Thanks for the comments! I'll just respond to a some bits - not getting defensive, just to explain the trains of thought and potentially spur conversation.
Radical_Yue wrote:
The Cowboy Bebop text from the opening credits at the start of the video. NO!
Bad dog!
Threw it in and kept it as the video is an homage to the whole work that is Cowboy Bebop and the scrolls were easy to sync to the drum hits. I can totally understand not liking it, but that's why it's in there.
Radical_Yue wrote:
Also, some of the overlays looked really bad D: The one at 1:22 was especially boring and awkward.
I won't even defend this one. Some people we showed liked it, others didn't think much of it. Honestly, I think it just stayed in by virtue of not wanting to let the other scene linger too long and to refocus on Julia a bit maybe? We edited it in a weeks time that felt like a blur - maybe my collaborator sanguine nightmare remembers better than I.
Radical_Yue wrote:
As for the lyrics about the blues, while it makes sense to use people who are actually playing the blues, it seemed a bit cheesy to use scenes like that. I think using some type of symbolism to convey the sadness and sorrow of the blues would have had a bit more impact.
We liked it, but you're probably right. I don't know what else to say about it except to ask if anyone else might have thought it was a good idea. *shrug*
Radical_Yue wrote:
The use of the movie was a bit strange at certain parts. The scenery and scenes of Spike alone were fine, but you worked to set up Vicious as "the villain" of your little love story...and then...it's VINCENT FIGHT TIME! GO KUNG-FU SPIKE! We don't really know who this guy is since he hasn't seen him at all in the first two minutes...BUT KICK HIS ASS YOU GREEN HAIRED MADMAN!
The fight was just supposed to be a (very nice looking) example of Spike's violent lifestyle. As for
most of the movie footage, the premise was to compare Julia and the butterflies in their elusiveness and being "just out of reach" so-to-speak. The fight's inclusion during the instrumental break seemed natural as some of the tower scenes provide some of the best footage of the butterflies en masse.
Radical_Yue wrote:
Speaking of the fight, the little fadey-sync you used at 2:38 looked really out of place. Up until now you'd stuck with slow moving, long scenes and went for mood/lyric sync and then out of nowhere, sudden sync to a sound that is almost unnoticeable. It's quite jarring.
Noted. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and while I quite like the effect - I saw it 100 times repeated, not the 1 or 2 times most viewers might. Looking at it again, I can say that I pretty much agree with you that it is a bit of an odd break in the flow of the video.
Radical_Yue wrote:
After the Vincent/Spike fight scene, you seemed to totally abandon any type of storytelling you initially had going for you. Spike breaks into the building and then, appears to have a flashback of his last fight with Vicious where he is thrown out of the church window. But then, he's on the ship with Faye, and then he's 10 different other places...Wait a minute, it wasn't a flashback at all D: He's just randomly teleporting all over space and time D:
Wait no...he's back going after Vicious...
Yes, it's collage during this section rather than linear narrative. Faye's inclusion we felt hinted at her feelings toward Spike despite his endless pursuit of Julia. Aaaaand yeah, Vicious is the recurring villain.
Radical_Yue wrote:
And then he fights Vicious, but OH NOES! TEH MARBLES! D:
The dropping of the marbles were intended to convey the idea of something slipping through your grasp, and the overlaid butterflies were a link to the Julia/butterfly metaphor - as was the single marble and it's reflection of a lone butterfly, and the last butterfly which eventually faded out of existence.
Radical_Yue wrote:
lol, sorry if I ranted a bit. I had fun with this one >_>
No apologies needed! Glad you had fun with it. Right now any response is a good one. Again, my responses in kind are just to say where our heads were at when we put it together as best as we remember.
Perhaps describing the Julia/butterfly metaphor in the description might be a good preface to the video? Just thinking out loud and now I'm the one rambling....
Radical_Yue wrote:
tldr; It's not bad but it tends to lose focus at points and gets very convoluted. Some of the minor choices in sync and such don't look too fabulous, but overall...keep trying. Good first go
Thanks again for commenting!
There were a couple things that really bugged me though....
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