Post
by Kinematics » Wed Aug 22, 2012 12:15 am
First, congratulations to the winners of the finals.
I ended up for various reasons not getting around to writing up a review before the conclusion. Still, it's nice to be able to read so many other people's comments as well. There were only a handful of other serious posts looking into the videos in earlier rounds, and it felt a bit like I lost out in not getting much of a chance to learn as much, myself. The couple reviews I did see were quite helpful to me, in allowing me to see things I otherwise would have missed.
Still, I'd feel remiss if I failed to at least make the attempt on everything up to the end. From the judging it's already clear that these are all top quality videos, so differences are largely going to be attributable to my own preferences.
[Ileia] Stabbin' Fever
Strong intro. Good sync and scene coherency all the way through. Absolutely no complaints about the technical quality of the editing.
This was the only one of the group to use the full song length. I think it would have been perfect, however, if it ended at about the 2 minute mark like the others (assuming one could find a decent editing point). The stuff that came after felt a bit more like it was tacked on (and had to deal with the awful interlude), rather than integral to the core video -- as if it were two videos spliced together. Unfortunately, scene-wise that cutoff point was about 1:45-1:50 (or maybe up to ~2:08, but that cuts off at an awkward point), which would have left it short of the requirements for the contest.
[LopezAMV] Endgame
The imagery of the intro was good, but the energy was lacking. Felt rather bland. Improved over time, but... A lot of the first half of the video felt like it was too indebted to the lyrics, and just didn't feel smooth or natural (eg: awkward cuts such as the expression change at ~0:22).
Color was all over the place. Lots of scenes had a general color overlay, but switched between that and other shots without a lot of coherency. In general, an indicator of the weakness of the scene selections as a whole.
The last 20 seconds or so (admittedly, part of the sucky bridge segment) was a bit too much random giant robot stuff.
[Mally] - LimeLight
Good intro. Good imagery and solid energy.
Sync seemed slightly off when the vocals started, but problem didn't resurface.
Probably the best, thematically, of the 4. Holds together throughout the video.
Bizarre out-of-place imagery: opening a bag of chips. Every single time I watch it, that little clip bugs me.
Closing was excellent at capturing a sense of frenetic insanity. Nice audio cut to get rid of the bridge.
[riccardocasu]Unlimited Blood Works
Nice start, but the timing started to get slightly off shortly after.
Thematically weaker. In this case, the lyrics just seem out of place compared to the imagery. There's a tenuous link, but not enough to pull it away from the feel that it's more random fight scenes than a solid story.
Editing was pretty solid. No real complaints on the technical side.
Top picks:
[Ileia] Stabbin' Fever
[Mally] - LimeLight
Interestingly, I end up with exactly the same picks as the overall judging. Usually my choices are at least a little bit different. However, -because- I read the judging before writing my reviews, I'm trying hard to avoid simply repeating the points made, and it's not always easy.
Championship vid reviews shortly..
