[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQI4xaR_YuU[/ame]
With one of our best halloween releases ever I finally finally finally bring you my thoughts on Maggie's Halloween release of Silent Hill: Alessa's Revenge.
Epical Editor - Maggie
Music Choice - Everything Burns by Ben Moody Feat Anastasia
Footage - Movie - Silent Hill
Presentation
This opening was perfect. Loud noises, heart beat sound effects and freaky pictures from the movie. Nice set up. The closing was neat with all of the info nicely presented.
Presentation Score - 2/2
Quality
From start to finish the video quality was nice and clear. Well, aside from the first verse which was clearly intentional. And even that came across well. No pixellation or blurriness, the footage used made the video a clear spooky watch for sure.
Quality Score - 5/5
Music Choice/Atmosphere
Now this one had to be key. Being a halloween MV, the tone had to be scary or like themed while sticking to the atmosphere that was offered up in the movie. Not having seen the movie or played the game that the movie was based on, I had no idea of the back story. However, the more mellow tempo at the beginning set up the videos closing half nicely. You could tell that something just wasnt right with the scenarios that Maggie showed you as you watched the video unfold which in this case, is a good thing. There were a few times though in the opening segments where I was confused with some of the lyric syncs. Were they geared towards the little girl, or the blonde haired woman who could have been her mother/caregiver? I wasn't sure. Now this can be mostly blamed on the fact that I havent seen the movie or game, but it still seemed slightly confused as to who we were referring to. As the video went on the music got stronger and really allowed the editor to open up with some great timings, strobes and overlays while keeping a great creepy atmosphere. In fact I was begging for 2.31 to come around because the editor really did a solid job of building up to that point where it all started coming together and the music picked up to the climax. I felt this song choice had a great atmosphere for the type of video that was being done, and aside from the lyrics near the beginning, I was hooked.
Music Choice/Atmosphere Score - 4.5/5
Difficulty/Effort
At a first glace it may not seem that the difficulty level was that high with this production. Indeed, you gave your slow first half concluded with your faster paced closing half. Slow crossfades and overlays for the beginning, clip placements, quicker timings and some strobes followed in the end. But this all counts easily towards the effort factor. Because of a solid song choice, editing a video can be much easier than if a song choice wasn't picked well. The song fit well, all Maggie had to do was fill in the video to make it fit. And for all intents and purposes it did fairly nicely. The whole first verse had a rough old film reel type effect distorting the beginning. Setting opacity and other settings for that probably wasn't fun. While it was a nice effect to use, I found that at times it made some overlays or scenes difficult to make out. Many overlays and crossfades were set throughout of the video whether during the slow tempo sections or the faster last half. I found that as the video went on, Maggie clearly stepped up to the plate and had solid timings, added some basic effects and voila - nice solid video. There were a few times though that I felt that something could have been added as there were some scenes that went on for a bit too long with nothing really happening just to hit a lyric sync. Aside from that I was definately pleased as a viewer of the final output of this video.
Difficulty/Effort Score - 4/5
Plus/Minus
No points for this as it already was awarded, but DAMN the intro was perfect for this video!
PLUS .20 - .28 - nice overlayed clip placements with fadeouts.
PLUS .30 - solid lyric sync
MINUS .36 - with some great crossfades previous of this point, this clip was placed and seemed too hard for the music and the current feel at that time. Crossfade again would have worked better I felt.
MINUS .57 - 1.03 - I'm not sure what the orange with the black in the middle was supposed to be. It just seemed in the way and I had a hard time seeing the underfootage which was a solid lyric sync.
PLUS 1.14 - Lyric sync worked well.
PLUS 1.28 - Solid Lyric Sync
MINUS 1.35 - I wasn't able to tell what was going on with the footage/overlay shown.
PLUS 1.41 - Nice what fade in from previous scene.
PLUS 1.49 - solid lyric sync
BLEW IT 1.55 - 2.00 - A lyric sync was made but this just seemed to go on forever with nothing else happening. It just felt too long.
PLUS 2.03 - Another solid lyric sync.
PLUS 2.11 - Nice Action and Lyric Sync with the fire.
PLUS 2.26 - Lyric sync city. Another good one.
MONEY SHOT 2.29 - 2.31 - Maggie had you begging for this by the time this segment happened. She built up the first part nicely with great lyric syncs and then you could feel this coming and when it did, it was just great!
PLUS 2 for multiple segments - 2.31 - 2.39 - Solid timings with clip placements and strobes with a great lyric sync overlay.
PLUS 2.48 - Great lyric/action sync
PLUS 2 2.48 - 3.13 maggie just went to town with multiple timings, strobes, clip placements and overlays. Solid solid solid.
PLUS 3.47 - 3.52 - a great way to end such a video with the dark eyes and quiet yet intense gaze of the girl(I assume thats Alessa?).
Plus/Minus Score - 17/22
Overall Impression
The presentation and effort came through very nicely, especially for the last half of the video. It left me feeling like I had really watched something well put together. The first half was put together nicely as well, however there were a few times when there was something that was being shown that I couldn't make out what it was or why it was on the screen. An overlay or two covered up a bit more than they should have and there was the one scene that could have used a bit of something as well. Needless to say I enjoyed the video a lot, especially when it was released on halloween. The atmosphere was prime and song went well with the misery that was shown to me. Aside from some of the overlay/scene issues, the video itself still comes on strong and makes for a great halloween presentation not for those who get scared easily. (my ex gf would not watch it at all hehe.)
Overall Impression Score 4/5
Overall Score - 36.5/44 - 83% - B
~ I'm glad my private school didnt have a barbed wire room.....*shudder*
Last edited by Raistlin; 02-06-2009 at 07:00 PM.
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loved it! I really must see this movie... ...
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Originally Posted by Lu
