PvK Opening Meme Compilation 2022
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With the new year rolling in, let's look at every opening meme I did for my videos in 2022. Here you see my editing skills gradually improving over time, with the occasional ambitious one too!
To be frank, these were the hardest parts of any video I did. Most weren't hard to edit - you can see that many of them were just me trying to make SFX and sprite transitions frame-tight. By making them frame-tight, the comedy landed more effectively, despite the editing clearly being worse. That's the thing a lot of "meme channels" really struggle with. I think that's why my Gorochu and Tentacruel videos often got really affectionate comments specifically about their opening memes. I made conscious, dedicated efforts with those ones.
So what was the hardest part, then? Honestly, finding the material. There were some where I immediately knew - Victreebel, Gishki, and Snorlax were examples of this. However, for others, such as Lapras, I spent days browsing for them. The worse example is Lickitung, where its tongue made it really, really hard to work with anything, going through numerous revisions before I gave up and made a Spamton meme instead. This is also why some of my videos notably lacked opening memes - the No Heroes Allowed video and some RBY Bytes are good examples. Hell, I repeated the exact same joke for Tauros - unintentionally, believe it or not.
Much of my opening memes reflect my likes and dislikes. The Simpsons, Looney Tunes, and early Sonic cartoons make up a significant portion of my opening memes, and for good reason: I grew up watching these shows, and they greatly influenced my sense of humour. I think that's why their quality is so high by comparison. While most of the anime ones were cliches, you'll notice Lucky Star among them: That's a show that also massively impacted my life, only there, it was my teenage years. Got me out of a profound rut in my life. If I can't find the content either extremely funny or something I can get a warm and fuzzy feeling towards, my motivation to finish immediately drops. The worst part? I really like making my videos in order of progress...so I really like to make the opening meme first. See the self-imposed problem?
A friend of mine asked what my workflow is with these once. To put it simply: I sat down and watched a lot of content that I'd initially thought would work. I'd obviously have to visualise what I have in mind, and for the purpose of catching as much as possible, I'd write down multiple ideas. Then I'd go through my memory and pick what has a "reasonable chance to contain what I want". Naturally, The Simpsons, Looney Tunes, and the Sonic cartoons would be my go-tos, as they are usually content goldmines on their own. Once I get started, I usually get through it quite quickly, as by that point I already know exactly what the final product will look like. Make it up as you go along until it works.