Fiends & Friends

[nethernode]

Right, eh... This 'ere is my first-ever AMV, so there's not much of a concept or anything - just a mere three minutes or so of experimenting & getting-the-hang-of-things using crappy-but-easy-to-sync-to nu metal with some Hellsing on top.

Actually--come to think of it--there might be a slight element of conceptual presence [Wait, hang on - SPOILER ALERT!! Hehe...]: vampire does some pistol-prep; viewer gets glimpse of enemies; vampire comes out to play; vampire shoots; people go crazy; enemies shoot; people go "wtf, he's not dying"; boss level; white light; unimpressed, de-faced lady-girl says a bad word. Kinda follows an old-school horror movie formula in some strange way.

On the technical side, even though I learned quite a lot, there are still many aspects of editing that make me go "...what???", und I'm sure you'll find countless editing abominations in this video.

Nevertheless, making this video was the most fun I've had in years [especially the gunshot-snare drum syncing]. It started out by watching a FLCL-System of a Down AMV and thinking: "Oi!, this looks like an advanced time-killing technique that could make those damn expensive Hellsing DVDs I bought last month serve more than just entertaining me for a few weeks." and turned out to be a rather pleasant minor conquest. I googled, I studied, I created... Und after all that I must say that I like the results.

BUT! that's just me... Comments & Criticism--for better or worse--would be appreciated - especially regarding technical whoopses & blehs [you can't paint that masterpiece if you don't know your brushes and paints].

Hope you enjoy!

[CodeZTM]

Adorable banner.... /must ghet & will review later

[nethernode]

Thanks! I have to admit, I've never seen anyone pulling out more stylish poses with pistols than Alucard. (Bang-bang! Two shots into the ground - like a trigger-happy palaeontologist... with style. Hehe...)

Anyhow, I'll be awaiting your review in all different shades of eagerness.

[CodeZTM]

Welp, let me get started and say you did a GREAT job with the visual quality. Most first AMv's miss the mark on that one, but your video was really pretty to look at, which is an accomplishment in and of itself.

Next, you had some nice sync here and there. I liked how the beginning chorus had the hard drum beats synced to the gunplay. That was a nice touch.

Now, you admitted that that this was more or less an experimental AMV to get some basic aspects of sync. For an experiment, I've seen far worse done before, and I'm glad you're testing things out. The only way to learn about this hobby is to EDIT EDIT EDIT and watch other people's videos to see how they're doing it.

I think the biggest thing about it was the scene selection. The video is classified under "action" and "horror", yet some of the scenes didn't really fit either of those profiles. A lot of them seemed out of place and could have been substituted with a battle scene or something to keep the pace moving. Stationary images like still faces kind of break the flow of the AMV and the viewer's enjoyment of the action. :57-1:16 is kind of what I'm talking about here. The scenes here really didn't move together in a set manner or flow into each other.

Next up is sync. Like I mentioned earlier, you did a great job syncing the hard drum beats to the gun shots, but the video lacked a really consistent stream of that, especially right towards the end with the fades. Most action videos rely on beat sync [and which you also seemed to use mostly], but you also missed some of the faster drum beats or key drum sections. While you don't have to hit EVERY drum beat, having a consistent sync throughout the video makes it more appealing [but I'm also speaking in generalities here]. Here's a video with a great example of what I'm talking about.

Finally, this isn't anything that's inherently your fault, but certain videos have been made 120 million times over the past 10 or so years. Hellsing action/horror videos are in this category, but don't let that dissuade you from making them, but be aware that it's been done, and some creativity in concept/execution is never a bad thing to add. As for the concept, most action videos lack clear concepts, so I'm not going to be overly critical about this, but having a concept/theme in mind before editing is usually a nice thing to have to design your videos around. It adds a nice dimension to videos and makes them more enjoyable to watch.

Final Words: For a first video, this shows a lot of promise. You seem to know your ways around visual quality and have some nice grasps of basic types of sync. With a little more fine tuning, I can definitely see some great AMV's get edited by you. Here's a great thread to check out and learn some nice techniques around different genres of editing.

I look forward to seeing more from ya!

[CayenneFashionista]

nice credits.

Just to offer a slight counterpoint to what Code said,
I think that the more static scenes you included were interesting in that they varied the pacing of the video. It seemed like you switched between generally static and more dynamic imagery in relation to the chorus/verse structure of the song, which is important.
So it's possible that you can continue refining what you've started in terms of the sync style, and end up with something good.

basically,
Just because maybe this incarnation of your sync style doesn't come together perfectly, you shouldn't abandon it completely for more conventional amv action sync. Because you could have something worthwhile there.

Then again, maybe not,
but you may as well try and see if you can develop something unique.

[nethernode]

Thanks for the great feedback!! Especially regarding the beat syncing... Guess what I aimed at by varying the tempo of the visual part of the vid when it came to choruses (movement) vs. verses (static imagery), was to avoid creating a too monotonous & predictable feel in the end: BANG! ‘Kay, 3, 2, 1... BANG! Next one... two three BANG! etc. etc. etc. BANG! (Then again, nu metal guitar riffs actually tend to be that way... so maybe it would’ve been an interesting option)

I’m busy working on an Elfen Lied AMV at the moment... and the first attempt completely died halfway through because of the exact same variation between action scenes and non-action scenes. It tends to have a Naruto-like "oh-crap-here-we-go-into-the-sorrowful-past-of-some-poor-unfortunate-soul-again" result instead of the up-down roller coaster ride I'm aiming for. But I really want to work at it, because--like CayenneFashionista mentioned--I also think it has the potential of becoming something great in the end. All I need is to EDIT EDIT EDIT! Hehe...

Anyhow, CodeZTM, I’m getting that consistent sync video at the moment, and will be studying that genre thread tonight. One more play-around AMV(this time with a concept): then I plan on taking out some seriously big guns and doing some seriously evil editing. -schneaky grin-

Thanks again!