You read last time how my journey into AMV making started, and this time I will describe my take on making them. I don't claim to be an expert or anything, but when I make an anime I make sure it's both fun for me and entertaining for the water.

The first thing to do is pick a song, and what anime you plan to do it to. These usually come hand in hand, because usually you will think to yourself, "This song would go great with this anime."

My take on editing is to match up the lyrics to what's happening in the scene. In my most recent video, I kind of strayed away from his to give myself some freedom to show off the beautiful scenes of the EVA Rebuild. However, doing this allows you to put in extra humor or irony. It also helps to time other things, such as bass strikes with big punches or kicks, which gives a double whammy.

Fades and transitions should be matched with the song- simply, a long fading riff should match up with a drawn out fade, and a straight cut should have no fade at all.

For in between verses, the fills are important too. I know I've stopped watching many amv's when the song goes to a break in the singing, and I'm already bored. It may be a song that I like, but if I've already heard the chorus once it's as good as over if the video isn't interesting enough. For example, strong guitar or drum solos are best accompanied by action to build energy. On the other hand, held out chords should be a simple fade to black, then straight back to video as soon as the singing starts up again. This will build anticipation. If there's too much stuff going on in between, it gets distracting.

An AMV is much like a story; don't give away everything in the beginning so the audience won't want to watch the rest, and make everything fit together so they won't be left wondering.