Fullmetal Alchemist (TV) AMV - very specific

[ShadowCat170]

This is a VERY SPECIFIC post, so be warned. I wasn't sure where else to ask so here's my suggestion.

Ok so there are a million different AMVs that involve the Fullmetal Alchemist series, many of which are awesome. What I'm looking to find though is an Fullmetal Alchemist AMV that was made *for the purpose* of simply giving the viewer a well-rounded and relatively spoiler-free taste of the characters in the series. With some of the AMV's I'm seen, people have commented about it being a good one to show someone who's never seen the series - that's what I'm getting at. But most/all of the Fullmetal Alchemist AMVs either seem to be too heavily focused on all the darker action/fighting scenes, or else too sentimental and ridden with spoilers.

Ideally, the AMV I am looking for would:
(1) Contain the basic beginning storyline of the series so that the viewer is not clueless
(2) Give plenty of attention to the other significant characters in the series in addition to Ed and Al, specifically - Scar, Winry, each of the military personnel, Sensei,...etc.
(3) Contain teaser-like elements, which sometimes means using clips from "less important" scenes or episodes to make the show seem more broad and epic. (For example: Showing plenty of female characters even though most of the time in the series is spent on characters that are m ale; Balance of emotion - happy, sad, fighting,...etc; Balance of background/environment)
(4) NOT resemble a movie trailer style - no external voiceovers, and little to no external text inserted in.
(5) Not *necessarily* have to have uber-effects throughout the entire AMV.

In other words, an AMV that would expose the viewer to the entirety of the vast scope of the series, both physically and emotionally - without any major spoilers. The closest one I've seen so far I suppose would be the one called "EasyAction of [Hagaren]," which is of course excellent. But it still isn't exactly what I'm looking for.

If anyone knows of an AMV that is very close to this, please post the link. Otherwise, I challenge you to go and make one

[Uanime5]

What you're requesting is quite difficult to make since it is not easy to cram a 52 episode series into an AMV lasting a few minutes. It's also difficult to explain the latter parts of FMA without some spoilers.

Despite your objections a trailer would fufill what you are asking for since you can give some information about the story in text form, while using clips to show what FMA is about. AMVs very rare are able to give outlines of anime series since they concentrate on a specific part of the anime (such as darker moments or a particular character).

On an unrelated note it may be fun to to make a FMA trailer using clips from episodes not related to the main plot and pretend that this as the plot of FMA.

[SamuraiJake]

A lot of theatrical trailers give just a taste of the movie being advertised. Of course this isn't to say that you should make this like a typical trailer, but just think about how they work. The principle is to give the viewer a good idea of what the overall story is.

- Think of key moments in the show that are big turning points. Add these sparingly to keep the mood a facinating one (i.e. "The key ingredient is...humans?!?")
- If you want to show many female characters, I would advice to keep their role a supporting one unless otherwise desired. After all the trailer should focus mainly on one or maybe two characters...otherwise you may lose you audience. I only say that the female characters should be supporting in the AMV is because they mainly are in the show for the two brothers. Just a continuity remark.
- This is taught frequently in Film School, but you should consider an arc when choosing your footage. The goal is to inform the audience about this show...okay, but since there are many different plot devices should you settle on the central one or not? It's really up to you and your own creativity, but once you do find it make sure the rest of your clips are relevant to the overall theme.

I also like how you don't want to use too many special effects on this (I find them to be too distracting and cheap thrills, which is why I never use them). It sounds like you have a good idea in mind, good luck.

- Samurai Jake

[otbwavelength]

What you're requesting is quite difficult to make since it is not easy to cram a 52 episode series into an AMV lasting a few minutes.

I'll agree about it being hard not to show spoilers, but I crammed a 178 episode series into 5 minutes (minus one filler storyline) into an AMV (the one linked in my profile as Your Time Is Now). Admittedly, while the AMV doesn't suck by any means, I can do much better now so it's not really the BEST example out there...

and, true, it was to a sports series (Prince of Tennis) so there's not nearly as deep of a plot as FMA, but FMA's less than 1/3rd as many episodes;

So I think if you were to use something quick, energetic and with tons of bass drum/snare hits (try power metal, speedcore, etc.) you'd be able to synch up scene changes with most of the sounds in the song, which would allow you to show a ton of scenes from all throughout the series, and still have it logically match visually to the music.

[Uanime5]

While it is possible to make an AMV to tell the story of a long series, it can be difficult it the plot is complex.

In a sports anime you can show the cast training and playing against various teams, and people will understand what you are showing. However FMA has a complex plot in which they first seek the philosopher's stone, then change to battling Homunculi, the the last part (explaining this problem is hard since I don't want to post spoilers). Trying to explain the sudden switches without spoilers can be difficult (though if you include some explanatory text this could help).

[ShadowCat170]

Let me clarify a little - I'm not really after an AMV that explains the plots of the whole series. In fact, the only part of the plot that I'd really want revealed is the basic premise of the boys becoming the way they are. If you're showing the AMV to someone who has not seen the series, you don't want to reveal anything important as far as the storyline is concerned. If anything, the only "theme" would just be centered on the quest for the philosopher's stone.

What I really want is an AMV that says, "These are the characters that are in the plot and this is what they are like." Some characters are rigid, so you'd want to portray a characterature, if you will. You'd do that with the characters that stay very much the same throughout the series - i.e. you'd want to show Scar fighting and being bad; Riza Hawkeye being loyal, protective, and trigger-happy; Armstrong being the overdramatic Hercules; the humunculi all being dark, mysterious, bad, and with their "superpowers,"...and so on (not showing the true identity of Pride or Envy of course). Then, there are characters in the series that are quite versatile and are the subject of many different emotions and circumstances. The Elrics, Winry, Mustang, Hughes,...etc. These characters should all be seen happy, sad, fighting, and whatever emotional stuff is associated with them. The AMV would show a lot of characters simply being the way they are.

You can get action from many places.
You can get comedy also from many places
You can get horror from scenes with the humunculi or scar.
You can get drama from certain scenes with Ed or Mustang perhaps.
You can get war with scenes with the military.
You can get peace and beauty from episode 17 and others.
You can even get sex appeal from Psiren, Hawkeye, and Winry if you know where to look.

All of it arranged beautifully together so that it doesn't seem like you're just going from one character or one theme to the next - gotta be jumbled up, but in a logical way.

Again, the goal would be to show the versitality and scope of the series, not to spoil any of the plot other than the premise. So that the viewer would think that hey this might be a pretty cool series to watch.

I think the music for an AMV like this would be better without lyrics, because songs with lyrics tend to have a single theme. Some kind of music that sounds cool and varies sometimes. "Requiem for a Dream" is good, as that actually was used for trailers for the LOTR movies, but a lot of people have already done AMVs to that music. "Clubbed to Death" by Rob dougan (also in the Matrix soundtrack) is also good - definitely cool sounding, but not much variation until the end. Anyone know of any other music that would fit?