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Just to catch up
2005-04-09 18:35:51
Wow...what a year. Lots of things accomplished this year. I published my sixth anime music video on the org on 31 March 2005. In addition to this video, I had already conducted my first Hentai Iron Chef against AMVAddiction4000, Youseifaerie, and Farlo at Anime Weekend Atlanta X, and I had completed two live action videos...none of these can be listed on the org, of course. I have hosted them on my site, which is also taking off like crazy. http://www.kiskasca.net/ has grown to the point where my hosting plan has had to be upgraded twice. We now have 40 Gb of monthly traffic available to us, and we regularly push the limits of that traffic cap.
I tried to make a video for the first time with Premier, and decided that I enjoy editing with After Effects more than Premier. It just seems more precise.
I won my first two competitions this past month. Truly, my Nausicaa video, won best action video at Megacon and Anime Detour 2005, and I am awaiting the results of Sakuracon, where Truly is a finalist for Best Action. Of course, I am up against, among other great editors, Vlad G Pohnert, who entered "Classical Flight" in the competition. We will see what the results are. Seijin-Dinger, the contest coordinator, has predicted that Truly will be runner up to Classical Flight. I haven't seen Classical Flight, but I have seen the other videos, and they all have a good chance at the top two slots. There were some technical issuees reported from con-goers, and the results will be posted sometime tomorrow or the next day. I am in the middle of training right now, and my internet access will be limited for the next two weeks. I am eager to hear the results.
I've been commissioned for my first video editing project for pay. I have been given a deadline of June 2005, but I have not received any of the video or audio source yet, so we will see what happens.
My goals for this coming year are to turn out several more videos, to continue to expand the scope of my experience as an editor, to reach more people with my videos, and to become more active in the AMV community. I would very much like to start doing panels at conventions, because I am very comfortable in front of a crowd, and I think I would have a lot of success with the format. I am hoping to attend Anime Weekend Atlanta again this year, if possible. I have no idea if I will be able to. Lots of things need to work out for that to happen. I am in Germany right now, and will be here for the next two years. I am trying to make some European conventions, but I will already be missing the first one I entered, Animecon 2005 in the Netherlands. I think they will have to pull my video from the competition, since I wont be there, and they require editors to be present to participate in the contest. I even bought the ticket, and received it in the mail. I ended up selling it to an anime fan at the local photography lab who has never been to a con.
My wife is starting to feel like maybe it is time for me to get out of AMV editing. She asks me questions like, "how long do you plan to do this" and "don't you think it's taking over your life?" I am definitely at that stage where my skill is growing into my interest level, and I need to find a balance for this hobby. I believe that, as I get better at editing, I will be able to visualize a project more clearly in advance, and realize my vision while editing more easily, alleviating the need for long nights staring at the computer. My wife and family loved my second live action video, and that may buy me a little more leeway and patience, but I definitely have to be considerate of their desire for my time.
it's going to be another great year, I think.
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Video Rating System
2004-08-29 12:40:44
You know, I have been involved in a lot of discussion about the opinion system on the org. I think it might be worth a little commentary on how I approach rating a video.
First, the scores 1-10. Lots of people write me back, crying "d00d! You totally gave my video a bad score! WTF? I've never gotten below a 10?!?" I reply by asking, "Are you the best AMV creator on the org? Are you amontg the top 10%? If not, then why would you deserve a 10? What do I rate a truly awesome video? 11? Everyone has room to improve. If I give your video a 5 for video quality, it means that I think it rates a 5, compared to other videos. I rarely give videos a low score for effort, unless I can tell that you just didn't bother to read the guides. Don't complain to me if you receive your first real score from me, after a year of sucking up by your friends. If you solicit me for ops, you will get an honest op. If you don't like it, don't beg for ops to artificially improve your ranking.
Under the good, bad, and general comments...I run a little internet cafe where I am, and I screen lots of AMVs here. I use the General Comments section to give you a sense of how your video did with the nerds assembled in my little internet cafe. Occasionally, I will actually broadcast the viewing live on the webcams, so you can see them ignore your video in real time, or watch them all start w00ting.
Long story short, video opinion scores seem to be far out of balance to the high end. You never see scores under 5, and there are some videos out there that strongly deserve lower than a 5 in a few categories. There is no qualification test for someone to give an op. This is how I approach mine. -
Third Video Done, and personal site coming along
2004-08-05 15:53:42
Finally, I finished my third video, and it turned out a lot better than the last two. I have learned a lot more about using AVIsynth in pre- and post- production, and I have gotten a much better feel for AfterEffects capabilities. A bit lesson learned is DO NOT USE AFTER EFFECTS TO COMPRESS YOUR VID FOR DISTRIBUTION. It will be poopy. VirtualDubMod is the tool of choice for me, using carefully written .avs scripts. As a result, the look of the new video is cleaner and prettier with better resolution. Timing was so much easier this time since I learned how to really manipulate the audio wave form properties and use markers effectively that I ambitiously embarked on my first lip syncing effort, with a fair level of success, I think.
I have gotten positive reviews so far from those who have seen the video. This pleases me.
I have been upgrading my website as well. It looks a lot better than in the past, and has a lot better content. I still need to revamp the AMV section I think. I have too much stuff I want to host, and I need to clean it up and not have everything on two pages. I also have several videos made by other people on the site, and I need to clarify my reason for having them there. The reason I wanted to include them is because a lot of my non anime fan friends are going to the site, and while my videos are improving, I don't want those friends to base their entire opinion of Anime Music Videos as an artform/passtime/distraction from life on my stuff. I want to show them what I am striving for and what inspires me. However, I have discovered a LOT more great videos that are more amazing than what I already have on my site. I made an effort to speak with the creators of each of those videos on the #AMV chat to get their permission to host their stuff, properly credited, on my site. I want to expand this area to a set number of videos, each of which should reflect a particular strength. i.e. lip sync, effects, character profile, etc. I also want to write each creator/director and get their express permission to use that specific video on my site, so that it is being portrayed in the proper manner. That will go on my list of things to do eventually.
I am already excited to do my next video, and I am researching the possibilities for storyboarding it now. I will probably do a few experiments first, to further my knowledge of AVISynth and AfterEffects before committing to the creative process, though, so I continue to show improvement on each new video. I also want to wait and register a few more opinions on this new video, and I want to wait for the results from its appearance in a few conventions, to get some critical input that will help me to grow.
Expect more from me soon. -
Creative Lapse
2004-05-22 22:14:33
Ugggggg!!!!! I have been "researching" my third AMV for a few weeks now, and I just can't seem to get motivated about it. I have three different bands that I am considering picking a song from, and I am just stuck. I need to consider a new approach to developing a theme and concept. It's quite daunting.
On a positive note, this is forcing me to focus on my website, [url]http://www.kiskasca.net[/url] to get the kinks ironed out. I have now enhanced the page where I feature other artists AMV's, and I have created an anonymous FTP folder on the site where users can upload their AMV's for hosting.
Well, wish me luck on the new project, whatever it turns out to be. Jared Presler should be sending me a disc with his next project on it, so I can upload it to the site. You should be able to check it out there soon. - Updated version of Fairytale for my Beloved Wife done. 2004-05-16 18:09:28 My second video, "Fairytale for my Beloved Wife", the Spirited Away video has been redone. I have redone the compression on it using Virtualdub instead of natively in After Effects. The final render is much less pixelated, and it is overall more visually clean. The upgraded version is at [url]http://www.kiskasca.net[/url].
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JOURNAL: RutKiskasca (Matthew Foldenauer)
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