My post
today yesterday for the
"Let's Get Active" campaign in General AMV! Grading Scale under spoiler.
Concept/Originality: Action/adventure MEP themeing around the front lines of battlefields. Some tracks did a better job of highlighting this aspect than others (Samurai Champloo/DTB/Arata Kangatari didn't catpure the spirit as well as the other tracks). So it was as consistent as I would like my MEPs to be. In terms of originailty, it's a pretty often explored theme and this MEP didn't add much to separate it from the pact. That being said, it was still entertaining to see/watch, mostly because the scenes/anime used were actually very underused sources!
[5/10]Editing/Sync: It's hard to really do this in any way other than by track, since the editing is fairly difference per each track so I'll highlight these separately.
General Statement: From a coordinator's perspective, the transitions between the tracks were near non-existent. I feel like either masking, a more clever scene placement or something else could have been used to make the changes between the tracks more effectively. As is, it's mostly just hard cuts, which while not an absolute evil, is fairly bland. Except between Neon Genesis and Guilty Crown. THAT, I really liked and thought was clever.
RahXephon: I felt like it captured the mood of the opening music well. The scenes and music felt like a good fit. That being said, the editing to the lyrics were fairly weak. We've got such fantastic descriptive language here, and it pained me to not see personifactions of each of the characters ("the good" "the evil" etc). When you did manage to do it ("the civilian" "the victim"), it was well accomplished and did a good job. The editing was also fairly sporadic and didn't match up to the beats or didn't seem to have any real solid connection.
Samurai Champloo (1): For the chorus of the song, this is extremely under-paced and not active enough. The scenery (while dramatic), doesn't keep a good connection with the overall feel of the song at this time. Especially for Samurai Champloo, which has some of the most insane sword battles of any anime I've ever seen! The ending bit with all the scenes also felt oddly out of place and transitioned oddly into the next track.
Arata Kangatari: Again, solid mood sync. This anime and this part of the song matched up well. It just didn't match up sync-wise. Felt very random where the cuts were, and wasn't as effective as it could have been. Also, extremely short! Maybe axe this track and fuse it with Fate/Prototype?
Fate/Prototype: A consistent statement, but the mood was well achieved. I think it could have been slowed down a bit during the really epic sword fights to match the slower pace of the music, but it fit well enough. I felt like the cuts/transitions between the characters ("the pariah" "the messiah") could have been better achieved, the hard cuts were shocking when comparing the types of scenes that were being transitioned between.
DTB: Off-pace at times. Like I said earlier, this could have been really a really high-action and high paced piece, but it's just really slow at times! Good mood though, and good scene selection.
Samurai Champloo (2): Another Samurai Champloo? Kind of awkward in the grand scheme of things, but it really hit the lyrics well and greated the dramatic element of this part of the song well.
Neon Genesis: Probably the best track of the MEP, at least in my opinion. Good pacing, good scene selection and captured the mood of the song here extremely well. I loved the clever use of the gunshot sync, and the transition into Guilty Crown was well done and well executed! A little off-beat at times though.
Guilty Crown: A good series to use for the ending! It really has the ability to give closure and the scenes selected really did a solid job of achieving that feeling. The ending was a tad odd and probably only something that fans of guiltry crown would understand, but at least it did bring the MEP and its theme into some closure. Editing was fairly solid, but again, off-beat some of the times. I also think that maybe highlighting more victorious scenes (instead of more fighting/war scenes) would have better served the ending.
[4.5/10]Visuals/Audio: Oh goodness, probably the weakest aspect of the video.

The visuals ranged from a stretched aspect ratio with nice looking quality (RahXePhon), to blocky and blurry (Fate/Prototype), to visually acceptable (Arata), and to watermarked/blurry (guilty crown). In the future, using a consistent quality of video is in your best interests. It's better for the audience and shows more professionalism for the hobby. The anime weren't all cropped properly either, with black bars on the top/sides at time. Still, not the worst quality I've ever seen.
[4/10]Re-View: Well, I had fun watching it tonight. I re-viewed it about 20 or so times, and it maintained entertainment to me during this time, mostly because I liked how you chose some fairly original scenes and captured the concept consistently. Not something I will likely keep, but I did watch it plenty tonight!
5/10Overall: Overall, the video needs more work and more polish, especially in the visuals department. The editing was inconsistent between tracks, and really didn't keep on-beat enough, or keep pacing well. It did, however, keep a consistent concept and mood, which was nice. While an unoriginal concept, some original scenes/anime were used, which I liked! Keep at it though. While it's a rough video, it does show promise!
[4.5/10]