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It's time to recap, Topless Robot-style.
2011-09-11 20:19:48
The Kingdom of L.F.S.
Pre-edit: 3 hours
Edit: 50 hours
I did not feel like editing yesterday, but managed to put in a solid 9 hours today. Let me break this down:
2011-09-02 The audio and my footage... [have] been on unbelievably, outrageously good terms so far (within reason, there are still hateful glances, a constant stream of whining and the occasional temper tantrum).
Did I say this? Did I REALLY say this? *facepalm* It's a real shame that there is simply no wood to knock on here in Internet land, because this would be a great example of when to use it. I have nine hours worth of work that is pretty much fit for the garbage can, thanks to this unfortunate statement of mine. I can't blame this one on the AMV Gods, it's my own fault 100%!
2011-08-28 The other thing I got out of my system was aggravation over being unable to combine random footage to craft some original scenes.
:| I forgot about the aggravation of having to combine random footage because it's the ONLY way to craft a scene. Stupid, stupid, stupid...
2011-08-28 There is one minute of video left to create. HOPEFULLY the worst is behind me...
AAAH HA HA HA HAAAA!!!
2011-08-27 I made my first "Oh, I can just adjust the lip flap later" concession today.
The first, but not the last.
2011-08-27 No one is ever going to know that I did NOT take the easy route out, that I tried like crazy to be very creative and experimented with tons of different options for each and every scene..all they're going to see is me apparently taking the easy way out.
Today's experiments, even the ones I sort of wound up saying "Ehh...well ok, for now," were all a total and complete failure, with no added bonus of even LOOKING like I took the easy way out. I even did I bad thing and broke the fourth wall of AMVing in a really obvious attempt to avoid lip syncing... :(
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I feel like sharing some interesting thoughts on the process of creating a parody of an existing movie trailer. This is probably the the genre of AMV which is most affected by existing material, in that there is a template to follow when creating your own anime version of a trailer. There's a range, of course, to how closely the AMV follows the original trailer, starting with how closely the editor desires the AMV to match the original footage. Oftentimes this is completely impossible, so one moves up the scale to the next level: matching the trailer's edits, regardless of the content being shown.
This is where I get a little fuzzy on the rules of AMV trailers (if there are rules, I suspect they're more like guidelines). Do people get more points the better they match the original trailer's editing? Do they get fewer points because they're technically copying someone else's work and not composing something entirely original? I don't normally watch AMV trailers because I honestly find them rather boring (and I include my own video in this category!!), so I'm very ignorant of that whole scene.
That said, I suspect L.F.S. is going to drop into a bizarre no-man's land of uncreative editing and failure to follow the trailer exactly, which no one gives points for. On the one hand, I simply can't mimic the trailer because the scenes it shows simply do not exist in my own footage, so I'm creating new ones from scratch. On the other hand, I'm painstakingly copying some of the trailer's more obvious editing techniques, even though I technically don't have to and, in some cases, think my own version of a scene works better (the way I work, copying is a last resort). I still haven't decided what to do about some of the more obvious examples of this copy-catting, in large part because of my fuzziness about parody trailer protocol.
I suppose if/when this thing gets into the hands of beta testers, I will get an earful. -
Supporting the .Org
2011-09-02 22:19:57
I bought another AMV.org coffee mug today. My original one went missing over a year ago at work, and I'm kind of wondering if someone swiped it. I will be keeping a much closer eye on my new one.
In AMV news, I am leaning towards cheating my way out of a really difficult segment of the audio, namely by cutting it completely. I'm not too pleased to be even be considering such a thing, although I certainly have no qualms about slicing up songs or anything. It just feels like admitting failure at a very late stage in the game...but hey, what am I going to do? Drag down my whole video by keeping in a segment which just does NOT work? I don't even feel it really fits with the rest of the ORIGINAL trailer (thematically speaking), although it serves a function and has a lot of entertainment value.
*sigh* I will try to figure some way out (no one's ever said I'm not a creative problem solver), but I am not going to leave this segment in if the audio and my footage refuse to play nice with one another. They've been on unbelievably, outrageously good terms so far (within reason, there are still hateful glances, a constant stream of whining and the occasional temper tantrum). -
Courtesy of Cracked.com
2011-09-01 19:24:45
"There is no hole in your life small enough to be filled in by Youtube praise."
This is probably the best comment about YouTube I've ever read. It says so much while saying so little, and yet it's so true. -
It may not be a gimmick, but...
2011-08-30 21:53:54
The Kingdom of L.F.S.
Pre-edit: 3 hours
Edit: 41 hours
I got a kick out of putting little special touches into my last AMV. Some people call them Easter Eggs, but I usually prefer they not be quite so difficult to notice and it's even better if they actually serve a purpose above and beyond being a little extra somethin' somethin'. There's always the problem of people not FINDING all the eggs, you see, and then my egging comes to naught.
I've decided these items in L.F.S. will count towards the pre-edit tally, since most are being done outside of Premiere. Not sure whether I'm going to factor my AE effects into editing time, though. It's going to represent a good chunk of work which I haven't really even started yet and my well-ordered mind likes to keep the distinction between how slow I am as an editor and how OCD I am about special effects (which unfortunately includes bumbling incompetency in AE) very clear.
So, today's L.F.S. Easter Egg IS...*drumroll* an I'm with Badass bumper sticker!! Kind of. Tee hee >:D -
I have "survived" tropical storm Irene and managed to edit the entire time without losing power!
2011-08-28 19:57:06
The Kingdom of L.F.S.
Pre-edit: 2 hours
Edit: 41 hours
Look at that, another seven hours of editing done today. It was slow going, too. Nasty, nasty stuff. For all those times (of which there are admittedly few) when I've fantasized about making an action AMV, I think I can safely say I got it out of my system. For now.
The other thing I got out of my system was aggravation over being unable to combine random footage to craft some original scenes. I really wasn't expecting this, but I guess it goes along with my previous comments about not focusing too much on the long-term logistics of this video. These scenes still look like a hack job to me, but I'm hoping that's only because I'm becoming ever more intimate with my source footage. Not a pleasant experience, though I am discovering a lot of interesting things I never saw before. A bunch have found their way into my video, too, though I fear it only exacerbates the good scene/bad scene cycle.
There is one minute of video left to create. HOPEFULLY the worst is behind me... please please please please please let this be true
JOURNAL: DriftRoot (Lauren C.)
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