How has the hobby made a difference in your life?

[aokakesu]

It opened my eyes to skilled deception.
It expanded my mind to encompass the breadth of the media.
It exposed my ears to criticism.
It humbled my ego.
It built callouses to protect my sanity.
Most of all...it opened my heart to new friends around the world.

Not and easy path, but such is Way of Art.

-Aokakesu

[Phantasmagoriat]

I learned early on that you can't assume people will understand or get what you're trying to do.

That's only one side of the coin. The other one is that even you don't really understand or get what you're trying to do. You try to do one thing, then suddenly notice you're doing something else, and when you're finally finished with your product, thinking that it's a unique deep piece of art, somebody informs you about all the cliched tricks and storyline patterns you had used. And this is when you realize: "oh...you're actually right". Sometimes there's more truth in what you actually do than what you think you're doing.

And this, I think, opens up a space for critique that avoids both deadlocks, the snobbish one and the relativistic one. On the one side we have people who claim to possess knowledge of some kind of a universal standard to which all amvs can be compared, and on the other side we fall into this trap of subjective relativism ("Everything is just personal preference and we can't ever understand each other's visions and preferences"). Both options are wrong. Ofcourse, I can't fully adopt your perspective but neither can you so we're ultimately on the same boat here. Therefore, let me make my own judgement of your work. Perhaps I'll even succeed in pointing out things that you "objectively" did without you even noticing, perhaps you'll find my opinions boring and stupid and biased. Either way, we both probably learned something, even if only in tiny amount, in the process.

Nicely done. I agree so much with all of this. It is probably the most accurate perspective one can adopt.

Yet, at the same time, it can sometimes be a bit depressing; knowing up-front that you will never be fully-understood by others. But we can try. And in doing so, perhaps uncover any Real Truths, which is the only thing that's actually important. It's like what one of my favourite teachers used to say:

"Don't listen to what I say... listen to what I am trying to say."
--------------------------------

It opened my eyes to skilled deception.
It expanded my mind to encompass the breadth of the media.
It exposed my ears to criticism.
It humbled my ego.
It built callouses to protect my sanity.
Most of all...it opened my heart to new friends around the world.

Not and easy path, but such is Way of Art.

-Aokakesu

Totally
I think this hobby has the potential to expose people to realities/realizations they've never experienced before, and ultimately invoke massive perspective-shifts.

[JaddziaDax]

I'm late to the party but I'm going to respond to some of these anyway

"How has the hobby made a difference in your life?"
So many friends and experiences I wouldn't have had otherwise. Well many of us can claim that, but for me it is still the truth. I wouldn't have had a social life without you guys. Because, yes, I am a homebody that has no local friends. All of my friends are on the computer. I really don't care if that means "I have no life" because I like the friends I have.

AMVing has been both, detrimental to my health (sitting for long periods of time) and beneficial to my health, when I realized I couldn't keep up with everyone at AWA. I've been walking a lot more for the last couple years. I just might be able to keep up now. At this point I have a hard time sitting at the computer for hours anymore. Who knows maybe by 2013 I will be able to go to AWA again and be able to run around in circles!

"If AMV's are a form of Communication. What do they Communicate?"
A lot of mine are meant to communicate either what I'm feeling at the time. A reaction to the world around me perhaps? but many are also meant to be what feeling I got from the show I'm making the video with. Tributes to my favorite characters, or tributes to the story itself. I am an anime fan and I like to communicate my fandom with my videos. I also make MVs to non-anime sources though.

When I got into anime, I'd often use AMVs to gauge whether or not I'd look into a show or not. I do believe that if an AMV can make me want to see a show then it's not only a good amv but the show might be interesting as well.

Of course not all AMVs are tributes. Lots of the more popular ones seem to be more about the "art" side anymore. I suppose what the videos communicate is really up to whoever is watching them. I assume lots of them are more about making something that looks cool anymore. Maybe that's part of the reason I just haven't been into watching videos as much as I used to.

[Phantasmagoriat]

"How has the hobby made a difference in your life?"
So many friends and experiences I wouldn't have had otherwise. Well many of us can claim that, but for me it is still the truth. I wouldn't have had a social life without you guys. Because, yes, I am a homebody that has no local friends. All of my friends are on the computer. I really don't care if that means "I have no life" because I like the friends I have.

Yeah, you know that's one thing I find to be really neat about this hobby. I has the ability to connect you together with other people that share similar interests as you; which often doesn't happen with local people that simply share the same geographic location as you.

I do believe that if an AMV can make me want to see a show then it's not only a good amv but the show might be interesting as well.

Totally I wouldn't have seen half the anime's I have seen; let alone be familiar with any of them if it wasn't for AMVs.

[Nipahcha]

"How has the hobby made a difference in your life?" Anything big/small, feel free share your story, as I have just shared mine."

So I'm a fairly new editor and my opinion/story is less then important, but after this year's Otakon, I felt like the audience understood my work and what I try to portray through it. That and I understand the audience's emotions towards my video, the wide variety told me it made them feel sappy and teary-eyed, and that was exactly what I was trying to evoke. Being an editor in general has taught me, as a Graphic Design/Video Production Student, to give and receive constructive criticism effectively. It's not a hobby anymore, it's a job. And I love my job.

"AMV's use [Effort to Understand; Effort to be Understood; to see through Different Eyes] on so many levels. How?"

Effort to Understand: It takes effort to understand what type of story you want to tell with the characters and shows you are given. Is this character a happy character? Are you trying to tell a happy story? It wouldn't make sense to show a happy character doing happy things if the song and theme you want is sad and depressing. Making a theme and sticking to it is key in my opinion. Try not to mash scenes together that have no coherency.

Effort to be Understood: What mood do I want to give off? A good AMV in my opinion consists of a theme, mood, and story. I define the 3 as different things but they can be considered the same. I usually make the song choice first then pick my anime(s). That way I know right off the bat what mood I am choosing. The theme almost naturally follows the mood after I choose it. Now for the story, the beauty of AMVs are that you can make any story up that you want. It allows for complete artistic freedom. All of these elements combined generally reflect yourself as a person and an editor to the audience. How do you want your AMV to be perceived? Also, how much effort did you put into the AMV? If you didn't pour your heart and soul into it, odds are it will reflect on the audience.

"If AMV's are a form of Communication. What do they Communicate?"[/b]

They communicate emotion. Comedy makes people laugh, Action gives people adrenaline rushes/excitement, Romance/Sentimental makes people feel sappy, Drama/Serious makes people feel... serious in which it evokes serious thought, Trailer Parodies can vary in all emotions, and Upbeat/Dance is supposed to make you want to dance or feel good.

All in all these are just my opinions on these things.

[Flame-X]

"How has the hobby made a difference in your life?"
It made me a bit more productive in life and gave me a new creative insight.

"If AMV's are a form of Communication. What do they Communicate?"
Promo pieces / advertisement for the sources. At least that's the way I mostly see it. Almost 1/3 of the music I listen to is because of AMVs that got me into it. Another answer I would give is... editing shows as another form art. It displays creative intent, feelings, atmosphere, soul, reflection, etc. Stuff that people already said above.

[Mr Pilkington]

I went into college as a computer science major. Ended up not liking it. One day I was at a career fair talking to someone from microsoft who said, it had to be something that you completely love to do. AMVs popped into my head the time and I smiled. I spent the next couple of years in school finding something that would give me a similar fix. I did game design, then Cinema (thinking I would edit), and then finally, I landed on Animation.

That sounds like my situation. My parents told me to "major in computers" so I chose computer science and wanted to shoot myself in the head after 1 quarter of it.

Never again.

I could write an entire novel on how amvs changed my life for the better, but I'll just leave it at that.

Pretty much the same here. Except it was my mom, after my computer buisness started crumbling, who convinced me to dedicate myself to editing as a new profession.



"How has the hobby made a difference in your life?"
Today I'm a professional video compositor

"AMV's use [Effort to Understand; Effort to be Understood; to see through Different Eyes] on so many levels. How?"
Wut?

"If AMV's are a form of Communication. What do they Communicate?"
AMVs can be a powerful tool to evoke emotions. I mean, you have music, which is already very powerful; video, equally powerful; generally a source which already has an underlying tone; and then you have the ability to modify that in a profound way.

[ZephyrStar]

I became internet famous

[Falconone]

This hobby gave me a new way to get my isperations a place to show and collect them.
Befor i started with AMVs i wrote stories and that was more a mind thing. After that with AMVs i gave them all a face, you saw and hear the ideas i had in my head.
Also it gave me a piece of freedom for my self. it helped me to forget the bad things that happens to me.
So it changed me completly.