ROCKS OFF - Love Live! School Idol Project AMV

[ProstrateConstantly]

Hey, here's an AMV I made a few months ago. Dig it.

[seasons]

There's a real old-school vibe to this, at least in so far as it uses split screens and cropping to pursue something kind of like a not-so-subtle "piano keys" effect to achieve a sense of sync, and it's the kind of thing that I really don't see very much these days anymore. Come to think of it, I really don't know if I've ever seen it done to this degree. It must be working for me because this is like the 4th time I've watched this AMV and every time I come away from it liking it more and more.

I feel somewhere between indifferent and hostile to this anime (which I've never given a chance to, I'm just prejudiced against the entire mini-genre of idol-themed anime) but even though this did little to change my mind, I really don't mind it in this case. I guess this is just so different from how I've seen anyone else treat any of the Love Live/Idolmaster/etc series, and the editing never gives me a chance to dwell on those feelings. You're really not out to tell a story here (as far as I can tell!) and, good lord, the pile of of clips and how you're cropping them and layering them... I can only speak for myself but this has a real hypnotic effect, which shouldn't be possible with straight cuts/no transitions. It's never clear why this video looks the way it does, what the editing style has to do with the anime or the song, but here it is, take it or leave it, and it really holds my attention and makes for an engaging upbeat AMV.

This song isn't really a deep cut or anything but it's so weird to see an AMV with a Rolling Stones song that's not "Sympathy For the Devil" or "Paint it Black." And it's a good reminder that, yeah, I really like this song and it's great to see an AMV featuring it. I don't want to say that 4 minutes makes for a truly long AMV or anything, but my attention never really strays and I don't get bored while watching this.

The filmed segments are truly strange and unexpected, probably the definition of "experimental," I'm not even sure if they truly work or not but they provide a nice break in that section of the song and makes the last minute of the video feel less repetitive and more engaging. The only thing here that doesn't really work is the use of text (1:52), which I'd probably be complaining about even if I didn't universally revile this kind of thing. But that's just my opinion, I just think it feels tacked on (never appearing anywhere else in the video, not that I really want it to, however) and the masking on the diagonal lines in some of the letters isn't as smooth as it could/ought to be. That's being really nitpicky, I know, and I say all this taking some more time to really look at it and actually admitting that I am impressed by the work that you put into creating it (concepts I struggle with to pull off efficiently and cleanly). I just hate text in videos!

You're probably my favorite new editor and I'm kind of obsessed with what you're doing right now, never thought I'd have a chance to reply to your work anywhere outside of the wasteland that is YouTube comments so I hope I didn't blow it with this opportunity.

[ProstrateConstantly]

Dude this is among the best comments I've received on anything I've created, thank you so much for taking the time to type it out. I'm extremely passionate about these weird little videos and any feedback means the world to me, truly. Oh and it looks like you're the same guy that messaged me on Youtube! Dude you're awesome, feel free to hit me up on Discord, my name on there is ZaneWins#6319

Yeah I totally feel that piano keys effect, I'm really much more versed in the experimental film community than the AMV community so I'm not too sure how common that kind of thing is, but I love split-screen effects and different ways to utilize framing and cutting. If I knew it wouldn't get stale quick I would do halved vertical split screens for all my cuts, it works so well and allows for image possibilities and connections not as possible otherwise. I totally feel that hypnotic effect, the rest of my stuff is fairly meditative thus far and I really wanted to try and see if I could accomplish something with image overload for the entire runtime. I have this problem where I can only create things that cater to my preferences, and since I inevitably see this videos many many times while creating them I end up designing them so they must be watched multiple times to be fully digested. This one especially, the framing of many of the shots (some of which are split second) are impossible to pick up on first watch, so I'm glad this one turned out to be rewatchable.

You know what the text was a contentious thing from the start for me, but in attempt to stay "experimental" I really wanted to explore every editing possibility here. It's use here was mainly to say "hey, pay attention to the words here, Jagger's saying something", with a line like "I can't even feel the pain no more" showing some emotional depth unexpected in a bar rock song. Also I did tweak it to have the text cropped perfectly, but in my opinion it looked weirder, I kinda like how it looks outlined and separate from the images, which again is just personal preference. I likely won't be using such an effect again unless I decide to pursue a lyric video.

Love Live! is not so good. I feel like Sunshine gets some points for being as entertaining and light as it is but neither I would consider to hold any great artistic weight (then again it's art created for commerce, what's to be expected). I mainly just wanted to see here what I could create out of nothing, each of my prior AMVs (and even my AMVs after) rely on narrative beats and moods from the anime I was using at least in some way, but with this one any atmosphere or thematic ground was meant to be solely created by me as an editor. To be honest I barely remember any of Love Live!, I was rather using the iconography as a sort of surrogate for "girly" anime and waifu culture as a whole.

"Rocks Off" is an absolutely killer track and perfectly encapsulates all I wanted to accomplish here. Exile on Main Street is maybe my favorite album at the moment, I really could've used any track off it and been just as satisfied with the final product. On the surface level Rocks Off is a driving rock song, the kind the Stones are known for and best at, but if you delve into the lyrics and undercurrents running through the song it has a definite dark core, with introspection into male frustration and impotence (in a deeper sense). These themes are timeless and I felt could be transported to the contemporary anime scene. This channel was started with the mindset of exploring the obsessive anime fan's relationship with the girls inside the screen, and this song in particular provides great exploration of that; they can "only get their rocks off when they're dreaming".

Other themes explored here are perception, loneliness, and frustration. Perception (probably the most "in-universe" theme here) stems from the constant focus on eyes and cameras, with the constant implication that personal identity is defined by the views of others. This is fairly rote and traditional but I felt like it was interesting to explore in the context of an idol anime, where these girls are fundamentally destroyed as individuals in an effort to make them marketable to the public eye (this was one of the few things I remember from watching the show, how shallow each character was made to be for specifically this reason).

The loneliness and frustration aspects are difficult to explain without getting autobiographical. I created this video during a very stressful and isolated time for me that turned out to be extremely fruitful, spending time editing this allowed me a great way to vent my anxiety out in a proactive way. Of course this leads to the live action segment, which I can best describe as a sort of ritual for me more than anything. I filmed it after my last exam, right when my stress levels came to a head, and for it I printed some significant anime girls for me over my study notes, then tore them up along with a bunch of homework I had accumulated throughout the year, and it was all such a cathartic experience. I also really enjoyed being able to mess around with the framing and camera movement in a physical way with an actual camera, again I was really trying to experiment with everything I could in this including live action filming and it was among the most successful imo. Of course this segment ties directly back to the theme of the girls inside the screen, and there I feel it's most blatant, it's almost like that moment in American Psycho (not that that's ever been a big inspiration for me but it's the best example I can think of right now) where it switches to the girl's perspective of Bateman's apartment and you see his apartment in it's actual appearance and the film momentarily switches to a horror movie before switching back to it's regular pace, we suddenly glimpse this unfiltered view of reality before returning to delusion (which sounds more negative than what I'm trying to put forth here but you get the idea).

Of course though, above all I didn't want this to be a droll filmic or thematic exercise, I wanted to create something entertaining which would reward continual exploration on the viewers part (so of course a great inspiration for me was Peter Greenaway's oeuvre). As such thanks again for your comment, it's people like you that I still make this material for.

[Mol]

Didn't watch sauce but it feels quite interseing. Choice of some stuff to sync wasn't up to my alley but i came out fairly satisfied