Poll: Use the whole song or just the good parts?

[DriftRoots]

Like the topic says, I'm wondering what people's general opinions are regarding the use of an entire song for an AMV, versus taking the best/most pertinent parts of a song and leaving out the "extras."

Assuming you recognize the song in the first place, would you note any omissions/changes and rate the AMV lower for not being able to use the original, complete song? And I'm not talking about 8-minute interludes being cut to chop an instrumental down to an appropriate length!

[Otohiko]

Well, do what you think is right.

For me, since I consider music very important and artistically sacred, I prefer to have the whole thing, uncut, unedited, in the shape that the artist intended it to be in.

But, then again, I'm also one of those people who doesn't really like the idea of single-track buying or listening, since I even see albums as more than collections of songs.

***

On the other hand, in a sense, in making AMV's you're the artist. Do what you think is better. I'll judge you based on what you produce rather than on the integrity of the song you used.

[koronoru]

I'd say don't hesitate to edit the audio if you think that will make a better video. For one of my current projects I'm taking a slow, serious political song, speeding it up from 80 to about 130 beats per minute, going nuts with pitch shift, and using Excel Saga footage. The video just wouldn't happen if I tried to do it with the unedited song off the CD. My version has the same lyrics but is effectively a different piece of music.

[Kai Stromler]

I'm also a big fan of music per music, but I also have a tendency to edit the hell out of a song if I suspect it's necessary. The reason is that not everything that works in music will work in a music video.

If you listen to enough band-official music videos, you're going to hear a lot of differences between the CD versions and the versions that get videographed. Sometimes it's something major, like the loss of a solo section or two, and sometimes it's something minor, like a chorus that is not repeated or an intro verse that gets dropped. If the bands we work from let their labels and video directors chop up their work to this extent for public airplay, there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to do the same for fan productions that are only going to ever be seen by a few thousand people who are into imported cartoons.

In general, you do what you have to to make the video work. Nobody's going to get burned up at you if you don't stick to the storylines or characterizations of your anime source; they shouldn't get bent out of shape if you play with the music as well as the visuals. 90% of the time, the song you pick won't need any modifications. In that other 10%, though, you shouldn't be afraid to edit for length, add effects, or do whatever else you need to make the video you want to make happen. Just leave a note in the video information section of the video entry so others can know exactly what changes you've made.

just my $0.01 (the other penny's currently in use as a bass pick),

--K

[Freaky Lynx]

I usually prefer hearing the whole song, however that really depends on the theme and the song. I can see clips of songs or remixed versions being an improvement - but its still really a matter of personal preference (I say, if it sounds and looks good - do it!).

[Freako]

Edit if neeeded , but only if it works with the song .

songs with no words are easier to do this with .
My "cant get you out of my head video" features pompeii by es. posthumus . . . and is cut down by like 2 minutes .

The video would have been too long if i had left it in .

its all a matter of opinion i guess.

[DriftRoots]

hmm, okay, so there's not much stigma when it comes to slicing and dicing. My only beef with messing around with the music is that one will run the risk of doing something AMV watchers won't like and being told "Why'd you mess around with the song?!"

Hurrah for individual expression.

[AquaSky]

I prefer to have shorter AMVs, and so far I have trimmed all of the songs I've used for them. Once the video's message has been conveyed, adding additional footage just to meet the time of the original song is counter-productive to me. Other than that though, I haven't yet needed to do any other types of editing on the audio.

[Otohiko]

Just for the record, I like long AMV's. So long as they drive a solid message/theme through, they're great.

On the other hand, the more concise the message, the better my impression of it. Honor sufficiency, use only what you need.

[Chaos Angel]

I made a video once where I cut out all the boring parts of the song and just used the juicy actiony parts.

The original song was about 3:30

The video is 35 seconds.