Selecting scenes for your amv

[squirle]

The real short but very difficuly questions is where to start after you've roughly worked out what theme, story or song you're gonna use.

Ofcourse a little storyboard so u have a rough idea of what you're looking for. But how do you go about finding that just 1 scene that you need. Does it all depend on knowledge of the series or is there some magical trick for it.

Asking cause i'm new to amv (done a fair amount of normal videos from "home video" material, but there is only 4 hours orso and an amv is 30+ hours of material from a decent sized anime). And this is the one question that keeps me from starting and not answered in any guide .

[genestarwind21122]

Really it just takes patience. It does depend on your knowledge of the series sometimes. When you hear certain lyrics it may jump out at you and you know the perfect scene in your mind. Really I search for several scenes before dropping one into the timeline. Sometimes when you find a scene that could work it doesn't quiet give you that strong impact that you want in the video. So you have to find another one. Some ideas come easier than others. What you may want to do is get the lyrics on a seperate sheet of paper. Write down descripitions of what scene you might want to go there. For example "When I look to the sky" I probably would want a scene of Belldandy and Keichi sitting together and Keichi looking up at the sky. If you find a scene that fits what you are looking for great, but if not don't be affraid to modify it. If there wasn't a scene with Belldandy in it then I would find a scene with Keichi looking to the sky with an image of Belldandy being an overlay.

I hope this was of some help. There is nothing else but to just go through the song and the anime until you are completly satisfied with your video and you think you have accomplished what you wanted in it.

Gene Starwind 21122

[AquaSky]

Knowledge of the series certainly helps. Of course, the practicality of that depends on the length of the series. I've known movies and 6-episode series like the back of my hand, but with the 26-episode series, I have a more vague idea of scene placement. That's why, when I'm working with a larger series, sometimes I have to rewatch it at 16x fast-forward to scan for additional scenes I may have missed earlier. It can be a bit time-consuming, but that's just how it goes sometimes.

[JaddziaDax]

yes, know your anime, it will help alot..

for one of my videos (Pocket Change) I knew one of the scenes EXACTLY and I wouldnt settle for less, I spent 2 hours watching episodes just so i could find it... because I couldnt remember the episode it was in... and there was no substitute for that line... lol

another AMV I made I went looking for the scene but couldnt find it and ended up substituting it for a different one, now the AMV is fairly good just not as good as I would have liked... of course in the end its also one that doesnt get much attention o.0..

I find that when making your AMV its best to have a clear image of what you want.. but sometimes in the moment ideas help too...

[squirle]

Ok thx for the quick replies, guesse i'll start sweeping episodes then. (and getting better idea's of what i want.)

[Infinity Squared]

One of my first videos (not listed on my profile and one which I plan to remake in the future) involved me first watching the anime, loving it, then finding a song, and also loving that... after which I proceeded to listen to the song more intimately, then partly chunked it off to pieces which I thought sort of corelated...

After which I watched the anime again (Scrapped Princess, so yeah, standard 26 episodes)... twice... each time listing scenes which either (a) fit the song and (b) seemed interesting enough as back up scenes (like good camera pans, or characters looking solemnly in the distance, etc.).

(a) type scenes are probably the easiest thing about making a video. You get mindgasm when you're driving down the road, listening to the music and bam, you link it with an existing scene in the anime you like. But more often than not, up to half the music will have no other scene which you have a perfect scene to attach to immediately in your head and that's when (b) type scenes really come in handy as they allow you to put in some rather nice shots without having to spend a lot of time flicking back to the series itself.

Well, that's at least how I like to operate... you could also play that blindfolded-pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey type of editing... just click and serve

[Melanchthon]

The real short but very difficuly questions is where to start after you've roughly worked out what theme, story or song you're gonna use.

Short answer: wherever you can. Beginning, end, instrumental, a couple of lines in a verse... there must be some reason you picked that song for that source, right? It's a lot easier to place a clip in the timeline if it's preceded or followed by another, even if the original clip is just a placeholder or a poor substitute for the clip you really want.

Ofcourse a little storyboard so u have a rough idea of what you're looking for. But how do you go about finding that just 1 scene that you need. Does it all depend on knowledge of the series or is there some magical trick for it.

If you do find a magical trick, feel free to share it.

To answer your second question first, yes. I really can't think of any vid that wouldn't require knowledge of the series. Whatever clip you need, you need to know where to find it. You don't need to know every frame of every shot, but being able to mentally call up just enough information about a scene to decide whether or not it's going to serve your current needs is going to save you a heck of a lot of time.

I'd suggest placing clips on the timeline until you've exhausted the ideas that spurred you into making the AMV, and then rewatching the source footage. At the very least, you'll have an idea of the things you don't need to pay attention to.

Back to the first question. Are you asking the forum members specifically, or asking in general? I prefer AMVs that follow the plot of the series (however loosely or carelessly, so most of the time I already know the scene I'm using even if I don't know how it's going to end up looking. For scenes that I don't know, I'll think about the kind of scene that would work best (action, conversations, stuff that's reminiscent of or foreshadows other stuff that's already on the timeline... non-specific things like that) and then rewatch episodes that I think would be useful. If I find what I'm looking for, great. If not...

[BasharOfTheAges]

Well, all I do is spend hours and hours going through the footage and clipping. what I need. As this usually kills my desire to edit, I do it a few days before I want to start with the vid. If you hit a lull where you need a break from actually editing, you can clip some more (assuming you have extra source footage remaining), just make sure you clip slowly and frequently, so instead of having to go back through what you've already spent a day looking at, you can scrub through new video.

[downwithpants]

usually there are a few points in the song for which i have specific scenes i want to use. i start by putting these scenes in the appropriate spots in the timeline to make sure they work with the song. then, i develop my storyboard more so as to connect these points where i have filled in the scenes.

then it's off to looking through the anime source to fill in the storyboard. i do this by splitting shots up in windows movie maker and organizing them into folders. takes a lot of time to split up (a few days for a movie, a month for a series), but makes it easier to find scenes when youre searching for scenes to place on your timeline. it's also handy if youre gonna make multiple amvs from the same anime source.

[HorrorPhD]

Knowledge of the series definitely helps (at least it does for me). Before I even attempt an AMV, I have to watch the source anime at least twice or more from beginning to end. Most of the time, I end up watching them 5 or 6 times minimum.

Then I listen to the song. Over. And Over. And Over. Just about as many times as I've watched the anime...most of the time, more. Each time I try to remember the anime as I'm listening as well as the concept I've come up with, and the scenes I want (or ideas for scenes) will pop into my head. It's at that point that I start capturing.

Of course, I also end up capturing what I call "useless" footage - scenes that looked great as I was watching the anime, but end up on the "cutting room floor" once the final AMV is complete. But I'd rather have more footage than not enough.

Hope that helps.