AMV Salad 3: Three Bean Casserole - mp4 now available

[Gaelstrom]

Many of you may be hard to please, but instead of leaving it at a judgement, it's much more useful to pick some specific examples relating to timing and/or footage to see if there's something you can help to enhance rather than useless ragging (consider that the compression issues could use helpful suggestions as well). AMV Hell 'clones' in and of themselves are not bad things, since it's a genre rather than a single video. We all have memories of AMV Hell catching us off guard with its innovation, so rather than thinking everyone's trying to copy it, consider that they are emulating its spirit instead.

It's there for entertaining a crowd, so see if you can be constructive for their sake. If you don't find something funny, see if you can think of a way to describe to make it better. Not everything in AMV Hell style videos has a strong premise obviously, but enhancements can be made. God forbid you spend a few minutes finding something you DO enjoy about it to a certain degree, determine why, and spend a couple minutes expressing why in technical terms so the author(s) can improve or learn from it.

So please take a breath and see what you can do as objective viewers to enhance the experience. Also, if you aren't entertained by AMV Hell style stuff, please consider that as well and realize that many do enjoy it.

[Squancho]

Not to sound like I don't appreciate anyone coming to our defense, I'd rather not spend TOO much energy justifying this project. It may not be a favorite around the 'org as a lot of members hold this art form to a higher standard than the average viewer, but that's kind of the point. At least until I have learned enough to create something most anyone can get behind.

Bottom line: AMVS is mostly for the convention attendees when they're not voting in a contest or watching random anime. It's a diversion from regular AMV programming. Yeah, AMV Hell blazed a trail for countless others to follow, and I did. I don't seek to imitate or even emulate. I just wanna do something fun and bring whoever wants to come along for the ride, as brief as it is.

It's all about having fun and creating. At the end of the day I still want to have come away knowing more than I did last time around. I think this project has improved, though maybe not by the leaps that some might expect but still...

wow. Did I just run off on a tangent there. Anyway, let's continue with the learning process. Who's next to offer their wisdom so AMVS4 may be better still..?

[Squancho]

*bumped to advertise the fact we now have a mp4 download ready*

[dragontamer5788]

It seems like the jokes in general have potential: some are even adequate or even good. Unfortunately, you need momentum to laugh at good jokes. After about a minute, you've dropped the ball. After you've hear 5 or 6 bad AMVs in a row, everything just looks bad, even if it by itself was decent.

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Okay, first, the quality is still pretty bad. I don't know how bad it used to be, but when I can't read the letters at all in the "now thats annoying" segment, you know the quality is unacceptable. Are you doing a two-pass average bit-rate encode? Thats the best way to hit a target size at the best quality. The B and P frames are ****ing noticeable o.O. (notice how in the first minute already, the quality seems to go back and forth between decent and terrible). What were the settings on your encode? I know this was a joint-project, so did you first encode to lossless (or nearly lossless like MJPEG) before putting it all together?

But there's more wrong with your video than quality. Lets start at the beginning and move forward from there. The first thing I noticed was a ~pixel-wide line of light blue running down the right side. Detail is important.

Your first video (in black and white) doesn't seem to add to the audio at all. It is no funnier seeing the AMV than it is to hear the pure audio recording. Extended periods of poor lip sync followed by non-sequitur IMO kills the joke. I can count the number of total frames used on my hand. Finally, there was no conclusion to the video. The only thing that kinda felt like an end was a fade-to-black and fade-to-silence transition. Everything requires closure, and far too many videos in this MEP don't close.

I think the lack of a standardized advanced transition was the main problem. In AMV Hell, it is obvious when a new clip came in due to the "static" screen and white noise sound. In this, most transitions are pure silence.

The Kung-Fu Panda spoof was decent, but the transitions hurt it alot (both to and from)

I actually liked the NSync one, but the timing could have been a lot better. Its a dance AMV but it has timing issues. By choosing the famous dance, you're placing yourselves under the expectations of "Skittles" (see ~20 seconds to ~45 seconds). The audience wants you to go beyond perfection, and you didn't even deliver perfect. It is the problem with choosing to spoof something so popular.

[Squancho]

Okay, first, the quality is still pretty bad. I don't know how bad it used to be, but when I can't read the letters at all in the "now thats annoying" segment, you know the quality is unacceptable. Are you doing a two-pass average bit-rate encode?

That particular clip was one of the editor's WMVs from two years ago. I didn't use it then because it didn't quite fit in with the project. Unfortunately, she's difficult to get in contact with or I'd have asked her to redo that commercial.

The first thing I noticed was a ~pixel-wide line of light blue running down the right side. Detail is important.

I missed that when I put together the opening. I'm planning on fixing that.

Your first video (in black and white) doesn't seem to add to the audio at all. It is no funnier seeing the AMV than it is to hear the pure audio recording. Extended periods of poor lip sync followed by non-sequitur IMO kills the joke. I can count the number of total frames used on my hand.

Same editor; unfortunate WMV. She turned it in as a base clip in color and, on its own, didn't seem to work anywhere. I filtered the clip to black & white, added the user name to the beginning, and the "match.com" logo at the end. I think if she had a better editing program, her overall quality would improve. She usually has good ideas but they don't translate into high enough quality video. I do what I can to help.

Finally, there was no conclusion to the video. The only thing that kinda felt like an end was a fade-to-black and fade-to-silence transition. Everything requires closure, and far too many videos in this MEP don't close.

You're not the first to not catch the idea behind that. The premise was short bursts of "regular AMV Salad programming" in between a slew of commercials. When a TV show comes back on, it fades in. When it's time for commercial again, it either fades out or cuts abruptly. The sequences of commercials aren't connected to each other by transition since it doesn't happen on TV. Basically, this entire video is a fake programming block for [amv salad]. I don't know if you've seen either of the first two Salads but you'd recognize which parts are "regular program" and which aren't if you have.

I actually liked the NSync one, but the timing could have been a lot better.

It bothered me a little as well, but the sync wasn't constant. In the beginning, the timing was right, then it gets a bit off, comes back, and off again. Short of having the editor remake the entire clip, I would have to go in myself, split the scenes, adjust the timing to the video stream,...what a mess. I had to do this with a few of the other clips, but they were just a matter of moving the video up or down a few frames to line the audio up right.

I'm currently going through the initial post of the project thread and adjusting the tech specs to be tighter and less lenient with regard to visual quality (especially encoding - I'll probably allow only certain codec sets having been used) and file format. No WMVs, period.

I never thought MEPs would be easy. Are you all picky about who you allow to join in because you know their quality of work? How do you get an entire group to adhere to such strict standards and still get it done? AMVS4 will enter production, theme or not, July 20 and take the next ten months to compile, then a month of post before the Otakon fan production submission deadline. What's the best strategy for making sure there's a steady flow of material coming in, even if a slow one? I want to be sure I have more material than I can use so there will be more options.

MEPs are serious busines, no?

[CodeZTM]

A very long review coming here from a AMV Salad fan. =D

First of all : The first 2:41 of the AMV made ZERO sense to me. zero. O-o And I like to think of myself as eccentric enough to understand a lot of crazy stuff. O_o

As with all of these videos, many were funny while others were just aweful.



Individual Tracks I Liked/Wanted To Commment On:

Haven't we heard the "they're coming to take me away" enough already?

The Now 63 just about made me wet my pants from laughing. LOL.

MAC VS PC was fun.

Kill whoever is holding the phone = Best Death Note one in the project

The adult swim references were really neat. =D

Guitar Hero World Tour was fun. =D

Head On commericals = epic.

Death Note "FUCKING JUMP" was hilarous! =D

Porno Commentary Stand Up Comedy = Hilarous

Beck Family Guy = Best Track in the entire video. I nearly choaked from laughing.

I think the Azumanga German part was out of sync. O-o

Power Rangers Excel Saga = Fun.

Men's Warehouse = totally unexpected, was hoping for something funnier with the Fruits Basket set up.

DBZ Opera = Amuzing.

And as usual, the credits were ridiculously long. O-o

Overall, I'd say it was the weakest of all the Salads, but still amuzing nonetheless.

[Squancho]

The version you see before you is by no stretch the final copy. I'm still working out glitches and having to replace the video streams of the clips which are obviously mistimed. If you know the usual AMV Salad convention schedule, you'll likely see a very different arrangement and cleaner Salad.

This was kind of a tough theme I chose, not realizing more work is needed for commercials than average clips. I think the next theme will be much easier to work with...

[CodeZTM]

The version you see before you is by no stretch the final copy. I'm still working out glitches and having to replace the video streams of the clips which are obviously mistimed. If you know the usual AMV Salad convention schedule, you'll likely see a very different arrangement and cleaner Salad.

This was kind of a tough theme I chose, not realizing more work is needed for commercials than average clips. I think the next theme will be much easier to work with...

Wait, if this isn't the final copy, why was this released? O_o Wouldn't it have been better to wait until everything was cleaned up and ship it out them?

[hasteroth]

mp4 or streaming

it was still a piece of junk.

[Squancho]

The version you see before you is by no stretch the final copy. I'm still working out glitches and having to replace the video streams of the clips which are obviously mistimed. If you know the usual AMV Salad convention schedule, you'll likely see a very different arrangement and cleaner Salad.

This was kind of a tough theme I chose, not realizing more work is needed for commercials than average clips. I think the next theme will be much easier to work with...

Wait, if this isn't the final copy, why was this released? O_o Wouldn't it have been better to wait until everything was cleaned up and ship it out them?

This is where I submit things to get technical advice. I don't know anyone personally whom I can show this to and I get better commentary (most of the time) here. If there's anything I may be missing, I know someone on the 'org will be able to point me in the right direction.

And, as has been stated before, this is pretty much for public display at conventions. The visual choppiness of the streaming copy (even when viewed from file on any media player) through computer doesn't come through on DVD through TV or projector and that's what I really needed. I don't know how to smooth that out for computer viewing. I'm hoping someone can tell me what the problem might be (and it does this no matter how I encode or with which codec set)...