I just have to know...

[Ikore]

Do you think that you have to make AMVs to effectively criticize them? Why or why not?

every editor wants feedback, if not why not just save all of those videos of you in a folder deep inside your pc and let the world fckitslf

I know my amv perspective changed a lot when I started editing, you will see things differently, but for an editor, all feedback is good, I would like to know what a "normal" person thinks about my video, it´s a valid point of view after all, he is actually seeing things in a total different way than I or anyone else will do. 6 pages

[gotegenks]

6 pages

he cheated though! this should be a different thread

[SilkAMV]

OP asks about our site's stance on critiques -> 1st page is all critiques of his post. Because that's how we do .

[BasharOfTheAges]

OP asks about our site's stance on critiques -> 1st page is all critiques of his post. Because that's how we do .

Actually the OP posted a long-winded rant about observations he made in the place where that sort of thing is dead-horse territory and we mocked him for it. It's like walking into a fancy classic car club and bitching for an hour about those damn hooligan kids racing their neon'd sound machines down town every week. Not quite as insane as complaining to the guy behind the counter at mcdonalds about your mail not being delivered on time, but a humorously wrong venue nonetheless.

On the off chance I'm reading your tone correctly: You don't get away with starting a question off with paragraphs of a priori assumptions that can't be touched. That's not how conversations work.

[SilkAMV]

I know what he was talking about, I read the whole thing. I'm just amused at how his post was "reviewed." Part of his question was how people on out site handle feedback and it's telling that the early responses were a series of critiques of his post (style, context, methods, etc.), just as if we were reviewing an AMV he made.

As for the responses, I don't really agree that it was wrong for him to "hunt down" a single AMV artist for his reaction to feedback. My impression was that the negative reaction was a relatively common occurrence, but this one in particular was so profound it inspired a curiosity in him to get to the bottom of things. Short of conducting a survey, I don't see what else he could have done other than ask him why. Doing it in a separate venue entirely was a simple way of letting whoever it was know he wanted a serious answer. And he got one. If I was that editor, I'd be pleased to be contacted on a youtube from someone I know on a different site (or vice versa). Positive or negative, it means exposure.

To keep this post on topic, the AMV feedback issue is a fairly simple one. It's true, most AMVs out there are just clips the editor likes put to music he likes. When he's asking for feedback, all he really wants to know is if whoever is watching thinks those clips and music are cool too. Anything beyond that, and he gets confused. The way to get him out of that mindset is to tell him what he wants to hear first (that his music and clip choices were cool.) Lie if you have to, but don't overdo it. After that, inform him of this thing called "sync" and how his videos could be even better with it. You can't outright tell someone their video is bad. You have to mindtrick them into not being satisfied with their work.

However, this is only the case for the kinds of editors Desslock is wondering about. If someone already has the motivation to improve and the armor to take some criticism then they're already better than most editors out there.

[irriadin]

While looking at the forum the OP is from, I found this thread that might explain where he's coming from: http://www.animenation.net/forums/showt ... p?t=241379

The thread and everyone's reactions are pretty funny. I've seen that AMV before, too, but I have NO idea where or how I saw it.

[ngsilver]

hmm... that thread reminds me of a lot of announcement threads I've seen here....

It's almost like strolling down memory lane, cept I don't see a vulgar godix post

[Chiikaboom]

Fanfic writers, all fan-fic writers, are bad and smelly.

I dont smell ;-;

[qyll]

Only read OP's question, nothing else, so excuse me if it's already been answered this way.

It's very simple. The same people who "a) post their work publicly, b) ask for critical feedback, then c) freak the hell out when you find the tiniest fault with it" are also the ones who post statuses on facebook saying how they're so ugly or so dumb. In other words, they're fishing for compliments. They don't really want criticism. They want people to tell them how good they look and how smart they are and did you see how fucking groovy my color cycling looked in my last AMV?

[JaddziaDax]

http://www.animenation.net/forums/showt ... p?t=241379

See, that was the problem with the forums here when I first joined. There is no constructive in that criticism. It's mostly just bashing and being a mild asshole, then saying "Well you can't handle my bluntness". You can be honest and constructive at the same time without coddling. Imho: codling = kissing ass.

Granted I can't say I was fond of this video myself (dbz and anything not being of my taste) but you guys just told him everything that is wrong with his video, and gave him HARDLY ANY POINTERS ON HOW HE COULD FIX IT. (And this is how an editor can actually have a better opinion than a viewer, because they can have the experience and knowledge to give said pointers.)

If you are going to bash someone's work and not give them a reason to listen to you then you shouldn't be surprised when he drama-queens his way off of your site. Maybe even tell him a couple of good things he did *gasp*, tell him how he can improve and wish him luck on his next project.

I worked hard and long on this site to change the attitudes around here, and I'm glad I did. It's fostered many a good editor that might have run away. Granted many people still hang around with that attitude (you know who you are ), but at least there are more people around now who know how to give constructive criticism.

How I would review this video: under a spoiler cause it's long.

Spoiler :

For a first video it's not bad. I've definitely seen worse. Although, you could use a few pointers to improve on your next video.

You did a good job pairing up a song and a character. I'm not a DBZ fan but even I could tell that the mood of this song fits with the character. You didn't make the nooby mistake of leaving in subtitles or splattering logos on your video, so points there. The video is pretty clean, visually from what I can tell, but it's on a streaming site, so I can't tell you if you would need to improve. Streaming sites change the quality of the video. If you were to offer a download I might be able to help in that area.

Areas you could improve on:
1. Timing: This is where I think you could use the most improvement. I suggest you listen to the beat of the song and try to time your cuts and internal sync to them. There are many "schools" on sync, and eventually you will have to find your own style, and what you enjoy best, but in any case the timing of the cuts could use a lot of improvement even by the basic standards of sync. Listen to the song, this will give you the ques to your cuts. I find having a few beta testers to point out my sync issues to be a huge help.

2. Lipflap: You want to avoid this as much as possible. The only time I find fair amounts of lipflap acceptable is in romance videos (which your video is not), or in cases where it is very apparent that the movement was left in on purpose. In general lipflap can distract viewers and they end up looking at the mouth moving rather than your video. Lipflap can also come off as badly attempted lipsync.

3. Narrative: I have to admit that I'm not a DBZ fan. I haven't watched the show so a lot of your lyric syncs don't make much sense to me. I can tell you attempted to lyric sync in many places, though. For the most part I see the same guy doing things, but I'm not sure what he's doing. Perhaps in the beats between the song phrases you can set up the scenes a bit more.

Your choruses jump around a lot, perhaps it would make more sense to set each chorus as a series of events, only hitting a few key points in the lyric. Tell me this guy's story and why it's important for me to know about him.

4. Mood/Internal Sync: You have a lot of slow parts to faster parts in the song, then faster parts to slower parts in the song. The visuals should speed up as the song speeds up, and then slow down as the song slows down. This will give your video even more of an emotional sync, as the visuals will be paired with what the audience is hearing. Showing fast movements on a slow part of the song feels awkward, next time put those fast visuals on the fast part of the song. You can really get someone's heart pumping to the action if it's synced to the beat of the song.

Never lipsync for a drama video. Lipsync = comedy for most people. I've seen audiences howl in laughter during a drama video only because of a lipsync. I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but it appears you have a few spots that look like attempted lipsync.

5. Aspect Ratio: Some of your footage is full screen (4:3) and some of it is wide (16:9). If you really want your video to look uniform and neat you should crop one of your sources to fit the other. How I go about deciding that depends on many factors (was my source originally cropped? do I have more widescreen or fullscreen sources? what is the mood of my video?). However, for this piece, I'd crop it all to widescreen. Wide looks way cooler and more dramatic, and "epic" (like a movie). This song has a fairly "epic" and "dramatic" feel to it. I think that's the aspect ratio that would fit. If you want more information on how to crop your video ask me and I can help you farther.

6. Effects: at 2:20 and 2:40 there is a very odd effect. I'm not sure why it's there. Is that part of the movie? If it's not then the first thing I'd suggest to you about effects is to take a step back and work on a basic AMV before jumping into effects. All the great "Effects" videos put the video source first. At least in my opinion they do. Learn to do a basic video, then jump into effects little by little. Also don't use effects as filler. They should enhance the video, not just show up randomly.

7. Intro: it's fairly long. Most people who watch videos are there to see your video, and probably don't want to wait for it. If you want to have a long set of credits, best to put it at the end imho.

Anyway, not too terrible for a start, you definitely could use some work, but good luck on your next project, and I hope this helps.

Yes, I am known as "the nice one" on this site
[edit] lawl, after re-reading it, maybe I should take my own advice sometimes XD