by Gaelstrom » Mon May 31, 2010 1:46 am
Sorry for length guys! First off, I absolutely love the new additions! The Coffee commercial was a class act. Absolutely drips of perfection for the source, and so well done with some great scene choices and cutting. Absolutely wonderful addition. Same with that Pokemon Money clip, moonbunnychan, great choice! The other adjustments were great as well.
Deuce, I think putting the Gurren Rock clip up front was the right decision. It is a very good clip, and I was on the fence with it, but putting it up front when everyone's got full strength is the right thing to do. The whole clip works there, great choice.
Commander in Heat just gets funnier and funnier, same with Family Guy/Death Note. That clip needs some kind of epic name. I also like most of the mixing choices of the longer and shorter clips.
Anyway, on to the suggestions:
General something: I noticed the clips had some very odd scaling going on. For example my Genshiken and Haruhi clips felt really confining because they were scaled up. Not sure if that was an accident but could you check for what's causing that? Also there's that Cowboy Bebop clip that was strangely scaled compared to the rest.
AMVS4 Logo on Sony POS: If everyone thought it worked, I'll add it into my final render when I finish the recheck of the Lucky Channel logo. Also, Deuce, are you going to send a better version to Otakon? It looks like you're rendering at 24 FPS rather than 29.97 or 30, because the animation looks really choppy in the intro logo.
Credits at beginning: Unfortunately I think it kills the setup completely. It also changes the entire layout of the salad compared to the previous ones. I felt the Sony POS clip worked to bring everyone into a general state of parody, but then the credits killed the setup. Besides being dead space at the beginning, it also leaves people bored during the credits with a black screen and scrolling words. I'm just gonna say succinctly that it was a worthwhile experiment but a complete failure and I'd strongly suggest reverting to the original credit layout. As for Deuce Loosely Production, if you wanted to keep that, you could put that over the black screen of the AMVS4 logo with the Space Odyssey tone going for a few seconds with a dramatic fade in and fade out.
Rubber Ducky: You mentioned this one in your notes, so I'll assume that means you chose this much longer version accidentally. Definitely way too long. One thing though I noticed is this one is quite slow and calming. I'd almost go so far as to say put it right after Gurren Rock, and get 2 or even 3 longer ones in off the bat so this one doesn't calm everyone down too much.
Money Running Gag: Think you may have put them all a bit too late to be considered a running gag. They felt like they were all in the second half. I believe moonbunnychan mentioned somewhere that the princess tutu one may land better first since nobody is expecting it, and I'm inclined to agree. In general though, I'd suggest making the 4 equal distance throughout the whole thing.
Captain Planet: Length = awesome. Ending = not. I'll have to stick with my original thought here. Trying to insert a completely unrelated and unnecessary joke from strongbad is superfluous here and actually distracts. The monitor around it draws the audience out of the actual thing for a moment to collect their bearings. Also the thing's hilarious enough on its own with just cutting after "...I am CAPTAIN PLANET!-*test pattern*". I swear, it doesn't need to be more than that. Its simplicity was what made it epic.
New Case Closed: I've never seen Psych, so it took me twice watching the clip to catch the reference. This clip was very nicely cut, and whoever did it did a great job. The music is catchy and upbeat and the visual source has a lot of movement. I'd just strongly suggest making sure that 'Psych' is somehow referenced in the ending title screen. I have never even seen an episode, but I know what the show's like because of what trailers and commercials I have seen, so I think this can expand to even audience members who haven't seen it with just a nod to the source.
Birdman/Haruhi: What was mentioned before about this has been proven to me with this test. I agree, I think the Haruhi/Birdman clip should be the last clip, because even I had to take a moment to catch what was happening, and I made the damn things ^^ Honestly Deuce, I'd rather the ending clip were in the midst of the credits, but not too far in. Seeing this version helped me realize that it will work, I'm sure of it. You said before you're ready to trust me in what I send in. I was wrong before about how far apart the clips could be, but please trust me that that clip will be strongest cutting in about 15-20 seconds into the credits. I'll even do a test for you and post it so people can tell me if they think I'm wrong if you'd like.
Pedobear: I admit I like how you did this. Hate the fading of course, and the music starts too soon, but it was creatively done. My honest thought is that I'd rather the Haruhi clip were in its rightful place and this one were used to help breaking up the longer clips in the actual main production. I'd say if nothing else put this at the very end, full screen, as the last thing the audience sees, since we seem to be lacking an "end" clip. But this year we really have an overabundance of longer clips that really need the assistance.
Ace of Cakes, Hallmark and Baywatch: Ace of Cakes for some reason I loved it near the front in the earlier version. Couldn't tell you why, I just did. I can't give a better reason than that, but I'd love to see it closer to the beginning. Baywatch and Hallmark I still strongly believe need to get consolidated a bit, but for Hallmark, I would suggest moving it forward more as well. Something about it feels pretty good for a center-of-the-production clip. Feels like it and Brady Bunch would fit well near to one another.
Commander in Heat: Since this one and Family Guy/Death Note are probably in the top strongest clips in the whole thing, I'd suggest moving Commander in Heat more toward the end. Like if Sony POS starts it off, Death Guy Family Note would be great at 1/3rd through, Commander in Heat great for 2/3rds through. Almost like bridge supports.
Small clips: Small but hilarious clips should probably be given special placement. Like I honestly think the Naruto Firefly clip will cause people to laugh through half of my One Piece one currently ^^ I'm wary of this because with AMVS3, when "Yikes and away" was right before Beck "Didn't learn any songs" the audience nearly laughed through the entire clip, and the Beck one kept them laughing nearly halfway through the "FUCKING JUMP!" clip. It was actually scary how well it ended up working, because as soon as they calmed down, they lost it again. So it worked beautifully, but it made me remember to be cautious of such things. If we could pull that type of timing off again as a finale? Hoh boy that would be awesome!
Upbeat longer clips closer to end: It's generally already like this, but it may be worthwhile to have more of the longer clips that are more upbeat in the second half to keep people aware through their length. Maybe even baywatch.
Sorry for this length again ^^ I'm totally committed to trying to make sure every little thing comes off as strong as it can.