Just because your song is five minutes long,

Beowulf · Post by **Beowulf** » Sat May 06, 2006 9:06 pm

This thread makes me cry.

Music is music. The fact that people here are generally saying all AMVs are better if they are closer to 3 minutes is a crying fucking shame. You may have ADD, but the rest of the world doesnt. Not all music fits into your limited pop taste.

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Sat May 06, 2006 9:10 pm

Beowulf wrote:This thread makes me cry.

Music is music. The fact that people here are generally saying all AMVs are better if they are closer to 3 minutes is a crying fucking shame. You may have ADD, but the rest of the world doesnt. Not all music fits into your limited pop taste.

To be fair, there's people who make AMVs based on some 'formulaic' concept - which is fine; but you have to remember that there's a number of editors who make videos based on musical motivations. If you're making an AMV because you want to visualize a 7-minute song, then like hell you're going to use 7 minutes, because anything less is less than accomplishing your intention. And if you can't even come through and do what you intend to do with AMVs, then perhaps you shouldn't bother and it's a wonder you're here in the first place

greenjinjo · Post by **greenjinjo** » Sat May 06, 2006 9:15 pm

Beowulf wrote:This thread makes me cry.

Music is music. The fact that people here are generally saying all AMVs are better if they are closer to 3 minutes is a crying fucking shame. You may have ADD, but the rest of the world doesnt. Not all music fits into your limited pop taste.

QFE

And speaking of Otohiko, just look at "The Wasteland". That's near 7 minutes long, and there's no issue what-so-ever with the length (in my opinion).

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Sat May 06, 2006 9:17 pm

By the way: it's a fact that a large number - maybe a majority, even - of the best, most creative and meaningful (IMHO) AMVs that I've seen are well over 5 minutes!

Cornwiggle · Post by **Cornwiggle** » Sat May 06, 2006 9:20 pm

I also want to add that if you're good enough you can make a long vid that people won't get bored with. Just takes talent.

Tono_Fyr · Post by **Tono_Fyr** » Sat May 06, 2006 9:20 pm

I always feel bad if I leave out a solo. I've done it once, and I've despised myself for it since, but I ran out of footage. Then again, I was using a six minute long song with a three hour series. I've tried cutting songs when I ran out of footage, but it didn't work out, so I just retooled the entire video.

Now is a different story. I *started* to climb a 14 minute song, but I started running out of HD space and ended up having to scrap the project. Maybe one day.

But, in any case, I don't think you should edit your song down. I mean, if you can keep your editing up for that long, then why does it matter?

A good example of a six minute video that never loses pace even once is Bote's War of Wrath. It would be doing the song an injustice to slice it down.

I actually kinda dislike short videos, as to me, there's just not enough of them to satisfy.

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Sat May 06, 2006 9:28 pm

On the other hand, after staging that protest - I should also climb off the elitist hill and say that even though I have done long videos of over 5 minutes (by my count, 5 of them), I'm no stranger to audio editing - and when you want it to work, it works. For instance I'm planning on doing an AMV next week using a 4-minute cut of a 6-minute song. Because I think that'll do justice to it, and it'll cut down on repetition. There's nothing inherently wrong in that.

But it needs to be stressed that 3-minute AMVs should not be the rule.

Fortunately, this argument is pointless since it's not a rule to start with, and never will be.

Zarxrax · Post by **Zarxrax** » Sat May 06, 2006 9:30 pm

Hmmm... some interesting opinions here. I guess it all comes down to what you are trying to do with your video. A lot of people here seem to make the song the main focus of their work, and there is nothing wrong with that.
But to me, my videos are about more than the song. The song is just a single piece of the whole puzzle. I'll often start out not with a song, but with an idea. I say "I wan't to make a video like this." Then I find a song that will help me achieve that goal. I may modify the song, because the song is not what matters to me, my video is. I will change my song to fit what I want to create.

jbone · Post by **jbone** » Sat May 06, 2006 10:46 pm

Cornwiggle wrote:I also want to add that if you're good enough you can make a long vid that people won't get bored with. Just takes talent.

Who are you trying to convince?

I've made videos to 6-minute songs without editing the audio track. I made a video to 3 audio tracks back-to-back-to-back without editing the audio track. I've made 2-minute videos out of 3-minute songs. Editing is editing, whether you edit the audio or the video.

And Cornwiggle, you need to enhance your own ability to edit long videos before you tell people that they shouldn't edit down their audio. Case in point, around 2:15 into your video "Dead or Alive" the action really begins to drag. Editing the song or enhancing your editing technique may make the video more watchable for a longer duration; however, in general, it can be hard to maintain the "adrenaline rush" of an action video for more than 3 or so minutes. Therefore, in many cases, it is better to edit the song down if you want to use it.

Arigatomina · Post by **Arigatomina** » Sat May 06, 2006 10:48 pm

I've edited a few songs for vids. In most cases I did it because I only liked part of the song - techno remixes where the lyrics and certain sections appealed to me while the repetitive loops were boring to the point of annoyance. I figure if I don't want to listen to the same instrumental sections over and over - but I like the rest of the song and want to use it - there's nothing wrong with chopping off the stuff I don't want to listen to or edit with. It's nice, because then I have a version of the song to listen to without all the disco repeated crap. I did edit two songs together once, same song but different artists, leaving the beginning and end out of one song and the middle out of the other. I liked both songs, but I liked them better together, so that's the way I made them.

Maybe it's easier for me to chop up songs because I look for songs to fit the video I want to make, rather than looking for videos to fit the songs I want to see animated. About the only time I start with a song and then look for visuals is when it's a random comedy vid.

As for the 5 vs 3 minute thing... Isn't that like arguing comedy vs fun? It depends on the video - the song, the audio, the editing, the viewer, etc. Unless it's someone who absolutely hates laughing (but doesn't mind smiling), there is no objective argument. Ditto - unless it's someone who absolutely can't sit still for 5 minutes (but can handle 3 minutes), there is no objective argument. It just depends on the video.