Thank you for clipping the extra music off the first troll deathnote clip ^_^
--The special Eyes clip just gets me every time...ROFLMAO
--Tuna still needs to be shortened a bit...
--Seems like the gay clip was cleaned up and synced more...^_^


Other comments:
So do we have enough explosion clips to make the gag right? Do we also still need "walking away from explosion" scenes for the credits? Are we going to have a "preview" clip at the end like last year? Also I don't know if Gael sent you his Gundam Fail clip but that needs to go to the end as well if we use it...it was epic!!!

[Gaelstrom]

All righty. Lotsa good stuff. Some stuff is repeat info, but I'll include it anyway. But yes, yes we need another one or two good explosions, because we don't have enough good ones. We have some good ones, but just because we have 6 or 7 doesn't mean they all work. Slots, button and the fluffy explosions are the only three that really, truly work right now. I've said that before. Robot Unicorn attack can work if the ending is edited, but we need another couple that are different than those to truly solidify the gag. What we really need is one good, subtle one to start off the gag.

Oh, and yes, we definitely need clips of guys walking away from explosions. Badly. We've got a couple weeks max to find them.

New Clips:

Spoiler :

Intro: This should be first I think. It was an interesting idea to have the USA one start us off, but I think that one should be saved for near the end to keep the energy up. If people have an issue with how it starts, that's why I need people to tell me these things ^^
Kid Sister: I guess my sound work on it really didn't work too well for it... that won't survive an auditorium very well I don't think. If I had to weigh in though, I'd say it wasn't as good as the "My Buddy" one, because that one was far more ironic. It spoke for itself even if you hadn't seen Soul Eater because you can tell visually that it's annoying the shit out of him. The Kid Sister one was less funny because it wasn't ironic, and I guess we'll have to see if it can even be heard at AMA.
Penguin Explosion: Still doesn't work. I posted earlier about it. The cut-off is better timed, but it just is so much more expected. Plus in this case if this were the final, it would have given the explosion joke a bad start.
Donuts: Gotta agree with SammySama... the donut joke is apparently completely an inside-joke for Hetalia, and this didn't really seem like a joke at all. Just a statement. Not fond of this one I'm sorry to say, I have to put in a vote for a cut based on my initial impressions, especially since we have another Hetalia food joke.
Dokuro-chan explosion: If we are keeping this one, that strobing in the beginning is absolutely headache-inducing. Please trying and fix that, otherwise remove the clip, because it really hurts it. Again, I still don't think making him explode works as well as other potentials, it's more the sound effect that makes this one funny. But it's not the worst one.
*Hair Back and Forth: Excellent. In fact I feel like this belongs behind the muppet clip for the exact reason SammySama mentioned ^^
Rebel Dick: Thought it was obvious the second one should have been used. Oh well, that was just my initial concept test, use the other one.
*Library: Hmmm... I'll state the obvious first. The good: Very well edited, great footage choices, very engrossing for those who have seen the shows involved (Just finished Kami Nomi last week actually ^^). The Bad: Too long, even though it all fits together, and not all that funny. The most amusing parts were the ironic parts with the tuba in the marching band with the terrible violin playing, which upped the humor, but other than that, its presence is a bit strange. I almost could see this as the credits song... I don't know what to think about it. It's too long to be later in the production, but not strong enough to be a starter, but also quite good for what it is... this one's a conundrum. For now, all I can say is put it in the front somewhere for when everyone's attention is high. There may be a place to cut it off, though, but it really is so well done I don't want to see it cut off... but then it's not all that funny... damn this one's a tough one.
*Panther Chase: Perfect job matching the beats, but then you physically hurt me by cutting off the music ^^ It's hitting the beats so well now that I'm 100% into the clip, where did the ending go? You can't cut off such good music right during its rise ^^ Did you have trouble finding ending images? At this point, even if you did, stick with what you had, it was less jarring to at least let it finish that section of the music. Just toss in a third image if it exists between the crossing the river and the ferry image and do it along with the beat, that should work.
Mitsudomoe Hampster: Hmm... like it, but no sure if the mellow character works as well in that scenario. Still good though. Haven't seen the show, so it could be a good thing that it's that character?
*Pinky and the Brain: I'm so happy I just started Sekirei now... just for this clip
*Wrench Knife: Like the entire anime was made for it.
*Slappy Squirrel Who: God damn, well done... okay, clip's phenominal up until around 18:12 then it becomes a victim of its footage limitations. I would recommend cutting it off somewhere around there at the height of one of the back and forths before she starts again, because everything fits Holo's movement's PERFECTLY until the point where Lawrence doesn't match Skippy getting annoyed at her not getting it. From that point on the clip is too long I think. Before that, epic.

Changes made and that need to be made:

Spoiler :

Made:

Unicorn Attack: Nice ^^ The sound is there, but nothing else was really changed. Seriously, trust me on this. Double the speed of the unicorn running (only that part) on the final scene so that people can barely register that you just cut to the level, and then we have to get an explosion in there. This one should get a full-screen explosion so that it gets fully cut off. Even better if you want to be morbid and crop off the head and have it fly at the screen
Screw in the tuna: Shaved off a good 20 seconds... still long but I'm gonna say something that I may regret ^^ I want to keep it at this length and try it at AMA ^^ It'll be crucial to record audience reaction though, because this really is great, and it does get funnier the more you listen to it, and ending it at "I love you man!" with that expression was great. I'll say this one almost definitely needs to be shortened, but I get this feeling that the audience reaction may just keep the laughter going. I get the feeling people will keep laughing even if they think it's stupid or too long... I think only the beta screening will tell ^^

Need to be made:
Memes: Still believe wholeheartedly that it should be the first screen, but have the tenchi 'fap' scene last until the end of that measure of notes so it's a full moment to get the joke in. The others are nowhere near as good. Even still-framing Tenchi's look of horror and Ryoko's playful smile for the rest of that section of the song will work.
Jigglypuff: Wasn't an updated version created without the ending issue? If so, please make sure that's used. I felt better about this clip this time around, but again that ending is causing problems.
Haruhi Funky Town: Same issue, love the concept, love the beginning instrument playing and the ending point, just needs the music sync to be repaired a bit.
Song on Radio: Same as before, better sync needed. Couple other things, though. Don't speed up the Mio footage for the first curse, or if it wasn't sped up, use a less jolty movement, and let it sit on the screen for a split second more. And like I mentioned before, have another curse cut for the final sound effect to keep consistency. I still love this clip!
Star Trekkin: Again, one of my favorites, just needs that extra lovin'. Pleeeeaaase moonbunnychan! I love your work, make it shine for us
Gundam Gay: Does seem a bit more solid. Starts a bit abruptly though. One thing I think should be done though, since it's more drawn out, is to cut out the lines after "...a pair of jean shorts" and just cut to the part "Know how I know you're gay?" "How" "Cuz you like Cold Play" to speed up the scene. I know the source isn't like that, but that dead part without the back and forth kills the momentum a lot because there's really nothing happening in that scene. It'll speed up the clip, get to the point faster, and I think be a bit funnier, because Duo's reaction there and the cutoff is really the best part

All right, and finally

Clip arrangement ideas:

I believe we started off strong and ended weaker. We have too many long ones near the end I believe that are more amusing than funny, and we also have a few situations where we have short clips near one another when they could be more strongly used breaking up the long ones. We have the problem of as many as like ten clips that are over a minute right now, and that's going to make things a bit difficult to maintain interest I think. First off, Screw in the Tuna will violate that statement. That one gets funnier over time I think, and I want to see if it can go at around the 3/4ths mark, near where it is now. It's actually very energetic even if it's long, so I want to test it in that venue, because it IS hilarious.

I'm actually going to say we should start with either Muppet Babies, or actually the Library clip. It's a very well edited clip, longer, but really good. It could backfire and be too long for its own good that early, but it really starts us out calm, so we can raise the bar over time. If we did Library first, then we should do Muppet Babies at the 1/4th mark. Hair back and forth fits perfectly after Muppet Babies for some reason.

I think that the Death Note explosion one should go after the first few clips, or even second. Somehow it did a good job there in the first beta, it went before the other explosions and somehow subconsciously worked as a current intro.

I think the sort of old commercial stuff should be closer to the beginning and other stuff congregated more toward the end. This beta didn't feel that good because things were all over the place. Oddly enough when our clips were organized by author, it fit some kind of general progression. It may be worthwhile to consider which of us has styles similar to another and keep those clips in closer proximity in certain areas. That way we can guide the audience from one style into another. For example I do mainly ironic skits and music, and things like Sailor Moon "Kick ass and chew bubble gum" are similar to mine, compared to the phantom of the opera one. This isn't meant to be ironclad of course, but it might help to keep people from going all over the place.

At the very least, we should start slow, and speed up into a climax. Right now, once the Robot Unicorn Sailor Moon one is adjusted, it's the best one to start off the running gag because it's more subtle. That one going a bit after the Death Note Mello explosion will lead into it well, then sandwiching "It's so fluffy!" clips between explosion clips, culminating in the combo finish. Then putting in my Gundam Explosion fail after the credits potentially to do an homage to a previous Salad.

Thoughts?