AMV Review 2007-04-02 Nunchuck's "The Letter"

Nunchuck · Post by **Nunchuck** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 2:35 pm

To Orwell:

Do you mean, that you prefer subtitles that actually tell you what you should see and tell the story the maker wants to express in his video?

godix · Post by **godix** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 5:24 pm

Orwell wrote:Anyone else agree with this thought, or do you think text overall would probably interfere with your enjoyment even more than a failed story?

I assume you're talking about old Final Fantasy scrolling and explaining the story type text rather than subtitles? I'm not sure an AMV would support that, an AMV is just to short to justify it really. I mean what, you're going to show 30 seconds of text to setup a two minute video? Doesn't seem like it'd be worth it from the audiences point of view. In a comedy I could see this working, in fact I've done this exact thing in my joking Telephone project segment, but I just don't think it'd work for a drama. Plus, thanks to Star Wars, text like that now has a cheesy feel to it. Whatever follows had better be fucking astounding to overcome that. In which case just do the fucking astounding bit and skip the text entirely.

Orwell · Post by **Orwell** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 1:10 am

Nunchuck wrote:Do you mean, that you prefer subtitles that actually tell you what you should see and tell the story the maker wants to express in his video?

Not quite, however the only really viable instance I can think of where I would use straight subtitles would be a fake translation. Subtitle it to tell your own story, but give the viewer the impression that this is what the song is actually saying. This is a good example of what I'm thinking of:

godix wrote:
Orwell wrote:Anyone else agree with this thought, or do you think text overall would probably interfere with your enjoyment even more than a failed story?
I assume you're talking about old Final Fantasy scrolling and explaining the story type text rather than subtitles? I'm not sure an AMV would support that, an AMV is just to short to justify it really. I mean what, you're going to show 30 seconds of text to setup a two minute video? Doesn't seem like it'd be worth it from the audiences point of view. In a comedy I could see this working, in fact I've done this exact thing in my joking Telephone project segment.

I'll never get that ah... project done if I end up playing an old Final Fantasy, 3 in particular. How long a video would you need for subtitles, or background text, in your opinion? Perhaps not for something this short, or this narrowly focused on a single group, but perhaps gneral statements on relevant subject to the theme or perhaps the story your trying to tell.

Also, my main point, I suppose I should have made my initial question broader than what it was, and emphasized more, was that it pays to think outside pre-made frame, especially in something like this. Either a series of new ones, or a single frame that uses some sort of effect to draw your attention from piece to piece, emphasizing what you deem important to the story/song/theme.

Perhaps take the character sitting in his room, and blur/darken out the irrelevant stuff, so that he's staring at his desk. There's his plane or too slow 'fast train' ticket. A view opens up, perhaps the closet opens (if the view is correct, it looks like it might work but I can't tell since I've yet to be able to find either the dvd or a torrent) a b/w or just old film effect of him being too slow to reach his girl and the consequences. So on and so Forth. You've now utilized you probably thought was worthless, and made a single frame a base to work from. Syncing this particular music may or may not work with a static room, if there was a window view, maybe have something going on outside.

godix · Post by **godix** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:22 am

Orwell wrote:How long a video would you need for subtitles, or background text, in your opinion? Perhaps not for something this short, or this narrowly focused on a single group, but perhaps gneral statements on relevant subject to the theme or perhaps the story your trying to tell.

Hmm, thinking about it perhaps length isn't the issue. Now that I've thought about it the issue is that if you include intro text then you're presenting an actual story and AMVs usually don't tell stories. Themes, certainly, but not an actual story using story dynamics like character, conflict, climax, resolution, etc. Usually AMVs rely to much on the anime or musics story than presenting their own. Dead to the World is one of only three examples I can think of that really even tried to tell it's own story (and even then it was mostly the musics story rather than something unique). On Your Mark would be the second but that was original animation specifically designed to tell a story within a music video, it wasn't someone using preexisting footage like we do.

Perhaps take the character sitting in his room, and blur/darken out the irrelevant stuff, so that he's staring at his desk. There's his plane or too slow 'fast train' ticket. A view opens up, perhaps the closet opens (if the view is correct, it looks like it might work but I can't tell since I've yet to be able to find either the dvd or a torrent) a b/w or just old film effect of him being too slow to reach his girl and the consequences. So on and so Forth. You've now utilized you probably thought was worthless, and made a single frame a base to work from. Syncing this particular music may or may not work with a static room, if there was a window view, maybe have something going on outside.

Ah, now it makes sense why you mentioned it in this topic. Yes, I'd agree with you. To often when people work with elements in the clips there's not a real reason for it other than making cool looking effects. True Fictions buildings being used as monitors for example. Is it rare to see modifying a scene like that used to actually enhance the story/theme.

Orwell · Post by **Orwell** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:29 am

If I ever get there, I shall give you the fourth, and the first real story on the org. And there shalt be wonder, at why this sucks, why this is awesome, what the fuck is wrong with this guy, and even perhaps 'why did my delete key break'.

Just out of curiousity, what's the third? Novem comes to mind.

godix · Post by **godix** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:42 am

Orwell wrote:If I ever get there, I shall give you the fourth, and the first real story on the org. And there shalt be wonder, at why this sucks, why this is awesome, what the fuck is wrong with this guy, and even perhaps 'why did my delete key break'.

Just out of curiousity, what's the third? Novem comes to mind.

Ok. There's four. I forgot about Novem. The third I was thinking was when I tried to do an animated fanfic. I failed so much that I yanked the link to it around a year ago and didn't consider it worth using as an example.

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 5:34 am

godix wrote:
Orwell wrote:If I ever get there, I shall give you the fourth, and the first real story on the org. And there shalt be wonder, at why this sucks, why this is awesome, what the fuck is wrong with this guy, and even perhaps 'why did my delete key break'.

Just out of curiousity, what's the third? Novem comes to mind.
Ok. There's four. I forgot about Novem. The third I was thinking was when I tried to do an animated fanfic. I failed so much that I yanked the link to it around a year ago and didn't consider it worth using as an example.

Does This is Otakudom count?

Orwell · Post by **Orwell** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 7:41 am

I don't think so, that set out with the full intention of being a fan parody of the culture, where as most what we do here falls under the vague term AMV.

Orwell · Post by **Orwell** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 7:48 am

godix wrote:
Orwell wrote:If I ever get there, I shall give you the fourth, and the first real story on the org. And there shalt be wonder, at why this sucks, why this is awesome, what the fuck is wrong with this guy, and even perhaps 'why did my delete key break'.

Just out of curiousity, what's the third? Novem comes to mind.
Ok. There's four. I forgot about Novem. The third I was thinking was when I tried to do an animated fanfic. I failed so much that I yanked the link to it around a year ago and didn't consider it worth using as an example.

I actually rather enjoyed that, but it felt like first foray into a new area, and could use some refining. I wish more people would do more animated fanfics. Mtarzaim has a kind of harima x eri fanfic going for school rumble.

quadir · Post by **quadir** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:39 am

I think you're jumping the gun on AMVs not telling an independent story, even if it's not movie-length in 3 minutes. Here's just but one example from the last few days.
Announce: link

petro wrote:Plot:
The plot behind Red String is thus: A young man (Renton) remembers a time in his past when he saw the name "Eureka" appear on his compac drive. Suddenly, the name appears again. Filled with a sudden sense of urgency and purpose, Renton rushes to find the one who's name is calling to him...

There's a lot of examples like this if you look for them. So like I mentioned about Nunchuck's "The Letter" I think the story is there if you look for it. And I didn't see the story there as so tiny that it was completely insignificant either. It's not a movie, it's 3 minutes. You tell as much as you can.