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Definately not
2007-08-09 10:16:00
S.A.
Pre-edit: 14?
Editing: 66
I’m succumbing to my extremely bad habit – as a graphic designer – of overworking things to the point where I start to ruin them. My first state of near bliss at finally “finishing” the AMV (meaning there’s no gaping black holes or weird spots) has worn off and I’m somewhat depressed by what I’ve got on my hands. It’s not hideous, but it’s not as good as I want it to be. Last night I spent three hours messing with a bunch of stuff I haven’t touched in over a month, only to wind up with exactly what I started out with when various experiments crashed and burned. There’s this one really, really nice part of C vs. S’s fight that synchs awesomely (and works, thematically) that I keep trying to shoehorn in, but because the AMV is so short, because it’s underlying framework really can’t be changed in one place without screwing up another, I just can’t seem to find a place to use this clip. If I do a beta version I may seriously consider offering one with this clip and one without. Arrrghhh…I really, REALLY want to use it!!
One thing that’s bugging the HELL out of me is that my perception of how fast the song progresses changes radically every time I go in to work on it. Usually I start off an editing session by watching the entire AMV in WMP so as to see it full size and refresh myself on what needs to be done. Every time I do this, I am appalled by how ssslllooowww the song is. At first I thought it was my hard drives protesting – I really need to reformat my computer. Then I thought that maybe it’s just the way I’m watching it, since then I jump right into Premiere and I inevitably end up watching just fast, brief segments over and over and over to try and get the timing right. I usually finish up an editing session by watching the entire AMV again in WMP. At that stage, never once have I thought that the song was too slow, usually I think that some things go by too quickly. So I’m terribly confused. :(
I’m going to bring the AMV to work with me tomorrow and play it on my PC here (yes I’m writing this at work, bad bad Lauren) which is, in terms of RAM and things running in the background, better than what I’ve got at home. If it’s still slow as hell then I may need to speed up the AMV (I probably wait to hear what other people think, though)…if it’s as fast as it should be, then I can blame it on my own computer and be somewhat happy.
My computer certainly deserves blame for other things. It’s getting to the point where I can’t render anything after about 20 minutes of work. Not sure why, I haven’t made any changes to the hard drives I’m using, both are pretty clean and defragged and not much has changed, in terms of heavy-duty effects, in the AMV for a week or two now. This morning, half of my transitions that were working last night were being interpreted as dead black space. *freaks out*
Despite promises to upload a beta today, if I get to it by tomorrow it'll be a miracle. I can't possibly upload this file from home, so I have to do it at work, which means dragging in all my site info and files and things and firing up Dreamweaver on my lunch break...ugh.
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Apparently I don't know when to stop
2007-08-08 10:31:36
S.A.
Pre-edit: 14?
Editing: 63
The last 15 hours or so of this AMV have been spent fiddling with half second (or less) transitions and fussing over flaws I can't seem to fix. I'm going to make one (or two, ok, maybe three...four?) changes tonight if I have the time and then upload a beta for comment.
Positives:
1. I am happier with my use of effects, which after much wrangling are beginning to fall into predictable places.
2. It takes watching the AMV back to back four or five times to pick up on annoying synch errors. I'm not sure if this means I'm becoming blind to them, though, or if they've become so minute I only catch them after repetitive views.
3. I still have a few effects to pull out of my sleeve that I think will work well.
Negatives:
1. I wish I had enough footage to pull off ALL the effects I want. Subsequently, I fear those that are there inspire "Oh jeez, that was neat...wait, no more?"
2. I AM becoming blind to trouble spots. There are sections that I've kind of said "Ok, I'm done with that, no more touching!" but now I want to get my hands on again, even though (in most cases) I feel like I've exhausted the possibilities.
3. I mustn't get too obsessed with more effects, I want them to be noticeable, but not distracting. The question is, does a subtle effect that lasts for a total of four frames REALLY make that much of an impact? Is it better to just save myself a lot of work and the dreaded "What was that effect??I think I missed it..." reaction from viewers.
These are questions that most likely will be dealt with when I get some feedback on my beta version.
Oh yeah, and I still have to make the opening title sequence. That's going to be a pain in the butt...maybe...I already have most of the complex graphics ready. -
When to stop?
2007-08-07 07:58:41
S.A.
Pre-edit: 14?
Editing: 60
I keep fussing with my AMV, even though it's more than fine for a beta version. The fortunate/unfortunate result is that things I fuss with generally come out looking better than things I put in place back in the dark ages of this project, which makes me go and fuss with THOSE.
The nice part is that I'm feeling better about submitting this to Anime Boston next year. I'm fairly sure it won't be the worst of entries. -
*cues maniacal laughter*
2007-08-05 20:51:45
S.A.
Pre-edit: 14?
Editing: 57
This is a big day, folks. Not as big as the day that's coming up, but pretty darn big. For the first time in years of AMVing I went through a particular step in the process WITHOUT ANY PROBLEMS WHATSOEVER. Namely exporting, encoding and piecing together a (low quality, but still quite sharp) 18 MB AMV. If I was feeling delusional I'd upload the bugger right now and take my hits knowing it's still a better AMV than probably 70% of what's out there. No fansubs counts for a LOT in my book *mutter mutter*.
Remaining problems:
1. I think the EADFAG skipped over the part about reattaching your original, non-24FPS footage so I need to figure that out.
2. My video got slightly scrunchy after encoding, which bugs me because I went through hell and a half getting it to come out right in the first place.
3. I now have to figure out how to stick this file onto my Web site so I can ask kind individuals to give this beta version a once-over. I recently changed hosting providers so I'm not sure what kind of hoops I'm going to have to jump through to accomplish this. Fortunately I can upload the file from work, now that they've installed Dreamweaver on my PC, and save myself the grief of trying to do so from home on dial-up.
4. Where's my list of things I need to ask opinions about...? On the top of them all will be the warning: "Please do not tell me not to make this AMV because (a) it uses Advent Children and (b) it's extremely linear or (c) you're avoiding special effects (noticeable ones) like the plague. Why? Because (A) I've already made the AMV (B) the stuff going on is supposed to match the lyrics and follow a progressive story line and (C) I tried effects and it made it too cheesy.
I am so transparently insecure... :(
All that matters is that I had a blast (mostly...ok and only after wanting to destroy my computer and yell "SCREW YOU, AMV!) and have accomplished one of my New Year's resolutions (for several years running).
Aaaghhh! My chicken's burning!! -
Wooooo!
2007-08-04 21:05:54
S.A.
Pre-edit: 14?
Editing: 52
My AMV no longer has gaping black holes or places where (after exporting it) I wince and pretend I didn't see something. I had to make some drastic changes to the area surrounding one of the aforementioned trouble areas and I'm not completely happy with the compromise but maybe if someone gives me suggestions on how to make the AMV better it'll be fixed. (My comma key is still not working). *gnaws her nails* Then there's the possibility that my compromise is too good for the rest of the AMV and makes previously decent areas look subpar. This keeps happening to me...
I am starting to really dread the post-editing process because when I get too happy about things they tend to bite me in the ass.
JOURNAL: DriftRoot (Lauren C.)
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