Trying to break out of the habit of...

[OropherZero]

....editting chronologically. Trouble I have when editting an AMV is editting to the song and either doing one of the following things:
1. editting to that anime in chronological order, even though its unintentional, it just turns out that way, and so it ends up looking like a simple retelling/summary of the anime and i really want to avoid that =(
2. focus on only one scene only at one particular part of the song
im finding myself enjoying watching animes which use scenes from different parts of the anime and combine them way/create a good flow in doing so, especially if its a fast paced song, or say, having 5 scenes, chopping them up, and having the segment play one after the other, so the same scene doesn't precede the next which then moves to the next, but rather has a clever mixture... am i making much sense here? its hard to explain but yeah really trying to break out of this habit, advice? =(

[JaddziaDax]

edit the video out of chronological order... when you hear a certain part of the song and it gets that image in your head do that part first...

start with the end of your amv and then do the beginning then the end

jump around in the clips when youre going through them rather than going through them in chronological order?

[OropherZero]

hmm yeah i'll try editting with that mindset.

btw this is an example of the type of editting im trying to achieve for a simple story telling anime like that, i liked the way shino sequenced the clips in no chronological order in terms of the anime yet the amv made sense and was enjoyable to watch, see before when I editted to this anime I started with the whole yuuichi meets Rika...what happens after that, then... o shi - I had to stop editting because it became too much like a plain retelling ~_~

[JaddziaDax]

i think he kinda does what i do: puts it together as he thinks of it... but you could always ask him how he does it O.o

[Shazzy]

You could always do what film majors do..or try to do...or are told by their professors to do...

Listen to the song, watch the anime, come up with a broad concept and edit the video based on that.

NOT a broad concept: Naruto and Sasuke are best friends forever!!!!

Broad concept: Violence creates friendships.

Sucky examples, but you get the idea.

[Purge]

for the second one maybe just more expirimentation. I guess you have to look for something that keeps the scenes cohesive such as a theme , the camera motion or just the aesthetics or content of the sources. just anything to "connect" them.

[SilversLightning]

....editting chronologically. Trouble I have when editting an AMV is editting to the song and either doing one of the following things:
1. editting to that anime in chronological order, even though its unintentional, it just turns out that way, and so it ends up looking like a simple retelling/summary of the anime and i really want to avoid that =(
2. focus on only one scene only at one particular part of the song
im finding myself enjoying watching animes which use scenes from different parts of the anime and combine them way/create a good flow in doing so, especially if its a fast paced song, or say, having 5 scenes, chopping them up, and having the segment play one after the other, so the same scene doesn't precede the next which then moves to the next, but rather has a clever mixture... am i making much sense here? its hard to explain but yeah really trying to break out of this habit, advice? =(

I stopped doing that a while ago, it actually works better if you edit out of beginning to end mode since you can get some more complicated stuff done faster and don't really have to worry about the slow stuff till you reviewed your collection and see what works best there.

it takes a while to want to break out of that habit but you'll find it's worth it in the end hun

[Shinodude]

It might help if you jump around from episode looking for clips like you are looking at episode one but after skip to episode 5 or 8 looking for a clip that will go witht the next part of the song. Hopefully if you skip around episodes it will help with number one.


as for number 2 >.> I dont understand.

[Otohiko]

I think the problem is less with the tendency for correct chronology as such but linearity more generally. I think people fall into a 'story structure' trap, being afraid to get accused of having a pointless, story-less video. That said, there's actually nothing wrong with having a linear story in a video, in fact it's good, just that I think we often forget that we're making AMVs here, not short movies, and there's more than one way of making sensible AMVs.

The point, I think, is that the video should have a visual structure and if you think a little surely you can come up with one that doesn't neccesarily involve a linear story. If I were intentionally making a non-linear video like that, the first thing I'd do is think about arranging it by themes. Have a certain musical part go with one theme, another with another, and so on. Most types of music have several distinct parts per song/piece, and that's where you start, by putting together a per-part thematic plan.

Honestly, I think a video can tell no story whatsoever and make perfect sense and not be pointless. Good examples of this lie in action videos, though they're a bit hard to find among the real nonsense, and in the so-called "mood" videos. At the risk of self-pimping, a video where I did things by theme and out of order is my "Wasteland". The one I was working on until my PC blew was not-chronological, though that one is intentionally supposed to make fun of story/concept-oriented videos.

[Qyot27]

I can't say I've ever fallen into that temptation explicitly. I usually tend to focus on making sure that the lyrical cues match up with the source - whether that means doing it literally or in the process of building the atmosphere like I've tended to do lately. Overall, however, I also make sure that I like the visual flow, and oftentimes I've found that going strictly chronologically by the original source doesn't create that flow very well for me, so I just naturally stay away from that - it doesn't even cross my mind.

That's not to say I've never done videos which did line up with the source in an overall chronological fashion, but it's not the focus of the video.