My AMV

[Takeru]

While I was browsing the forums, I came across Princess Kayla's thread, which contained a link leading to her music videos (view the topic here!). I downloaded and watched most of them, and thought they were pretty awesome.

What truly hit me was her Hero music video. I really liked it, I don't know why. I just did. I was inspired. So, using the same setting (Card Captor Sakura: The Movie) and the same song ("Hero", by Chad Kroeger), I made a music video of my own that was extremely similar. I was proud of the result.

Here is the link to the video: http://s34.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1GFGNO9CKES6D01VBJGCC2FFJB

There are a number of differences between Kayla's and mine that I tried to concentrate exclusively on.

• To start, I didn't use as many transitions as Kayla. Hers was filled to the brim with impressive transitions seamlessly merging one scene into another. I didn't use any, other than a few fading effects here and there.
• I focused more on timing the video to the song more than making it look nice.
• And every scene shown in the video is in chronological order, which kinda messes up the quality of the video, but good for people who want a short summary of the movie action (the music video theme doesn't allow for too much of the good drama, unfortunately).

Because of these differences, the video might seem a tad bit convulted, let alone much different from what Princess Kayla made. It's certainly not as high-quality as the videos Kayla is making now, though (such as Be Your Girl; that's really well-made ;... so don't expect too much fancy stuff from me. I've only just started making videos.

Oh yes, and one more thing that I wish wasn't there: the subtitles from the source video. I used a subbed version of The Movie that still retained the subtitles, so you'll find those scattered around the video here and there. Not exactly something I'm happy about.

Well, anyway, check it out. I'd LOVE any advice. That's a big reason why I'm posting this to begin with; one thing I'm really looking forward to is tips for making my videos better.

[D.J.P]

Very good.

I quite enjoyed the scene selection you used.

(and you can only get better - but I can't offer any tips I'm afriad)

[Takeru]

Well, no tips means it's something I can't build upon. And that's a good thing. Thanks, SLi!

I'd really love a critique from Princess Kayla, since she's the one who inspired me to do this video.

[Princess Kayla]

Well, no tips means it's something I can't build upon. And that's a good thing. Thanks, SLi!

I'd really love a critique from Princess Kayla, since she's the one who inspired me to do this video.

First off, let me start by saying how honored I am that you were inspired by one of my videos, especially one of my older ones.  It's been a long time since I made that video so I've tried to learn a lot for my videos made now.

Anyway, this is about your video...
I thought it was very good and appealing to the eye.  You really fit the beat of the music, which makes the clips flow well.  I really enjoyed it!

Now you asked for some tips...hmm...
I suppose (now these tips are coming from what I've learned as I've grown in m.v. making) one of the most important things about making a music video, which I had to learn the hard way, is for the video to have a plot, tell a story.  Either by using the lyrics of the song (that is more appealing from my point of view) or by using the music's beat.  This means, using a great deal of variety of clips is important to making the scenes fit the emotion of what your video is trying to get across to the viewer.
Another tip, for future videos is to not make music videos too flashy.  This was difficult for me to master as you can tell from my Hero music video.  You did very well with your concept...using the beat rather than transitions.
Let's see, it is also important to have a purpose for your video...what you want the viewer to feel or understand when watching the video.  The purpose could be a number of things, a character, an episode, a relationship, etc....this ties into the first tip, but it is very important.

I guess that's all I have in tips.  I hope I was of some help.  And, again, I was very honored by your interest in my videos and I thought your video was very good!  I hope to see more from you!

[Takeru]

Is there anything I can improve on, especially?

[Princess Kayla]

Is there anything I can improve on, especially?

Hmm...the only thing I see is that it was hard to tell what exactly the focus was on in the video.  (It's hard to tell in my Hero video also.)  Also, the final scenes you used, Sakura facing Madoushi, seemed to be just a big chunk of the movie put into your video.  Maybe you could mix it up a bit.  You know, add some more editting to that part.

I hope that helps.

[Takeru]

Hmm, yeah... well, I was trying to make it as linear as possible... and yeah, even I don't know what I was focusing on. I guess I was just trying to recreate the story in a short video.

[Princess Kayla]

Hmm, yeah... well, I was trying to make it as linear as possible... and yeah, even I don't know what I was focusing on. I guess I was just trying to recreate the story in a short video.

Yeah, I totally understand.  That's what I tried to do with my Hero video.  Yet, I got a lot of reviews on how the focus was really bad on it.  That's why now, with my Be Your Girl video, I tried to create a main focus.