is Pre plan and scene selection a waste of time??

James Sharp · Post by **James Sharp** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 4:25 am

Ok i am now on my second project in premire pro. i once again chose a sappy love song and anime

but this time around i wanna learn how to do some really cool effects and apply some effects that i have already learned. a few problems still stand in my way to the great land of a finished amv. pre planning, scene selection, and proper exicution. I know you all are thinkin.. "well duhhh" right?. but this part of amv creation for me takes the most time.. and i do mean a LOT of time. it took me around 4 months to finish my "hear you me" vid. about 80 percent of that time was spent goin over footage trying to find the perfect clip that would go where i felt was best. if you look at my video you will see that the editing is really not good at all. in fact i would say its darn right crappy.. no fancy effects and no flashy transitions. but it still took me that long. and now on my newest project. well lets just say im on about the tenth hour and i got about 10 seconds done that i feel MIGHT make the final amv. i guess what im getting at is... is this normal. do people that work on a slower more meaning full amv spend that much time on a few seconds of footage? i mean it has to make a difference right? or am i just treading water withought knowing it?

Pwolf · Post by **Pwolf** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 4:54 am

it's not a waste of time. you just need to spend more time on your editing as well to make up for it.

Pwolf

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 8:26 am

Don't even count clipping time as editing or "video time" do it all (or most of it) before you begin. Take a break between then and when you start your video. Plan it out from general to spicific. It helps if you have an idea written down as to what KIND of scene you want. Maybe you already have it, or maybe it needs to be in the back of your mind when you're clipping.

Org Profile · Post by **Vlad G Pohnert** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 2:08 pm

Making a video good is a balance all everything.. Both clip selection and editing... I spend equal time on both as you can have the best clips selected but it's worthless if the editing is off...

Vlad

mikestrife · Post by **mikestrife** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 2:21 pm

I think that those are the most important steps and on my current amv's I have be spending way more time doing them. It just makes sense if you want the best finished project. Stuff like writing out the song lyrics and coming up with ideas for what matches them, listening to the music to see what effects would work with what parts of the song. I even scrub through every episode in priemere and pick out any clip that might work well with the song. The rest is just putting it all together.

I think in any case pre planning, scene selection is always a better idea than editing on the fly.

Org Profile · Post by **Vlad G Pohnert** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 2:34 pm

mikestrife wrote:I think that those are the most important steps and on my current amv's I have be spending way more time doing them. It just makes sense if you want the best finished project. Stuff like writing out the song lyrics and coming up with ideas for what matches them, listening to the music to see what effects would work with what parts of the song. I even scrub through every episode in priemere and pick out any clip that might work well with the song. The rest is just putting it all together.

I think in any case pre planning, scene selection is always a better idea than editing on the fly.

Yes, that's sort of what I do... Generally my process involves

- Getting an awesome concept
- Looking for a song (sometimes this is first, but I tend to do things backwards!)
- Getting the lyrics and listening to the song over and over
- Going through every episode, OVA, Movie, etc I want to use and selecting a pile of clips that I want to use or I think will work
- Sorting clips and laying down what I know will work and then slowly building it up until I can see the flow. All visuals are used as semi transparent overlays just to get an idea of how they look at this point
- Going through and fine tuning timing editing and even redoing sections and clip selections as required.
- Adding in visual effects if required
- Fine tuning all timings and flow issues I don't like...
- Getting lots of missed sleep after completion

And people wonder why my videos taks so long

Vlad

JaddziaDax · Post by **JaddziaDax** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 2:48 pm

I kinda do a combination of both, i pick out scenes that might work well with the video i want to make, and if they dont work then i toss them... sometimes on the fly you can find things that were better than your original plan, so it kinda works both ways for me...

i plan most of my video out either on paper or in my head, and i get to work on those plans usually straight away, but I like to leave room for a bit of "on the fly" as well, cause sometimes things dont work out like i planned them... or sometimes I'll have dreamed up some sequence thats not in the anime O.O so i cant do it.

heh... but planning is deffinately important, in some videos you can tell that theres a deffinate lack of planning... and those videos are usually not very good... choose your clips wisely

staces · Post by **staces** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 3:04 pm

For me, all of the scenes that I want to use are automatically in my head as I get the idea. Any parts of the song that aren't filled out in my "mental timeline" by the time I start editing get maybe a few minutes spent looking for the 'right clip' for, but it's never taken me THAT long to do a project. Maybe you need a stronger concept/a song that puts a more clear vision in your head before starting out.

qazyseult · Post by **qazyseult** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 3:05 pm

If you're making an AMV at all, you probably have a concept and a few scenes already planned out. Put the scenes you have planned into the video first and then start pouring through stuff to fill out the rest. After a little while, you'll know the show front and back like a madman. You'll start finding those great scenes quicker.

badmartialarts · Post by **badmartialarts** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 8:56 pm

If I ever finish the video I'm on, or decide to can it due to lack of footage, I actually have a video where I started with the effects. No anime or song choice, and no concept, just an idea for an effect I had. I thought it would look nice, then I started hunting down a song with a techno beat. Once I had a possible song, I immediately knew the anime. It seems like a good concept now.