2) The video will not have a currently active announcement thread.
3) The thread creator should post their thoughts on the video to initiate discussion.
4) The thread will start with a copy and paste of these 4 rules.
I've been keeping my eyes peeled for a while for a situation like this to pop up, where we have a brand spankin' new user on-site (more or less), and they do something like post their first journal so that I know they are active. I'm doing this because I remember being that young, enthusiastic editor, and I remember how much it sucked being totally brushed off when I really just wanted to make friends here. This one has a lot of promise, and I would love to see her(?) welcomed - like I know we can - so that (s)he doesn't become the jaded, bitter member that half of us did. Since I know someone will purposely misinterpret this just to be an asshole, please note that I am not asking for the member to be praised up and down. The video in the review has flaws, but this is an exercise in constructive criticism.
Let's do this shit right, .org-ers.
For this video, I loved the flow. It fit the pop style of the music well by keeping the pace and energy high. I also enjoy how the manga images transition well between the game footage, by moving from one scene in one medium to the same scene in the other. Furthermore, even though the Sora/Kairi relationship is a big motivating factor in the games, it is weird how little footage actually exists for them. Therefore, making a coherent, full length video for them was an accomplishment in itself. At times, I feel like the lyric sync is very good (like with the dancing section, for example), but the majority of the video feels like a general montage. This works against the video on one hand, because it takes away from any driving story, but on the other hand, it lends to the dreamlike quality that the song is all about. The opening and ending transitions are quite cute, what with Namine seeming to tell the whole story in her sketches.
Possible improvements?
One, just bumping the resolution of the whole thing down a bit would help out the video quality. I don't think that any of the footage is actually natively at that scale.
Two, the color effect that sweeps over the whole video could be reduced just to the scenes using manga. The game footage is fine without it, but it does give some visual interest to the plain black and white and makes it blend more with the video as a whole.
Three, just like how subtitles in anime are distracting, I would suggest removing the text from the manga, too, except if there was a case when (s)he wanted to draw particular attention to a line or something.
Four, although the quick scene changes were good for the song style, combining that with lots of manga overlays and the color effects made for a jumble of scenes at times. It's tough to follow when three things are going on onscreen at the same time, and tougher yet when they all overlap.
Five, just on a technical note, 132 MB for a three-and-a-half minute video is overkilling it a little. Bringing down the resolution would help this, of course. (S)he has it in a good format, but I'm wondering if there are other methods (s)he can employ here.
Overall, I found this to be very cute and fun. I appreciated the use of the manga with the games, since it brings uniqueness to a series of games that are flooded by carbon copy AMVs/VGMVs.
- Jen
The comments made seemed more that they should be directed to the editor rather than an audience.
