High Voltage

Great editing but the music transitions are really bad imo. They just sort of throw you into a new, completely different song out of nowhere...great clips though and some fantastic clip transitions.

 

Editing was fantastic. Knowledge and incorperation of different software and effects (Illustrator used for text?) were sublime.

Only thing i could fault, which in honesty is a gargantuan fault, is there is just a totally messed up sense of mood, which in most cases does not work well with what is on screen. The music transitions are very poor, and for a lot of the montage don't sync well, and don't provide an engrossing mood. He clearly has in interest in this genre of music, as do i, and i can say he chose some pretty bad tracks, and of those tracks used some poor remixes. They don't suit a montage, and overall it creates a feeling where i don't want to be involved or enjoy it. It's a flaw in the editors tastes, not his skill, so i don't know how he can improve on that.

 

With regard to the syncing, I felt that what he lacked as an editor in this instance was a proper understanding of speed changing dynamics with a smooth flowing video. You can have a video jerking all over the place with speed if you like, as long as those speed changes work with each other, the clip, and the music, plus you have to be good . The speed shifts he used so often seem forced to the music, as opposed to appropriately chosen for it, hindering how smooth the overall product should be considering the editing skill apparent. Overall, I'd agree with you Matty that the mood is jumpy at best, and I'd probably tend toward 'incoherent' as a single piece. It has that sense of lots of little bits by different people put together and expected to work, even though it's one editor, and the bits don't have their own perfectly formed little characters which can make such things work.

As for tracks, I'd agree with you Matty on one count, and disagree on another. I agree that the tracks didn't suit in a way, though some sections I had plenty of ideas just listening to the track, and I would have paced those sections very differently in some cases. But in general, music wasn't the strong point, but I think you brush taste off almost too generously. Sure taste is individual, but taste is something that I feel can be qualified as the right choice for a project even by those who wouldn't have made the same choice. Even within music I really like and potentially want to 'tage with, there are some things that I see as suited and some I see as not suited to Halo syncing. I'd say that knowing the difference between stuff you like and stuff that'd really work is a skill in itself.

Sounds pretty harsh, and I should say I did enjoy watching it a good deal. It's frankly nice watching pretty things happen, and this montage does that well as a base thing. It just felt disappointing, like seeing someone who has the best BR in the world but just runs and guns with no sense of strategy. Could be epic....

I really need to get off my ass and stop being a critic, actually try this stuff before teh bashing .

 

My SINGLE biggest worry about editing for other people . Although you would have thought that if it was one of those deals where each player chooses their song(s), the tracks would differ in genre more.

Tbh, I'd tend away from judging outright because a lot of what I said above is very subjective. I've got pretty clear ideas on what I like as far as editing styles and mood goes, as well as track choice, it's really the latter which I think really is a montage. There are always gonna be certain things which are just accepted by pretty much all as not working, just not looking good, but whether you think a montage works or not is always gonna be subjective at least in good part.

As far as current major styles on montages go, it's pretty tight, but there are some things which just stick out. Ol' favourite point of comparison: Str8 Montage, that kinda epitomises what's hot in tages over this past 6 months/year, and even with more drastic mood changes with track, it flows really well. Again this is subjective, but the overall lack of coherency is less one of those things where I can say "I don't like this, but I can see how others would", and more just feeling that it doesn't work.

Idk, as I said before this all sounds overly critical, but it kinda feels like nitpicking stylistic aspects because the potential talent in executing ideas seems very high. And it's not even like the skill is good but the stylistic approach is bad, it just feels like it could be so much better with a few rethinks and attention paid to overall coherency and just making it a pleasurable viewing experience to the highest degree. Feeling pushed in to editing choices by the nature of a clip or an ill suited track is one of the things which I think hinders so many montages that I see.