A Life of Oblivion (ef ~a tale of memories~)

[peppy_heppy]

Youtube link - REVISED VERSION + HIGHER QUALITY!

My fourth AMV so far. It's my interpretation of Chihiro's life and her relationship with Renji. Any comments are greatly appreciated, I'd be happy if you share ideas for improvement.

The song used also has a version in Russian called "Obezyanka Nol".

[Ijexis]

I remember you. I'm curious about this one, so I'll be leaving this post here as a reminder for myself to get it after I've slept.

[TEKnician]

Oh, boy... what to say...

I think you still have a lot of work to do

A few things I gotta point out: 1) Some scenes lasted too long. The clips themselves were okay, but they need to be trimmed down. 2) The placement of a few of the clips would've made a bigger impact if synced with a beat. Some started in the middle of the lyric and didn't have much of a build-up. 3) Your "bump" effect you placed over chihiro during the first half was slow and felt like you were just trying to zoom in. 4) The inadvertent cut between color and grayscale was...unnecessary? 5) The glowing transition looked broken (as in the first clip cut to black and the second clip fades in. I dunno, maybe I should take another look.

Now I can see that the mood of the song was sad and had a feeling of loneliness (which Chihiro plays the part perfectly) but the way she was portrayed in this story just felt like a montage of emo scenes.

I would like to offer assistance with your future AMVs should you have a question or two or would like someone to Beta-test your videos!

Just keep at it and you'll get better. Remember, we're all here to help whenever you need it. Cheers, mate!

[Ijexis]

Okay, I got around to watching it. Once again, I will say that I like your sense of atmosphere, it's just that there's a bit in your style of execution that requires a bit of refining. I liked the video and enjoyed watching it but there are some things that just felt a bit off.
1- At the beginning where the the clips "bump" to the beat, those felt unnecessary and off, just more so distracting than anything.
2- When it randomly switches to grayscale, that was a bit jarring and did not quite fit.

I'll more than likely leave an opinion detailing more, once again though, I like your sense of atmosphere and it does show that you have potential. I will be keeping an eye on your further works.

[peppy_heppy]

Thank you both a lot for the feedback! I really appreciate it, since I'm still a noob and have a lot to learn... And about the technical details:

Your "bump" effect you placed over chihiro during the first half was slow and felt like you were just trying to zoom in.

At the beginning where the the clips "bump" to the beat, those felt unnecessary and off, just more so distracting than anything.

Well, what I intended was to simulate a heartbeat effect (the scene when they meet for the first time), but I will take your advice into account; maybe I should use some other effect to go with the beat.

The inadvertent cut between color and grayscale was...unnecessary?

When it randomly switches to grayscale, that was a bit jarring and did not quite fit.

I used this effect to paralell certain echoing phrases and to emphasize on the feeling of emptiness like Chihiro's life is all black and white and a bit of color in-between. However, maybe you're right it was a bit off and perphaps instead I could use fast flashes of other scenes to go with the echos.

The glowing transition looked broken (as in the first clip cut to black and the second clip fades in.

Yeah, I noticed it too, albeit a bit late. That has happened after encoding, I suppose, because when I view the video in the editing program the transitions look just fine (without the quick blackouts or fast switches at the end). Actually, this time I had quite a bit of a problem with encoding! I tried numerous file formats and there was always some defect in the end-video: wheter glithes or just it played fine to a point and then the picture freezed and stood static. In the end two or three formats worked fine and I encoded it in .mov to retain some quality, if possible, and then compressed it to an .mp4 file.

...the way she was portrayed in this story just felt like a montage of emo scenes.

Umm, that's my interpretation; not everyone may see things this way, although I did try to interpret the song as well as possible in the context of this story.

I would like to offer assistance with your future AMVs should you have a question or two or would like someone to Beta-test your videos!

Oh, you could do that? I would be immensely thankful ~

Thank you both TEKnician and Ijexis for the recommendations, support and friendliness! Next I plan on making a compilation AMV. I'll see how it goes.

[Ijexis]

Well, what I intended was to simulate a heartbeat effect (the scene when they meet for the first time), but I will take your advice into account; maybe I should use some other effect to go with the beat.

Going to have to make this a bit quick since a bit busy. I can understand that but it's not always necessary to go with the beat if the imagery works fine and your imagery was working well enough. For the heartbeat you could have had an image overlay the current clips on the heartbeat and then slowly fade or had the beginning start off that way, each individual clip quickly flashing in and slowly fading out on but just working off memory here, so not sure how effective that would be. Just a thought though.

I used this effect to paralell certain echoing phrases and to emphasize on the feeling of emptiness like Chihiro's life is all black and white and a bit of color in-between. However, maybe you're right it was a bit off and perphaps instead I could use fast flashes of other scenes to go with the echos.

Then i would have recommended longer sections of grayscale, where certain scenes reflected upon those feelings of emptiness and then you could intersperse with sections of color, where she's not feeling as empty. Doing it quickly like that over an entire section of clips, it kind of lost the meaning of why you were doing that effect.

Thank you both TEKnician and Ijexis for the recommendations, support and friendliness! Quoted Image converted to link:
http://www.cute-factor.com/images/smilies/onion/875328cc.gif Next I plan on making a compilation AMV. I'll see how it goes.

You're welcome, and as I've said, I do like your sense of atmosphere and feel that you're on the path of truly making something that will just wow me one day. I'll be looking forward to that day.