The Pieces Fit

Oh good :D

As for self critiquing, I do it to myself. You could watch my SoraXKairi video and read the description and you'll find me acknowledging it as not my best video. And I look back and see technical mistakes and things like that. But when I feel done with a video, I throw it at everybody's face XD I don't make it better. I'll remake something as a whole new video, or reuse the song, but I don't go back and fix something small (you'll see that in my Reach for the Stars video) I prefer to just move forward I guess.

Also, just so you know, I would pay attention to the difference between technical flaws and plot-flaws (that's what I'll call it.)

As long as it's so bad that it ruins the meaning or the feelings of the scene, technical flaws CAN be overlooked. But I would advise, unless it's so tiny, not to overlook it. It bothers people. I'm a lazy FCP user (FCP renders in real-time) so I don't always do that.

Story flaws, however, CAN'T be overlooked. Unless the point isn't the story. Some video's (I.E Furyspark's Through the Fire and Flames video) send the message of, "Hey, look at how good I am with effects!" And that's fine. But with video's that tell a story, make sure it tells it and tells it right. You told it well with SoraXKairi. I can't draw any examples from my other video's, so I can't say anything I've done wrong as far as that goes. I'm not saying my stories are the best ever, but I fancy myself as telling my stories decently enough.


Just some advise for the long run. I can't call myself a pro quite yet (although I did win the Heartless Crusaders Tournament) but that's just something that I know at this point. Feel free to disagree however.

Your CC is 100% jerk-free :)

We shouldn't be afraid to criticise each other, especially if it is done in the spirit of improving each others work and getting better at our craft. The self-critique serves the dual purpose of a) proving I'm not just harsh at other peoples work without holding my own to the same standard and b) self-reflection and criticism after the initial afterglow we often have when we finish something (The thought OMG THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER WITH NO FLAWS WHATSOEVER crossed my mind when first submitted, I am not ashamed to admit) allows us to get a better understanding of what needs to improve in our own methodology, which is something others can't (usually) give us good feedback on - I think I learnt in this case to do more draft work and test renders. In the words of Neil Buchanan from Art Attack, "Try it yourself!" :)

Hmmm, judging you're own video huh? Impressive XD
Well, I finally got around to watching this. It's certainly interesting, I can tell you've done this before.
Something I'm HUGELY critical about is timing, and I have to say, although it got a little repetitive at times (probably the song's fault, same beat the whole time...ish) it was still VEEERY well timed. As for the story... Well, it's SoraXKairi. We all know that it's canon, so the story is solid XD I guess how you told it is important. And you told it well. There were times when I felt you were focusing a bit much on Sora's journey and not the pairing, but it's still very good in the way you told it.
Effects? Decent. I would have liked to see more in the beginning just so it flowed just a tiny bit better.
As for a solution to subtitles, Letterboxing seems to do it's job. Or you could crop it. That's what I do. By no means do you have to do that :D

Well, all in all I'd have to say very good return to the AMV making scene. The video itself may have some errors, but it beat mine as far as the top 5 goes! Certainly a well rounded video.

PS Did I sound like a jerk at all? Or was it good constructive criticism?

Nice consistent tone, though some big issues - the cuts to black get repetitive with overuse, most problematic around the opening and closing sections (the middle section from 2:06 - 2:50 gives us a reprieve). Audio overlays are solid, though feel incomplete, not sure why. Get some letterboxing going on - those subtitles are annoying! The story is well constructed but could be expanded on, the clip selection is pretty good at times, though the keyblade/keyhole clips feel like filler. Nice timing at 2:15 with visuals timed with the crash of the audio. Talk about overuse, the burst effect gets repetitive in the closing section, whereas it was so effective in the middle, and it really doesn't look good at all in the final shots from b/w exploding to colour; a good example of nice idea, poor execution. The visual overlays are a bit hit and miss - the one of Sora fading away looks great, the following one doesn't at 2:24 - though the lingering footage works quite nicely. Who does credits anymore in AMVs?