[ENP-MEP] Surrender to Shounen

Boss job guys! I'd say its easily ENP's best MEP yet. However, it doesn't really divert from the fact that all the MEPs till now have been without a concept. Still tho technique and momentum wise this is by far the best and I liked it a lot!

Now please allow me to make a small review for you guys.

AoNoFlamez's One Piece track:
Strong points: Good sync, Fancy motion and colors. Good links
Weak points: White flicker overlay, harsh zooms, linear slow verse part.

It was a solid start for the MEP, and in general its quite a good part. The action was intense and fun to watch. The while flicker overlay you added later on wasn't pretty tho, and it didn't contribute to the atmosphere, therefore it felt very out of place. Now as much as I try to agree with the idea that nothing is unnecessary when it comes to editing, I still can't deny that if something looks out of place it just won't look pretty.
The harsh zoom I talked about was the eye @ 0:16. The odd part is that it forced the disturbed edges of the eye (weird eye) to show, and it was a bit obvious to an extent that it looked ugly really. But ya, that part also had interesting links so I commend you for these!
Once the verse the started it became quite uninteresting tho. Still images, and very static scenes with the same zoom on them. Kind of felt like a part that both the viewers and the editor just want to pass by quickly. Verses are important tho, they shouldn't really be rushed like that.
Still the part is very good really. I'm just elaborating on each point so it might seem like it has so many issues but it doesn't.

EnkaiHibashira's Noragami track:
Strong points: Nice sync, External / Internal / Mood / Beat, lots of sync types were to be found. Intense action
Weak points: Visual output (quality) / Ghost frames / Irregular zooms / Few senseless scene selection.

Again, in general it is not a bad part. This MEP didn't have any bad parts. I liked the connection with the lyrics. Seems like you placed a decent amount of thoughts into this track which is quite honorable. Such a shame that the quality, and scenes like 0:35 << didn't look good with the ghost framing. Better disable the resample. (In case the ghost framing is actually from the anime itself then we go back the issue with the quality, it makes it look bad) I wouldn't recommend using any scene from the anime that has issues, and/or doesn't look nice.
Now to the zooms. Pans like @ 0:34 << with the weird rotation and blur and a not quite decent transition aren't pretty. and zooms like @ 0:42 are better off without. Zooms shouldn't be applied every single time you find an opportunity for them. No, in most cases you'll get a much prettier result if you avoid them and do something else like a very mild flash or blur, even a smooth crossfade would fit. But ya, don't always depend on zooms.
Lastly, the thing about scene selection not making sense was referring to the very end, where it is zooming on some guy after a fight, and all of a sudden its a different scene with a woman holding the other guy's head. I thought that part looked so random.
In general this part compliments the other parts good, and you did well with the verse. Good job Enkai you're really improving.

xBerserkDrew's Hxh2011 track:
Strong points: Good sync, logical scene selection
Weak points: setting is very limited, very little amount of things going on, abuse of zooms.

For me this part was mainly just zooms, and the problem is that they weren't quite pretty. I mean the technique you used for the zoom sure is good, and it'd work elsewhere but not here. The clip's camera was so active that the zoom felt ill. + the fact that there was a zoom on every single clip really. Adding that to the fact that the setting stayed the same for so long and you are basically just showing different aspects of the same room, I must say I kinda got bored. I kept waiting for something to happen. This type of focusing is not always wrong, but in this case it is since the mep is not focusing on anything. So having 1 part that focuses waaaay too much on a certain event and then never coming back to it is like digging a hole for the vid. But yo~ Good sync, and the connection with the lyrics was good too. Zooms (by themselves) aren't bad, but just like enkai's case do not abuse them. Give more thoughts to what you're doing and where you do it.

AoNoFlamez's Bleach track:
Strong points: Perfect part for this MEP, intense action, BLEEEEAAAAACH!!!, beautiful techniques and motion
Weak points: Nothing that I could follow really.

This is actually my favorite part in the MEP, not only because i'm a very big fan of Bleach, but because I really believe this part was perfectly edited for exactly how this MEP was asking for the editing to be. It didn't suffer from trying to be something that its not, nor from not showing at all. It was focusing on lots of different sceneries and events of bleach to hype it all up for the viewer. In addition to beautiful editing and cool techniques. Masks contributed a lot as well.
Really liked this part.

Enkai's Gintama track:
Strong points: Headshot for this particular part of the song, good sync, intense action.
Weak points: Nothing particularly new to be seen, same old gintama scenes, and lots of which you have actually used before.

Again like Dinos' case. I thought this part was perfect for the song. So much action, and FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT! I wasn't bothered by anything apart from the scene selection that I thought showed some laziness, since everything looked so... Linear. It didn't have the editor's touch on these scenes. But was solid nevertheless.

xBerserkDrew's Magi track:
Strong points: Blast of energy, super intense
Weak points: Only little made actual sense, way too many things going on, and clips weren't treated well, not the best conclusion for the MEP.

Of course its very intense and probably contained so much effort. The energy is blowing me a yard off my screen, but with all this effort there was 0 thought. Can't really refrain from saying that clips were thrown very randomly and only the motion mattered. It was somewhat hard to keep up with this part compared to the rest, and the ending felt pretentious to me by trying to be something that it is not. After a blast of only fight scenes (that didn't compliment each other) We're randomly presented with 2 emotional scenes. Better work on using this action to build up for the emotional ending that you need, otherwise the part becomes just a piece of edit, and not really part of an amv (not saying that this is the case here) I hope you get my point.

Again good job guys. Keep practicing so you'd make it to finals next time!

lol Gab that was too long xD
I agree with everything you said! About the HxH part, i was really rushing to finish it as the deadline was really close and it was the only part left xD ( and those fuckers extended the deadline after we had submited the Mep >.<)
So yh thanks a lot for going through our parts in detail, i really appreciate it!

Well, overall it's not bad, luckily it hasn't points were it falls too much, but it has its ups and downs, especially in the second half, where the level is weaker than the first half. The tracks are well put together, the changes of anime aren't annoying, the one which really annoyed me was the one between the first and the second track, also because of the different coloration. I didn't like the wrong aspect ratio in the Bleach track and the last track is oversynced. Overall it's quite generic, it hasn't really good cues and as a result it hasn't a good re-view ability.
Bye! ;)

fakin hell gab tl;dr
Anyways, nice mep guys

damn gab all these info...didn't you get tired typing all of that? :p
Some things were rushed in my parts since we were getting short on the deadline and as andrew said they extended it after we submited it.But we had enough time so thats my bad for letting things near the end of the deadline (I tend to do that a lot :/)

At first to be honest I liked my gintama part more than noragami...but after looking at it again I can find so many things that just look ugly as fuck in both...so as that n00b said...I gotta git gud!!

Actualy we need to make a mep with some kind of theme some time...but it will need a lot of work and beta tests :p

Quote :

letting things near the end of the deadline (I tend to do that a lot :/)

Real enp member!!!

EnkaiHibashira wrote:

damn gab all these info...didn't you get tired typing all of that? :p

Nah. The more I love the video, the more thoughts it creates in my head, and these thoughts are meant to be shared :)