Ghost Audition

[Shinzui IT]

Nice!

[seasons]

4 1/2 minutes is a long time to wait the the "reveal" at the end.

wouldn't say i liked bulge or whatever it was

If putting that animated gif in the original post set viewers up to expect a big "reveal" then it was a mistake but for I also think it's a mistake for viewers to think that the first 5 minutes of this are nothing but some kind of prelude to slog through to get to it, like it's the whole "point" of the AMV or something.

Just my opinion but the "bulge" isn't there to be liked any more than any other shot in the video.

Not trying to speak on the editor's behalf or anything but

[post-it]

... these reviews are humorous,
you've all turned into "me" on Time Length - lol

yup, "What Was That!??" .... Seriously though, you've got a pleasant concept here which could use some refinements. The KEY to a good AMV is to keep it simple otherwise all it looks like is that your showing-off!

Time is not matched by the length of a song; THAT is everyones first mistake and an easy trap to fall into.

to put it simply, We are not the Animes' Creators, we are spectators who would have like to have seen a different out-come or event happen. I am currently working on an alternate ending to a series for our CamCom Festivals Open and "this kind of stuff" is Exactly what Editors thrive on. It may sound simple yet, it complicates itself and That's what we do as spectators - given the power of Editing Magic.

THx

[CrackTheSky]

wouldn't say i liked bulge or whatever it was

Just my opinion but the "bulge" isn't there to be liked any more than any other shot in the video.

I think that what M'o'l was referring to wasn't the last shot, but the constant quick zooms (the "heartbeat" effect) that was used as a sync device throughout the video.

[Mol]

ye soz for not being precise o: Maybe its not too terrible but it felt kinda meh.

[lolligerjoj]

wouldn't say i liked bulge or whatever it was

Just my opinion but the "bulge" isn't there to be liked any more than any other shot in the video.

I think that what M'o'l was referring to wasn't the last shot, but the constant quick zooms (the "heartbeat" effect) that was used as a sync device throughout the video.

Ah, these. Before it ended up like that, the sync to the 1/8th rythm as well as the "heartbeat" and crash syncs went through a lot of iterations. Since these are omnipresent I did not want to make them a focal point but I also did not want some simple linear stuff. Bulge seemed like a decent choice (don't know for sure if I chose that particular effect though). In my opinion they are subtle enough not to be a nuisance, but it seems like you do not think so. Thanks for the feedback. : )

[...]
you've all turned into "me" on Time Length - lol
[...] The KEY to a good AMV is to keep it simple otherwise all it looks like is that your showing-off!
Time is not matched by the length of a song; THAT is everyones first mistake and an easy trap to fall into.
to put it simply, We are not the Animes' Creators, we are spectators who would have like to have seen a different out-come or event happen. I am currently working on an alternate ending to a series for our CamCom Festivals Open and "this kind of stuff" is Exactly what Editors thrive on. It may sound simple yet, it complicates itself and That's what we do as spectators - given the power of Editing Magic. [...]

Sorry I have a hard time trying to understand what you mean explicitly. Maybe try to rephrase it? Thanks for the feedback.

4 1/2 minutes is a long time to wait the the "reveal" at the end.

If putting that animated gif in the original post set viewers up to expect a big "reveal" then it was a mistake but for I also think it's a mistake for viewers to think that the first 5 minutes of this are nothing but some kind of prelude to slog through to get to it, like it's the whole "point" of the AMV or something. [...]

I agree. I intended every part of the video to have some relevancy to the concept. That's stressed by the fact that I tried to shorten the video desperately, as I added the 2 songs at the beginning and at the end. I removed only parts that seemed redundant in the whole context.
I do understand that the Poster of the video might set some expectations, and I admit that this is of course part of my intention, but the visuals depicted there are more meant as a "conclusion", not quite as the main plot point. I think the video would also be fine had I left out that last part.

Nice!

Yay!!

I feel like I could say a lot about this...eventually. I've watched it a couple times now and I feel like there's quite a lot going on that will take me several more viewings to fully dig down to. Regardless of the meaning, I already love this video and am pretty confident it will end up my favorite of yours up to this point. The colors, the psychedelia, the scene selection, the consistent and trademark effect work...everything about this video stands out, and although I feel like you're pushing yourself a little less with this release than with your previous videos, I also feel like this is a more personal video than any of your others. As a Ghibli tribute (something I never thought I'd see from you, tbh), it's by far the most unorthodox and probably least nostalgia-exploitative of any I've ever seen, or am likely to. But I love that about it -- taking something that everyone else does at least once in their lives and bending it to your own unique and somewhat twisted style.

It's a beautiful video, one of the best of the year thus far, and as ever I'm looking forward to whatever it is you come up with next.

P.S. My (now-)wife watched this one with me, and unfortunately she didn't have as much to say about this one as she did about GEHIRNSTURMEN, but she definitely liked it

Thank you very much, as usual, for the great impressions!
Do you mean "me pushing myself" in a technical sense or more in a creative context? Or maybe "pushing the boundaries" as it was the case mostly with GEHIRNSTURMEN?
Creatively and technically, this video has been very difficult. It's part of the reason I worked on it for close to a year, with much of it being deciding on conceptual stuff. I do agree that it is way more conservative than my last video, but that means there are lots of videos in direct comparison (I will detail these below, in response to PieandBeer), automatically raising the difficulty to a similar level according to my aspirations.
The idea to go with Ghibli-whoring has been in my head for quite a while, this is how I got to picture the concept for this video in the first place when I first listened to the song with this intention. Ghibli movies are well-animated, have mutually common themes and share an art style, so the motivation is obvious, as all these have been important things to consider. The missing link has always been to somehow integrate it into a more explicit concept that I would be happy to express, and somehow contain all these themes that Ghibli movies present into a concise point. I was actually overwhelmed when I listened to the song and suddenly pictured this video.

let me talk to you about ghibli films +______+

woooo!
Let's do it, how do we start?

It's cool that you came here, cause I suspect the idea as well as some of the execution of this video might be influenced by your videos Levity and Clear Skies, which you might remember I regard highly. Along with Mastermind's Adieu, Perchance to Dream, I watched these videos very frequently during the last year of making this video. At points they motivated me, and at points they directed me. I also cooked up some confidence comparing my results with what you guys made.
So, thanks to you and Mastamind very much

First of all loved abstractedness of this work. Depending of the viewer and his investment in this video he might see this it as very shallow or very deep work. It all depends on his imagination and kudos for harnessing this powerful thing. At first i thought that it's length is a negative thing, but thinking back at it, that same length is what allows to fully immerse in this atmosphere. Audio choice also good for this idea, music constantly morphs into something new don't letting viewer to be bored and since you were able to keep up with this very unpredictable sound the end result is quite nice. While I might sound like this all make sense to me I actually was quite impressed how work of this length don't get boring even after multiple re-watches.

Thank you for the impressions!
I quite agree, and want to go further and connect the two points you made. Only the songs I used exploring so many different areas allowed me to keep the video at this length. No particular part in this video seems too long, because by themselves, they are not that long. The sum of all parts gets quite impressively long though. I cut some stuff from the main song in order to prevent redundancy and added the songs in the beginning and the end to create some kind of musical "frame" that also wraps up the song nicely. I'm pleased with it : )

This is the lolligerjoj AMV I've been waiting for.

I really like Into the Labyrinth and I loved tan(x) and I admire GEHIRNSTURMEN but keep it at arm's length because I really wanted to get lost in it because it's one of the least compromising and most original pieces of work that have ever come out of this hobby and yet every time I always feel like I'm watching it at my own risk.

So we come to this video and honestly this is just a world I don't ever want to leave. I'm getting ready for work so I can't give this post the time it deserves but I also can't stand to let this video fall off the 1st page in this forum with barely a handful of replies. So quick and dirty review: this is the most psychedelic and experimental and beautiful AMV I've ever watched. I've been looking for something like this for a long time and yet I should have known that it wouldn't exist until you made it and here we are.
[...]

Thank you very much


Edit: In conclusion, I seem to like talking about my vids a lot I think next time I won't let the posts pile up like that before finally responding.

[Syn Celestial]

Can't comprehend eyes...I need to understand...is the quality unique too or is it strictly the effects throwing me through a loop?
Overall nice video.

[CrackTheSky]

Thank you very much, as usual, for the great impressions!
Do you mean "me pushing myself" in a technical sense or more in a creative context? Or maybe "pushing the boundaries" as it was the case mostly with GEHIRNSTURMEN?

Mmm...I think I'm talking in more "meta" terms. Might help if you read my blog post mentioning GEHIRNSTURMEN to see what I'm talking about. I feel like this was a more "safe" video for you; it was still weird, and unusual, and unexpected, but it had snippets of feeling and the vague likeness of some of your past work. tan(x) and GEHIRNSTURMEN both felt like giant creative leaps for you; although they both were inescapably yours in their style, you were doing things I'd never seen before (in that sense, you can include Into The Labyrinth on that list as well). This one, though...it's starting to feel familiar, I guess. Conceptually, Ghost Audition is awesome -- I'm not even going to pretend I totally understand it, but I feel like I could pick it apart for weeks if I wanted. And its presentation as a Ghibli tribute of sorts is totally unique -- but within the context of your own body of work, it feels more like a tentative step than a 10-foot jump.

Really hope you don't take that poorly, because like I said in my original post it's probably my favorite video of yours. I love it. I wouldn't change a thing about it, and let's be honest, you're probably the only editor that would have thought to make a video quite like this. You do what you want and I'll be here to watch and probably enjoy it all, because as much as I love to see editors do really new things stylistically, I also don't mind it when editors develop and refine their own style to perfection And also, it might help to state for the record that I have a history of not really trying many new things in my own work, especially these past couple years, so I have no real room to talk. But yeah, just my thoughts I guess!

[lolligerjoj]

Ah, thanks for the clarification, I get ya.
And I quite agree. This video ended up with quite some conceptual similarities to what I've made previously. Some intentional, some just turned out that way.
Since quite some years now I actively want to avoid making a video "twice". I throw away lots of video ideas that would really just end up too similar to videos I've made before. This probably resulted in my previous videos all being different in various aspects.
In the case of this video though, I immediately recognized that the techniques and the structure remind of things I've already done. I consider the structural similarities to tan(x) very striking examples, and the congruence with GEHIRNSTURMEN at the end was even purposefully put in. The reason I still wanted to make this video was the thematic content, which has elements I never worked with before. It admittedly contains some stuff from GEHIRNSTURMEN, but at the same time presents them in a fundamentally different context (or gives them context in the first place). I guess I really loved how the things I've came up with previously all came together so beautifully with this video idea, I just had to make it. And I'm really happy with it.
Guess this video using all the things I've used before is in itself the thing which sets this video apart from the others Can't do it again though D:

Gosh had I had a hard time expressing myself here.

Btw, I've read your blog post 2 months ago, it's very beautifully written and I'm very humbled, by the blog post and by what you wrote here . As always, thanks

[kika_kun]

So nice !!!!!