How To Review

[Kionon]

Critique is still criticism. It's just constructive as opposed to destructive. Constrictive criticism instructs with the goal being the improvement of the editor/writer/artist/etc. Destructive criticism does not. I looked around for a video I really found forgettable but that I gave a very, very in depth opinion to. I am not entirely sure if this would be seen as bad or good. I do assume something about the editor and his goals, but although I am somewhat informal at times, I don't think I act at all inappropriate.

Good
- Song Choice
- Anime Choice
- Video Quality
- Sound Quality
- Digital Effects
- Editing Sych (some parts)
- Reviewability


1) Song Choice: Yay for angsty Fuel song. The song is definitely appropriate. Gundam Seed (and I assume Destiny, although I have not seen it) is not exactly the happiest of anime. Going with an angsty song is always a decent choice.

2) Anime Choice: Much like the song choice, you did a good job of taking two parts that fit together. In addition, Seed is easily accessible and of high quality, even when downloaded. Good choice here as well.

3) Video Quality: I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised here. I'm not a fan of WMVs, so I braced myself for a bad video. Although a generalization, in my experience it is usually true. I just wish you were the rule, rather than the exception. Quality was by no means excellent, but it was very, very good for a WMV. I took that into consideration.

4) Sound Quality: Perfect, but these days finding seriously screwed up audio is harder and harder. Good codecs are constantly coming out that can convert and compress and yet keep amazing quality. I gave you a ten because sound was perfect, but for the next guy or gal, I may need to lower it, just because I can no longer say with certainty that getting perfect audio quality is all that much effort anymore.

5) Digital Effects: When used, used well. You had some issues making them story-appropriate, but that will fall under editing synch. I especially liked the overlays. Being more detailed will far under my part by part break down of the video.

6) Editing Synch (some parts): Generally I felt the editing synch did an decent job of matching angst lyrics to angsty action and powerful sounds to powerful actions. There were exceptions, but those will fall under (other parts). Here we go step by step:

00:02-00:07 - Opening up with a seemingly peaceful space scene. In my opinion you should have kept this for all of the opening sequence.

00:21-00:27 - Appropriate, dark scenes, dark fades, dark lyrics. I felt it here.

00:33 - "with hands touching skin," although not technically skin (they're suited), the message comes across loud and clear, and I liked it.

00:56 - Excellent scene choice. You can really see how he's enamored with her. Unfortunately it fails to synch at 1:07.

01:13 - For the most part this was just cuts on audio beats. It worked.

01:28 - Dark scenes, dark fades, dark lyrics again. Gundam pilots looking all broody and emo. Very nice. Cheer up, Zion Kids!

01:46 - Spinning on "believe." It's cute, it's romantic, it fits.

01:51 - Quite possibly my favorite editing point in the video. Powerful audio part to a shuttle coming directly out of the horizon. Do this more often.

02:05 - Why yes, that IS a beautful sky. Probably my second favorite editing point. Too bad your editing points are so short.

02:07-02:20, this was, however, awesome. Excellent editing points several times in a row, in a coherent stream, for 13 whole seconds. First the snow "that falls on him" to him "being strong enough" and then the fade with slow down to a really screwed up looking crash site. Probably the most coherent part of the video.

02:38 - Decent flow, but not excellent.

02:40 - I like this concept, but execution varied for the length of the overlay. I'll just say it was generally good with the exception of 02:48.

7) Reviewable: I'll probably add this to my regularly watched list.

Bad
- Originality
- Lip Flap
- Repeated Footage
- Subs
- Credits
- Editing Synch (other parts)

1) Originality: While it's true I did say you couldn't go wrong with Seed plus Angsty music, it's not very original because of that. I'd love to see a sunshine and rainbows AMV for seed that worked.

2) Lip Flap: Avoid it. You have at least three instances of it, two of which were glaring. You must treat lip flap just like an other action because your viewer can see it. If it doesn't fit, cut it. If you can't cut it, edit it.

3) Repeated footage: Back in the dark days when we used linear editing, before broadband, peer 2 peer, or DVD ripping... Well, a certain amount of this was allowable. But these days, absolutely none is. I know, it was like, one second. But I recognized it, so it was still too much. Another explosion would have sufficed for that one second.

4) Subs: Not exactly a sub, but I didn't want to call it credits, since I'm about to go after your personal credits. You had a scene with Japanese text on it. That's a no-no.

5) Credits: This is a bit biased and subjective of me, but I honestly hate it. Starting the credits before the song ends is just... Like wasted resources to me. It bothers me deep inside. Please don't do it. Have a credit bumper like you have an opening bumper. Also you can't enter it into blind competitions like that.

6) Editing Synch (other parts): Some were just boring or cliche, some were simply inappropriate, some appeared to be attempts that didn't communicate what I think you wanted to say, and still other synch mistakes were just pure sloppyness. Here's the breakdown:

00:07-00:21 - No sir, I don't like it: powerful war scenes without the accompanying strong audio? If you were trying for a dichotomic contrast, it failed to communicate.

00:28 - Whoops. Turn that transition around, it's facing the wrong direction!

00:29 - Fail for lip flap. There are several modifications you could have made here to avoid said lip flap.

00:35-00:41 - Inappropriate action thematically and lyrically, but it also didn't match up with the beats. The movement of the gundam was much too fast.

00:45 - Oh my. Sudden, drastic change in the music... and you choose a slow transition? It doesn't work. It just looks like you missed an opportunity due to sloppy editing. (Hint: Explosion here!)

01:07-01:12 - Bah. Him running. I realize it was an attempt to go with the crescendo of the vocal but it didn't really work out.

01:28-1:35 - Scenes didn't match up with the lyrics I was hearing. My response was bleh.

01:53 - AWWWW, you transitioned from the shuttle early.

01:59-02:02 - Another lost opportunity. Your cut was not only to an inappropriate scene, but it was miles away from the beat.

02:21-02:23 - Unfortunately, you lose that coherency with the screams. Not appropriate, in fact, they look downright comical.

02:24 - Serious fail for that Japanese credit/sub thing. Yuck!

02:48 - Overlay or not, that there was repeated footage and I saw it! No hiding from me.

~03:00-4:00 - The last minute was probably your worst part of the video. It was all over the place lip flap, battle scenes not on the beat... Pretty boring. Go back, clean it up, place things on beats, and it'll look better. I'm not opposed to battle scenes, just actions that occur against the beats. Looks like you said "Hmm, video is almost over so... letsjustputabattlesceneheretorepetativeaudio, no one will know the difference."

General
In general, this video was decent. Much better than I expected when offering to give free ops. Anime/song combo were good, video quality was superior to most AMVs, audio quality was perfect. I found it to be reviewable. About half the video was edited well or decently. The rest, not so much. The concept was good largely because it was unoriginal and worked already. The lip flap, repeated footage, and sub annoyed me. The credits really annoyed me. Overall eight, mostly because I enjoyed watching it and will watch it again.

Amusingly, this video came up on random after I hit preview. O_o

[godix]

I looked and found the following review I gave. Re-reading it, it seems to be fairly constructive criticism orientated, but perhaps I sugarcoated things a bit too much.

Originality - Ohhhh a car racing anime to a car racing movie trailer. That's gotta be the height of originality. I haven't seen anything this original since Heavens Gate offed themselves in a cheap copy of Jim Jones. What's wrong, could you not get the Naruto DVDs or Linkin Park CD to rip?

Video quality - I don't think it's possible to get something uglier on screen than that even if you videotaped Minion giving head to Izumi.

Sound quality - This video had sound and it wasn't nearly as annoying as listening to my wife whine about how she didn't cum yet. Bitch, I blew my load so now we're done. If she wants to cum she has two hands, she can damned well do it herself. Why should I waste my time on that? Anyway, you sounded better than that so nice job.

Action/editing - This video was almost as shaky and dark as the documentary about Michael Jackson's try up McCally Culkin's ass in search of the mythical lost glove of glitter. Except the Michael Jackson had some humor value despite the horrible editing which is just that much more value than your video had.

Lip sync - You ever happen to catch the news when it's the newcasters first night on the job? You know how they get that deer in the headlight look on their face and just read off the cue card like those braindead anatromic presidents that Disneyworld has? Yeah, you probably shouldn't try emulating that in your video.

Effects - Shatter. My god you used shatter! What astounding work you did! Now all you need to master is lens flare and color hue cycling and you'll have achieved the triefica of tacky effects! Few have dared go for this difficult goal, do you have the balls to continue down this road?

Effort - I've seen more effort from a five year old making stick figures fuck in MSpaint than I saw in this video. I mean seriously, he was sitting up straight with his tongue hanging out his mouth in concentration and mumbling about getting the figures just right, like the time he walked in on mommy and daddy and the moose. That kid was really into getting the moose asshole just right. You just don't see dedication to someones art like that anymore. Most people figure 'fuck the moose asshole, I'm going back to her titties' but not this kid. It was the best damned moose asshole I saw in my life. I don't know why, but for some strange reason seeing your video reminded me of moose shit flowing out his ass.

Review - This actually has a very high review factor. Primarily because I'm a sadistic asshole who hates my wife and takes joy in tormenting her. Playing this video 5 times a day fits that goal perfectly.

[EvaFan]

Bleh, you can talk about what a good or bad review is all you want but you cant change people's attitudes or moods when they write them at the time.

Bad reviews happen, not everyone is a nice person or prefers saying exactly whats on their mind whether good or bad. Move on.

There is always gonna be a rotten tomatoes critic among critics. Then their's godix who enjoys tormenting. At least his comments are funny to read usually.

[Fall_Child42]

This is where a good writer has to be careful, just because you didn't like it doesn't mean they are wrong.

A mindset of complete subjectiveness, likewise gets you nowhere. Most recognized "good" (pop-culture) critique is written as fact by individuals whose reputations provide requisite assertions of authority to back it up. Opinion as fact by authority through reputation is kinda how the art/music scene works. That's why it's filled with shallow vapid ass kissing fuckwits. It's the primary basis for the study of critique in general though, so what'cha gonna do?

What was the documentary by the way?

It didn't always work like that, nor does it have to work like that.

The Documentary was called Heckler. And while Jamie Kennedy got a bit whiney at times, and the trailer makes the film look way worse then it is, I think the movie was a great watch and had great points.

Bleh, you can talk about what a good or bad review is all you want but you cant change people's attitudes or moods when they write them at the time.

Bad reviews happen, not everyone is a nice person or prefers saying exactly whats on their mind whether good or bad. Move on.

There is always gonna be a rotten tomatoes critic among critics. Then their's godix who enjoys tormenting. At least his comments are funny to read usually.

Why can't I? I find it upsetting when people have these defeatist attitudes about everything. Just because something is a certain way does not mean it has to be that way, that is a logical fallacy unless some evidence is brought up to support it. I agree Bad reviews do happen, but that doesn't mean that we have to accept them, and that we cant try and provide examples showing people what a good review looks like, and should be written like.
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I am going to now follow Infinity Squared's Lead and review one of my own videos. I hope this does not seem pretentious but I think I'll try and write both a good and a bad positive review. to contrast the negative one IS wrote.

OMG This was awesome! I totally love this band. This was just so sweet. This video is like cake and cookies, and I love cake and cookies. I totally just love everything you make. In conclusion Pizza.

Why this is bad. Sure, most people won't complain about recieving comments like this, but that doesn't stop it from being poorly written. "I totally love this band" does not say anything about the video at all except that you enjoyed the music. And while Streetlight Manifesto might be happy to hear that you are a fan it really does not help the video creator. Emoticons generally fail to add anything to a review or a critique and should be used sparringly. "this video is like cake and cookies" Could lead into something usefull but only if that simile was expanded upon to say why the video was like cake and cookies. "I totally love everything you make" bears no comment on the video, and instead falls dangerously close to the personal attacks often seen in negative reviews.

Overall, even though this review was positive it was still a bad review. The review did not have anything to do with the video, nor did it offer any sort of valid critique past "I liked it for some reason"

I enjoyed this video. I have to admit that I really like this band and their music and I thought that the video went very well with this song. I am the type of person that really enjoys internal synch, there is plenty of very good internal synch in this video which entertained me. I felt the uniqueness of the source added something to the video because I was exposed to something fresh and new. There were a couple of parts in the video that I thought broke the flow a tad, but overall I found it quite enjoyable. I think other people that like ska, and videos that focus heavily on internal synch may also enjoy watching this AMV.

Why it's good This review states that he likes the video but then proceeds to list a few specific reasons as to why. The internal synch, the way it fit with the song, the freshness of the anime all contributed to his enjoyment. Though these are his reasons, they are not presented as things that are automatically good. The reviewer does not say that because they are there everyone MUST enjoy this AMV. Something that the reviwer found he did not like was mentioned as well as something that might be improved on. Finally, the review ended with a general statement saying the basic style of the video, and if others that read the review share this reviewers taste then they might enjoy the video as well.

[godix]

To take the topic seriously, and basically repeat something I said in IRC, a few general guidelines to giving decent feedback I try to follow when I'm not just being a flaming asshole

- Overly vague statements aren't that useful. "The editing was bad" just doesn't tell someone enough to improve. Provide examples.

- Overly specific statements probably aren't that useful either. They're done editing the video, if you go second by second listing the thoughts on everything, then it doesn't matter. They aren't going to re-edit it. Limit your comments to stuff that may apply to what they edit in future.

- Understand there is a difference between 'I did/didn't like this' and 'This is wrong'. One is opinion, the other is fact. There are very few things about videos that are factual. Aspect Ratio, frame rate, or other tech stuff are. Most everything else is opinion. Try avoiding absolutes, 'flashes *NEVER* look good...' is overly strong in stating your opinion while 'The flashes in this spot did not look good...' is better.

- Excessive sugarcoating. If you're one of those people who wants to phrase negatives in a nice way, fine. Whatever. Knock yourself out. But don't go so far that the reader is left with the impression you liked something when you didn't. There is nothing wrong with saying you didn't like something and why.

- The reverse of that, excessive complaints. If there was one segment a few seconds long that had problems and you go off for three pages about it, but never once mention the rest of the video, you're being too critical. Keep perspective. It's rather rare a single mistake ruins the entire video so why treat that single issue as if it did?

Taking the above things into account, I think a decent statement would be something like "I do not like how you used flashes. At (timestamp) there were so many flashes in a row that it looked bad and seizurific. Less usually works better. Now for the rest of the video..."

[dreamawake]

shitsux

[Megamom]

Well, I've always thought that a criticism can be good... That depends on how I (the author) to receive the views ... in this community, I received a lot of harsh criticism, insults and sometimes despised my work (AMVs)... but most of these things helped me to improve.

Constructive criticism is very good, but also being trampled by the comments of others, helps you be less pretentious and more humble when announcing a AMV.

This is simply a hobby, I'm going to die by bad reviews.

This is what I think

[Megamom]

Well, I've always thought that a criticism can be good... That depends on how I (the author) to receive the views ... in this community, I received a lot of harsh criticism, insults and sometimes despised my work (AMVs)... but most of these things helped me to improve.

Constructive criticism is very good, but also being trampled by the comments of others, helps you be less pretentious and more humble when announcing a AMV.

This is simply a hobby, I'm going to die by bad reviews.

This is what I think

My English

I'm not going to die by bad reviews.

[ZephyrStar]

Not everyone has the skills, but everyone is a critic. I think one of the biggest things people should learn is how to TAKE criticism...which is a hard thing to learn. Even with badly written crits or just "you suck" statements, instead of getting butthurt, find out why. I've only had a few negative comments on some of my vids that were "you suck" type comments, and I always asked "yeah? what would you have done differently?" It's all in how you approach it.

[Infinity Squared]

Agreed... I think it will also come down to experience. After a certain while, you eventually know already how people are going to react and you just keep your video the way it is because it's the way you wanted or knew you can make.