AMV Editing: A dying hobby (?)

[BasharOfTheAges]

It's a false dichotomy to state it as a one or the other sorta thing... but that's what complaints have become.

I'll agree, though, that it's easier to hide bad than it used to be (i.e. people who couldn't edit for shit used to not clean their footage for shit either, so you had these big, obvious tells alerting you that "bad is here" ).

Feedback in general has this constant back and forth shift lately between qualifying enjoyment and quantifying effort as principal measures of worth.

[Taite]

I'll throw my two cents in for fun.
The org is totally and completely dying because no one contributes enough content, period. No one gives comments, no one gives opinions, hardly any videos are submitted, there's few threads that encourage any real conversation, which is hard anyhow because what are you going to discuss about amvs? Personally I'm interested in people's "AMV theories" or so called, in a sense how they know how to edit. Also, other theoretic topics in video editing like colors, cuts, etc. No one wants to talk about these things. People on this site have made friends with other editors and they go on skype and talk, amvs and the org are secondary.

Those that complain about no one giving feedback are probably the same ones that don't give it. Like someone else said, that's all the org had for it, so thanks to everyone not really caring the org is going to eventually die, that is that.
I'm going to go back to my opinion thread and finish up videos that have been waiting forever this weekend, I'm also judging for a contest, and I want to make a tutorial that goes through and evaluates all the different effects in vegas. After that I'm through. I've given up commenting on videos in the AMV Announcements because I'm sick of seeing 80% of videos receive no comments and I'm not going to bother myself when I can go to youtube and have way more interaction. In the end, we're all part of the reason the org is dying, no blame to any particular group. In the end people will just comment on their friends' videos. There's the few that don't, but literally I can count the editors on one hand.

As for the amv editing hobby, it dies individually for each person. The thing with amvs is you are already given your sources, there's no way to expand upon that. When you do, you get into filming or animation or other things. You can edit the shit out an anime and song all you want, but in the end there's really nothing more to learn. Over a span of a lot of years new effects and trends will occur, but if there's nothing in the first place to encourage the hobby it's just going to die. Our audience is other editors, by a huge majority. Other forms of "media" like art and movies and music, you don't have to make it to enjoy it. For amvs, you need someone that likes the music you're editing to or can respect it enough due to the content of the video, the anime, who can respect the editing in it since it's so vastly different than just editing a film. AMVs are just too constricting, there's no room for growth.

This became more of a "is the org dying" thread, but since I've never spoken about is since I was never here too long I decided to just comment on it now that I've been here awhile. Though I don't think my ideas are too vastly different or radical.

[Kyssifur]

Just remove "most helpful member" category from VCA... honestly, no one gives a sh*t about videos here, except the very inner circle of .org visitors/members. We can wipe our asses with this huge enthusiasm...

I post my vids out of habit.
I come to check contests.

That's it.

I can get up to 10 comments from all around the world. Woow man...

Is it stirring? It isn't. That's why I have this attitude.

In my opinion, if your video has not been uploaded to one of those "60k subscribers yt channels", if you don't enter and don't win big contests, if you are not Russian, actually you are nobody. This points to the fact that you won't get high views and this points to the fact that you won't get comments, not even the "killyourself" type of comments, not EVEN if your video is awesome!

For instance if I don't get comments/views I lose my interest in the page. I can stow my amvs on my own hdd. There is no need to upload them to the .org.

Then I come here, I can see random amv announcements, but I don't care, I don't know the editors, there is no title which could be attractive enough for me, therefore 99% of my visits are only some random characters in the log book or how is it called...

As to the topic, the hobby is alive. Editors are alive. Response/giving feedback is dead on .org, because _____________ .

A) Nobody gives a fuck about your video (snobbish, stuck-up morons, or simply your video sucks) - 80%
B) Nobody gives a fuck about your video (they are just not interested or don't have time to post a comment) - 10%
C) People give feedback on different platforms (yt, skype, pubs, whatever) - 9%

9% indicates your family, close friends, and the small group of editors who respect you and give you always feedback, regardless of you shat on their screen or created the AMV of the century.

There is 1% chance (or less) of random comments from random persons you don't know.

Lack of interest Shit videos - No feedback - No members

Now you can ask... Which came first the chicken or the egg?

If you ask me, do your best, be nice to your 9%, and never give a shit about smart ass strangers like me.

Of course there are great videos but they are needles in a haystack.

I'm talking about .org, other communities might be more animated ...but I don't think so...

/first who corrects my grammar mistakes receive 5 stars and 1 comment on selected amv - this applies to native speakers ahhahahahhaha/

[Kyssifur]

...and they go on skype and talk, amvs and the org are secondary...

Or pubs!

[lloyd9988]

AMVs are just too constricting, there's no room for growth.

I agree with this part (I should comment on the whole thing but..... eh, yolo). AMVs are extremely constricting unless you have a large amount of time to edit or unless your able to manage your time extremely well.

The only way for AMVs to grow, in my opinion, is to animate your own anime. That's like the only way I can see someone truly making AMVs grow.

[qyll]

Ah, I’ll agree with you there, Taite. The org is dying, but as others have said, the hobby is not. It’s simply shifted to other places like Youtube. Back in 2006, the org may have been the only game in town, but then Youtube stomped onto the scene and it was easier to watch videos (don’t need to register and download), easier to upload videos (don’t need to download an FTP client), and friendlier (perhaps it was Darwinian selection that left the org with the group of editors it has now). Has there been a decrease in overall quality of videos? That’s another debate entirely, but I’ve seen plenty of good editors on Youtube who probably don’t even known of this community’s existence.

I’m sad about the org slowly atrophying into a skeleton of its former self, but that’s just how it is. Things are changing, and the reality now is not the reality that used to be. I’ll cling on to this community as long as I can because seven years in Tibet spent anywhere will make one a bit nostalgic, but if I wake up one morning and find the site shutting down, then … so it goes.

“AMV theory” would be interesting to talk about, but I feel like that a large part of that subject has already been explored by past authors who wrote about cinematography and editing theory and montages and the like. Rule of thirds. Depth of field. Mise en scène. Omelette du fromage. Anime has a few quirks that may be worth discussing, however, and I’d love to see some people start a conversation about that.

I totally get what you’re talking about when you say AMV editing is too restricting. We don’t worry about lighting or acting or scriptwriting because we get the footage already released on shiny 1080p. However, short film creation is another hobby out there with many followers, and it’s not mutually exclusive with creating AMVs.

For me, though, editing anime is enough. As you said, the hobby dies individually for each person. My mind is too cluttered to handle lighting and acting and scriptwriting on top of editing, so I’m content with just the last part.

[Mastamind]

If you find this thread interesting, take a scroll through this one:
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/forum/v ... 0&t=102020

I imagine this will become one of those threads where longer posts like mine get skipped over or go unnoticed, but nonetheless:
AMVs look to me like they're becoming much more popular nowadays. Some are racking up millions of views on YouTube, other editing communities are growing (amvnews, especially, looks like it's gaining membership quickly). Earlier this year, when I attended a local AMV showing at a convention, I had to stand in the back of a packed and lively room.

Since the topic's moved to whether this site is "dying," well, of course it is, and maybe that's because everybody knows it. These forums are hardly constructive anymore, which has been pointed out repeatedly, and therefore anyone with any hope of continuing AMV-ing has to look elsewhere. But what's even more striking is how stagnant the site outside of the forums is now. Take a look at PaperHeart, which earned 6 VCA awards including 2013 Video of the Year, but doesn't qualify for the Top 10% List list because it hasn't gotten the minimum amount of opinions. What does it say about the org when a video earns less feedback than it does VCAs?

Most viewers simply prefer not to decipher the org's old and clunky layout, and so the forums have increasingly been left with older editors who became accustomed to it before YouTube came up. About three years ago, this topic was addressed and people decided to do something about it. The whole site suddenly seemed more alive. Users actually debated at length and shared opinions on how to renovate the org in order to encourage activity. The "Org Redesign" was what many of us were hoping for, and for awhile it looked like something exciting was gonna happen. It didn't, not yet at least, but it needs to if this community doesn't want to shrink further. trythil may be busy, but if someone picks up the ball on the Org Redesign then that'd definitely stimulate the site. Until then, we can expect to see less and less activity, especially since the general vibe is "yeap, the org's dead, watcha gonna do bout it" and that's detrimental to the forum's sense of community.

I’ll cling on to this community as long as I can because seven years in Tibet spent anywhere will make one a bit nostalgic, but if I wake up one morning and find the site shutting down, then … so it goes.

Same here (and, heck, I agree with the rest of your post). There is room for growth with AMVs, it all depends on how much time and effort one puts into being creative. Taite, while I don't learn as much through editing AMVs than I do through film and animation, perhaps that's partly due to how dispirited I am at how little criticism there is here. I'm still hoping to see some developments on this site, but I won't be - and haven't been - visiting too much for the same reasons everyone's been posting.

[blaksun]

As i see it one off the major problems is if you give a opinion you get no respond you dot get a thank you, this don't help , you get 0 how seal a nibw lean if you don't give fate back on the opinion ?

[trythil]

http://www.arewedyingyet.com/

[Taite]

As i see it one off the major problems is if you give a opinion you get no respond you dot get a thank you, this don't help , you get 0 how seal a nibw lean if you don't give fate back on the opinion ?

I personally disagree. More than a majority of my opinions/comments don't get replies, but it's not like I'm discouraged by it. It seems kind of childish to say that you don't want to give opinions anymore just because you don't get a thank you. I think the main reason people don't get opinions as often anymore is because people slowly stopped giving fucks and are too involved with their own/friends' agendas.

“AMV theory” would be interesting to talk about, but I feel like that a large part of that subject has already been explored by past authors who wrote about cinematography and editing theory and montages and the like. Rule of thirds. Depth of field. Mise en scène. Omelette du fromage. Anime has a few quirks that may be worth discussing, however, and I’d love to see some people start a conversation about that.

Shame I missed out then, perhaps I'll do some searching to see if those topics covered what I was thinking of. Either way more discussion about anything would be nice.