Sailor Moon AMV - The Baddest WIP

[SailorTardis]

This is a Sailor moon Action AMV I've been working on. I focused on the 1990s series, mostly the movies.

I was wondering what you all thought of it. Does it flow well? Does it fit the music? are there any transitions that work or that I need to add?

[SilkAMV]

As far as flow goes, there's no real issues with regards of scene-to-scene cohesion. Generally (but not always) transitions are the bells and whistles that you add on to scenes that had good flow with each other to begin with. I love a good transition, so adding more won't hurt your video if you ask me. But, they only make a huge difference for scenes that are too jarring to just cut between, which is rare in this video. In those few bits where that is the case, you recognized that a transition was necessary and added it in, so you're fine there. A simple hard-cut is really the best and most versatile transition there is, so there's no fault in sticking to it.

However, the flow is lacking a sense of rhythm. Your scene selection is good, but you didn't seem to put a whole lot of effort into making your clips match the major beats of the song. With a song as rhythmic as this, you want to be hitting as many of those beats as possible, and you want to be hitting them using internal sync, rather than editing sync. The potential is there, as you have a lot of impactful clips, but you aren't using them to their fullest potential. Sometimes you seemed to be syncing to the vocals, but you should prioritize syncing to the music first, especially in the portions where the vocals are slower and less rappy.

There were also several cases of lip-flap. Most of these aren't a huge issue, but I would still go through each one and make a decision as to whether to either stop their mouths moving, or go full-on lip sync. This is a WIP after all, and in several cases, lip-sync appears to be your plan anyway. Some of them almost match as they are and just need to be tweaked to enhance their sync, and others should be cleaned up because they're too distracting. Use your best judgement. Lip flaps at - 0:06, 0:14, 0:20, 0:22, 0:33, 1:57-2:00, 2:08, 2:14-2:16. There could be a few I missed, but if I missed them, then they probably aren't a concern. If you do see any besides those you want to fix, then by all means do so.

Overall impression of the video? Yo, this slaps. This is a great song-source combo, and I'd love you see you swing this for a home run. There's a lot of potential here, and a fully-realized version could be pure fire.

[SailorTardis]

Thank you for your feedback! TBH Im not very used to making action AMVs, so Im not surprised that the flow isn't great. Also I admit, the lip flaps weren't intentional, so yeah looking over those and seeing where to fix them.

Also I confess that when putting them together I was just kinda playing by ear, working on what I felt looked right and matching up to the lyrics, like what I did with my Madoka AMV, but I realize in hindsight that wasn't the right approach for this one. The Madoka AMV was a bit more story driven and I chose that one's song for the lyrics. So thank you for making me realize that.

[SilkAMV]

Also I confess that when putting them together I was just kinda playing by ear, working on what I felt looked right and matching up to the lyrics, like what I did with my Madoka AMV, but I realize in hindsight that wasn't the right approach for this one.

That's not a bad approach at all, even for an action video. It's certainly not a bad approach for this one, as the scenes you chose are full of the right kind of energy for a kick-ass AMV. You have a good foundation here. The next thing you need to do is build upon it. The best kinds of action AMVs match both the lyrics and the music. You have all the ingredients to do both here. It will take a lot of adjustments to timing and speed, but you can almost do it even if you only use what you already have.

And just to make sure there's no confusion, in my last post when I said "syncing to the vocals" I wasn't referring to the lyrical content, but rather the vocals as another instrument to sync to.

[SailorTardis]

So I have a second draft. TBH while I really like how it looks now, I'm not sure if it flows right. Timing is not a strength of mine tbh.

[SilkAMV]

That's a huge improvement, and you didn't need to make many changes, only changing some timing and adding in a few scenes. Like I said, you had strong foundation to begin with. It's not all the way there yet, but you've got the right idea. Keep doing what you're doing, and you'll get there very soon. The remaining problem area as I see it starts at about 0:41 shortly after the rap portion begins. For that part of the song, and maybe a few parts after it, I think you should apply a much faster pace of editing. Much of it works, but there are portions that you let breathe when you probably shouldn't.

I think you should probably give this AMV a look. It's something like the style I think you're going for, and it doesn't pause for a breath at all once it gets going. Now, you don't necessarily need to be THAT relentless, but leaning more in that direction could give some major spice to this project.

[SailorTardis]

Not sure it's ready yet, but it already feels a lot faster tbh

[SilkAMV]

Don't worry about this long looking post. It contains very few actual notes. Again, huge improvement. There is one change I would revert though. I always liked the longer version of that scene you used at 0:47. Scenes like that which have natural internal rhythm (and some natural lip-sync to boot) are some of my favorite things to find and use while editing. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I may be preaching to the choir here, since this is overall a great edit, but here's something to keep in mind. A faster pace of editing doesn't always mean more cuts. Varying your edits between longer scenes with natural sync and fast paced cuts enhances viewer engagement and keeps them from being overwhelmed or bored. It's good to find the balance between the two and achieve a consistent flow using both. You actually are pretty good at doing this, but I'm talking about it because I want to encourage you to keep doing it, and be confident that it's working. If there are longer scenes that you really like, but you are afraid that people just want fast cuts, keep the longer scenes. It's your video after all, and you're the one who decides what works and what doesn't, regardless of what I or anyone else has to say.

Two more specific notes that I didn't bring up before. A cut near the beginning, at 0:06 that switches to Uranus and Neptune, feels timed to the wrong beat. You might want to tighten up those first few seconds so that it gives a better opening impression. Second note: the very last shot has Jupiter poking out on the left in your aspect ratio adjustment. It will be a bit awkward to clean up, but I think it's better than leaving it be.

There's probably some other things I could say if I wanted to get really nit-picky, but they are largely stylistic preferences and not real issues. I won't bring them up because it seems like you aren't quite satisfied with the video's current state. That's great! Trust yourself. Watch the video again and listen to your inner editor. Every time it asks for your for attention, pause the video and make a decision. Is there something wrong with this part, or are you just being too critical of yourself? Always be prepared to leave things be, but if you know something is wrong, find out what it is and fix it. You may never be able to watch the whole video without suspecting something is wrong with it, but making peace with that is also part of being an editor. If you ever find yourself thinking "This whole thing sucks" stop editing for a while. Come back to the video later with fresh eyes and remember that you are awesome and you are making something fantastic.

To sum up, this video is in a really good spot right now and other than those few small notes, there isn't really anything more for me to say. Any more changes that it needs are up to you to find and handle, and you're more than qualified for it. I'm looking forward to the final version .

[SailorTardis]

tbh I REALLY like how this looks now, and it feels like it flows a lot better. My only question is does the edit with Neptune and Uranus in the opening work better now?

[SilkAMV]

Yep, it all looks good now. Well done.