[AKROSS CON 2010] - a[part]

[Chained(E)Studio]

I would really appreciate it if you all could break this down for me.

I would like to know anything you like or do not like. What could have been done to improve, any constructive critisism is really what I am looking for as I am very pleased with this and worked really hard on trying to make this as "artistic" as I could considering the footage I used, and what I had to "hide", and portray on making scenes on my own through little effects to portray my bond.

[Overture]

you kno i like this

[Chained(E)Studio]

you kno i like this

.. you always do, always do thankies
i must make something that instead of liking youll love O_O!! {like me}

[SeNniN]

I stumbled on this one on youtube, and I must say, this is one of the most unique amv this across and most importantly, it has dept in it.
The song it self really brings out emotions, so that really complemented the editing, too.
But I have to say that I would have preferred it more if it was about a person rather than a cat.
You could have used footage from 5 cm per second in this, and it would have worked out, but this is still really awesome stuff here.
I honestly have nothing against cat.. =| It's just a thought. 5/5

[MimS]

Well, this is a strange mix between M@D and AMV, I don't really know what to think about it, just that despite it was only 2 minutes long I felt like it was a long vid :/

[AimoAio]

I loved it. Might leave a full Op for this later if I have time.

Ze Pros:

Very unique story: I don't know about anyone else but I rarely see AMVs that talk about animals and their feelings so this was a refreshing watch for me.
Good atmosphere/mood: I liked the black and white theme you had going on with the flicker of some colour in one or two scenes.
Very stylish: with the irregular white cutters.
Nice transitions: I particularly liked the expanding and receding borders/cutters.
Effective use of text: The mixture of Japanese and English made it more artistic. Font was kept simple and placement of text was also done pretty well as it doesn't cover up important parts of the scene but is still read-able.
Good scene selection: I can feel the emotions you wanted to portray.

Ze Cons:

Original but unclear concept: I like the "apart" and "a part" idea but this isn't shown too clearly in the AMV or maybe I'm just blind and totally missed it.
Scene selection: I mentioned this in the pros because half the video was done pretty good but the other half was mostly scenes with landscape/buildings/furniture, it would have been better to have some more of both the cat and the girl.
Effects: The blurs felt really dodgy and weird to me :\ didn't really like them. And me being the nitpicky bitch I am, the pan at 1:12 really felt off. Unless that was in the footage itself already in which case it wasn't your fault.

Anyway pretty decent editing, technical aspects done pretty well and in general, it was a pretty awesome video. Now why you didn't get into the finals really mystifies me but there's still the voting on the 15th so good luck and I look forward to seeing future works from you!

[Chained(E)Studio]

I stumbled on this one on youtube, and I must say, this is one of the most unique amv this across and most importantly, it has dept in it.
The song it self really brings out emotions, so that really complemented the editing, too.
But I have to say that I would have preferred it more if it was about a person rather than a cat.
You could have used footage from 5 cm per second in this, and it would have worked out, but this is still really awesome stuff here.
I honestly have nothing against cat.. =| It's just a thought. 5/5

Thanks, really picked that song on purpose xD. And actually I did have 5 cm per second in there at one point while editing, however because she and her cat is a bit older I felt the 2 animations just didn't quite meet on the same plain levels( lines, colours, etc) So it just didn't look right, or whole to me. And also took away from the actually look I was going for so I removed it. But yeah I could have put a little more of the girl in there, agreed. I just love kitties so much T_T Thanks a lot :3

Well, this is a strange mix between M@D and AMV, I don't really know what to think about it, just that despite it was only 2 minutes long I felt like it was a long vid :/

Never really thought about it being M@Dish looking, I was just editing but really good point on that, thus why it could seem too long, and also I think it might be the song to maybe that helped with that? But thanks.

Ze Pros:

Thanks!!! xD I just really love cats D: I dunno what I can say, I have 2, and wish I had thousands. That crazy cat lady from Simpsons --> i.e. me T_T but less creepy, and way younger xD ..... and I wouldn't throw my cats around ....

.. thanks I was really aiming for, as I want to create AMVs that aren't the "norm". Happy you liked the things I did work on like my fonts, odd cutters, expanding/receding borders. The only thing that really isn't my doing is the black/white. The anime itself is completely black/white the only thing I wanted to do was bring it out a little with the purple. I don't particularly like to alter my footage as much as that :3 especially this because I just love this animation a lot, and well didn't really know what to do with it, but in the end I made this.

Ze Cons:

apart& a part is really quite simple, as in my video Im not really showing a story to say. The story is there, but its only there to contribute to what I really wanted to portray, which was their bond & connection. Apart: is to be apart of each other, because all they had was each other, so they are really close to (me). Share a lot even if one is just a cat. A part: means that because well (I) killed her off with her suicide that even in her death they are still apart of each other (because of their feelings, bond, connection) but because she is gone, they are a part. I think it was missed by a lot of people, think only vary limited to a couple got it...

Scenes: Well I suppose I could have picked a lot better maybe? Not really sure, its only 5 minutes long, and I was really going for their bond so the footage more or less was used for that purpose. To bring in a cozy, distance feeling. To help aid in the atmosphere that they are a bit alone, but have each other.

Effects: That pan was me D:, thought looked alright xD but yeah the effects were on purpose to again had to my atmosphere to share their bond xD. All in all, I think I must just be extremely obsessed with cats xDD But yeah there are only 3 scenes that were taken from the original source with them blurs on them, however one scene I added more, the other two were as they were. And the rest of the effects, to the rest of footage, fonts, and solids were all my doing. I generally took the anime as it was, those 3 scenes and built, and built a lot onto it. With my soft glows, and different things, that were really tiny. Because I wanted the footage to remain as intact as I could. Which anyone who as actually seen this anime, and study it as I did would know I put a lot into it.

But however so, might have been my downfall as to AKROSS, or maybe it just wasn't understood? Or was just way different they didn't like xD Dunno really, will see what happens with viewers voting anyhow. Whatever the reason, I am extremely happy its as well received as it is, and will defintely bring something just as unique next year. For them to turn down.

Thanks!!! xD loads :33

[Phantasmagoriat]

Neat little sentimental video

I would really appreciate it if you all could break this down for me.

-sure, I generally liked it, especially some of the stylizations like the glows/blurs. Big kudos for using Japanese symbols. It's a personal style I like

Flow
-In the first half, some of the editing didn't flow too well IMO-- like you were trying too hard to synch things that weren't necessary. It's hard to describe what I mean, but a good example of this would be the cut at 0:07. I can see it is there for the echo, but as a viewer, I'm focused on the previous note which is part of the main melody; so a hard cut at that moment seems a bit abrupt. Stuff like that can make a video awkward to follow, so I usually suggest isolating the main melody with basic things like hard cuts and fades, then treat things like echos/extras separately (a simple solution here would have been to hold the previous note, then use a blur or something else for the echo). Basically, you want the video to be as easy to follow as possible, yet the first half felt more complicated than it had to be. That being said, the flow got much better in the second half^^

Tech
-Because the tech geek in me likes to complain, the aspect ratio of She and Her Cat is 4:3 (1.333) not ~3:2(1.500). As far as I know, 3:2 anime doesn't exist. For reference, notice how the chair and phone buttons at 0:51 are more oval shaped than they should be. I can change the AR with my media player during playback, so it's not a big problem for me, but for some people it can be a big distraction. DVDs are peculiar in the sense that they start out as 720x480(NTSC) or 720x576(PAL) but stretch during playback to their respective ARs. For example, this is how a DVD with a common resolution of 720x480 can be both 4:3 or 16:9-- it just stretches to 720x540 or ~854x480 during playback. When making an amv, you need to compensate for that. In this case, 640x480, 720x540, 848x636... etc would have been correct Though I did notice you used a higher res to make the text look nicer, which makes sense.

Typography
-The typography was alright, not overboard or anything which is good. It was all over the place in terms of size and position, which made the video lack in consistency, so my opinion is kind of mixed about the text. Oddly enough, I thought the punctuation was interesting because the [] brackets do two things: they physically separate words; or group them together. So it's an abstract idea, and interesting to ponder it's meaning, though I doubt most people would read into it as much as I would >.>

Concept
-The words themselves were an original touch, which is nice because you can tell some thought went into it. I pretty much get what you were going for, and I really liked the way you described the relation between the cat and the girl, yet it's a little abstract and unclear in some regards. Perhaps you tried to accomplish too much in 2 minutes so the message got a little scrambled in the first sitting; but that's usually the case whenever text is added to an amv. The viewer is usually torn between focusing on the images/synch vs the text/message, and ends up focusing on nothing. So it's a double edged sword I guess... not really a bad thing if the viewer is willing to watch it more than once. Unfortunately that's not something most people want to do-- so clarity is a virtue when it comes to AMVs (though I shouldn't be one to talk, since I've been known to make things that are really far out there...)

But overall, I liked it. Nice atmospheric music. Bold concept. And it was a bit different, which is always a good thing in my books

keep up the good work

[Tearx]

I enjoyed the overall concept, even though some of the word choices/fonts could have been better.

[TritioAFB]

I stumbled on this one on youtube, and I must say, this is one of the most unique amv this across and most importantly, it has dept in it.

This +1

Pretty good concept