Describe your crative process

[Rozard]

I think many of you have pretty much summed up what I do. Hear a song, realize what anime would go well, etc. But usually I have the video 50%+ planned out in my head already. The problem lies in the fact that a lot of the time thing that I envision in my head aren't in the anime.

What I'm doing for my next video is a little different though. I'm incorporating Wonka's process of having AMV Battles with people, "Just edit with no concept." It's looking pretty good so far.

[Kai Stromler]

AMV ideas happen by magic, usually listening to music, because I can be listening to music while I'm doing other things, while this is harder to do with anime. Sometimes the anime will suggest a song, but the overwhelming majority of the time it's the other way around.

Once this happens, I grab a pen and a piece of paper, or a napkin, or a receipt, or my arm if I'm walking somewhere and just having the song in my head, and write it down so I don't forget it. As soon as possible, it gets entered into the SH prelim-ideas list, and sort of into the production queue. As fast as my editing pace is, it runs horrifically behind by idea pace, so there are usually fifty entries in this file, which is constantly in flux.

Eventually, ideas rise to the top of the queue, usually within about six months after originating. After that, the longer the idea stays in the queue, the less likely it is to ever get made. Once the video immediately before it goes under production, the idea gets formally listed in the SH internal catalog with a working title and a provisional catalog number in addition to its artist, song, and anime, and I start thinking about how it's going to develop in the breaks when I'm not working on the video then under production.

Once that video has 'cleared', been finalized, mixed down to a distribution version, and archived in all its parts on CD, the next idea in the queue goes under production. All germane or possibly germane source is copied locally (if working from other people's encodes, a rare situation now), or captured en bloc (if working from VHS or DVD; a good, properly tuned DVD capture is practically indistinguishable from a rip, and a hell of a lot easier for me to work with), and separated into episodes or ~20-minute bricks if the anime doesn't naturally divide itself on such basis. These are cut through in sequence with a view of getting any and all cuts that may work in any way with the source music, in both hq MPEG2 and lq MPEG1 formats. The usual goal is "100% overage"; to have at least twice as many seconds of footage as seconds of music in the song.

If I've been preoccupied and have not done so yet I rip the music after the completion of clipping, and map out a timing chart on paper, pegging the starts of all lyrical lines, changes in the riff structure or anything else of note, to the second, and create a parallel feel chart with notes about what impression the music is giving, so that I can reflect it accurately with the visual. Of late I have been doing both synch and feel-match more and more by gut, but it's nice to have things plotted out on paper as a backup if you get uncertain or lost.

Then the video-making actually starts. My vids are not really planned to any great degree but real-time drafted in a trial-and-error-process using the lq MPEG1 clips and the playback capabilities of my editing environment. If a clip isn't working, I delete it off the end and swap in another. In this neolinear fashion I go from one end of the song to the other, making the video work with the music, and making sure that it's consistent from clip to clip rather than purely random. This is why I need overage; to make sure that I can get an optimal rather than a bad clip for every part of the video, just in case something really good was used in some other place earlier. If a clip needs some effect that I can only apply with AviSynth or VDub, I'll make a note of it and apply the effect to the hq version that's going to be used in the final video.

That's basically it. Pure naive barbarism. Most videos will have a 'key' shot or two, usually the image that inspired the idea, but that's about it with regard to planning. I'm eternally thankful that I lucked into the one equipment setup that would allow me to do this, during the extremely brief period that it was on the market, because otherwise I wouldn't be able to edit AMV at all.

Ofcourse, to some people perhaps that isn't a bad thing.......

--K

[Mr Pilkington]

Well, as a concrete illustration, when I make video I use my real, current emotions to portray the story I am trying to tell. For instance about a year ago my friend Gary died of heart attack. I got home form the wake and was totally not in the position to be depressed so I though I would distract my self with son anime. Bad choice. I had been about half way through Trigun so I wanted to finish off the series. I left off on Episode 16, so obviously I wanted pick up where I left off. Bad decision. For anyone familiar with this series they can see where this is going. So I began watching, did it ever do just the opposite of what I wanted. I though to my self ‘This would make a good video. But what to do it too? I don’t have a very good selection of sad musics.” About this time I got into the car and headed down to the local Ingles, in the deck was my Skid Row CD, on came “I Remember You.” “THAT’S IT!” My inspiration had hit me. Now under normal circumstances I would have had to plan for weeks/months, but I was in the zone. I got home, set my qesadias on the stove and went to work. It wasn’t easy but I do believe that the results speak for them selves. And in the end I felt a little better, but more importantly I had a piece of work I could be proud of. One that captured my thoughts AND my soul.
Same went to my Powderburn video. Only that as more an inspiration of pure rage. But also a capture strait from my mind an soul.

[rubyeye]

It really varies from project to project.
But most definately, the music comes first - preferably one never used or heard of and actually "works" for a music video. *most stuff I listen to average 6-7 minutes long*

Then finding the right anime to fit - again, preferably one that hasn't been seen or used often in a music video - and it has to be a series I like, or at the very least enjoyed watching.

The actual process entails sitting down with a Large piece of paper (usually a 22x30 poster board), watching every episode, analyzing every scene, deciding whether it might be useful or not, Taking notes and storyboarding the whole thing.

The break down is based on the stucture of the song: Opening beat - lyrics - chorus - solo - lyrics - chorus - solo -chorus - ending.
Or however it is structured.
It's simply easier to work with it in components. The difficulty is in keeping the whole thing coherent without getting caught up with a certain part.

I rip the whole episodes but only work with clips I need/use because it's much more efficient for me. Plus I've already seen all the scenes so they are fresh in my mind and I don't have to go hunting for a particual scene.

[The Non-Professional]

I cant stress enough making love to the anime before making the video, that way it does what you want...

[FurryCurry]

It goes something like this:

/me brings home a 12 pack

pssshtt-click! glug glug glug... x about 8

...heyyy, I know! I'll start that new video I was thinking of...

[CaTaClYsM]

I can pull off a pretty good vid using about 50% of my ass, but the next few I am going to try to minimize the effects and use around 80 to 90 percent of my ass and see how I do.

[rodtod]

Usually I'll hear a song, and by now, every song I hear I try and think if it would make a video, so I'm always seeing video ideas, and the only cure for this is more cow bell!

SNL eh?

you know what helps with the creative process? INSPIRATION. for example, thanks to Jebadia's comment ("more cow bell"), I was reminded of the Saturday Night Live skit, which then made me start thinking of the SNL Celebrity Jeopardy, which then made me think "hey, it'd be cool if someone took the audio from a celebrity jeopardy episode and used anime footage...lip synching at its best!!

[Wonka]

Spin in my office chair till the lack of circulation causes me to have fevered visions of a potential AMV.