AMV: Fever Dream

[lizardjay]

I was about to post my newest AMV and then I realized... I didn't post the one before that! Whoops :D

Watch on YouTube

For anyone not familiar with Sai, he's a replacement member of the main team in Naruto and..... they definitely don't like him at first. And then when the original guy that he replaced comes back, Sai gets left behind by the narrative. But he's great!

• The vibe I was shooting for was "soft and dreamlike". I think I mainly succeeded! I went heavy on the blurring effects because I really like them, even though I'm not sure they're really necessary at that strength...
• In videos with Sai, I always end up focusing on eyes. For some reason they're very thematically relevant for him, more so than for other characters. You'd think Uchiha videos would focus on the eyes :D but no, it's Sai.
• Naruto's mouth is frozen open at 0:33... I was, obviously, trying to freeze it shut. It looked fine in the preview! I tried fixing it and it still didn't work, and it's a short enough shot that I just left it. It makes me laugh though.
• My other moment of Masking Woes was the first long shot of Sai's face.... shaky cam is my nemesis!!! I desperately slapped on a film effect to try and distract from the fact that, in freezing his mouth shut, I made it wobble around his face. One day I will figure out a technique for this! I tried out the Stabilize effect for the first time and it did literally nothing. Either I used it wrong, or it's just not cut out for this level of shakiness.
• I think it would've been nice to have the blades clash on the same word of every verse, but it didn't work out. (The first time was on "want", second on "more", and the last on "than".)
• Still very proud of the transition at 1:43, it barely looks like one!
• When he draws, Sai has a lot of continuous motion, which is something I don't deal with a lot. I normally time things by 'hits' so this was fun to play with.

Comments

[vriddy]

Sai sure looks extremely competent in this!! I think the vibe you were going for also came across very well.

[lizardjay]

Aw, thanks!! :)

[brightly_lit]

Definitely soft and dreamlike--also very sweet and sad. You have a great sense of movement and feeling.

Awesome transition at 1:43! And I never would have noticed the mouth at 0:33 (but I know what you mean--I hate it when the preview shows something different than the final!).

I love the beauty and melancholy of the 'drawing' theme.

Lovely vid!

[lizardjay]

Thank you, it's great to hear the mood came through!!

I hate it when the preview shows something different than the final!
I know, right?? It happens to me all the time and I don't know why the previewer can't just do a better job :D