Since I have run a contest where we had an award for best 'Amatuer' or another term would be 'newbie' AMV creator, I felt I would give some information.
In the rules is stated list your AMV expertise: Novice, Intermediate or Advanced. In general a Novice is someone who has been making AMVs for less then a year and/or won no awards. If you are not a Novice do not put down that you are.
Okay so that was the rules we used. Basically it comes down to that I believe people know if they are Novices or not. I used the other part about time and awards to help people. If you've been working on AMVs for more then a year I would think and hope you have the basics down.
The award part is two sided. One it keeps those people who have a nack for AMV creating who have won awards in their first year from saying they are a newbie just because they have made AMVs for less then a year.
The other side is those people who have won no awards but making AMVs for more then a year. These people maybe don't enter contests because they are not 'confident' in their skills (another mark of a newer creator), or their videos just don't hold up to what is out there.
I still think it's something you know. I don't know when I stopped being a Newbie, but I know I'm in the middle of the Intermediate skill level.
Anneke

