ZeWrestler and
Iserlohn's Guide to Opinions - Part 7
Reviewing Your
Own Video
|
Many people believe that you can
not review your own video. On the contrary, Phade does allow it, as
long as the review is honest. Here are some tips and examples for you
if you decide to review your own video.
|
|
|
Tips
|
|
|
|
-
Wait a few months before reviewing your video.
During this time, try to avoid watching it. When most creators finish
their videos, they think what they created is worthy of a perfect
score. This is the worst time to review your video. If you wait a few
months, you will most likely begin to see your video in a different
light. You might see that some parts that could have synched better.
There might be other parts where scene choices that you thought were
genius did not work out as good as you thought at the time. Other parts
may just not flow as well as you intended. Therefore, wait a few months
before you review your video. It'll make you opinion more objective.
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
Push yourself to be critical and uncover any flaw
or interesting point in editing that you made. You know what you were
thinking when you created the video. Use that knowledge to critique
everything in your video. You know what you had in mind, and you see
what resulted. Is it the way you planned? Could it be any better? How?
These are some of the questions that you ask yourself when you review
you video.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rankings
|
Orig.
|
Capture
|
Sound
|
Action
|
Lip
|
Effects
|
Effort
|
Re-view
|
Overall
|
|
10
|
10
|
10
|
10
|
10
|
10
|
10
|
10
|
10
|
|
Good
|
|
This is the best video I've ever created. I
don't see whats more original than a DBZ fighting video of Majin
Vegetta and Goku done to Linkin Park's One Step Closer. This
is the best video. Download it, now.
|
|
|
Bad
|
|
despite the fact that I am the first to
review the video after it has been posted for 2 hours, i can find
almost nothing wrong with this video. The only problem with it is that
it does not have 10 reviews yet.
|
|
|
General
|
|
MY VIDEO ROCKS. DOWNLOAD IT NOW AND GIVE ME
REVIEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
|
|
|
|
*Sigh* This review, although made up, follows none of
the tips that were given in this section of the guide. This person
doesn't even say what's good or bad. The creator just claims that the
video is good and demands people to watch the video. As said before,
wait a while before you give your videos a review, it helps you become
more objective, and honest, and helps you to see all the flaws in your
video. Also, this person gave their video a score with straight 10's.
Obviously, the person doesn't take time to put that much thought into
there review.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Good Self Reviews:
|
Review by Aokakesu
for Odorikuruu
|
|
|
|
Rankings
|
Orig.
|
Capture
|
Sound
|
Action
|
Lip
|
Effects
|
Effort
|
Re-view
|
Overall
|
|
8
|
5
|
8
|
8
|
4
|
7
|
8
|
6
|
7
|
|
Good
|
|
Or "Stuff I'm proud of"
Perfect Blue and Macross DYRL (1m17s to
1m24s) - Though the captures at these points both really blew,
especially the Perfect Blue scenes, I still like these edits most of
all. They flow just right.
Idol Defense Force Hummingbirds (0m42s to
0m45s) - The amount of sweat applied to these few seconds was worth it.
It was just like being a choreographer...except that the dancers had
different ideas about the rhythm. Tons of frame holds and time bending
went into getting those girls to shake their thang' to the beat.
Lens Flare (0m22s to 0m25s& 1m26s to
1m27s) - Yes, a tired, hackneyed effect. Used and abused a million
different ways...so I decided to shoot the dead horse a few more times
just for kicks. It was one of those "grinning like a fool" moments (you
know...the one where you get a real huge stupid grin on your face when
you've pulled a new trick out of your hat and it works) when I managed
to get the flares to look like spotlights and behave like spotlights
when the girls moved in front of them.
Ikari Shinji in default mode - Risky...and
it worked! Here I was, taking the basic energy flow of the video and
stopping it dead for about six seconds; it unnerved me to do it. I was
sweating bullets over keeping this in the final cut but the test
audiences loved it, so it stayed.
Mahou Tsukai Tai (3m02s to 3m10) - I really
busted my butt to get these clips from the TV series opening to flow
with the beat and it's the singlemost part of the AMV that I'm proud of.
|
|
|
Bad
|
|
or "Things make make me bash myself over
the head with a '72 Chevy Nova"
Lip "un"Synch - I know I said that I didn't
work hard on this and everyone seems to be quite forgiving of it...but
it was painful to let that go in favour of allowing movement to flow
with the song. Damned perfectionist bug I have. You can see where I did
my best to cover up some of the worst lip-unsynch offences by quickly
cutting away and back again. The only place I really worked on it was
at the Excel Saga scene (2m54s) and even then it really stank. I'm
pretty sure that lip synch is -not- and never will be one of my AMV
fortes.
Normal-time/rush-time jog cuts (Shoujo
Kakumei Utena @ 1m44s and Oh my Goddess @ 3m09s) - I'll never know what
cheap crack I was smoking at the time I made these edits. In
retrospect, those effect cuts look horribly out of synch with the beat
-_-;
Frame Cropping - Arrgh! Only now do I see
all that VHS overscan junk at outer edges of the frame!
Capture - Good, bad and sometimes just
plain nasty! I really went dumpster diving when finding these clips.
Things could have been -far- worse, though. All praise Avery Lee for
Virtual Dub and all praise those who make such wonderful toys to plug
into it!
|
|
|
General
|
|
Yeah, I'm a tough marker. Especially if
it's my own work ;)
Well, I thought I'd take this opportunity
as opinion #100 to look back at Odorikuruu, now 6 months old, as way
for me to figure out what I did right and what traps I should avoid in
the future. Without access to the valuable resources of
animemusicvideos.org, such as the ability to obtain opinions from a
broad audience, I don't think I'd have as much of a chance grow and
improve as an AMV producer. Arigatoo, Phade!
...Even though I may have not replied to
each and every opinion (blame it on me for letting it go so long that I
think I'll never catch up) I'd still like to say Arigatoo Gozaimasu,
minna-san for all your tips, suggestions, scorn and praise! :)
|
|
|
|
This review, is a good self review for many reasons.
Working from the top down, he did not give himself straight 10's or
9's. In fact, he even gave himself a 5 and a 4. But, he also wasn't too
critical and gave himself 8's at other areas of his review. In the good
section, he listed what he liked in his video, and shared a little bit
of information about the creation of the video. Likewise, in the bad
section, he criticized his video for what he thought was wrong and
explained why he thought the stuff was wrong. Finally he reflects on
everything in the general section about his video, and what he thought.
He says that he was leaving opinion #100 which illustrates the point
that you should wait a while before reviewing your own video.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Review by AbsoluteDestiny
for Instant Music Video (Blues Driven Naota)
|
|
|
|
Rankings
|
Orig.
|
Capture
|
Sound
|
Action
|
Lip
|
Effects
|
Effort
|
Re-view
|
Overall
|
|
8
|
9
|
9
|
8
|
7
|
N/A
|
8
|
7
|
8
|
|
Good
|
|
Well, this video was obviously made for
particular circumstances - a demo video for an amv panel at a con.
Hence, a lot of the elements in this video are there for demonstrative
purposes which makes it a little difficult to judge, but here goes.
So, what's good about this video. Lets
start with the superficial stuff:
Well, the picture and sound quality are
great. I was particularly happy with how well the divx came out. If
anything, the only quibble I have is that a massive amount of the
picture quality is wasted with the noisy aged-film effect at the
beginning of the video which eats up a helluva lot of bits. I possibly
should have lowered it's priority or encoded it separately to make sure
the picture looked its absolute best during the bulk of the video.
Anyway, I still think it looks and sounds great.
The song is a good choice for the anime and
this relationship in particular, I think. An alternative romance video
that fits the offbeat mood of the anime. I love the bass. Yeah, of all
of the short songs I had for making a mini-video this was definitely
the best choice I could have made. It's different, so I like it ^_^
As for the smaller details, I think the
element I was most pleased with was the walking in the corridor scene.
I just love the mood of that shot and I think the flashing images I
chose for that section ended up working really well.
Right, in the tradition of all my opinions,
the bulk of the review is going to be in the "bad" section where I will
go through the video scene by scene and talk about both the good and
bad bits in the video.
|
|
|
Bad
|
|
First of all, the superficial stuff. The
song: Doll by the Foo Fighters. It's a great little song and it was
really the only choice I had available for a short video. All the other
short songs I had were really not suitable for an amv which could
contain all of the elements of normal amvs. However, I have used the
Foo Fighters before in my Kare Kano video so I don't really win any
points for originality there. I mean, I've now done the first two
tracks from The Color and the Shape and both of them are to Gainax
anime. I need to change the record, I think.
Anyway, into the video. The aged-film
opening. It kinda works. I think the blue tint was a good idea because
of the effect in the song but maybe the scratches weren't that good an
idea. I think maybe a simple noise filter would have been better here
but I had to put something here for two reasons: 1) I needed to show
how to use effects for the panel and 2) The lipsynching looks like
crap. The original shot is moving to there is a tiny jerk in the
lipsynch frames which isn't noticeable when the effect is put on. Lucky
^_^
"All of the time that we shared" - I like
the scene with the bike but it does come in quite suddenly. I guess it
fits the way the song comes in. I was tempted to make this black and
white but I don't think it would have added anything. I tried it and it
just made it difficult to distinguish the different layers of the
footage and I wanted to keep Naota's smile in there (which happens
nicely on the guitar strum). Then in comes haruko. I don't like her
flapping mouth but I had to choose between having a still shot without
her talking or to use the original scene which panned across in a
really nice way. I chose the panning and I think it was the right
choice but I wish Haruko wasn't talking there. This fade has been
criticised for not going anywhere but it's there for narrative and to
make character associations with the lyrics and I think it works for
that.
0:23 - the photos. I think they work on
"doll me up in my bad luck" but because the effect was made by slowing
down the original movie the flash of the camera now happens a little
bit too slow I think. It's still pretty good. The timing choice was
difficult - whether to time on the lyrics or the guitar. I chose the
guitar but I think people may not pick up on that and think it's
slightly poorly timed as they are expecting it to match the vocals.
"I'll meet you there" - I love that shot.
0:32 - Mabase. Each image on a beat. It
worked pretty well but there is one thing that seriously niggles me
about this sequence - the image of the dented bridge. See, it's an
upward looking angle whereas all the other shots are eith down or
level. As a result this one still looks a little out of place and I
should have replaced it with something else.
0:35 - I like the way the images have
blended here. I have an outside shot of the school from ep 1 mixed with
the image of naota walking past the windows from ep 6 which ties the
shots together so you can see both outside and a close-up of what's
going on in the corridor. It then fades into the moody shot of Naota
slowly walking down the corridor which is probably my fave shot in the
vid.
"I wish I never had taken this dare" I
think the images I used here worked really well with the bassline. I
especially like the image of them on the bed at 0:43 which lasts much
longer than in the anime and so looks really serious where it's comic
originally. "I wasn't quite prepared" I like the way I've got naota to
slump on the bed on the drum beat but unfortunately the flashing images
I chose here, although good in their context, don't really work as well
visually. I like the last one (of the feet) as I managed to play around
with the speed to it matched the clever bass.
"Doll me up in..." the lip synch is ok but
noting special. Again it suffers from the 'originally moving image' bug
which is why Haruko is layered there as a distraction. If I didn't have
to demonstrate lip-synching for the panel I don't think it would be
there. 0:57 "my bad luck" and the slapped hand. It's not timed
correctly. I like the idea but unfortunately I missed the beat and the
slap happens too early. I had a problem with this clip because it is
really really momentary in the anime so it was difficult to get right
because the scene cut away instantly after the slap in the original. I
like the mini-story I've done here where I've skipped to his running
away scene from ep 1 and I think the running image works really well
with the drums.
1:00 - "ooooh ooooh...." I don't care what
people think about forced zooms, I like them. I was pleased with this
shot. The slowly falling debris and the gorgeous colours worked really
well with the ambience of the music. The forced zoom with motion
settings is obvious but I like it anyway.
1:08... this scene is really messed up. I
did the lip synch and that was fine but I wanted a small zoom on it so
I made a "virtual clip" in Premiere. Unfortunately it didn't keep my
opacity settings so the image doesn't fade in - it just cuts in at both
the start and end of this scene. It looks horrid and I really should
have fixed that. "my bad luck" - the lipsynch is average but because of
the lipsynch it meant I put an overlay of embarrassed Naota in there
and that worked out really well. I like the way I timed him turning
away shyly fade out on his magical appearence in the next scene. I
think that came out much better than I could have planned, so my
bad-lipsynch disguise actually was a real benefit here.
End of video, fade to black. Yeah, that was
alright for an afternoon's work.
|
|
|
General
|
|
This is where I quickly justify the
points I've given and then talk about the video as a whole.
Orig.: 8 - but only for the fact that it's
a video made for deconstruction at a panel and I don't know of any
other vids that have done this. If I'd made this video for any other
reason it would be a 6 ot 7 as character priles are pretty commonplace.
Capture:9 Sound:9 as good as I can get with
compression and without any special effort which is what I leave 10s
for.
Action 8: I think that everything is timed
really well with the few exceptions being the hand slap which is a bit
off. Nothing stunning, but it's not really a heavy action-sync sort of
video.
Lip: 7 not bad for a first lipsynch effort,
I think, but not great either. It works in parts and not in others. I
think it's as good as most lipsynching though and it doesnt look too
out of place in this video which was my initial worry.
Effects: Despite me having an effects box,
I don't think there are enough here to make a valid judgement. I just
gave other people the option because some have a different opinion of
what an effect is. To me the only "effect" is the aged-film at the
beginning which isn't worth a score.
Effort: Well, I could have gone back and
fixed those problems but I'd given myself a very specific amount of
time to make this video - an afternoon. Because of that, I think the
effort is pretty deserving as that afternoon included all the DVD
ripping and so on. I can't get a 9 or 10 on this because there are
things I could fix but generally I think the effort is deserving of an
8 considering the short amout of time I had for making the vid.
Re-view: 7 it's rewatchable, and I do watch
it fairly often myself but it's not the kind of video you think "yeah,
I really want to watch that vid again" so 7.
Overall: Well, this is a feeling score and
I think that this is an 8 video. It's nothing special but it's not bad
either. It's quite an endearing video and considering it manages to
stand on it's own two feet with so many specifications forced on it for
the panel I think it's come out pretty well.
Well, I think that's about all I can say
for this video. I enjoyed making it, even though it would never have
been made if it wasn't for the convention. I think FLCL videos are
going to get seriously popular once the US dvds are out so I'm glad I
did one with my R2 dvds before the flood. I'd like to think that this
video will stand out as being a little different but it's nothing
special or groundbreaking. I like this vid but it's not going to make
me famous ^_^
I should really stop doing Foo Fighters
songs though ^_^
|
|
|
|
Once again, in this review, the creator did not give
himself all 9's and 10's. He wasn't as harsh on himself as Aokakesu,
but he admits that his video is not perfect. He explains why he made
the video, and what its original intent was for. He goes through every
practically every detail in his video, explaining what he thought about
it, how he liked it, and giving the timeframe that it appears in the
video. Finally he reflects on the review in the General section and
explains why he scored his video the way that he did.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Index
|