ProjeKct Life

[pen-pen2002]

Bum: You really do need to have more confidence. Yes the ending is a bit rushed and chaotic, but I'm sure it will turn out fine.

But most of all you need to chill out a little, you've got this idea in your head that you can't do it and that's messing you up. Not only are there a lot of great editors here, but some of them have a lot of experience with this kind of editing and music. I hardly even consider ideas that aren’t instrumental and plot driven anymore.

As for your section, there is no way I'm going to let you drop out of the project completely. The first minute already meets and in most places exceeds the requirements for being in this project as far as I'm concerned (minor polishing aside.) If you really think that the ending isn't working then we can split the section (as I may do with my own) and have someone else edit the end. But I really don't want to do that for two reasons:
1. I know you can do it.
2. Throughout the section your editing matches the music perfectly. I for one couldn't even begin to match the feel and energy of that chaotic crazy fast guitar, but you do it perfectly. All you need to work on is making it a bit easier to follow.

One piece of general advice I should have given earlier is not to change scenes too much. In the beginning you a a ton of cuts when that monster thing goes berserk, but since the viewer can follow what's going on, they just add to the adrenaline. Later on you have so many different events and they go so quickly that they are hard to follow. Here are some that you might want to try expanding: the fight in the hallway, the girl hiding behind a rock and getting shot at, the main character coming to the rescue.

The timing is great but it seems jumbled, you need to show less and have it be more understandable. It doesn't have to be a coherent storyline, but the viewer should be able to tell what's going on.

Now that I have watched it over and over I'm beginning to understand it structurally and in terms of discrete events. You just need to prune your concepts and give the important ones room to grow. You already have some amazing musical synch, that cityscape/window scene fits so well it's amazing.

It might help you to break you video into sections and name them thematically. So you have the introduction to the city section, which fades, into the health section with that crazy doctor guy, then you have an action section, a teammate section including the fight, a nightmare (?) section, a defending the girl section, a jail section, and a conclusion, which I can’t really follow, but it focuses on the girl. Try to make these segments more distinct and recognizable.

Is the footage at 1:30 speed up? It looks odd. And what the hell is that yellow thing?

I could give you more nitpicky things but at this point you, might still need to move things around or add and delete scenes to help the thematic aspect of the piece.

Last but not least: speak up. What do you not like about your beta? What is giving you trouble? What are you trying to portray? The more we know about these things the more we can help.

2. I like your slides at the very end. However, they seem to become more rushed as the track approaches its end. Can you tweak them so that they come in at slightly more equal intervals?

That's when you know a segment is almost finished, when your beta testers disagree on the timing of specific clips... (originally the were all the same speed, but I advised him to speed up the last ones so he could hold the pictures on the screen longer and viewers wouldn't miss the ending.)


*looks up*

Rose would be proud.

[jasper-isis]

*looks up*

Rose would be proud.

Aw man, let's please not start talking about him as if he were never coming back. x|

[pen-pen2002]

Ha ha! another long post. This page is mine!

we may have another completely finished segment

Jasper wants to delete her source files so if you have any last comments now is the time.

I'm posting my review of her beta just in case anyone has anything to add to it or comments or anything.

Overall It is excelent in sych/flow and story. It might be a little fast paced and hectic in parts, but this may work much better once it is part of a larger project, which will make the constant high energy more appropriate. There is a lot of story going on very quickly here. Fortunatly you have good use of color to define it and a couple key scenes (training with the wrecking ball, the betrayal, the rescue.) That instantly cause the viewer to fill in the story for themselves.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many color shifts in an AMV. They were probably in the source footage but either way they do a great job of transitioning especially at the trampoline bunny suit sceane (0:20). Speaking of which the first half of that scene is a little weird. A colorful bunny falling is just to absurd to be dramatic. Perhaps you could try putting a blue filter on to make it match the second half of the scene which seems to fit much better.

The only thing I don’t really “get” is the scene with the scene with the girl standing on that flying platform. I got the impression that it was probably a scene that is very representitive of her success, but it doesn’t translate that visually quite. It kind of stands out because it is a bit odd and (the way it is cut) not as impressive or dramatic as some of the stuff around it, although this could be partially attributed to the music change. This is the only part of the video Which really doesn’t quite work IMO.

I don’t know if I mentioned this before but what really makes this vid shine in terms of flow is internal synch. So the opening and the wrecking ball scene come of as particularly nice.

0:04 I like the costume transition.

0:14 you have an extended “reaching” metaphore here that really defines the section.

0:15 Is it just me or were these from diferent places? When she touched the bar it didn’t look like she was falling, just sort of standing and reaching for it, maybe it’s just the animators fault.

0:25 what’s this expresion supposed to be? Although it’s a bit to fast to matter.
0:27 a lot of switching of costumes and from practice to performance here but the clip does fit well.

I love the angel

0:50 I don’t know how you timed that tightrope fall…

0:53 excelent pacing and use of overlays

0:57 this gets me every time, amazing redemption scene, right over the fires the color change the expresion, everything. This section is very epic.

!:15 this scene is perfect in terms of mood but does leave some questions


1:17 heh, this is a nice little detail, it’s kind of like an orphan clip, fits the music but is so short it’s hardly noticeable. It underscores the transformation, from practice to performance.

Good Job!

[Otohiko]

Heh, I'll have to whip myself into nitpick mode shortly. Especially as far as Pen-Pen's and bum's segments; I don't know if I can say much about Coffee's because I'm now officially biased towards it and I'm afraid to ruin the original artistic approach of it with my petty meddling.

Jasper - you have no complaints from me. Maybe because I wasn't thinking too too far into the individual symbolic meanings of each scene like Pen-Pen seems to have Maybe that's because I never took Kaleido Star too too seriously and just enjoyed it for the whole 'don't give up' message plus soap-operatic drama combined with great graphics - which the video certainly delivers. And I mean, visually/editing wise, I really ought not to have complaints, because I really consider it the segment to look up to in that regard.

***

I've gotten about 3 tips from Jasper on still-outstanding issues in my vid, which I plan to fix up in a day or two. So if you got any more - do tell. Otherwise, I'll follow suit and delete my project files, freeing up space for perhaps even another track if we happen to need one

[jasper-isis]

Pen-pen: since we've talked about this, you already have my replies to those comments.

Otohiko: thanks! I wonder if I, myself, can ever make another Kaleido Star video that's more representative of the "serious" themes in the show than this video is. Kaleido Star is one of my favorite series, and I never thought that I'd exhaust it [almost] on a short MEP segment - but I'm really happy with what I've done here, so it's all good.

Here is my final beta. I've only made two changes. I added the blue filter in the beginning, and I replaced two of the clips in the short diabolo section to make it more obvious that she's using a diabolo. The sparks add to the tone of "intensity," I guess. I really can't think of any other way to tweak that tiny part, so unless anybody can think of a working suggestion, this will be final.

[Coffee 54]

Since Jasper's wraping up, and I have no complaints, nit-picks, or problems of any kind with her segment, I can do 'Highlights!'

I like doing Highlights:

Openning: Always loved the openning, still true. The lights move perfectly to the music.
0:12 - 0:15: The sadder scenes, like these, help offset the happy scenes. This gives the video a great balance not to happy, not to sad.
0:18: Check this scene, looks interlaced. (Ok, one negative. But it's not artistic, it's technical, so it doesn't count.)
0:21 - 0:23: Sooooooo cute!
0:37 - 0:41: What a bitch.
0:52 - 0:58: Lots of emotion in this small section. Loved the turn around at the end.
1:05 - End: Perfect editing across the board. A great way to close out the segment.

[bum]

Pen, what troubles me most about my track is that, after the first minute or so things start to feel a little jumbled. First section is nicely edited and the story is easy to follow. From then on things start to feel broken. Some sections can be pieced into the story, but others feel completely seperated from the rest of the vid. Take 1.12-1.16 for example. Far as sync goes its realy damn well edited (if I do say so myself ). However it just doesnt fit in anywhere with the rest of the vid. It's good, but its not. So tweaking this scene (weather that means fixing up or replacing it alltogeather) isnt going to be easy.

Ok I think things would be easier if I explained a bit of the story of Argentosoma. Warning, I'l be spoiling the first 4 epps. Guy (Takuto Kaneshiro) is taken to a secret lab to be involved in a rather secretive experiment. Their he finds his girlfreind (Maki) also taking part. During the experiment (to revive that monster, frank) things go wrong and everyone dies except Takuto. Takuto blames the death of his girlfreind on frank. Killing the thing is prety much all thats on his mind. While in hospital a misterios guy appears and gives Takuto the opportunity to assume a new identity, by joining an elite alien fighting squad (who capture frank) and geting access to a nice mech. I'm not gona say anything about that misterios girl, except that she has a conection with frank and reminds Takuto of Maki (that explains 0:54 - 0:56).

About scene changes. Its hard to keep with a single scene and edit it properly to match the fast paced music. What troubles me more though is what scenes to actualy use. Takuto's vengance is just one section of the oeverall story of argentosoma, and it ends rather loosely. That's why closer to the end I used a few dream like scenes and tried to expand Takuto's feelings. I'l take on your advice and try to break it down into more solid sections.

Is the footage at 1:30 speed up? It looks odd. And what the hell is that yellow thing?

Yeah that fight scene is speed up. The yellow thing is an electro manetic fluffy weapon thing, which Takuto is using to attempt to kill frank. What do you think about having takuto's face in the background throughout that fight scene? I put it their as a constant reminder of just how angery Takuto is feeling.

Jasper thanks for all the previos advice. I'l look back at it and comment later. Dont know how much time I'l be able to spend on aim this week, its the final week for the semester, and thank god for that. But I'l stick around for a chat if I see ya.

One last thing. If everyone could do me a huge favour and get a beta up by friday it would be great. I'l be spending the day at a cable blessed freinds place, and I'l be leeching acordingly

[jasper-isis]

One last thing. If everyone could do me a huge favour and get a beta up by friday it would be great. I'l be spending the day at a cable blessed freinds place, and I'l be leeching acordingly

Hey, do you think you could upload a higher quality encode at the time too? Part of the reason your segment leave me confused is because, well, I can't see half the stuff that goes on.

[jasper-isis]

0:18: Check this scene, looks interlaced. (Ok, one negative. But it's not artistic, it's technical, so it doesn't count.)

Yeah, BlendBob couldn't get those frames either. I guess the blue filter made it look more prominent. The only way I can think of to treat it at this point would be to get rid of FastLineDarken on that one clip.

[EDIT: nevermind, I decided to just cut out those troublesome frames and repeat the frames immediately after them. It's a lot more effective than playing around with filters, heh.]

I think I'm going to make the blue filter just a tad bluer. You'll hardly notice it, but it'll match the original blue footage more closely.

[bum]

Hey, do you think you could upload a higher quality encode at the time too? Part of the reason your segment leave me confused is because, well, I can't see half the stuff that goes on.

I'm editing with low quality divx files right now, and I'l probably make huffy's of the scenes I'm using once I've got a final beta done. Sorry