First ever amv! (Scrapped Princess - Shannon)

BronOne · Post by **BronOne** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 8:11 pm

First of all, I am TOTALLY new to this whole concept. In the past, I have spent my time on manga although I have always had a soft spot for anime!

As mentioned on the video profile page ( here ) I love this anime, particularly for the portrayal of the relationship between Shannon and Pacifica. I guess that is what I was aiming to show, Shannon's desire to protect his little sister.

As a first timer, any constructive criticism would be welcome, but please, be gentle! Also, any general impressions of the video.

Thanks for watching!

Kalium · Post by **Kalium** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 8:59 pm

First, technical comments. Your audio quality is solid. Unfortunately, it's about the only thing that is. The video quality is rather poor. I own a set of Scrapped Princess DVDs, so I know what they look like. There's a good deal of cleanup that you completely failed to do.

Second, editing comments. Two major concepts here: timing and pacing. If you're going to time to something, time to it, and do it reliably. Work on that. You miss more of the cues you aim at than you hit. It's quite noticible. You managed a few well-timed cuts, but these are overshadowed by the missed ones.

Work on your pacing as well. Your cuts and the motion content of the scenes don't match the audio or flow together in any discernable pattern. A song like this needs fast parts and slow parts. You had both, but in the wrong places. This is important.

Also, watch out for orphan frames. I saw more than I care to count. They are quite distracting, and signal that you need to work on the technical aspect of editing.

Thirdly, some general comments. If you were trying to construct a clear narrative, I think you failed. I am unable to pull a self-contained story out of this video. If you were trying to focus on Shannon and Pacifica, I also think you failed. Too much screen-time was given over to Raquel, Leo, and action scenes. Watch the lip-flap. Several scenes looked like attempted lip-sync, until it became obvious that the lip movement was totally incidental. Your concept, as you described it, is vaguely there, but I can't honestly say I would have noticed it without being told.

A final point: note that "I use Windows Movie Maker" excuses exactly nothing.

BronOne · Post by **BronOne** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:14 pm

Uh, thanks, Kalium... I think... for your not-so-constructive criticism. As I said, I am completely new to this, so I make no excuses for any 'errors' in my work. I know I have a lot of work to do...what I am not sure of is how to go about it. A couple of good pointers though, so thank you.

Thank goodness I have had feedback from people whose opinions I greatly respect or that might have just been enough to put me off completely.

Kalium · Post by **Kalium** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:30 pm

BronOne wrote:Uh, thanks, Kalium... I think... for your not-so-constructive criticism. As I said, I am completely new to this, so I make no excuses for any 'errors' in my work. I know I have a lot of work to do...what I am not sure of is how to go about it.

As for pointers how about 0x2AB56F0E and 0x1FC854D2?

If you don't want criticism, don't ask for it. Constructive criticism is "here's what you did wrong, and here's what you should work on". That's what I gave you. It doesn't mean couching said criticism in fluffy language designed to rob the critiques of any immediate impact.

Kariudo · Post by **Kariudo** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:15 pm

Not bad for your first, but I do agree with Kalium.
His was truly an example of constructive critisism.

Orphen frames can be a bit of a problem with WMM because WMM isn't reliable when it comes to frame-by-frame editing.

A simple solution is to make your clips in virtualDub(/Mod).
it doesn't make the clips for you like WMM can, but the extra effort is worth the extra control that you gain.

the footage did look pretty fuzzy (the blending becomes very apparent when you slow clips down), AviSynth (along with VirtualDub(/Mod)) can help out in this area (the first pointer will, among other things, teach you how to use both of these programs)

I've seen all of Scrapped Princess (thanks to the anime club at my college)
and I know that there are some fairly emotional clips of Shanon and Pacifica (can't remember exact spots though). I feel that using more emotional clips with the lyrics, "If I could turn back time" (...when it gets "louder"/more snare drum hits) would have helped to clarify your intended theme.

The last thing I'd like to say is that I definately felt an attempt to cut clips on beats...but something just didn't click with most of them (varying between not enough happening for too long, missing good cut points by a few beats, or both)

Warpwind · Post by **Warpwind** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:33 pm

Kariudo wrote: the footage did look pretty fuzzy (the blending becomes very apparent when you slow clips down), AviSynth (along with VirtualDub(/Mod)) can help out in this area (the first pointer will, among other things, teach you how to use both of these programs)

Well since you're in australia the blending on the PAL dvd's is horrendous. It's possible to lessen it but it's hard. Actually since your in melbourne are you going to manifest next weekend? There'll be a amv panel there which you might find helpful. At the very least you can meet some other amv editing people.

I'll give this a download and an op when I get home. Although you have gotten some good (if blunt) comments already.

BronOne · Post by **BronOne** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 12:45 am

Thanks for the feedback so far. I hope it doesn't seem like I can't handle the comments, I guess it is just my 'teacher sense' kicking in - there are ways to give an opinion or advce while taking the student's feelings into account. In this case, me the student and a whole lot of 'teachers' critiquing my work!

I am working on my next video now, so I am taking all of this onboard and have a couple of things to really keep an eye on!

Am going to manafest again and looking forward to it, espcially with this new pass time on my mind!