Love and Romance (with a twist)

Resk · Post by **Resk** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 10:11 pm

My newset video, A Casual Romance, is a very sentimental video. However, it might not be exactly what you'd expect from a romance themed video.

Instead of the traditional use of the theme, I've taken Love, and simplified it, to make it really fit what I feel when I listen to the song (The Dumbing Down of Love by Frou Frou). Whenever I hear their music, I always get the sense that while their lyrics and melodies have a romantic base, they're always so much more simple and laid back than the traditional sense. So, trying to depit that in the video, seemed like an interesting choice for a video.

Also, I took an idea from FFX for the video, in that I present the clips in the form of a memory sphere, similar to the Jecht Spheres from FFX. I tried to imitate the look of those as best I could, through colour alterations, sound effects, and graphics.

Anyway, you might like it, you might not, but I thought it was kind of a neat video.

dj_ultima_the_great · Post by **dj_ultima_the_great** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 10:12 am

Always one to take the bait if it pertains to Final Fantasy, I downloaded your video. I wasn't disappointed. There were some things that I didn't care for - which I'll detail below - but, overall, I enjoyed it. So...

Stuff I Liked
- the sphere set up. I thought that it was an awesome concept, and I liked how you actually showed a graphic of the sphere at the beginning and the end. That adds a lot of continuity to your video. (I did see one person try a similar concept, but he/she didn't actually make the sphere noise effect like you did. It was more like...he/she showed Tidus picking up Yunie's sphere at Zanarkand, showed the video, and then showed him putting it back down...or whatever he does with it in that scene.)
- the resolution. It's not a big deal to some, but I believe in a resolution that is not too big or too small. Yours was perfect.
- the timing. I find that people don't do as well with slower songs, as the pieces often lack a strong beat to follow. Still, you moved well with the phrases, and I commend you for that.
- the mood of the song. Uh...I really don't have much to explain that one. I just liked the mood. You did it well. Uh...that's all.

Stuff I Was Iffy About
- the lyrics of the song. Some of them were pretty specific, and you didn't have a way to match them. So, when I heard the first line that seemed off ("no box of chocolates"), I was like, "...eh?" It was a little distracting, but I didn't mind as much in comparison to the mood.
- the constant slowness of the video. At times, it made the picture a bit jerky. Also, it had a weird double effect of both drawing me into the flow of the video and boring me. So, I don't know what else to say about that one. The style will definitely have its fans, and you're gonna have some people who absolutely hate it because of the speed...or lack thereof.

Stuff I Didn't Like
- the logo. I hate logos.[/u] I understand why people want them, but it just draws away from any video. It was part of the reason why I didn't feel like I could completely immerse myself into the video. I kept looking at the LP periodically. I mean, people harp about removing logos from footage all the time, so it completely escapes me why there are some who actually want to ADD them in.
- the filesize is pretty big. I have no clue what to do about it; consult the guides for that. Still, it's something to keep in mind.

All in all, an enjoyable video. You did a great job on this one, and I'm glad that you broke out of your norm to try it. This one will definitely go down on my list of videos to remember, as my hard drive couldn't take it anyway.

Nicely done! ^_^

As always, Farewell, Good Luck, and Happy AMV-ing!

- dj_ultima_the_great

Resk · Post by **Resk** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 12:02 pm

hehe, thanks for your comments! I tried to remove as much of the jerkyness as I could, but wih some of the clips, regardless of what I did with them, I couldn't avoid it. The most noticable one, is from the wedding with the sky camera. I tried a couple things to fix that up, but unfortunatly, I wasn't able to.

With the lyrics, I'm interested that you pointed that out. When I was doing the video, the whole concept was a sort of subdued approach to the video as a whole, including the lyrics. While I know most people will see that lyric (for example) and expect to see a clip with a box of chocolates, I looked at it more as filler or as a connection between the lyrics on either side of it.

With the logo though, I understand where you're coming from. I don't like logos either, but then again, I did release this video through my studio, so the logo had to be there, along with the bumpers at the beginning and end. If you wanted, I could send you a clean copy of the video on AIM or MSN or something

With the filesize, I'm really not sure why it came out so big. I did all my standard compression techniques that I normally use, which brings the video out to about 60 megs. This one came out larger I guess, because of all the motion and sphere effects at the beginning and end ofthe video.

Thanks again for your comments!

dj_ultima_the_great · Post by **dj_ultima_the_great** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 12:28 pm

First off, you're very welcome. Since it's FF, I had to check it out. Also, though...it really frustrates me when not a single person responds to someone's announcement thread. That's just mean. So, if a person's thread goes for more than two or so days without a comment, I always try to see why. I guess I'm just weird like that. ^_^;;

Resk wrote:I tried to remove as much of the jerkyness as I could, but wih some of the clips, regardless of what I did with them, I couldn't avoid it.

Well, I can understand that, then. Hey, at least you didn't get that weird movement at the top and bottom of the screen with everything slowed down. That really annoys me in videos.

While I know most people will see that lyric (for example) and expect to see a clip with a box of chocolates, I looked at it more as filler or as a connection between the lyrics on either side of it.

Hadn't thought of it that way. Interesting. ^_^

With the logo though, I understand where you're coming from. I don't like logos either, but then again, I did release this video through my studio, so the logo had to be there, along with the bumpers at the beginning and end. If you wanted, I could send you a clean copy of the video on AIM or MSN or something

Ah, I always forget about the studio thing. In that case, I can forgive you. It's not something you can really help. Also...normally, I would jump at getting a clean version of a video, but my hard drive is SO dying on me space-wise. And no, I don't have a DVD drive and I just ran out of CDs to burn to. So, no extraneous videos for me. Craptacular. -_-

This one came out larger I guess, because of all the motion and sphere effects at the beginning and end of the video.

Ah. See, I know very little about that kind of stuff, so it helps to have people justify those kind of issues in their videos.

Uh...you're welcome again! I sure hope you get more people to respond. This video really is worth it.

- dj_ultima_the_great

Resk · Post by **Resk** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 2:49 pm

Well, I can understand that, then. Hey, at least you didn't get that weird movement at the top and bottom of the screen with everything slowed down. That really annoys me in videos.

Is that a sort of flicker at the top or the bottom with some clips? (like, a line at the very bottom that flickers)

dj_ultima_the_great · Post by **dj_ultima_the_great** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 5:56 pm

Resk wrote:
Well, I can understand that, then. Hey, at least you didn't get that weird movement at the top and bottom of the screen with everything slowed down. That really annoys me in videos.
Is that a sort of flicker at the top or the bottom with some clips? (like, a line at the very bottom that flickers)

Yes, indeedy. That's it. I hate it when videos do that. Yours thankfully does not, to my knowledge.

- dj_ultima_the_great

EternalIceStorm · Post by **EternalIceStorm** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 7:42 pm

I really liked this AMV. I usually dont like AMV using cut scenes from games and whatnot, but this really caught my eye. Only really 2 things I didnt like, and they were already stated. Main one being the logo LP at the bottom. LIke I tried watching the video...but that kept going in the corner of my eye ><;;; In the end I just covered it up with my hand and watched it over again xD. Uhhh, and the other thing was that some of the scenes did jerk. Like I said, all of them said already, but those were really the only thing I didnt like.

Resk · Post by **Resk** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 8:28 pm

Yes, indeedy. That's it. I hate it when videos do that. Yours thankfully does not, to my knowledge.

Actually, my video did have that in it originally with the clips from Yuna's Dream. However, there's an option in the clip properties that fixes it for you, as long as you select it.

So, all those videos you saw with flicker, was because the editors didn't fix it lol.

Khanh Bui · Post by **Khanh Bui** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 10:16 am

Wow, what a cool AMV. Very poetic.

4/5

The logo at the lower right hand corner is distracting though. I guess I'm not used to it. I had to drag the video screen to the bottom of the monitor screen to hide the logo so I can focus on the video.

Resk · Post by **Resk** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 12:48 pm

lol, seems like the watermarks are a common distraction among viewers.....