05/28/2007 DVD Video

About AMV

AMV stands for 'Anime Music Video', an unofficial music video to a popular song created by budding video editors from clips of anime films and series. AMV creators use the song and anime without permission but it is generally turned a blind eye to. There are often AMV competitions at conventions, and AMV creators take them very seriously.

1. Plan Your Video.
This is probably the most important step in the whole process because if you don't plan it well, your final result won't be very good. Start by picking a song that has two qualities: 1) you really like it and 2) it has an anime "feel" to it. That doesn't mean it has to be Jpop.. just that you can envision some select anime scenes rocking to your tune.

2. Map Out Your Lyrics.
The idea here is to make your video match the music. Most songs, especially rock music, have a mix of milder verse and more "explosive" choruses. Listen to your selected tune and determine what type of clips would go well in each section of the song. This will help when you begin slicing your video.

3. Pick Your Video.
This part of the process can be extremely time consuming, depending upon your resources. Using purchased DVD's that you own, you'll need to import your selected clips into MPEG or AVI format. There are several software programs available that can help you do this or you can use a video capture card to get the same results. Once you've imported all your clips, you're ready to start slicing.

4. Slice Your Clips.
Using one of many editing programs out there (Adobe Premier and Pinnacle are both great choices) slice your video clips according to your song lyrics. Most of these editing programs will import your music as well as your video so that you can preview your work as you go.

5. Publish.
All that's left to do now is burn your masterpiece to a CD and enter it in one of the many con competitions!



Tips

• Be sure to only use music and video from DVD's and CD's that you've purchased, not the downloaded bootleg stuff.
• Pick a song that matches your clips. For example, Dragon Ball Z fight scenes go great with tunes from Limp Bizkit, Disturbed and Metallica. Romantic anime would work better with something more mellow like a ballad or love song.
• Don't just put an entire episode to music. Pick and choose the best parts of the episode(s) then string them together so that they flow from one to the next. Think about movie previews you see on TV.
• Be creative. The only limitation to anime music videos is your own imagination.

From: About.com
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