King of Fighters 69 Teaser Trailer

I finally got back around to editing! Judy’s been bugging me for forever to make a dub so I figure if I start editing stuff, maybe I’ll get back in the mood to actually crank something out. Anyhow, this is actually an old trailer reborn. I made a similar version of this way back in 2002 on my old editing system. Recently I jumped at the opportunity to get Final Cut Studio for a good price, so I’ve got quite a respectable editing setup now with my MBP and my new monitor. Anyhow, if I’ve learned anything from cutting this KoF trailer it’s that 1) new NLE software and hardware are a joy to use and 2) I’m way rusty at this editing bit. I think I spent about 3 hours total ripping, editing, and cutting this trailer from DVD to Youtube.

Song’s screenings at Fanime this past weekend went well, better than I thought, actually. But then, I always fear the worst. ”It is what it is” was a phrase that kept popping up in my head while I was making this. It’s based on an “old” anime and all rendered in a passable but dated cel-shaded graphics engine. It wasn’t that I instinctually knew it was great CBBB, what was important was that it was more CBBB. But now having seen the whole thing in a non-editing context, I think the story is good CBBB. I think the villain’s motives could have been explained better (particularly, why he specifically targets the Bebop crew), but I liked the new characters of Bianca and Kent and their respective interactions with Spike and Faye. I’m actually quite proud of the last few action scenes which got some good whoops from the audience. And the ending is a classic fatalist Spike moment.

Because we’re Studio Sokodei, this thing ain’t done-done yet. The number one flaw was that the thing was too damn dark (most notably damaged is one of my favorite gags in the video which got zilch response from the audience). I should’ve gotten the hint from how murky the trailer turned out on YouTube. But yeah, that’s at the top of the list. There are a handful of subtitle rewordings I’m considering (Though thankfully, I noticed no embarassing typos during either screening). I compiled the screener DVD three times in the 24 hours before premiere due to volume problems I kept discovering, and there were still some in what got shown, but limited to less than 30 seconds of the whole. I may also trim a few more lines. And last but not least, I’d like to edit and sub the around-6.5 minutes of deleted material.

Kelvin suggested that some of the earlier action scenes are too long and that I need to make the volume range more dynamic. I knew I definitely had to minimize the footage of actual gameplay as much as possible, but it’s a fine line between making something too long and making something so short as to be insignificant. There’re a couple of action beats I think I can reasonably shorten, one where Spike and Bianca are chased by aircraft and a point when Faye gets into two “fight against multiple goons” sequences in less than 4 minutes, and I’ll definitely seee what I can do with them. Volume range is something I’ve never really thought about on any of the videos I’ve edited. As long as nothing overpowered the dialogue, I figured that was all that was needed. But then, Song is far more action driven than the parody dubs and I guess the rule is that action scenes should not be pitched at the same volume level as coversations and vice versa. Another thing I’ll look into.

I’m gonna take a least a week off to decompress from Fanime before jumping back in to fix stuff, but I promise it’s not going to be a 5-year-process to completion this time. Unlike the dubs, I have no reservations about making this available to the public as soon as I’m satisfied with the final cut, and I’ll post that news here when that happens.

Yesterday, I met with my translator for this project to go over lingering questions I had about some of the dialogue. Part of it was trying to make some of the lines flow better as conversation and part of it was exploring whether certain lines could have a different meaning. It was a fascinating session as we pondered how to restate idioms and odd phrases in ways that would make more sense in the context of the story or just simply compute better for native English speakers. One bit that stands out for me was a Faye line near the end that sets up a funny exchange between her and Jet, but sounded rather odd translated literally. We came up with a solution that is far from literal, but gets the same meaning across and sets up the gag much more naturally. Having read lots of anime translation notes over the years, I guess it should be no surprise that translation often involves one’s personal interpretation.

Now that I pretty much know everything that’s going to be in the video (a second look at one scene saved it from deletion), I can get started on the sound mix and subbing. Having learned how to adjust volume levels for an entire track cutting the trailer (so much more convenient than the old method of adjusting each clip individually), the mixing should be simple. I’m also looking to replace some of the sound effects to give them more punch. And to save me time and frustration, I’ll be doing all the subbing in Premiere where I can time all the subs visually. I figure at Fanime and even for whatever form Song’s web release will take, hard matted subs won’t be an issue. Song will be mastered to DVD eventually with removable subs the old-fashioned way (BTW, if there’s some program for making a DVD subtitle track that has the same WYSIWYG simplicity of an NLE program, I’d love to hear about it).

The last technical question is what to do about the game’s own subtitles. You might’ve noticed some Japanese writing appearing in the lower-left corner of the frame in the trailer. That’s a remnant of the game’s subs which displays the dialogue and the name of the character who is speaking. The dialogue appears over the lower “black bar” and thus is easily cropped out with a letterbox matte but unfortunately, the character name appears in the frame itself and there is no option in the game to turn the subtitles off. This leaves me with three options:
1. Leave the name alone (a la the trailer)
2. Blur the name out
3. Extend the letterbox matte to crop out the name

Obviously, there are downsides to all three options. Would a constant blurry section be even more distracting than the name already is? Is it worth losing a good chunk of visual information to eliminate the annoyance completely? I’ll experiment with the three prospects but if anyone has thoughts on the matter, don’t be shy.