FLCL - Rockstar

[keyblader72]

I really need some advice and critique on this. I'm trying to grow as an editor and the only way I can is with help from others better than me.

Anyways, without further ado- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTDp6SxvW7s

I know you guys hate youtube here but the quality is excellent so there is no need to reupload and it will save you time to just watch it there.

Please give me your honest criticism. Thank you.

[Kariudo]

Usually, people requesting opinions offer to give their opinions to others in return. There are a few free op threads floating around but if you're doing your own thread, you probably won't get too many responses if you don't offer to op something in return.

That said, I'll check this out

+edit:
Let's start with the sync
first 12 seconds
you started to sync to all of the 'na na na's but it quickly fell apart by about :05. If you're going to do something like that you really should carry it through the entire section. At around :05 the sync gets really erratic. At :07 you seem to settle on the beat but by :08 you're off again.

:12-:35
Sync is still pretty erratic. You have some pretty short clips in there that pop up out of nowhere. With how you set this section up, there really isn't much to sync to here...so that makes all your cuts pretty jarring.
From about :23-:35 you have clips with not much happening. While I think that the first section of this song (from the beginning up to ~:35) should be slower, the slow clips here don't work with the pace of everything up to this point (I'll get more into that later).

:35 - 1:10
Your sync is better here, but still needs work. This type of song lends itself well to consistent beat sync.

1:10-1:32
Again, work on your sync. 1:22-~1:25 has pretty good sync. Try to work so that all the sync in your video(s) are like this section.

1:32-2:07
Overall, I think this section had the best sync in the video. Some cuts here and there were off but overall it worked pretty well.

2:07-2:25
Again, sync stuff

2:25-end
moar sync stuff

Now onto clip selection and pacing
First 12 seconds
This doesn't really seem like an easy opening into a song. Although the opening is pretty energetic it's not typically someplace to go in with both guns blazing. I think that you focused more on syncing than choosing what clips to use here. I couldn't tell what the story was going to be in the rest of the video, and the clips you used seemed rather randomly chosen. I think the pace that you chose at around :07 was appropriate for this section

:12-:35
You keep switching between Mamimi and Haruko, and I'm not exactly sure why. I can pick up a little bit of the story here but it's not clear. Compared to the rest of the song, this is a slow section. Slow sections typically mean slow(er) clips and less cuts. Some of the clips in this section were (relatively) fast and others practically stood still. Try to go for consistently slower clips here, switching between fast and slow clips destroys flow. The clip from :28-:34 could serve as a good transition to the next section, but you use it a bit too early here. I'd have trimmed it down and put it from about :32-:35

:35-1:10
The first "fast" part of the song. You start off with pretty good clip selection and pacing but every now and again you'll put in a slow clip and it kills what you were building. At :51 I can't tell what purpose the cutout of Mamimi serves. The cutout of Naota a little later makes more sense, but I don't think the execution does what you intended. If I could only remove one clip from this section, it would be the Haruka clip at 1:02, it just completely destroys the mood and flow.

Again, at 1:03 you have a good transition clip but it's placed too early

1:10-1:32
1:14, this clip is way too energetic for this section
1:10-1:20 it feels like the clips here were randomly chosen again.
1:21-1:29 pretty good selection and pacing here
1:29 another good transition clip placed too early

1:32-2:07
The first 10 seconds of this section are a bit too slow for me. It's a nice pace, but it's more of a pace you'd use at the end of this song. It would have been better had you been more consistent, but at about 1:42 the pace picks up to the other good level for the section.

I'm not really feeling the clip at 2:00

2:03 you have a good transition clip that's placed at the right spot, good job.

2:07-2:25
good pace, pretty good clip selection. I'm finally thinking that I know what the story is. Just need to make sure the sync is good. Also, the blackness at 2:24 is pretty wtf. There should have been a clip here.

2:25-end
2:43 clip size change is not great. It would've been better to stretch the second part of that clip to cover the 12 or so frames that the first part of the clip takes up.
At 2:44 the cut looks like it would have been better as a fade, it's that point in the song where things should be slowing down (which you do, but a more gradual slowing from the higher energy start of the section would have looked nicer.)

Overall:
Sync needs quite a bit of work. Try syncing consistently in each section. Start with beat sync and then once you have a good base you can try doing different (more interesting) sync.
Avoid putting fast clips in slow sections of the song
Decide on a story or theme and use it through the entire video. Make it overly obvious what you're trying to do/show. Putting in random clips usually destroys the mood that you build

[keyblader72]

Ohh sorry I apologize, I'm new here.

I am also exchanging opinions of course.