AMV Review #53: Songbird21's Unbreakable

[Fall_Child42]

something like a stretched aspect ratio, it's either right or wrong.

There is no right or wrong, I can have a 16:15 aspect ratio if I damn well please!

[Songbird21]

When you brush off technical stuff that is either right or wrong (there are only two choices when it comes to Aspect Ratio - either you got it right or you got it wrong) it it only makes you seem more defensive. I believe the term is called Passive Aggressive when you actively "don't care".

Lol. It's not passive agressive. It just doesn't bother me as much as the ones who have commented on it. Why is it offensive if it doesn't bother me. I'm not saying it couldn't use some fixing, but it's very silly to get angry because someone decides not to take someone else's advice.

Fixes through Avisynth:

LanczosResize(0,0)

(replace the 0's with width,height)

Crop(0,0,-0,-0)

(left,top,right,bottom)

learn these filters, they are your friends O:

Thank you very much. Will they work on something that has already been saved with the other aspect ratios?

[CodeZTM]

This is just me, and I apologize in advance if anybody gets offended by this, because I really did enjoy this video for what it is, and there are a few points (on a review-scale) that I would like to point out.

Concept: I wanted a vid to make people happy and to tell them to never give up. I also used it to pimp a few series that I love but aren't among the "popular" series list. Especially Shakugan No Shana (The clips with the girl with red hair, although it's brown in her disguise). Shana is one of the best series I've seen in a while. The action is fantastic and the main fighter is a girl! Not only that, but she is a great sword user and she DOESN'T have gigantic boobs!!!

I think that most people missed this. Most people would be quick to call this con crap meant to only entise fans. But I really do see the concept in the video. The characters all have a strong inner will and never give up. I think most people disregarded the video's concept because it made it easier to critisize that way.

Criticising your video helps the dialogue and helps the community move forward. Aren't you at all proud to have contributed to that?

I agree. I think this is a great video to have sparked a major review. Viewers and critiquers have the ability to realize what is really important when reviewing and how editors in future videos should perform.

The AR is that bad. It's really is as simple as 'is the AR correct?' In this case it isn't. There isn't anymore to this issue than that, honest. It's an easy to fix technical mistake. It isn't an artistic choice nor is it an impossible demand to expect the correct AR. You screwed up, plain and simple, and you decided to release it to the masses anyway. Once it's been pointed out to you that it's a mistake your attitude is basically 'oh who cares'. Well everyone who pointed it out to you for starters. And if you really did 'put your heart' into it as you say you did then you should care as well. It's an easily correctable mistake. Instead of correcting it, or asking how to correct it if you don't know, you try pretending it isn't important. It is important. If nothing else it serves as example of how little 'putting your heart' into a video really means.

That is actually a pretty compelling argument. :O It makes all editors think. Actually, I would like it more if editors did in fact make remasters of videos with technical issues. I know a video by Zig-Zag that I am obsessing over frequently that I would kill for a remaster version of. However, before we attack Songbird21, let's remember that she did indeed post a new version with the lip sync removed. I think that it shows that she really did have a lot of love for her video and how people percieved it. Sure she didn't fix the AR, but then again, unless you are a technical obsessor (which there is nothing wrong with that!), I don't think many people would notice.

As for the AR argument, I really can't say much because I usually disregard AR when I critique/review videos (uneless is it pitifully obvious and takes away from the overall video). I more about what the AMV is saying in terms of concept/originality than anything else. Sure, if it's got pitiful quality it's one thing, but if I have to freeze-frame the thing to fine small insignifigant errors, then I think that I'm just nitpicky.

Perhaps it is because I used to be a fan of Inuyasha when it first came out on Adult Swim. Perhaps it's because I find Naruto (the non-filler episodes) actually quite enjoyable. I've never seen Shana or HikaruNoGo. I have mixed feelings about Bleach (varying from broiling hate to absolute lust). But the video did what I believe it was meant to do. It was for Songbird and for people to enjoy. People at Boston enjoyed it, I enjoyed it, heck, a bunch of people enjoyed it. Who cares what the target audience was?

Then again, I'm also into the notion that there will always be a definining line in almost every AMV, which serves under the wise statement that "You can't make everybody happy all of the time".

[/quote]

[JaddziaDax]

When you brush off technical stuff that is either right or wrong (there are only two choices when it comes to Aspect Ratio - either you got it right or you got it wrong) it it only makes you seem more defensive. I believe the term is called Passive Aggressive when you actively "don't care".

Lol. It's not passive agressive. It just doesn't bother me as much as the ones who have commented on it. Why is it offensive if it doesn't bother me. I'm not saying it couldn't use some fixing, but it's very silly to get angry because someone decides not to take someone else's advice.

you might not intend it that way but thats how it comes off ya know :/

Fixes through Avisynth:

LanczosResize(0,0)

(replace the 0's with width,height)

Crop(0,0,-0,-0)

(left,top,right,bottom)

learn these filters, they are your friends O:

Thank you very much. Will they work on something that has already been saved with the other aspect ratios?

uh the first one will just stretch and squish the video to the size you imput. though i believe they have to be multiples of 16 to make it work with some other filters (and zarxgui). so yea if you have a source that is already saved in the wrong aspect ratio you can use it to fix the ratio. however getting it right the first time is definitely preferable. O.o

the second one is just a crop, it will cut off the parts you want cut... so if you want to crop a wide screen to full screen, you would have to calculate how much you need to take off on each side. if you want to crop a full screen to wide screen you would have to calculate how many pixels to cut off the top and the bottom.

yay and here i thought i'd avoid math after hs.

[godix]

Concept: I wanted a vid to make people happy and to tell them to never give up. I also used it to pimp a few series that I love but aren't among the "popular" series list. Especially Shakugan No Shana (The clips with the girl with red hair, although it's brown in her disguise). Shana is one of the best series I've seen in a while. The action is fantastic and the main fighter is a girl! Not only that, but she is a great sword user and she DOESN'T have gigantic boobs!!!

I think that most people missed this. Most people would be quick to call this con crap meant to only entise fans. But I really do see the concept in the video. The characters all have a strong inner will and never give up. I think most people disregarded the video's concept because it made it easier to critisize that way.

Actually I covered my thoughts on her concept at one point or another. The concept was so overly broad that it's only slightly more limiting than a concept of 'they're all animated characters'. Dragonhalf would fit her concept. As would Transformers. And Ghost in the Shell. And Voices of the Distant Star. And Love Hina. And Berserk. And Sailor Moon. And... well, you get the point. Almost any anime features people not giving up. So I'm not left thinking 'what concept ties the animes she used together' but rather 'is there anything that would NOT fit?' So far I've only come up with a single anime that doesn't. So it brings me back to the question of if every single anime I know of but one would work, why'd she use these particular animes? Which is where the belief she was pandering by using uber-popular anime comes from.

[Songbird21]

you might not intend it that way but thats how it comes off ya know :/

That's very odd. Lol.

yay and here i thought i'd avoid math after hs.

Lol. Thank you very much. I'll see what I can do. But if it turns out I gotta rerip the footage I don't think I'll bother. I just have way too much to do to be constantly going back and fixing a vid I'm already happy with. Lol. What clips would u say are the worst because honestly, I can only see a problem with the Shana footage.

[CodeZTM]

Concept: I wanted a vid to make people happy and to tell them to never give up. I also used it to pimp a few series that I love but aren't among the "popular" series list. Especially Shakugan No Shana (The clips with the girl with red hair, although it's brown in her disguise). Shana is one of the best series I've seen in a while. The action is fantastic and the main fighter is a girl! Not only that, but she is a great sword user and she DOESN'T have gigantic boobs!!!

I think that most people missed this. Most people would be quick to call this con crap meant to only entise fans. But I really do see the concept in the video. The characters all have a strong inner will and never give up. I think most people disregarded the video's concept because it made it easier to critisize that way.

Actually I covered my thoughts on her concept at one point or another. The concept was so overly broad that it's only slightly more limiting than a concept of 'they're all animated characters'. Dragonhalf would fit her concept. As would Transformers. And Ghost in the Shell. And Voices of the Distant Star. And Love Hina. And Berserk. And Sailor Moon. And... well, you get the point. Almost any anime features people not giving up. So I'm not left thinking 'what concept ties the animes she used together' but rather 'is there anything that would NOT fit?' So far I've only come up with a single anime that doesn't. So it brings me back to the question of if every single anime I know of but one would work, why'd she use these particular animes? Which is where the belief she was pandering by using uber-popular anime comes from.

Again... A very solid point. I guess what you say makes sense, I just guess some of of these series have a better sense of portraying that concept. :O

[Songbird21]

Actually I covered my thoughts on her concept at one point or another. The concept was so overly broad that it's only slightly more limiting than a concept of 'they're all animated characters'. Dragonhalf would fit her concept. As would Transformers. And Ghost in the Shell. And Voices of the Distant Star. And Love Hina. And Berserk. And Sailor Moon. And... well, you get the point. Almost any anime features people not giving up.

But not in the right way. First off, there had to be at least a little action in the series (I admit I bent the rule a bit for Hikaru because I needed him for the "Thinking" line), the character not only had to "not give up" but they also needed to have that kind of personality and they needed to be inspiring. And as I mentioned before, they needed to have good creditless ops/eds.

Sailor Moon is a giant crybaby and would not have fit the role and as much as I love her I don't consider what she does really "Fighting". Transformers is not anime (At least not G1). Love Hina...I'm actually laughing that you even mentioned it. I can't speak for GITS because I haven't seen it and VOADS doesn't really visually show someone never giving up with any kind of action.

So to sum up. Things these shows have in common:

1) An inspiring character who never gives up and has a lot of heart.
2) Action
3) Good creditless ops/eds with a fair amount of action and a lot of movement.

But it wasn't just them having something in common. A large part of what finalized my show choices was the lyrics and what shows had scenes that matched.

I'm completely serious when I say that not once has popularity influenced my show or music choices. Whether you choose to believe me or not is up to you.

[Prodigi]

Sure. Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure.

[Kionon]

Yes. And out of respect to you I stayed away because I knew it would have caused problems.

If you were saying you knew you'd interrupt the discourse, then I think you made a wise decision.

And yet you continually made comments about my character. "She obviously didn't try" that is a character dig unless you know a person.

That's not quite accurate. I made comments about my perceived understanding of your work ethic and thought processes as they applied solely to your creation of this video. I could not, and cannot, speak to your work ethic in other areas, nor to your overall character. I am sure you are a wonderful person, I'm sure you're a good mother, and I'd be willing to lay odds you're a decent artist. Which is all immaterial when you consider the focus of this review. As DriftRoot says above, we felt there was sufficient evidence to suggest you had the ability to do much better, and we felt there was sufficient evidence that you simply chose not to. Perhaps we are in error, but I'll address your AVS comment below.

I never said that.

It has, at times, seemed very strongly implied. I am not the only one who has thought so.

I'm aware of this. But as I've said before, critisism should be constructive.

I believe my criticism has been constructive. Not just for you, but for the community at large. As far as godix, he's developed a persona that you have to read between the lines to understand. It's normal. You should read some of the commentary he's made about my work. You have to almost sit down with your decoder ring and think about what he's really saying to understand that couched in all that bile are nuggets of truth. They're not happy or shiny, but they're there. And you should listen to them.

Thank you. I appreaciate that. In fact, if you'd said something like this at the begining of the chat I might not have reacted as much as I did.

Much of this, here, and in your announcement thread, stems from you not being very active in the community, I think. You don't seem to have adequate exposure to how we tend to communicate. No one dislikes you, no one thinks you're a horrible editor, no one thinks all you make is trash. The few people with overly negative commentary (sto, nio, godix) are fixtures of this place, and they bring attention to issues through exaggerated satire. Each community needs that. We have those individuals outside of this community too. We usually call them comedians.

If the issues were not important to bring up, or your video did not provide an adequate means to bringing up those issues, we would just ignore you. #amv-review has been around for over a year now. It is just a part of the community. We have treated you no better nor any worse than we have treated anyone else. You were treated no better nor any worse than I myself was treated when Countdown was reviewed. You entered the game by posting the video to the org and announcing it on these forums, but I think, despite your years registered, you did not have a good grasp of the rules you were expected to play by.

Yep. And it's funny cause he should know better after being my friend for so long. I never choose series because of popularity.

I'm not sure I buy that, but fair enough.

I had no idea such a script existed. My scripting knowledge is limited to what my friends write for me. In fact, until this vid I had used only the internal Vdub filters.

Okay, this does change some things. We were as harsh as we were on you partially because we believed you to have the technical skills to write such scripts. If you didn't know how, and needed help, that's cool. But don't blow off what we say when we point out the error. Say, "you know guys, I realize the AR and cropping were wrong, but I don't know how to fix them. I should have asked someone to show me how before I released this video. However, what is done is done, will you please show me how to do it now?" And one of us would have posted the script Dax did, and I, at least, would have cheerfully written you step by step directions.

I think, in the end, what has upset us the most in your reactions is your excuses. Artistic intent is all good and fine, and we respect differences of opinions when it comes to artistic intent. I think most of us agree, however, that aspect ratio is not included. If you realize you made an actual error, admit you made an error, and ask us to help you fix it.

Again, it's not what you say, it's how you say it. And I had less than a week to collect my footage from 7 different series. To a lot of people it would have been a week, but with all the other things in my life it translates to about 2 days. I worked until I was falling asleep sitting up.

Review is an entirely different beast than forum posts or email or alloted time debates. It's instantaneous, and generally, only goes on for an hour. As moderator, I rarely censor people. And I rarely censor myself. I think being honest and saying what you feel when you feel it is more constructive than trying to make sure you spare feelings or remain politically correct. I read over the log twice just to make sure I did not see anything I regretted saying or felt I had to apologize for. I don't believe I did. And if I had said something completely out of line, I'm sure DriftRoot or Bashar would have called me on it. I stand by my comments, and I stand by how they were worded. Words are important. Different words mean different content. So how I said it is just as important as what I meant. To have said something else would have been to mean something else.

I respect the fact you made this in two days for Anime Boston. We even mentioned that. Our issue was why you did not spend the time to correct the issues between Boston and your org annoucement.

It wasn't it being mentioned that resulted in my rebuttle statement. It was that it was a beaten dead horse by the time you were done talking about it.

Possible. I admit I'm biased, as AR is by far my biggest pet peeve. I have a hard time taking the rest of the video seriously after that, mainly because I feel if you didn't care enough, why should I? However, the reason AR continued to be brought up was because it was shedding light on other issues. Mostly investment issues and your own seeming doublespeak in your earlier discourse about your video. We felt it demonstrated larger issues, and we wanted to explore those larger issues. It wasn't beating a dead horse as much as it was a key that we kept being able to use to unlock more doors.

And why discuss if you don't expect a rebuttle. Isn't that what a debate is about?

Yes, but you seemed to suggest discourse was only good when it was going your way. Your rebuttals are fine, if they are well reasoned, epistemically justified arguments as to why our claims are incorrect. And then we have the right to present counterarguments. I think the problem we had is that you made excuses, you did not provide well reasoned, epistemically justified rebuttals.

I suppose, to a degree, but it still could have been done in a less demeaning manner.

I wasn't demeaning you. Godix was, but that's his bag. You have to take him with a grain of salt. Well... more like the entire shaker.

I never said I was special, but you have to understand that I'm not you. I react differently to situations because were are different people.

This is true, however, your excuses wouldn't work for me. They shouldn't be able to work for you. That goes back to "playing by the rules" of the community. Your responses were inadequate, and when you became annoyed that we called you on that, you seemed to be saying, "well, the rules don't apply to me, I'm special."

First of all. See? I knew you were capable of civilized conversation.

You're going to ruin his reputation.

The AR has nothing to do with what I put into my editing.

As the resident AR crusader, I take issue with this. Strongly. In my opinion, though people do disagree, aspect ratio has everything to do with your editing. Even most people seem to agree it has something to do with it, although the amount varies from person to person.