AMV: Eyes Open..... again?

[lizardjay]

Me, August 6:

I'm REALLY hoping that I won't regret posting this before the fight actually finishes. I can see it now: the next episode will have incredibly beautiful cinematic shots of Uraraka and Toga fighting in the sea spray with the light of the setting sun, and new backstory flashbacks for both of them...

The specific details were wrong, but. YEAH. THAT HAPPENED.

I don't REGRET posting and finishing the video; I think it's great! It's very much a... not a cliffhanger exactly, but a "standing at the precipice" type of ending. It's not ruined by the later continuation of events.

.... But now I wanted to include those events!! So I pretty quickly decided to do a version 2. Conveniently, I had cut out one verse/chorus from the song, so I just had to add that back in to make more room. The beginning is solid and doesn't need to be rearranged. But then I needed to put in some serious thought about how to work the rest of it. An extra minute is a LOT of time. And the whole structure is different, moments which were previously in the climax of the video are now just in the second verse/chorus.

It was also a good opportunity to fix some things that were weak in the original video. I think I really built in some new strengths with the edits. But I also introduced some new weaknesses.

Anyway: HERE'S THE AMV.

And because of who I am, I made a comparison video. Do not feel compelled to watch this unless you have genuine interest. I used the final chorus of the original AMV twice in here; once where I used the footage in the final video, and once in its original position in the final chorus.

IMPROVEMENTS

• The bridge, while emotionally very sad, didn't quite match the message of the video and so came off as a little cheap. It's different now. It's..... still not perfect, for sure. My message is still not consistent. I also embraced some very fast shots, which I'm generally against (in MY work, that is) because one of my main principles is Clarity. Several fast shots in succession is not Clarity! It's the best I have after a long time of puzzling over it, though.
• The shot of Uraraka that originally comes from her looking in horror at the hero who quit never really FIT; it required some heavy lifting from the viewer to interpret what it is she's coming to 'know'. Now I've made the parallel with Hawks killing Twice (which honestly must be canon intended? They're both on the floor in a dark room in front of an incredibly bright doorway) and it immediately strengthens the message. She knows What Heroes Do To Villains; she knows the fear herself, as the person who was struggling not to be stabbed; and sure, yeah, in general she knows the horrors of conflict and watching people give up or whatever. So much better! (That shot of Hawks and Twice DID end up so horrendously blurry and ugly that it's jarring, because I had to zoom in so far. It's a price that I have to pay but wow is it bad.)
• I ditched the blood tears. VERY SAD. They were a silly indulgence to begin with but I liked them anyway.
• I arguably fixed the title shot. Before, I had had to make a blurred square behind the title, because that's where the anime had the 'Toga' name label. (Hard coded text, my nemesis.....!) In this version I carefully layered new background over the label instead, using strips of existing background. It's... bad. It looks bad. But it's in a different way than the bad look from the last video! I think I prefer this one. I'm not sure this is a difference that any viewer would care about, but *I* care. (On second viewing, I do think the new version looks better, and not as bad as I thought.)

WEAKNESSES

• Inconsistency with I/you: I found myself muddying the waters on this more than before. The lyrics have a clear I vs you, and Toga is the I MOST of the time, but I made her the you during the PLF section (which is the weakest section of the whole video). Lack of clarity in general is a problem for that section. I wanted to cut that verse out completely because I knew maintaining the message would be a struggle, but it wouldn't work musically.
• Messaging/overall story arc: the lyrics of "I don't know you/I don't want to" never change. This worked fine for the original video, which left off at a moment when the gap of understanding between Toga and Uraraka seemed impassable. But adding in the new scenes kind of ruins this, because they're bridging the gap... and now the unchanging aspect of the lyrics is something to struggle against, in the final chorus. Sure you can reinterpret the lyrics, but you're working against the natural inclinations of the song... in this way, despite its faults, the original AMV is more true to the song. In trying to tell a more complete story I'm working against the song itself and undermining/weakening it. Honestly, if this had been my plan from the start I probably would've had to pick a different song. The middle of the final chorus was the last thing I finished, because I had to reckon with "HOW do I make this make sense and be satisfying?" and I'm not sure I succeeded. (You'll see I ultimately just threw in some blood shots and called it a day, after at least an hour of tweaking and reordering the stuff around it.)

NEITHER?

• I accidentally changed the rate that the sky turns red at the beginning. This was not intentional.

I guess the takeaway from this is that the 'perfect' video would have the length and structure of the first, but make the Twice comparisons of the second. These are things that don't rely on new footage; I could've done them the first time around, if I'd thought of them. I guess this brings up the question, should I maybe sit on completed videos longer to allow myself to think of ways to strengthen them? I can't deny it would make them better in most cases, but I probably won't do it and don't really want to. I am a simple creature! I don't think it's generally worth it to me to make the Most Perfect AMVs Ever. Keeping videos back after finishing them does not bring me enjoyment.

This is the first time I've ever 'redone' an AMV, and it was an interesting experience! I probably spent 2/3 or more of the time just reworking existing parts, not even touching the new footage that was my reason for coming back in the first place. And I spent a LOT of time on this. Enough to make a completely new AMV by itself! I didn't keep track but I'd say at least 12 hours, which is approaching the amount of time I spent on the first version. In terms of time efficiency, it was objectively absolute garbage. But I felt productive with every bit of that time. Everything was really slow because I had to try out like five different options for every single moment, and I wasn't clear on my overall plan so I had to keep revisiting and revisiting and revisiting parts, but I was never truly lost. I don't mind going really slow, as long as I'm GOING. If I minded being slow I probably wouldn't be making AMVs at all, because I'm objectively slow at them. Luckily for me, I normally enjoy 90% of the editing process so it doesn't matter how long it takes.

I sometimes think about redoing some of my earliest videos, but now.... idk. I won't take it off the table but it sounds exhausting 😴