Hey people,
This is my first ever AMV. I would love getting feedback from the pros.
It's quite emotional, but the song and the anime do the heavy lifting. I tried concentrating on Shinji the most, but most vital characters are focused on.
Youtube:
Download in HD via the org: https://www.animemusicvideos.org/member ... p?v=209489
I'm only getting started, so I appreciate feedback.
Thank you a lot.
[AMV] Undertow - Neon Genesis Evangelion
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Zarxrax
- Joined: Sun Apr 01, 2001 6:37 pm
- Contact:
Re: [AMV] Undertow - Neon Genesis Evangelion
Great job on your first video! The song fits well with Shinji, and it takes the viewer through an emotional journey.
If I were to give some advice for future works, I would say to go a little easy on the layered video tracks, unless its really called for. Multiple layers can create a messy and chaotic appearance, and make it difficult for the viewer to know what to focus on. Of course, this can be a perfectly valid aesthetic to go for, just make sure its all done with intention. And when you are adding a layer, it can usually be better to fade it in rather than just letting it "pop" in (0:56) unless the music says otherwise.
I see some lip sync in there, and also some lip flap (characters are talking but its not lip synced). You want to be careful with both of those, because they draw the viewers attention. If you start lip syncing in just parts of the song, the viewer will start focusing on it and looking for it in other areas where you didn't lip sync. And when you have lip flap, the viewer will also focus on those lips, first to see if you did lip sync it, and then maybe being disappointed that it wasn't. In general (but not always!) lip sync tends to work best with comedy or upbeat audio.
Finally, be careful with strobing/flashing scenes. These can work well when the music has built up to it, but I saw some intense strobing in places where I felt that the music wasn't really calling for it, so it creates a kind of dissonance between the video and the audio, you know?
That said, this looks like a good starting point for you, hope to see more!
If I were to give some advice for future works, I would say to go a little easy on the layered video tracks, unless its really called for. Multiple layers can create a messy and chaotic appearance, and make it difficult for the viewer to know what to focus on. Of course, this can be a perfectly valid aesthetic to go for, just make sure its all done with intention. And when you are adding a layer, it can usually be better to fade it in rather than just letting it "pop" in (0:56) unless the music says otherwise.
I see some lip sync in there, and also some lip flap (characters are talking but its not lip synced). You want to be careful with both of those, because they draw the viewers attention. If you start lip syncing in just parts of the song, the viewer will start focusing on it and looking for it in other areas where you didn't lip sync. And when you have lip flap, the viewer will also focus on those lips, first to see if you did lip sync it, and then maybe being disappointed that it wasn't. In general (but not always!) lip sync tends to work best with comedy or upbeat audio.
Finally, be careful with strobing/flashing scenes. These can work well when the music has built up to it, but I saw some intense strobing in places where I felt that the music wasn't really calling for it, so it creates a kind of dissonance between the video and the audio, you know?
That said, this looks like a good starting point for you, hope to see more!
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seasons
- Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 12:31 pm
- Contact:
Re: [AMV] Undertow - Neon Genesis Evangelion
I thought the opening of this was pretty effective. Nice atmosphere, I like the lengthy clips, good sense of pacing. The initial use of overlays in that first minute is actually pretty interesting and work with the music to create a really introspective sort of mood.
I don't know if the technique works quite as well in action scenes, but others may disagree with that.
The sequence from 1:27 to 1:56 was also interesting. I even liked the brief use of slow motion. Other viewers might see some of what you're doing in a case like that as "breaking the rules" but the specific way that you broke the rules just happens to be right up my alley, so this was nice.
I'm less into the shot from 2:02 to 2:08 since neither shot fades into the other, it's just introduced as a shot with an overlay and I think the compositional strengths of each of those shots just kind of cancel each other out. We're not really given enough time to process this and then it's just over. I definitely get it if you think that's a super uncharitable way to interpret what you were going for in this part, but I do think this was a case of, like Zarxrax said, the multiple layers creating a chaotic appearance or impression rather than signifying something clear or particularly visually significant or interesting.
I'm pretty lenient when it comes to "lip flap" but with Misato so firmly in the foreground of the shot at 2:08, and the fact that there's nothing else moving in the shot at all, it's hard not to be drawn to the motion of her lips/mouth, and I think this is a moment that distracts from the atmosphere and the general flow of the whole AMV.
I did enjoy how the pace picked up with the music at the halfway point, you do kind of find a sweet spot here with the pace of the cuts and the length of the clips that you use. Some of the use of layers here was pretty interesting, some of them didn't work as well as others (IMO). I won't critique every little bit of this (roughly from 2:24 to 4:28) because I don't think I can really make a strong case for why one sequence of this might work while another that seemingly follows the same rules or logic might not. At that point it all starts to say more about me than it does about the video itself. I liked the sequence from 2:53 to 3:19, as the specific composition of the shots that you used together felt thoughtfully balanced in terms of how they took up different parts of the screen. I suppose this is the opposite of what was happening from 2:33 to 2:52, as the characters in the shots are specifically overlapping with one another in a way that felt cluttered and not as satisfying to watch. I suppose that could symbolize something and one could make the argument that I'm missing the point? Yeah, maybe. I don't know. Sometimes you can break the rules and it really pays off. Sometimes it doesn't. Etc.
The most intense flashing images in this AMV felt a bit overwhelming to me. I do appreciate that they were saved for the climax of the song and not just dropped into the AMV at random. I understand why they're here and not anywhere else. I also wonder if the clips you were using here were already visually strong enough to carry this part of the song on their own without the use of extremely rapid cuts. I get what you're going for in this case. It's hard for me to say exactly why I think this doesn't quite work, and in the end, that's just my opinion. The music doesn't really change in any way when this is introduced, the song is still proceeding at the same tempo, so it feels like a sudden change that's difficult for the viewer to adapt to.
There are a couple of extremely brief clips around the 3:41 mark. They might even be individual frames? I understand the impulse but I'd try to avoid this. I know they're not "orphan frames" (individual frames of a shot left in by mistake) but they kind of felt like they had the same effect. I couldn't quite make out what I was seeing when they popped up on the screen, they're gone so quickly, but rather than introduce mystery or some shocking visual, they just kind of felt out of place or messy to me.
4:19 to 4:28 was a nice climax, I enjoyed how you used different layers here. Maybe the contrast of the high-motion/abstract montage scene layered over the serene, introspective shot of Shinji by the fire (the animation of the fire here also adds another interesting visual element to this mix) really just hit the sweet spot of this whole approach, and I liked how it transitioned into that shot of Shinji and Rei on the train. That's just a nifty sequence, right there.
Again, 4:28-4:34, I really love this sort of thing.
I would make two recommendations here, one of which you're going to hate:
1) Make a video with a different anime. This is the one recommendation you're going to hate because I know you've already made that second AMV, and it's another Evangelion video. And that's fine! Personally, I just feel like working with different anime forces you to adapt to different styles of animation and even to different styles of editing in terms of how that source material itself is cut up. If you want to begin to really understand the fundamentals, or even begin to hone an approach to editing that's truly personal, working with sources that look different and have different kinds of visual or emotional tones to them really helps! Also, I can think of a couple of editors I've known in the past who worked with one single source (which may or may not have been Evangelion, I won't say) who seemed to get burned out on the source after 3 or 4 videos and then seemed to lose interest in the hobby. I can't help but feel like they had talent and potential but never got to see that grow because they strictly stuck to a single source. Of course, obviously, it's fine to edit to what YOU like and you don't have to let other people tell you what to work with. Just throwing a different perspective out there, I guess.
2) I would suggest trying to be as simple as you can in terms of just making an AMV that flows with the music and achieves a certain kind of mood or atmosphere or energy, focusing on simple sync and/or simple transitions, just to see what you can do before incorporating lots of experimental techniques.
OR you could just go nuts and ignore my suggestion. Everyone feels it out in their own way. As will you, inevitably.
I don't know if the technique works quite as well in action scenes, but others may disagree with that.
The sequence from 1:27 to 1:56 was also interesting. I even liked the brief use of slow motion. Other viewers might see some of what you're doing in a case like that as "breaking the rules" but the specific way that you broke the rules just happens to be right up my alley, so this was nice.
I'm less into the shot from 2:02 to 2:08 since neither shot fades into the other, it's just introduced as a shot with an overlay and I think the compositional strengths of each of those shots just kind of cancel each other out. We're not really given enough time to process this and then it's just over. I definitely get it if you think that's a super uncharitable way to interpret what you were going for in this part, but I do think this was a case of, like Zarxrax said, the multiple layers creating a chaotic appearance or impression rather than signifying something clear or particularly visually significant or interesting.
I'm pretty lenient when it comes to "lip flap" but with Misato so firmly in the foreground of the shot at 2:08, and the fact that there's nothing else moving in the shot at all, it's hard not to be drawn to the motion of her lips/mouth, and I think this is a moment that distracts from the atmosphere and the general flow of the whole AMV.
I did enjoy how the pace picked up with the music at the halfway point, you do kind of find a sweet spot here with the pace of the cuts and the length of the clips that you use. Some of the use of layers here was pretty interesting, some of them didn't work as well as others (IMO). I won't critique every little bit of this (roughly from 2:24 to 4:28) because I don't think I can really make a strong case for why one sequence of this might work while another that seemingly follows the same rules or logic might not. At that point it all starts to say more about me than it does about the video itself. I liked the sequence from 2:53 to 3:19, as the specific composition of the shots that you used together felt thoughtfully balanced in terms of how they took up different parts of the screen. I suppose this is the opposite of what was happening from 2:33 to 2:52, as the characters in the shots are specifically overlapping with one another in a way that felt cluttered and not as satisfying to watch. I suppose that could symbolize something and one could make the argument that I'm missing the point? Yeah, maybe. I don't know. Sometimes you can break the rules and it really pays off. Sometimes it doesn't. Etc.
The most intense flashing images in this AMV felt a bit overwhelming to me. I do appreciate that they were saved for the climax of the song and not just dropped into the AMV at random. I understand why they're here and not anywhere else. I also wonder if the clips you were using here were already visually strong enough to carry this part of the song on their own without the use of extremely rapid cuts. I get what you're going for in this case. It's hard for me to say exactly why I think this doesn't quite work, and in the end, that's just my opinion. The music doesn't really change in any way when this is introduced, the song is still proceeding at the same tempo, so it feels like a sudden change that's difficult for the viewer to adapt to.
There are a couple of extremely brief clips around the 3:41 mark. They might even be individual frames? I understand the impulse but I'd try to avoid this. I know they're not "orphan frames" (individual frames of a shot left in by mistake) but they kind of felt like they had the same effect. I couldn't quite make out what I was seeing when they popped up on the screen, they're gone so quickly, but rather than introduce mystery or some shocking visual, they just kind of felt out of place or messy to me.
4:19 to 4:28 was a nice climax, I enjoyed how you used different layers here. Maybe the contrast of the high-motion/abstract montage scene layered over the serene, introspective shot of Shinji by the fire (the animation of the fire here also adds another interesting visual element to this mix) really just hit the sweet spot of this whole approach, and I liked how it transitioned into that shot of Shinji and Rei on the train. That's just a nifty sequence, right there.
Again, 4:28-4:34, I really love this sort of thing.
I would make two recommendations here, one of which you're going to hate:
1) Make a video with a different anime. This is the one recommendation you're going to hate because I know you've already made that second AMV, and it's another Evangelion video. And that's fine! Personally, I just feel like working with different anime forces you to adapt to different styles of animation and even to different styles of editing in terms of how that source material itself is cut up. If you want to begin to really understand the fundamentals, or even begin to hone an approach to editing that's truly personal, working with sources that look different and have different kinds of visual or emotional tones to them really helps! Also, I can think of a couple of editors I've known in the past who worked with one single source (which may or may not have been Evangelion, I won't say) who seemed to get burned out on the source after 3 or 4 videos and then seemed to lose interest in the hobby. I can't help but feel like they had talent and potential but never got to see that grow because they strictly stuck to a single source. Of course, obviously, it's fine to edit to what YOU like and you don't have to let other people tell you what to work with. Just throwing a different perspective out there, I guess.
2) I would suggest trying to be as simple as you can in terms of just making an AMV that flows with the music and achieves a certain kind of mood or atmosphere or energy, focusing on simple sync and/or simple transitions, just to see what you can do before incorporating lots of experimental techniques.
OR you could just go nuts and ignore my suggestion. Everyone feels it out in their own way. As will you, inevitably.