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Looks like I will get over 100 hours on editing alone
2008-01-07 12:44:44
'Bustin
Pre-edit: 30
Editing: 80
Yah, so I got Cloud’s standoff with Bahamut down pretty well and managed to give it my own flavor in that it’s not just a long clip straight from the movie as I’d feared it would have to be for synch reasons. Except for the last 10-15 seconds of the AMV, which will be entirely funny sauce (probably), everything’s in place. I now have about six weeks to try out some new sauce recipes, fiddle with some nagging issues with pacing and effects and focus on buffing everything to a high polish. Then it’s off to AB, because I’ve seen worse comedy AMVs in competition, and this one has a lot going for it in terms of sheer audacity. Yes, I’ve decided this is a comedy, not a Fun/Upbeat/Other.
I’d actually be kinda happy if ‘Bustin didn’t make it to the finals, or at least, not very unhappy.
WHAT??
Yep, for a bunch of reasons, some of which are:
Comedy is largely a matter of personal taste. As such, it's probably the most difficult AMV genre to pull off. Further, there are so many different ways to create comedy, that evaluating one AMV that does a certain type really well against another that does a completely different type really well can easily wind up being a toss of the dice. 'Bustin caters to a very particular kind of viewer in that, sort of like Monty Python - people either love it or hate it. I have very little control over the response it garners, in that respect, nor the makeup of the evaluation panel/audience.
Audience members also are not exactly renowned for their appreciation of the finer points of editing, particularly when it comes to comedy. They can (and do) rally behind certain AMVs for rather silly reasons that leave other editors throwing up their hands in disgust. It's hard to argue with ignorance, I guess. As a result, it's entirely possible the audience would like the concept behind 'Bustin and ignore its technical faults, but its technical faults are what, IMO, will keep it out of the finals.
I have no idea how the contest organizers will evaluate comedy AMVs...are they held to the same technical standards as the other categories or does the level of humor become the biggest factor? I suspect it's the latter, but still...'Bustin isn't a masterpiece (sorry Ben, but I have to disagree with you there, LOL) and the overwhelming sentiment of "It's ok, but...this could have been so much better" is what I'm most nervous about.
Ah, nothing like airing one's personal demons to make you feel like you're running buck naked through a site full of immature fanboys. I'm having unfortunate visions of the hentai dubbing panel I attended two years back, where certain BOYS joyously snapped pictures of every panty flash that occurred (or non-panty, actually). -_- -
/me got it!
2008-01-05 18:10:16
'Bustin
Pre-edit: 30
Editing: 76
Well, almost. But I can watch it without feeling ill. And I had a good idea for my leftover sauce that's working out nicely. It has the side effect of resolving some serious transition issues, too. :D I LOVE it when that happens. Also had a potential solution to my terrible intro dilemma, but I'm kind of scared to try it, that'll be eight hours down the drain for sure if it doesn't work.
Except for two hours in the middle of the day when I rushed "downtown" (it should be, downvillage) to do the groceries, I spent the whole day working at the barn and my back is killing me right now. I must have picked up a water bucket or 60 wrong. ARGH! I cannot be spending so much time working on the weekends, I NEED to log some serious hours on this AMV! -
I'm such a glass-is-half-empty kind of person...people hate glasses that are half empty, that's why, in the movies, waiter always ask "Want a refill?" even if someone's not done with their drink.
2008-01-04 17:34:59
'Bustin
Pre-edit: 30
Editing: 75
At least the way this AMV looks somewhat justifies the amount of time spent on it. Definitely not 100+ hours, probably more like 50, but it's not a head-scratching, how-slow-IS-she?? debacle like my first AMV. -
Still can't get it
2008-01-03 12:27:42
'Bustin
Pre-edit: 30
Editing: 74
Cloud still can't kill Bahamut on time. I completely redid the scene, all new footage, the works, it looks worst than before. *sigh*
Now that I'm focusing so much on the finale, the fact that I still have serious problems with the intro and a few other key items is conveniently being ignored. Oh, YA, almost done with my AMV...*cough* erm, no, actually I'm not. Suddenly my March 1 deadline is really, really scary. -
How low can I go?
2008-01-02 12:12:57
Not too low, because the end is coming into sight. I think some people are going to be disappointed...I know I am, it's looking like I can't wrap this thing up in style.
'Bustin
Pre-edit: 30
Editing: 72
Yeah, so I busted my butt (har har!! I didn't even plan that!) recently, and NOW I'm over 100 hours. All I have to say at the moment is this:
It’s pretty interesting, when you start picking apart Cloud’s fight with Bahamut, how unevenly it progresses: Cloud jumps and leaps and blurs by, then lands…and things slow down for a cameo…then Tifa, Vincent and Cid show up in leaps and cuts and blurs…then it slows down for another cameo…then back to Cloud, not so fast, then suddenly VERY fast cuts and blurs…then back to slow motion…then he does his acrobatic landing on some building…then repeat all of this when he actually has to thrash the beast. I spent several hours attempting to have him body slam Bahamut without interrupting the flow of action with weird slowdowns and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t make him fight the way I wanted him to fight - he’s too slow in some instances and too fast in others.
And this:
This experience has even more impressed me with a particular characteristic of Advent Children: it either synchs unbelievably well without being sliced and diced or it refuses to cooperate no matter how much you manhandle it. But it’s hard to convince people you’ve done a good job of editing if an extensive, uncut clip is just (apparently) slapped onto the timeline. Fortunately, I don’t believe in meddling simply for the purpose of meddling – if it works, LEAVE IT ALONE. I’ll be leaving Cloud’s fight with Bahamut alone, I guess…as much as I can, anyways.
And this:
My motto of leaving things alone if they need to be was reinforced after spending eight hours constructing a lifelike CNN news scene (or TNN as the case may be, I still don’t know that the T stands for. Ultimania detail, perhaps?). After it was done, I watched and rewatched and was quite pleased with the comic effect, however not so much with the overall results. Took me a few more viewings to come to the awful realization that the news scene distracted from my favorite part of the whole AMV, a part that – unlike the rest of it – is extremely simple, able to stand on its own and is the perfect way to take a break from funny sauce - a part that I had in mind when I first sat down with this project, a part that still makes me laugh after three months of working on it. I like this part, I don’t really WANT to do anything more to it! However, I’d poured so many bottles of funny sauce on that you couldn’t get the real flavor of the scene. Good thing another one of my mottos is that quality, not quantity, is what’s most important in the end. So what if I spent eight hours on it? If it’s not working, it’s getting the boot! Though I probably will try to use the news scene elsewhere…after all, I've got all this lovely leftover sauce.
And definitely this:
If nothing else, I can say I had a lot of fun working on this AMV. It wasn’t a bad experience…like several of my other projects. Maybe because it’s a comedy? It’s hard to get a chuckle out of Cloud being stabbed by Sephiroth and all that "OMG, I killed Aerith" angst.
Oh, yeah and:
For yucks I messed around with my 'Bustin bloopers concept. Didn't work so well. It won't be happening, unless I get lucky and/or want to really go off the deep end good taste-wise.
JOURNAL: DriftRoot (Lauren C.)
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