Priorities with Sync in AMVs

[violet_skies]

 

(Author’s Note: as a new AMV editor, this is just, like, my opinion, man. People who have been doing this for longer will possibly disagree with me)

If your AMV lacks sync, it is probably going to look bad. Sync, along with flow, are the two key elements to a successful AMV. If your AMV doesn’t sync or flow, it will look wrong. While flow is just kinda feels, sync is a lot more obvious when it’s not working. 

Typically, there are four types of sync: internal, external, lyric, and lip. Lyric sync is the easiest to explain–if they say the word “holding hands” in a song, you show an image of someone holding hands. Really straightforward stuff. Lip sync is when a character’s mouth looks like they are saying/singing the audio. External sync is cutting scenes to the beat. It’s more necessary than lyric sync for a good-looking AMV because if scene cuts are too early or too late, it’s jarring. People who don’t know how to edit an AMV but know about basic rhythm can determine when something doesn’t look quite right. The third type of sync, internal sync, can really make a video pop. Internal sync is when the *action* of a clip syncs to the beat. Well leveraged internal sync looks awesome. 

Lyric sync is where my ideas start. When Iisten to songs, I listen to the overall feels/vibes of the song, but moreso listen to the words. The lyrics inspire me to search for a source, and if I really like a song, I’ll write it down on my list without having any ideas for it at all.

The video I want to use to demonstrate these concepts, where I think I succeeded in combining lyric sync, external sync, and internal sync the best, is Stay Paranoid!, my week 1 POE video about Bill Cipher. If you’re reading this blog you  probably know what POE is, but in case you don’t, let me explain. Project Org Editor is a competition hosted every other year by animemusicvideos.org (often just called “The Org” for short). There are weekly prompts, and you have seven days to finish a video that fits the prompt of that week. In 2022, the prompt for the first week was Villains, and I chose Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls because he’s so unhinged I thought it would be a good source. I did *not* realize that the coordinator of POE is a die hard Gravity Falls fan, so that didn’t hurt either. This is my first video to make Momocon AMV finals, a huge accomplishment, and I’m very proud.

So the song starts with this intense sound. The sound is almost siren-like, a warning noise, kind of panicky. I like that intensity and how it pairs with Bill Cipher as a character. Then the drum beats start in around 0:05, and the hole in the sky pulses to the beat. The internal sync in those sections feels really satisfying to me–the width of the beam increasing in width as the tone changes, the rising of Bill into the sky as the music’s pitch goes up, and the pulsing X set the stage. At 0:08, I liked how the close up of Bill’s eye matched the distorted low notes, but I used masking to make his eye have more interesting stuff going on (don’t look at the mast too closely, I had only been editing for about 4 months at this point). The scenes in the mask change with the beat. The next section from 0:15-0:40 was to set the tone of the video, do some lyric sync, build some tension. The beat sync during this driving part of the song sets the stage for Bill Cipher as the villain, he melts statues, rearranges faces, and turns people to stone. The internal sync at 0:55 when the birds slow down makes me particularly happy. 

I’m not going to go frame by frame through the rest of the vid, but it has a other places here and there that I consider my favorite parts of the video. Going into editing it, I wanted something important for the lyric “because I’m dancing”. I wanted it to be Bill, but I found his underlings, so there’s a joyous scene for that line at 1:16. I really liked 1:37 how the drums felt like they really worked with the slot machine Bill. The section with Bill and Ford from 1:54-2:08 is excellent lyric sync if you know the show and encompasses the relationship those characters have. The use of Gideon for “my vendetta” is another small lyric pair that I enjoy. The clock sync at 2:27 makes me happy, too. The section from 2:38-2:50 I struggled with, and I think that section could be tighter, but I made it in a week. I also struggled with the end because I rely so heavily on lyrics, and the ending of the song should have been a little more random and not trying to follow a story/plot. 

Relying heavily on lyric sync is both a blessing and a curse. It helps my video feel connected, like the song and the source pair really well (see my Puss in Boots AMV, Purrgatory, for a pairing that I’m really proud of as well as my best lip sync ever). It gives me road blocks, though, because sometimes a single lyric can throw off an entire pairing for me. A song in my “to edit with” list, for example, mentions a cell phone. While that shouldn’t be enough for me to discount any show that isn’t set in modern day, I struggle to find a pairing no matter how insignificant that line is. When I watch videos, though, I don’t have that same hangup. Unexpected pairings, where the lyrics don’t fit to a level that I usually force myself to meet, can really catch my attention. One such video is Oroborous, by Standard Quip. I’m probably going to dedicate an entire post on why this video just works for me. The lyrics to the song, however, are the point I’m trying to make. The song is called Soviet Trumpeter, by a great steampunk/electroswing band Katzenjammer. There are zero trumpets in the video. I know that sounds *VERY* stupid, but that’s how I approach lyrics. I would have listened to the song and completely written it off as a viable AMV song because the words are just kinda weird. The pairing, however, really feels right. 

I might dedicate my next post to this video, or maybe a few videos that I perceive to be unappreciated gems. I find myself to be VERY picky when it comes to AMVs. Talking about AMVs that have fewer than 500 views and why I think they’re great might be interesting to someone. Sure, I could talk about Killing Kind and why this video is amazingly mind-blowing beyond all reason and everyone should watch it. However, I think I would rather bring the hidden vids that really speak to me.