The AWA 2013 Video Review Thread -- Final Voting RIGHT NOW!

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Re: The AWA 2013 Video Review Thread -- Now with nude photos

Postby MycathatesyouAMV » Wed Sep 11, 2013 8:50 pm

Vlad G Pohnert wrote:It good to have some fun here so I all for that, just a bit if a gentle reminder on what the thread is about, so as they say in the movies..."say on target" :wink:

Vlad


On target.
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Re: The AWA 2013 Video Review Thread -- Now with nude photos

Postby Mr Pilkington » Wed Sep 11, 2013 8:55 pm

Vlad G Pohnert wrote:It good to have some fun here so I all for that, just a bit if a gentle reminder on what the thread is about, so as they say in the movies...say "on target" :wink:

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<Orwell> WTF are they doing upstairs. Almost sounds like construction
<[Kristyrat]> Orwell, you see / <[Kristyrat]> when a man really likes a woman / <[Kristyrat]> or has a bottle of chloroform
<inthesto> He takes her stuff / <inthesto> And then poops in her vagina
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Re: The AWA 2013 Video Review Thread -- Now with nude photos

Postby AimoAio » Wed Sep 11, 2013 10:11 pm

Well here's my honest opinion on the videos:

Spoiler :
#2:
Suffers from a couple of mismatched scenes that felt randomly placed and the pacing was incredibly monotonous, it was like each scene was around the same length all meshed together with short crossfades. That being said however, it’s not entirely a bad thing since it gives the AMV a surprisingly fluid flow, just it doesn’t distinguish the difference in the song’s tempo (fast/slow parts), kinda like a merry-go-round instead of a rollercoaster. Anyway the sync and the mood was LOVELY and as a huge Chihayafuru fan, I REALLY REALLY enjoyed the atmosphere of the whole video so it’s pros definitely outweighs the cons (for me), nice job!

#3:
I really did try but I just couldn’t sit through this. XD I’m sorry I have no other comments.

#4:
Felt just like any other generic Toradora romance AMV but with slightly better editing. Your scenes just didn’t really piece out anything clear except there’s a relationship between the two characters so while there’s a concept, it’s not exactly something very interesting. I personally liked the overlays but there were a few sections where I felt you could have did without or had blended them in more subtle/lighter so it’s not so prominent.

#5:
There’s a tonne of lipflap in this which makes it really distracting especially since how it was partially lip synced to the woman...wasn’t really that funny either but concept was ok.

#6:
This felt like it was made by two editors since the first part contained a lot of overlays/noise/film grain effects whereas the second part was more raw and mask/zoom oriented. Not saying it’s a bad thing since it gives the video a more...distinguished feel to each part but that being said, I personally prefer a more consistent effect style throughout. That or you just rushed the ending. :P Anyway the AMV itself was beautifully crafted, I hate messy overlays but this one was elegantly styled and the abstract nature of the anime with all the symbolism gave it a slightly trippy yet ethereal feel which felt really nice. A blend of internal and beat sync along with well chosen effects made this one really shine. Though you should really do something about that bad song cut at the end since the outro feels a bit flat and your concept was pretty subtle (by that I mean, hard to get) and non-Penguindrum viewers will most likely be super confused. Bit more polish and this could easily be my new favourite Penguindrum video. <3 Definitely one of the best in the contest for me, I really enjoyed it. Well done.

#7:
Pretty plain and pacing was slow for the faster/upbeat parts of the song. It’s like there’s some trade-off between consistency and pacing these days, it’s consistent but the pacing just doesn’t match with the song so it felt very very long...but hey, it was kinda cute and I liked the ending.

#8:
Uncropped scenes....D: WHY??? Concept wasn’t very clear but I’m guessing it’s something along the lines of time and guessing from your title it’s to do with running out of time in which case the running scenes do make a little more sense. The mood was pretty awkward though, at times the scene was so serious and dark that it didn’t fit with the song at all and instead of being something upbeat/funny it ended up coming off as weird.

#9:
Dang, this was really well edited! Good font choices and pretty decent lip sync. The mood did feel kinda awkward in parts though, like DRRR feels a tad too serious at times for it to work as comedy except with Kida and Shizuo since they have a lot of expressions to work with (though Shizuo’s is mostly being angry). And Celty missing a head doesn’t help. Also 1:29 with the girl (I forgot her name) just felt stale. I think what you needed was a better source for this audio track. Anyway as someone who often replies to messages late, this actually made me feel a bit bad. Actually I better go reply to those messages like now. XD

#10:
This one was pretty long but at least it was decently edited. I did feel the pacing was too consistent to the point where the pacing felt exactly the same throughout (until the quicker part near the end). I do like how you used some uncommon scenes for this anime because I’ve seen so many videos with this source but never understood the story once. Well at least this one intrigued me slightly more in checking out the source.

#11:
Title reminds me of Pink Haze’s “Trial by Drowning” which had some of the best overlay composition work I’ve ever seen. And I can see some resemblance here though not as sophistically integrated. There’s some really nice transitions in this and I actually liked quite a lot of those overlays though the video gets really chaotic at a few parts and everything’s just so fast I’m like “wait whaaaaat wait for meeee D:” which made it hard to focus on what’s really going on. Though well with a song like that, I can’t imagine anything BUT a fast video, just I wish there were less manual zooms since the footage itself has plenty of motion already. Nonetheless, it was pretty well edited and enjoyable to watch. Good work.

#12:
Way too long and some scenes really dragged on. Mood and storytelling was pretty good though and the AMV would have been pretty awesome if it had more polish.

#13:
I have a feeling you did some repainting in this (especially in the OP) since there’s a few dodgy artifacts you left behind (but don’t worry they’re not that noticeable). Lip sync was pretty stale and weak and parts of the AMV look rushed but the text was stylish and integrated well overall. The masks/colours and effects all fit well together too and the song is catchy, nice, I quite liked this one!

#14:
I can’t find any particular faults with this because I don’t know what it’s supposed to show. It’s mainly just uninteresting.

#15:
Concept got old fast and editing was really bland. Source quality was also pretty questionable at times (namely the uncropped borders and some aliasing). Sorry, it was mostly just uninteresting.

#16:
Pretty nice. Some sync/cuts felt a little off so the flow isn’t very apparent, this issue is more noticeable in the Natsume part, the Dusk Maiden section was actually handled pretty well. I also liked the mood of the video. It’s not really a horror/creepy video because the song’s a little too upbeat for that but it still managed to send a chill down my spine. (I didn’t know Dusk Maiden was THAT creepy, maybe I will watch it afterall xD) I don’t really get the correlation between the two sources though, it’s like you just randomly decided to switch animes midway for no reason but it’s a minor issue since the rest was decent and enjoyable.

#17:
Was pretty funny and lip sync was very well done. I have a suspicious feeling some of the font choices and text effects were deliberately done horribly to match the type of advert it was parodying but I still feel obligated to mention that the glows and shadow effects look ugly. XD

#18:
Lip sync started to get weak after a while and was I the only one who thought it was terribly slow at times? :\ Especially since the song is kinda upbeat. I felt like the concept had a lot of potential to be good though but the editing seemed kinda rushed.

#19:
Well that was an interesting story, though it was a bit short (the jist is, he was tricked). But nice mood/atmosphere shows your song/source combo worked out well together.

#20:
I felt like this could have been really cute with a different song, Sukitte is so drama-oriented, it just doesn’t fit the mood very well. There are also some serious pacing issues and I felt like all the cuts and fades were in the wrong places so the flow felt extremely broken.

#21:
Awesome! I really liked this one especially the sync. I also liked how well the effects blended in together with the footage and added just that tiny bit more to your already superb sync to just make it that more awesome. Only gripes I have is there’s a bit too much camera shaking/panning at some points which you could have did without so the video would look less crazy and more cleaner and some scenes felt a little too fast/sped up, but otherwise, good job! :up:

#22:
Christ that aliasing. >__> I also didn’t really get why you used so many sources unless your common link was just the music theme in each of the animes (which makes Princess Jellyfish the odd one out) but that feels very loose. Could have probably been a pretty good AMV if you had stuck with just Sakamichi on its own since the mood was pretty decent.

#30:
Pretty average with border issues (CROPPPPPP!) Editing was decent but it wasn’t very entertaining unfortunately.

#33:
This one felt like it was made by the same editor as #20 but the song/source combo was actually sweet and would have worked pretty well. Sadly the editing isn’t quite up to par. It’s the exact same problem as #20, I felt like the cuts and fades were in the wrong places and the video didn’t flow smoothly. I also didn’t like those effects used since they looked kinda ugly and there wasn’t much point to them.

#39:
It was okay, some scenes looked a little off coloured but overall, it wasn’t particularly interesting or engaging. Just…ok. Also your intro was really fast and didn’t match with the pacing of the song.

#44:
Those borders! I don’t understandddddd! D: As for the video itself, it’s not my type and neither have I seen the show so I don’t think I have anything constructive to say.

#46:
That was surprisingly good! Editing was decent for the most part and the source was interesting enough to keep me watching even if I wasn’t a huge fan of the instrumental (just didn’t really get into it). The flash at 1:59 looked a tiny tad dodgy though since the scene itself was quite dull and dark.

#48:
One of the nicer romance videos I’ve seen where the progression in relationship is slightly more obvious. Editing was quite flat though and I wish you had hit the quicker beats for a change in pacing so it didn’t feel so boring. But it was a sweet video overall.

#50:
Haha well that one certainly worked well together.

#51:
I said to myself to watch this movie after last year’s pro videos and I still haven’t. Anyway it was generally nicely edited but lacked a little more sync for such an action heavy song but overall, enjoyable. Probably like the first HTTYD video where I actually learned more than just the boy finding a dragon and helping it fly.

#68:
Ellie <3 this was pretty sweet and the mood was adorable, though it did feel just like any other average Wolf Children AMV. Also I felt a few cuts/fades kinda broke your flow a little but overall it was good.

#70:
Some pretty interesting scenes in there that were different from the usual I’ve seen in FLCL and believe me, I’ve had absolutely zero interest in watching this show but this did pique my curiosity a little. Editing was a bit flat so it wasn’t very engaging for the most part but not bad overall.

#71:
Good theme with the song/source combo but pacing was terribly slow and lacked the sync necessary to make an impact with this song. The lyric sync was decent but I felt like you could have done more with this song.

#72/73:
I don’t think clothes rip that easily. XD

#74:
It’s really hard to take this video seriously (or maybe we weren’t supposed to?) since the song and source combo were so mismatched. It’s just so awkward, like I didn’t know if I was supposed to laugh at certain parts or not because the scene felt comedic but the song was so serious. The editing was decent though and I did like the part where the skies turned dark at around 0:28 though if that’s any consolation. :P

#75:
Very intense mood and interesting scene selection made it more intriguing than your average EF video. That being said, your scenes really lacked consistency. The same bit of information is constantly being dished out at different intervals in the video and it’s like I get the point already so just move on to something else before it gets boring. Still, it was pretty well edited overall and I liked it.

#78:
This movie looks really interesting but I’m not 100% sure what it’s really about. The old guy seems like a toymaker/movie director but then there’s this younger guy who seemed to have made a robot that could draw but then he died and left it to the little boy and there’s another guy fiddling about with it. The robot seemed to be bringing out cooler/fresher ideas than the old guy who looks to be...jealous? Yeah I don’t get it but it was cool.

#79:
Oh I know who made this one haha. A lot of improvements since the last beta I saw though I’m still skeptical on some of your scenes because I’m not really sure of what you’re trying to show. The pacing and the sync of the action sequences are a LOT better now but the random (mostly memory) scene beatsyncs in midst of the action are quite awkward and broke the flow you had going. Still, it was pretty good.

#80:
Uncropped sceneeeees! D: Anyway I felt like you had a really cool concept but failed drastically in the execution of said concept. Like at 1:25 where you showed the running and the ball scene in corresponding media which was a nice touch but the manga part stuck out because it was 1) not coloured 2) still motion compared to the animated motion/movement in the other two.
Also when handling manga scans, you’re best doing a pre-clean/level/dusting in photoshop just to get rid of the grey dust/noise/artifacts that’s usually generated when saving as jpeg. When using panels on the edge of the page, you SHOULD draw in the missing borders yourself otherwise it just looks awkward. And if possible, you should zoom in so it’s fullscreen (but without it being too pixelated/blurry) so there’s no huge white spaces around the image.

#90:
Gosh all my feels. T__T I’ve seen more than enough Clannad videos but well edited ones like these still manage to get me all sad and teary. Some of your panning was quite heavy and felt distracting after a while and also, I wasn’t sure what you were doing by showing Nagisa being alive at 2:37 enjoying their family moments together and then showing her die at 3:21 with flood of memory scenes afterwards. It definitely gives the video a lot of emotion but would make it extremely confusing for someone who hasn’t seen the anime. Even I was confused and I’ve seen the entire show. But still, THE FEELS. T__T

#95:
Sorry, it was just really boring.

#97:
This had potential to become great but sadly fell short. For a start, it was a mix of comedy and horror because they looked too happy in some of those scenes so overall I ended up laughing at the absurdly mismatched scenes instead of being scared like I should have been. And did you just pick the granny to be their new foster-mother??? XD Also the uncropped borders looked ugly, ugh.

#98:
Forget the editing, the quality was so terrible I couldn’t even get past 30 seconds. I don’t know why you thought it was acceptable to enter an AMV with this video quality into a “professional” contest.

#101:
Good editing and great atmosphere but the source doesn’t really fit the song so it didn’t exactly stand out to me. Also a little confused as to what happened in terms of storytelling.

#102:
Ending was pretty abrupt and the beginning of the AMV felt a little broken, at times it felt like you cut the scene too early so I wasn’t sure what you were trying to show. Once the faster part kicked in though, it got pretty interesting. Nice.

#105:
I’m not overly fond of the fact it was just a condensed version of the 26 episode anime into 4 minutes because it’s an anime with a difficult story to compress. That being said, other than that I don’t exactly know any other way of editing this show either so I won’t chastise you so much about it. XD Hmm...couple of pacing/flow issues where broken flow led to a weird change in pacing. Also wasn’t too fond of the mask transitions since they don’t blend or flow very well with the surrounding scenes. Otherwise, not bad.

#109:
Those shakes...>__> And also the video quality...<__< Was pretty average overall with very average editing. Could have been decent if the video quality was at least cleaner.

#110:
Had potential but still looked bad and was boring to watch. Pacing was actually alright but your scene selection needs some serious work, it felt severely random and Titan isn’t exactly a difficult source to piece a simple story out of :\ also how on earth did you manage to make a new HD show look that bad? :|

#113:
The effects gave me chills. But not in a good way. The masks looked super obvious and the particle overlays looked a mess, like they were thrown in just to make it look chaotic but didn’t blend well or highlight anything in particular and coupled with that frame blending gave me eye strain after a while. The sync itself was decent and I think the video would have been somewhat quite good if the editing was cleaner. Madoka has such nice animation and not making the best use of that is well...stupid. :\ And ugh that Bevel effect. WHY? D:

#115:
Another one that had potential but was badly executed. Editing needs some improvement. Horrible font choice and horrible text effects. >__> If you’re going to use voiceovers and add subtitles, at least make them seem more like readable subtitles. Most of your idea was heavily reliant on what was being said and little on your scenes, they almost seem like an accompaniment, randomly selected just to accompany the audio so most of the time they felt kinda pointless and unimportant. Nonetheless, despite all the flaws it was enjoyable which I couldn’t say for many of the videos I’ve watched in the contest so far.

#132:
No idea what happened but that was certainly dramatic. Story wise I mean. Editing wise was pretty average. Audio quality was kinda meh too and BORDERS. D:

#134:
I have zero idea of what you were trying to sync. It feels like lyric sync but then there’s some that look fairly obvious like beat sync but they missed the beats so they’re not really synced either... :| Pacing was all over the place, a complete mess and you cut and crossfaded the clips in the strangest places ever so the flow was non-existent. I just don’t know what the hell you were trying to do with this video. Also horrible banding and watermark being visible the entire time don’t get you any bonus points either.

#135:
I think you entered this into the wrong contest. Oh my god those subtitles and that divx logo.

#136:
Oh god, this hurt my eyes. Why on earth did you switch between first and third person scenes? Actually, why on earth did you even use so many sources? There’s nothing in common to link them together and the sync was pretty bad too. But LOL @ 1:53.

#138:
Are you telling me there’s actually a manga out there about fish?!?! XD Haha this was pretty hilarious! Just some quality issues where too much zoom into the pages led to some pixelation.

#140:
The text was a bad idea and some scenes looked questionable. Otherwise pretty decent.

#163:
Probably one of the craziest list of sources ever, I mean Hellsing and Idolmaster in the same video? There’s like all this blood and violence then suddenly it cuts to brightly dressed girls dancing. O__o Despite that though, it did have a pretty chill upbeat mood which was nice even if it dragged on for too long (I thought it was going to end at 2:18). Also great flow.

#167:
That border at 1:39...D: The flow/pacing just felt awkward in this one, I’m not sure what the problem is exactly but it just didn’t feel right to me. Maybe it was your cuts? Or perhaps the transitions. Otherwise, scene selection was pretty good and the mood was nice. Overall it was decent but nothing that stood out.
General thoughts: Guys, if you don’t know how to handle video quality properly, I don’t think you’re ready for this contest and at least frigging crop your borders off, it’s like 1 line in avisynth or render and ZOOM in on your AMV in your editing program. It’s not difficult.

My favourites that I will rewatch: 2, 6, 13, 21
Also really good, just didn't make the fav list (you were close though :P) : 9, 11, 16, 17, 19, 75, 90, 138

Mind my attention span is pretty horrible so don’t feel too bad if I trashed your video (unless it was about the video quality because you deserve to know and SHOULD feel bad and fix it for next time) since around 80% of the videos in this contest didn’t interest me and I had severe problems trying to get through them all hence the incredibly late comments. Also most comments have been condensed (because for some of these, I could go into PAGES) so if you’d like more feedback or have questions about my comments feel free to drop me a PM after the contest and I’ll try and explain in more detail.
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Re: The AWA 2013 Video Review Thread -- Now with nude photos

Postby irriadin » Wed Sep 11, 2013 10:26 pm

Spoiler :
"G" Rated

2 – Solid sync, great movement. Dem Bezier curves, yum. The song itself is way too sweet for my taste, but this video overall is supa solid. Enjoyable stuff.

4 – Some of the black fades got a little onerous, and the camera motion bobbing was a *bit* excessive. But the internal sync was great, and overall the video was enjoyable.

7 – Very nice mood, even if I felt detached from the video. I'm probably not the right demographic to find this appealing >_>

8 – some odd sync choices at times. It didn't feel right with the rest of the video. Apart from that, it wasn't bad. The mix of anime felt strange too. The art styles felt a bit too different.

13 – Great design work and effects. While the lipsync was a bit off, the rest of the video is very strong and impressive. Maybe a bit of over-reliance on the opening, but I’ve heard that the show is mostly talking heads anyhow. 0:50 omg, so good. One of my favorites in the contest.

14 – uh, it was short and the joke was probably even just starting to get stale by the time the video ended.

48 – miley cyrus. There's not many editors I know that would use her. Well edited video, good pacing and crystal clear storytelling. Not my thing, but good job.

50 – Audio quality is a little iffy. Nice logo at the end, though. And good parody. Probably would have had a greater impact for me if I had watched either show.

51 – Not bad. I felt a bit of a disconnect with the audio and video, though.

68 – Black fades, no stahp. Seriously, not bad video at all. I felt like the scene selection felt a bit strange at times (two wolves beating the crap out of each other to tender, sentimental music, etc.). Overall, though, it was nice enough. I have to watch this movie.

74 – OH Radioactive. Nobody ever uses this song :p Didn't like the slowed down clips. Scene selection felt all over the place. Competent sync at times, but the nature of the scene selection made this impossible for me to get into.

78 – I got excited to see footage from A Trip to the Moon, but I found out that it's actually a part of the other movie being used in this video. Still pretty cool, just not *as* cool. Pacing is even throughout, but I'm not sure what this video was trying to do. Recap the story of the film? If so, it's rather incomprehensible to me. Decent editing.

80 – Didn't like the clipped manga frames, but this was a good idea of attempting to blend three different mediums. The overall impact was not there, but it was an interesting idea. More an experimental piece than a conventional video.

"PG" Rated

16 – Good atmosphere. Zooms are a little jerky. What the heck is up with the black box at 1:34, was that in the actual source? Some of the scenes are too dark. Ending felt a bit abrupt. Good video, overall.

19 – Atmospheric. Editing was simplistic, but effective. The video quality left something to be desired. Sync was ehhhh… there sometimes, and off othertimes.

20 – Some kind of video issue going on here, not sure what it's called. Sync was kinda sloppy.

33 – Editing was sloppy. Black fade / crossfade abuse. The frames floating in black space are too geometric and not very aesthetically pleasing. You gotta blend that stuff, man! Also, when you do a vignette border effect, don't keep switching back and forth between using it and not. It's very jarring to the eye and not pleasant. The ending was nice, but don't cut the song off like that :/

39 – Switching from dark scenes to light and back again took me out of the video a bit. I like the song. 1:04 was the high point, good scene choice.

46 – This movie looks cool. Some of the slowed down clips were jarring to look at considering how fluid the motion is normally. During the slow parts of the song, there's not enough to retain interest. If I ever saw a spaceship that looked like Harlock's, I'd get out of the way ASAP.

89 – Lots of people like this show, apparently. Ok, so using a sepia filter is a way of unifying the visual style of your video, but it's not particularly creative… or incredibly compelling. There's some wonky zooms. Lip-flap is prevalent throughout. The ending was quite abrupt. However, it's clear that despite these issues, there was some thought put into the scene selection.

90 – A pleasant video. Some of the panning was a little annoying in the beginning, but this issue almost disappears as the video goes on. Decent flow, I even like the fake zooms.

95 – Amusing, but not particularly funny. I didn't like how many clips were re-used.

102 – Good pairing. Lots of lip-flap, but it's sorta hard to avoid it with this source. Some clips lingered a bit too long, and the dynamic difference between the slow / fast parts wasn't as great as it could have been. Scene selection got a bit stale near the end.

113 – Some good ideas editing wise, but the execution is sloppy. Motion is going all over the place (zoom in, zoom out, zoom in). Don't just throw some panning on a scene and call it a day. Is that the Ergo Proxy opening being used as an overlay? I feel that this had potential, but didn't quite get there (whether due to lack of experience or some bad effect choices).

163 – Total audio / visual disconnect made this impossible for me to get into, despite the fact that the editing is pretty competent. On one hand, we've got mega-chill mood music. Paired with lots of killing, decapitation, dismemberment, idolmaster dancing, magical girls, etc. Too avant-garde, brah.

167 – It's not perfect, but it's a pleasant video to watch. Great scene selection. Frame clipped at 1:40. The style is a bit unpolished, but the mood is here and I like it.

"PG-13" Rated

6 – Overlay soup near the beginning, but it quickly turns into something much more interesting. Texture filter at 1:02-onwards felt a little too sharp. The mood, though, is impressive. Impactful editing, particularly 1:20-1:57. Past the two minute mark, it's clear the editor either ran out of time or steam. The ending felt abrupt. Still, a great atmospheric piece.

9 - I liked it, but the lip-sync being spread across multiple characters was a little iffy. Audio cut at 1:57? Good video overall.

10 – NO RAINBOW FILTER NO. That might even be in the original source, I dunno. But I don't like it anyhow. Some choppy scenes. Overall scene selection is pretty good. Some missed opportunities for awesomeness (2:13-2:32). Pacing was too even throughout, gotta have some ebb and flow!

11 – There's a GREAT video lurking here. Take out some of the scenes and slow things down a bit, chill out the overlays, more dynamic during the slow parts and you've got a super solid action video.

12 – Good idea, but overplayed. I know firsthand how difficult it is to work with this source, but still, slowing down some of the scenes was not a good idea. I would have liked this video a lot more if it was maybe half the length.

15 – SERIF FONTS, ALL DA SERIF FONTS. *ahem* Ok. Kinda sloppy. Flow was ehhhh. Good choice of sources, though.

18 – Good concept! Execution was pretty good, but I didn't find it particularly funny.

21 – At first, this video made me go all "WHOA OMG WTF THIS SHIT IS AMAZING" I've come back to earth regarding it, but I still think this is the action video to beat in this contest. Great scene selection. Movement is generally good, but definitely goes overboard to the point of almost approaching incomprehensibility. Needs more dynamic, 1:33 was a gimme for something cool to happen but the video kept trucking ahead like normal. Some of the footage is sped up too much. 2:13 scene onwards, the super wide-screen is a cool stylistic choice, but the weak vegas film grain kinda made it less than it could have been. Also didn't like the color correction used in that scene. Overall, though, it's a good video and I enjoyed it. Great source / song synergy.

22 – Wrong aspect ratio. I dunno if this part is in the source or not, but 1:11 is pretty rad, with the overlay. Blended a bit better, that would have been pretty awesome. Slow push animations don't fit well with a video like this, in my opinion. In terms of emotional impact, this video generally does a pretty good job. Not a fan of the push montage. It would work much better if you did that and didn't transition each frame as it's pushed off the screen, and if you put something in the foreground for people to look at while all that pushing is going on.

70 – Good atmosphere. Lots of gears! Some of the pauses in the video felt a bit too pregnant… 1:14-1:17 is almost 3 seconds of black. 2:00 is obviously chroma keyed. Would have looked much cooler as an out-and-out mask. Still, I liked it.

71 – The strongest point in favor for this video is the scene selection. Lots of scenes felt almost perfectly chosen. The editing is ok. Too much slowed-down clips, lip-flap and vanilla crossfades. Still, I enjoyed it for the scene selection.

75 – Great visual quality. Some of the motion was erratic (pan out, pan out, pan out, pan in, pan out, etc) Lip sync felt unnecessary and distracting. The color effects were generally tastefully done. Some very smooth and well done transitions. Good video!

79 – Pacing was a little off (too fast in some areas, too slow in others). Is this a parody of an opening or something?

97 – Something's up with the aspect ratio, I think. In any case, this was generally well done, apart from the weirdness of seeing an old woman paired up with a young woman's voice.

98 – Um. Well. Many technical issues, but this video clearly knew what it wanted to do.

105 – Generally good pace. Effective usage of masked transitions. Some of the crossfades get a bit cumbersome to the visual flow of the video, and other times I think the video moves a *bit* too fast.

109 – Well. Video quality is bad, improperly formatted container size (but at least the AR is correct). The shaking is NUTS. Great song, but not properly synced.

110 – Lack of dynamic kills this one. There's a substantial difference between certain segments of the song, and yet it all feels paced pretty much identically. Quality is bad, too (same problem as 109, generally).

115 – I'm not convinced that the text was necessary. Also, blending needs some work. Sometimes it's too dark, other times the scene overlays are just on add. Don't mix serif and sans-serif fonts like that, looks bad. Apart from all that, not too bad. Nice audio edits! That was a great touch.

132 – Pacing felt a bit strange. Video quality was ok. The editing was also ok. I honestly don’t have much to say about this one… it wasn’t very offensive, but it also wasn’t very impressive. Pretty average.

134 – Watermarks. Video quality is iffy. Editing can be sloppy at times, with orphan frames, some questionable effect choices. Abrupt ending. Didn’t really care for it.

135 – The divx logo was a great stylistic choice. So artsy.

136 – Video quality is awful. So let’s see here, we’ve got Assassin’s Creeed 3, Bioshock Infinite, Final Fantasy Advent Children, Final Fantasy 13, Portal 2, Halo something or other. There’s no point in these all being put together, no discernable theme or purpose for them to be there. Furthermore, the constant slowdown and numerous technical problems (like wrong aspect ratio, severe artifacting, etc) drag this down even further. My advice in the future is to focus on using only one source and to work on getting better visual quality. Look at the guides here for starters.

138 – Ok, I like this video a lot. Despite some low-res manga cut-outs, nearly everything else is delightfully weird and self-aware. Definitely one of my favorites in the contest.

140 – I really don’t think the text was necessary. Clever usage of overlays, I liked it. Maybe could have been a bit faster paced, I think the crossfading made the video a little *too* smooth and took away some of the impact. Good scene selection and the pacing is usually controlled, though I do feel that it goes on auto-pilot sometime near the middle.

“R” Rated

5 – lots of lip-flap. Slowed down scenes are yuck. I don’t think much thought was put into this video beyond the choice of song and video source.

17 – I was going to give this a review, but I just don’t… yea. Anyhow, Scene selection was generally pretty good, maybe a *bit* too much reliance on Fullmetal Alchemist. Got a few chuckles out of me, but nothing that I found HILARIOUS or anything. Still, solid stuff.

30 – Aspect ratio issues here. The editing was decent, but nothing worth writing home about. Not much else to say other than that if you’re going to go multi-anime, you need to have a strong flow or connecting theme… which unfortunately wasn’t present in this video.

101 – Too much camera shake. Pretty good action editing style, not much impact but a good sense of when to ratchet up the tension and when to tone things down. That clown looks nuts, I have to watch this show. (been wanting to since watching Ardent Sky 3).

“NC-17” Rated

44 – Ah, haha. Wow. I didn’t expect to find this so amusing, but kudos on doing the “epic music parody thing” well. Great scene choices.
72 – Didn’t care for this one that much. But probably more for a personal preference.


Sorry, no X-rated stuff. Hentai skeeves me out.
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Re: The AWA 2013 Video Review Thread -- Now with nude photos

Postby CrackTheSky » Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:37 pm

Will do reviews (hopefully) when I actually have time to watch all the videos...
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Re: The AWA 2013 Video Review Thread -- Now with nude photos

Postby Voltage-Raichu » Thu Sep 12, 2013 12:07 pm

We get to review videos, or only specific people?
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Re: The AWA 2013 Video Review Thread -- Now with nude photos

Postby The Wired Knight » Sat Sep 14, 2013 1:26 pm

Had a computer issue - does anyone have the link again for pro nominations? Please PM it to me.
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Re: The AWA 2013 Video Review Thread -- Now with nude photos

Postby Mr Pilkington » Sun Sep 15, 2013 2:48 pm

I was going to make a funny review thread, but after watching the videos and lurking on the drama, all I am going to interject is this:

Pro is a BLIND contest. I know, sometimes we find out that certain people are competing, and that happens, its fine; but there has to be a personal limit set on the number of leaked entries. The moderators of the contest can't and shouldn't have to enforce it to that level, the google rule should be enough to weed out the slips. It's "pro" contest and while this is still a hobby there is a certain level of professionalism that should be maintained by the competitors. I am sad to discover many that were opposed to the enforcement of the blind ruling have gone out of their way to pander via other mediums. If you don't believe in the rules, then simply don't compete. A bias peer review is no better than popularity contest. The contest this year was very broken. We can complain about the quality of videos, and I think many of us, self included, should hold ourselves to a much higher standard going forward. But if there is just one thing to takeaway from this wall of text, it's that just because a contest exists does not mean everyone has to compete. If you feel your video has merit, let it stand on its own. The less strong entries get cut early and strong stay to fight, but there is no need to whore an entry out other people in the competition. It's a cheap indirect violation of the contests rules, shows a lack of personal integrity, and harms the quality of the contest itself. Show respect for the contest, your fellow competitors and yourself.



This is not to attack the review thread. The reviews can be great fun and awesome to gain feedback. But keep the purpose of the contest in mind.
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Re: The AWA 2013 Video Review Thread -- Now with nude photos

Postby toothpickvic » Mon Sep 16, 2013 12:03 am

I don't wanna come across as a ME TOO, but I mirror everything stated above. I believe there are a number of really good editors that will only submit to expo and masters now, simply because they believe that is the only place for their video to get a fair shot without being peer shuffled into the corner. I fear this will be another year where expo outshines pro, and we have no one to blame but ourselves and the reputation we have awarded this event.
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Re: The AWA 2013 Video Review Thread -- Now with nude photos

Postby SailorDeath » Mon Sep 16, 2013 12:22 am

toothpickvic wrote:I don't wanna come across as a ME TOO, but I mirror everything stated above. I believe there are a number of really good editors that will only submit to expo and masters now, simply because they believe that is the only place for their video to get a fair shot without being peer shuffled into the corner. I fear this will be another year where expo outshines pro, and we have no one to blame but ourselves and the reputation we have awarded this event.


Next year I propose we institute a rule where AWA reps who are not competing move in and live with all entrants from the time the videos are downloaded until after final voting is completed. At any point when someone attempts to pander for votes from their peers the live in contact Jingoro via psychic link and informs him of the digression. At that point the AWA orbital canon vaporizes both the creator begging for votes and the person he was attempting to get votes from.

That'll teach em.

For real though, I've seen several creators complain about the quality of the contest going to hell with each passing year. THey blame the rules and regulations for the contest instead of the actual issue: So many people getting their friends to vote for them make others not want to compete. Some people here are parts of big groups, others are just individuals.

If I lost because I made a bad video, I can fully understand that. But if I found out I lost because a group conspired to vote their videos as the winners then I'd probably walk away from pro altogether or at least call for pro to be dissolved. Because at that point it'd have lost it's meaning. At the core of the contest the "Blind" aspect is the most important. Part of the reason so many of us wanted the rule of exclusive premiere was due to the fact one could figure out who made a specific video by just looking it up and figuring out who made it. Bias can be there even if you're not consciously thinking about it.

I remember the year I entered a video where I had written a parody to Highway Star and being a bit miffed that they didn't remove my studio name from the music credits and everyone in the contest knew it was my video. I often wonder if voting would have gone differently if my identity wasn't revealed.
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Re: The AWA 2013 Video Review Thread -- Now with nude photos

Postby Warlike Swans » Mon Sep 16, 2013 12:32 am

I don't think this contest has been reduced to a popularity contest. Maybe knowing some one's videos could weigh my vote if I were on the fence between two videos I consider equal in quality, but with blind judging I'm perfectly happy to vote against a friend's video content in the knowledge that even if they would care, they never have to know.

I often disagree with contest results. There are ways to pander to audiences, there are way to pander to editors, there are ways to pander to particular demographics of editors, and there is just sometimes just no accounting for taste. It's all subjective anyway, and if the unfairness of that bothered us too much, we wouldn't compete.

I think this contest is fun because editors are a different demographic than audiences, and even if I don't always agree with the outcome, I enjoy seeing the whole process unfold. Last year's contest I may have been a bit surprised by a few videos that won, but they were all respectable choices, and editor popularity didn't look like an appreciable factor to me.

Just my perspective.
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Re: The AWA 2013 Video Review Thread -- Now with nude photos

Postby SailorDeath » Mon Sep 16, 2013 12:43 am

Warlike Swans wrote:I don't think this contest has been reduced to a popularity contest. Maybe knowing some one's videos could weigh my vote if I were on the fence between two videos I consider equal in quality, but with blind judging I'm perfectly happy to vote against a friend's video content in the knowledge that even if they would care, they never have to know.


Quu mentioned to me a few years ago that the final votes for a lot of the contests have been close. 2 years ago at AWA he told me my Hasa Diga Eebowai video lost by 1 vote. That's what I call close. There's nothing wrong with betaing a video. I really dislike betaing a video to someone I know that's also competing cause it feels like cheating. But that may be just one person. But if you're going to 5 or 6 of the people who are also competing and trying to get them to vote for your video, that's really on a whole other level.
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Re: The AWA 2013 Video Review Thread -- Now with more con dr

Postby Moonlight Soldier » Mon Sep 16, 2013 12:45 am

O_o People are outing who made the videos? I didn't get that impression from this thread. (I only know the identities of two, the one I made and one other :P)

Personally I've always liked PRO over Masters and Expo because it's more of an editor's choice dealie. So I know the couple awards I have won in the past I'm really proud of because they were judged and nominated usually by people who I admire and whose styles I like.

(My other favourite contest option is audience voting, because depending on where it is the results are so varied. And it's another great reason to see how people react. I love attending Vlad's events panels for that because what editors consider great videos and what audiences like can be so polarized.)

Expo is just fun and Masters, while it tends to draw more intense entries, isn't really competitive.

/my two cents :]
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Re: The AWA 2013 Video Review Thread -- Now with more con dr

Postby SailorDeath » Mon Sep 16, 2013 12:52 am

Moonlight Soldier wrote:O_o People are outing who made the videos?


I believe Pilk was referring to a group viewing/rating of the pro videos.
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Re: The AWA 2013 Video Review Thread -- Now with more con dr

Postby Mr Pilkington » Mon Sep 16, 2013 1:33 am

I don't thinks there's any question that it's happened in the past, but the extent to which video sharing is occurring this year is (at least from what I'v seen) disturbing. Now, whether people are level enough to make decisions without that knowledge weighing, that will yet be seen. But I find it hard to believe that someone reliant on that knowledge can make a fair decision. I didn't make the post to start a war, but I think some people lost sight of what the peer review was all about. There needs to be some level of personal responsibility taken to keep this from becoming just another high school prom queen contest, and that time is not after the voting has begun. All I am asking is that during the voting phase, be mindful not of who did or said what, but in your honest opinion did the video have merit. It sounds easy, but is actually much harder than one realizes.


That said, voting this year will be interesting. I can't say there are a lot of jems. Generally there's a massive battle for some category, but from my perspective, I see a lot of categories that might go unfilled on my ballot. I am disappointed in the entries, and I blame myself for that as well. I got caught up in my own editing contest (another story) and lost sight of what pro was about. So when I point the finger, I do realize that on the quality front, I am just as much to blame. And it's not like some of these were total crap, I saw a TON of talent, but a lot of entries were either over edited or under touched. Each pro there is some take-away that I keep as an editor, this year there is so much more to learn for next year on so many fronts.



SailorDeath wrote:
Moonlight Soldier wrote:O_o People are outing who made the videos?
I believe Pilk was referring to a group viewing/rating of the pro videos.

I don't see a problem with group viewings. I don't think its a secret CBR hosts one every year for both editors and fans/friends alike. It's a lot of fun and we don't try to call each other out on videos because of the rules. But have respect for the contests. It's a time to have fun, come together and we've had some real heated debates over what videos are good and why. So in short, practice your poker face, throw some burgers on the grill and enjoy a good viewing night. Just don't sit there and start calling out every editor. It's disrespectful of the contest. The problem is scope and knowing where to distinguish between viewing and a circle-jerk.


Moonlight Soldier wrote:Personally I've always liked PRO over Masters and Expo because it's more of an editor's choice dealie. So I know the couple awards I have won in the past I'm really proud of because they were judged and nominated usually by people who I admire and whose styles I like.

(My other favourite contest option is audience voting, because depending on where it is the results are so varied. And it's another great reason to see how people react. I love attending Vlad's events panels for that because what editors consider great videos and what audiences like can be so polarized.)

Great points! All reasons why I think it's important to protect the integrity on the contest. You've been around a long time as well so there have been some calls I'm sure we both agree have been "meh," and I'm sure we could butt heads all night on some. But in the end, there are single digit situations, and none within the last half decade, that were evident of said issue. And I have never found it a concern before. But still, I feel there is a due (not-so) gentle reminder to some on this go.


Warlike Swans wrote:I don't think this contest has been reduced to a popularity contest. Maybe knowing some one's videos could weigh my vote if I were on the fence between two videos I consider equal in quality, but with blind judging I'm perfectly happy to vote against a friend's video content in the knowledge that even if they would care, they never have to know.

I don't think there has been a problem with this recently. In the past there were some very bad offenders, but most of them just faded out when some of the better, more senior editors by today's standards come on scene and started shaking things up. You'll never hear me say this is a serial issue, I think in the case of this years contest, some people have lost sight of what makes peer review work.


I often disagree with contest results. There are ways to pander to audiences, there are way to pander to editors, there are ways to pander to particular demographics of editors, and there is just sometimes just no accounting for taste. It's all subjective anyway, and if the unfairness of that bothered us too much, we wouldn't compete.[/quote]
I can look at this 2 ways:
  • Not every one is doing it, which is evident from these results alone, so we're talking about a small community that may not even have the organization that I am assuming to have. So any harm done is minimal at worst.
  • There is no reason to assume it's a deliberate violation. I can see wanting to help people entering by beta testing a lot of videos. But that being the case, don't discuss who did what in a public venue. And in the case of anyone making the specific admittance to an entry, that just shows his/her insecurity.

Warlike Swans wrote:I think this contest is fun because editors are a different demographic than audiences, and even if I don't always agree with the outcome, I enjoy seeing the whole process unfold. Last year's contest I may have been a bit surprised by a few videos that won, but they were all respectable choices, and editor popularity didn't look like an appreciable factor to me.

Agreed. Again, this is my favorite contest of the year for all of those reasons. The surprise factor is one of the greatest parts of the contest. Rarely have I ever thought a winner flat did not deserve the award. No matter know you stack it, the contest is just fun to experience, start to finish. I would like to continue to see that.

All I am asking the competitors to do is keep in mind the spirit of the contest. Consider this my grumpy old man "keep off my lawn" PSA. My initial temptation was to refuse to vote those videos I knew, but some of those were flat great and it's exactly the same thing i asking people not to do. So all I ask, as I have said probably 40 times in this post already, judge the video not the editor regardless of knowledge.
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