Trailer Editing Rantage (just For Regis)
Infinitum
Anime Encyclopedia Join Date: 2002-08-08 Member: 1111Members, Constellation
Anime Encyclopedia Join Date: 2002-08-08 Member: 1111Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">*Grabs Fire Extinguisher*</div> Sigh, this is gonna sound like flammage. But it's not. So chill out. Or I'll flame ya <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
I ALSO know, that even if this thread initially goes over well somebody will come in, flame me or someone else and the thread will get locked. I have INCREDIBLE psychic powers.
To cover my initial bases, I thought 90% of the trailer was awesome. This is just critique on the <span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'><b><span style='color:red'>EDITING</span></b></span> portion of the video. Not the footage. We all know the footage rocked hard. This is about the editing.
I'm sure only Regis will be the only one truly interested. So if you see me saying 'you' I am of course referring to Regis. I will be doing this quite a lot.
I have in my possession 2000+ Anime Music Videos. Thus I have seen my fair share of superb editors, down to the mediocre. I know when a video has been edited cleanly and when it has been butchered. So I am here now to give my personal critique upon the editing style for the 2.0 Trailer.
Gonna try to keep this as coherant and as well layed out as humanly possible.
1.) It seemed like there were a few seperate videos all spliced into the one file. To make things just a little simpler I shall devide up the video into several sections.
From the 00 to the 15 second mark we have the NS 2.0 Logo and the Chaos Films Logo Intro.
From the 15 to the 33 second mark we have Spinny Window Thingy (From I can only assume Veil)
From the 33 to the 53 second mark we have Map Fly-bys with Techno Audio.
From the 53 to the 59 second mark we have Map Name Text Fly-bys.
From the 59 to the 1:06 second mark we have the Gameplay Footage Part 1
From the 1:06 to the 1:10 second mark we have the Just Got Better Text
From the 1:10 to the 3:16 second mark we have Gameplay Footage Part 2
From the 3:16 to the 3:21 second mark we have the Are You Ready Text
So now let's analyse each section shall we?
<b>NS 2.0 Logo and the Chaos Films Logo Intro:</b>
A few seconds of black and then some slight film grain and just a <i>HINT</i> of Spinny Window (Not spinning) then we cross-fade the NS 2.0 Logo, lookin' all mighty fine with it's sexy eye self. Some more grain and flickering then the next thing on-screen is the words 'Produced by Chaos Films', 3 things here
A.) The words 'Produced by' I personally felt wasn't necessary. It was stated in the credits.
B.) Regis. Do yourself a favour and get a proper logo to use in your films. It increases the professionalism no end.
C.) (If your going to continue using this style) The spacing and text size just feels off. 'Produced by' should be about 1/3 to 1/4 of the size the Chaos Films text. It should also rest just slightly above the Chaos Films text and not at the distance it is now.
Around here I started to assume this would be the style of the Trailer, lot's of film grain/flickering goodness (And I shall refer to it from here on in as the Film Grain Style).... and then all of a sudden we get...
<b>Spinny Window Thingy</b>
The window that was hinted at during the opening seconds of the Trailer makes a comeback. It pans in from the right and then starts spinning faster and faster while ominous sounds echo in the background. What in the blue HELL. Spinny Window Thingy made absolutely no sense... And I mean NO sense. It seems to scream at me "Weeeee I'm a spinning window! Look at my spin! " Yes, you DO spin Mr.Window and we are not amused.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! WHY A SPINNING WINDOW?! ;_;
More spinning, musics leads up to a boom and we get...
<b>Map Fly-bys with Techno Audio</b>
This is simply the BEST section of the trailer and I'll simply refer to it as the Techno Style. So much could have been done with this style! But you didn't >_<
Two things of note in this section
A.) Awesome song selection.
B.) Extremely smart camera fly-bys. No vertical movement, just nice side to side and back to front movements.
These 2 elements combine to create this superb editing style which I would have killed for you to use instead of the Film Grain Style. The only odd thing is that the resource tower wasn't animating.... Anyways onto....
<b>Map Name Text Fly-bys</b>
We go from the Techno Style back to Film Grain Style with a THIRD audio track! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME? I'll reserve my overall critique about this for later in the piece...
But I digress; in this section you start up on a very sensible road of giving off some text that contains information pretaining to the new features of 2.0. Then you steer off that road and crash into a tree by only ever doing this once. Ok new maps, but what about the other alterations that were made?! More information needs to be given out, otherwise people are going to assume the only thing different in 2.0 is 4 new maps. If I was a casual gamer who was only very mildly interested in NS and I saw this my only impression of 2.0 would be "Whoop-de-f*****g-do. New maps."
Keep up the information, or don't use it.
<b>Gameplay Footage Part 1</b>
This section only contain half a second of in-game action and then you cut back to fly-bys style sans slowness and cool techno track. Cool shots, NEXT.
<b>Just Got Better Text</b>
OK, it got better. How did it get better? Features? Remember the Map Text Fly-by section? This should have come before it and then have that section followed with MORE info instead of the one piece of info you actually had. Nothing else to say, Film Grain Style continues.
<b>Gameplay Footage Part 2</b>
Rawr, in-game footage and plenty of it. This is what we all came to see. Get your rocks on. Clean-cuts are the order of the day. My one and only beef is that you contained footage with people typing.
DO NOT EVER DO THIS
Text is not necessary in a trailer. It is distracting and VERY unprofessional. Not only that, but the sections you chose to use contained people making spelling errors and correcting themselves *looks at Flayra* <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
<b>Are You Ready Text</b>
The end of the trailer. You stop using the Film Grain Style and go for plain white text. Are you Ready comes up followed by the NS.org url. The proper Natural Selection logo should have been shown above or before the NS.org url. It just didn't seem like a fitting end to the trailer that's all.
<b>Final Analysis</b>
Let me start off by saying that I liked the trailer. It contained several sections that really really made me smile and want to play it, that said your editing style is all over the joint. Let's quickly list off the things that really ticked me off
- Nowhere in this trailer was the release date mentioned. Seriously bad oversight
- The trailer was fought between Film Grain Style, Techno Style and Plain White Text Style. Next time, choose one style and STICK with it. The constant shifting of styles confused me.
- People typing = bad
- Spinny Window Thingy makes me a saddddddddd Panda
<b>You talk big, but how do you improve it</b>
This is how I would have played the trailer out.
- Lose the grain. We're keeping the techno style.
- Keep the intro. Get a new logo and drop the 'Produced by'. Flash to the next section
- Lose Spinny window thingy.
- Keep the map fly-bys intro and find a song that starts off slow like this and then develops a beat right around where this section left off in the trailer (53 sec mark) You have to edit to the music, don't let the music become secondary.
- Have a white flash (1/4 sec. Not prolonged) and NOW have 'The Best HL Mod just got better' text. Use a nice white techno-y font on a blue/dark blue background. Don't flash back in. Use a nice clean cut. I recommend that the text be typed out on screen very quickly. Think DOS prompt typing out, but the text is centered in the middle of the screen.... *shuts up before he gets confusing*
- Now keep switching between 20 seconds of gameplay footage (Minus text ;p) and then do another white flash section with some text. When you show off the maps have it flash out to 'Four new maps' and then clean cut to 5 seconds of each map and have 1 second fly-bys showing off the cooler parts of each map. In the bottom left corner have the map names be typed up like you do in the flashed out sections.
- End the trailer with whatever catchphrase you like, then show the release date, then have the official NS logo, and underneath fade in the NS.org url.
That is how I would have made the trailer better.
Hope this helps you out.
GOD I NEED SOME SLEEP >_<
I ALSO know, that even if this thread initially goes over well somebody will come in, flame me or someone else and the thread will get locked. I have INCREDIBLE psychic powers.
To cover my initial bases, I thought 90% of the trailer was awesome. This is just critique on the <span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'><b><span style='color:red'>EDITING</span></b></span> portion of the video. Not the footage. We all know the footage rocked hard. This is about the editing.
I'm sure only Regis will be the only one truly interested. So if you see me saying 'you' I am of course referring to Regis. I will be doing this quite a lot.
I have in my possession 2000+ Anime Music Videos. Thus I have seen my fair share of superb editors, down to the mediocre. I know when a video has been edited cleanly and when it has been butchered. So I am here now to give my personal critique upon the editing style for the 2.0 Trailer.
Gonna try to keep this as coherant and as well layed out as humanly possible.
1.) It seemed like there were a few seperate videos all spliced into the one file. To make things just a little simpler I shall devide up the video into several sections.
From the 00 to the 15 second mark we have the NS 2.0 Logo and the Chaos Films Logo Intro.
From the 15 to the 33 second mark we have Spinny Window Thingy (From I can only assume Veil)
From the 33 to the 53 second mark we have Map Fly-bys with Techno Audio.
From the 53 to the 59 second mark we have Map Name Text Fly-bys.
From the 59 to the 1:06 second mark we have the Gameplay Footage Part 1
From the 1:06 to the 1:10 second mark we have the Just Got Better Text
From the 1:10 to the 3:16 second mark we have Gameplay Footage Part 2
From the 3:16 to the 3:21 second mark we have the Are You Ready Text
So now let's analyse each section shall we?
<b>NS 2.0 Logo and the Chaos Films Logo Intro:</b>
A few seconds of black and then some slight film grain and just a <i>HINT</i> of Spinny Window (Not spinning) then we cross-fade the NS 2.0 Logo, lookin' all mighty fine with it's sexy eye self. Some more grain and flickering then the next thing on-screen is the words 'Produced by Chaos Films', 3 things here
A.) The words 'Produced by' I personally felt wasn't necessary. It was stated in the credits.
B.) Regis. Do yourself a favour and get a proper logo to use in your films. It increases the professionalism no end.
C.) (If your going to continue using this style) The spacing and text size just feels off. 'Produced by' should be about 1/3 to 1/4 of the size the Chaos Films text. It should also rest just slightly above the Chaos Films text and not at the distance it is now.
Around here I started to assume this would be the style of the Trailer, lot's of film grain/flickering goodness (And I shall refer to it from here on in as the Film Grain Style).... and then all of a sudden we get...
<b>Spinny Window Thingy</b>
The window that was hinted at during the opening seconds of the Trailer makes a comeback. It pans in from the right and then starts spinning faster and faster while ominous sounds echo in the background. What in the blue HELL. Spinny Window Thingy made absolutely no sense... And I mean NO sense. It seems to scream at me "Weeeee I'm a spinning window! Look at my spin! " Yes, you DO spin Mr.Window and we are not amused.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! WHY A SPINNING WINDOW?! ;_;
More spinning, musics leads up to a boom and we get...
<b>Map Fly-bys with Techno Audio</b>
This is simply the BEST section of the trailer and I'll simply refer to it as the Techno Style. So much could have been done with this style! But you didn't >_<
Two things of note in this section
A.) Awesome song selection.
B.) Extremely smart camera fly-bys. No vertical movement, just nice side to side and back to front movements.
These 2 elements combine to create this superb editing style which I would have killed for you to use instead of the Film Grain Style. The only odd thing is that the resource tower wasn't animating.... Anyways onto....
<b>Map Name Text Fly-bys</b>
We go from the Techno Style back to Film Grain Style with a THIRD audio track! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME? I'll reserve my overall critique about this for later in the piece...
But I digress; in this section you start up on a very sensible road of giving off some text that contains information pretaining to the new features of 2.0. Then you steer off that road and crash into a tree by only ever doing this once. Ok new maps, but what about the other alterations that were made?! More information needs to be given out, otherwise people are going to assume the only thing different in 2.0 is 4 new maps. If I was a casual gamer who was only very mildly interested in NS and I saw this my only impression of 2.0 would be "Whoop-de-f*****g-do. New maps."
Keep up the information, or don't use it.
<b>Gameplay Footage Part 1</b>
This section only contain half a second of in-game action and then you cut back to fly-bys style sans slowness and cool techno track. Cool shots, NEXT.
<b>Just Got Better Text</b>
OK, it got better. How did it get better? Features? Remember the Map Text Fly-by section? This should have come before it and then have that section followed with MORE info instead of the one piece of info you actually had. Nothing else to say, Film Grain Style continues.
<b>Gameplay Footage Part 2</b>
Rawr, in-game footage and plenty of it. This is what we all came to see. Get your rocks on. Clean-cuts are the order of the day. My one and only beef is that you contained footage with people typing.
DO NOT EVER DO THIS
Text is not necessary in a trailer. It is distracting and VERY unprofessional. Not only that, but the sections you chose to use contained people making spelling errors and correcting themselves *looks at Flayra* <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
<b>Are You Ready Text</b>
The end of the trailer. You stop using the Film Grain Style and go for plain white text. Are you Ready comes up followed by the NS.org url. The proper Natural Selection logo should have been shown above or before the NS.org url. It just didn't seem like a fitting end to the trailer that's all.
<b>Final Analysis</b>
Let me start off by saying that I liked the trailer. It contained several sections that really really made me smile and want to play it, that said your editing style is all over the joint. Let's quickly list off the things that really ticked me off
- Nowhere in this trailer was the release date mentioned. Seriously bad oversight
- The trailer was fought between Film Grain Style, Techno Style and Plain White Text Style. Next time, choose one style and STICK with it. The constant shifting of styles confused me.
- People typing = bad
- Spinny Window Thingy makes me a saddddddddd Panda
<b>You talk big, but how do you improve it</b>
This is how I would have played the trailer out.
- Lose the grain. We're keeping the techno style.
- Keep the intro. Get a new logo and drop the 'Produced by'. Flash to the next section
- Lose Spinny window thingy.
- Keep the map fly-bys intro and find a song that starts off slow like this and then develops a beat right around where this section left off in the trailer (53 sec mark) You have to edit to the music, don't let the music become secondary.
- Have a white flash (1/4 sec. Not prolonged) and NOW have 'The Best HL Mod just got better' text. Use a nice white techno-y font on a blue/dark blue background. Don't flash back in. Use a nice clean cut. I recommend that the text be typed out on screen very quickly. Think DOS prompt typing out, but the text is centered in the middle of the screen.... *shuts up before he gets confusing*
- Now keep switching between 20 seconds of gameplay footage (Minus text ;p) and then do another white flash section with some text. When you show off the maps have it flash out to 'Four new maps' and then clean cut to 5 seconds of each map and have 1 second fly-bys showing off the cooler parts of each map. In the bottom left corner have the map names be typed up like you do in the flashed out sections.
- End the trailer with whatever catchphrase you like, then show the release date, then have the official NS logo, and underneath fade in the NS.org url.
That is how I would have made the trailer better.
Hope this helps you out.
GOD I NEED SOME SLEEP >_<
Comments
seems kinda pointless......
@_@
Otherwise, thanks for the great preview. Now I absolutely can't wait.
it served its purpose by showing gameplay
although I do agree, I think that it was done fairly well.
Otherwise, thanks for the great preview. Now I absolutely can't wait. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
The non-animated res point sprite is a HLTV problem.
¬_¬
It's mainly for Regis's viewage, but I made it as a thread so others can see what I'm talking about and make a more informed opinion on the trailer.
I see that you want to give regis some advice but still shoulda have been a PM.
Things that stood out to me were:
The res point animation.
The spinning window.
The ingame text.
The 'new maps' section - had to emphasis other things too.
Infinitum has given you suggestion to improve future trailers with <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> All in all a great trailer, and gets the thirst for 2.0 going - but with refinement it would have been a class A+++ job.
No doubt time restrictions had a large impact... but keep the suggestion in mind for Natural Selection 3.0 Trailer <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
This is simply the BEST section of the trailer and I'll simply refer to it as the Techno Style. So much could have been done with this style! But you didn't >_<
Two things of note in this section
A.) Awesome song selection.
B.) Extremely smart camera fly-bys. No vertical movement, just nice side to side and back to front movements.
<!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I agree mostly with this. I loved the style it was going for, the sleek camera movements through the maps, really gives you an idea of how the stuff looks.
This should have been kept to a PM instead of exploding into a long ranty personal vendetta.
Kindly think of what you are posting, and the context which you are posting under before you do it.
This is true. 99% of the community was in it simply for the action.
I'm trying to appeal to that 1% who likes to critique upon everything ;p
If it's logical why can I not find any coherant similarities between the styles? ;/
This should have been kept to a PM instead of exploding into a long ranty personal vendetta.
Kindly think of what you are posting, and the context which you are posting under before you do it. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It's not a rant dude. =/
You'd know if I was getting ticked off at someone. I would be making several very snide, cynical and under-handed comments. I just don't write on forums with copious amonts of smilies and as such several of the posts in the past have been misinterpreted by the admins. You will KNOW when I am flaming someone. All the other times I mean absolutely NOTHING by what I say, and it's just my dry aussie humour coming through.... which is kinda the problem because noone gets aussie humour....
I have nothing but respect for the stuff Regis does. I just felt this wasn't one of his better ones, and I wrote out some of my thoughts on the video and it was simply easier to refer to Regis as I'm typing.
I'm simply not good at writing out critiques unless I can orientate my thoughts at a specific person or company. If I had said Chaos Films that would have been probably the better option (Hindsight is always 20/20. C'est la vie. I've already posted the damn thing >_<)
I also shouldn't type elaborate posts on a lack of sleep.
Perhaps I should stop making excuses and let it stand as it is....
Nothin against Regis. Cool bloke, ****ing awesome films he produces, just the editing on THIS video confused me and I needed to share thoughts. What better place than a forum eh?
However I understand its nice to think of yourself as a bit of a critic, but it is only a trailer, and I think it was supposed to be kinda split up.
Anyway, does anyone know where i can get the music from the start of the video, (the one with the voice over) that was brilliant?
Ok, give it up. Hand me the drugs son. <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
IMHO, the only thing that the video was missing... was the heartbeat. You know? Where all the music stops, and the screen fades in and out with heart beat sounds. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
The biggest obstacle to a lot of your crits was time. He is *super* busy on the Pre/Selection movie, and really only spent a couple hours on the trailer. That's the cool bit - he did a kickarse job that put most trailers to shame, and he really spent probably less than a day total on it. It would have been nowhere near this good if anyone else had spent that little time. He pretty much admits that he needed more hours to work on it, but that's life. Try and go easy on him...
... which will be easy once you see Pre/Selection and that collaboration of geniuses, of which he was one.
<!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
And am I wrong in thinking that a number of the scenes were played at noticably faster than normal speeds?
And am I wrong in thinking that a number of the scenes were played at noticably faster than normal speeds? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
We show you what we think you need to see. Can't give away everything... <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
No, they were played at normal speeds. You are just not used to seeing the game's speed without being a relative part of it with your own moving character. Although some of the aliens are slighty faster (or slower), and the HA is a tad quicker too...
The video accidently released a few days ago struck me as a bit more professional; the music showed good continuity and there was some wonderful action.
However I want to stress that despite it's failings the 2.0 trailor was still a great movie. I just feel that it could have been so much more.
Btw I don't think there's anything wrong with offering critisism. Monse after all told us to head over to the NS forums and give our opinions <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->The video accidently released a few days ago struck me as a bit more professional; the music showed good continuity and there was some wonderful action. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I have to disagree with you there mate. The previous trailer was made up almost entirely of one scene which was fine for the first 15 seconds or so, but became a bit stale after a while. Also, as someone else stated on another thread the music was much too epic for the battle taking place.
The qual wasn't really up to scratch either imo, but that's just because I like my film fullscreen <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
I quite liked the official trailer, except for that bloody spinning window <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
and a blast from the past, the first trailer as well
<a href='http://www.vu.union.edu/~torresj/videos/NS_Trailer.zip' target='_blank'>link</a> (be gentle private mirror)
<a href='http://www.vu.union.edu/~torresj/trailer.htm' target='_blank'>my analysis</a>
-the planetns guy, look for a relaunch of the site soon
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Valid points, and I agree. What I do think however is that the previous trailer displayed continuity: it stuck to one type of music and didn't flick around from one scene to another without giving an overall feel for how battles were being played out. This is why I felt the previous one seemed more professional. Whether it was a better trailor is not is neither here nor there.
Understood and agreed. I guess I was just tainted by Lux painting his name all over it.. that just didn't seem right to me. Also, Flayra's leap+bite kill at the end of the official trailer was just owning <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> I've really got no right to criticise either of the trailers as I've had absolutely zero experience in doing anything of that nature..
That won't stop me though <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
So was the scene with a Fade running away from a turret just Blink? If so, are turrets supposed to be able to lock onto you like normal the whole time?