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.