The Otakon 2011 Thread

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irriadin
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Re: The Otakon 2011 Thread

Post by irriadin » Sat Aug 06, 2011 9:15 pm

My thoughts on some of the videos of the contest, separated by category:

Trailer/Parody:

I liked both DBGT: Taken and Stupid AMV Title. I think that DBGT: Taken works a little bit better, however. It's more cohesive (which is partially because the original audio isn't quite so varied as the one for Stupid AMV Title).

Drama/Serious:

There were a lot of good videos in this category, but I prefer Letting Go, Mahou Shoujo Requiem and Ready to Ignite. Letting Go does a great job of conveying the dramatic nature of Angel Beats, and Mahou Shoujo Requiem is just awesome on many levels (editing, thematic presence, etc). Anyway, I had a very difficult time choosing which to vote for among these three, but eventually decided on Ready to Ignite. It has a rather fantastic flow and the scene choice is ace. Only unfortunate downside would be the slightly anachronistic lyrics ("taking chances in the back of your car" just doesn't seem to jive with what appears to be a feudal era japan setting.)

Action:

My favorite category. (I'm not biased, I swear!) There were some very good entries this year. Angels Made from Neon is ridiculously fun and catchy, and it's no surprise that it won Action. Kyssifur's Sleeping Beauty is really well edited, and seems to be really good at getting people interested in the source material. I like that the video has pretty much no effects and instead relies on micro-cuts and beat sync. Kings Legend... well, I LOVE Kamelot and this video does the song justice. More than that, I picked up Escaflowne the next day in the dealer's room because of it. There's a veritable boatload of great lyric sync and while the video might have been just a touch too long, it was very strong throughout. Neverend's Guilt was like, friggen awesome. Talk about style! One of the hardest things to do with KnK is take those beautiful single cut fight scenes and somehow edit it. I thought the color scheme was gorgeous, it told a compact little story and had a few moments of great internal sync. Only complaint would be that it was over way too fast!

Romance/Sentimental:

With You Around was my pick. Some great and well suited effects, and a touching recap of the highlights of Toradora. Maya and Company was rather adorable, but it didn't strike as much of a chord with me because I'm unfamiliar with Azumanga Daioh. My friends who had seen the show loved Kireblue's video though!

Upbeat/Dance:

Always Looking Back was a really beautiful, Magic Pad-esque video that was quite fun to watch. AMV Random had some great transitions, even if it was a bit thematically scattered. The best video was easily AMV ja nai ka? aka Squid Girl. Lighthearted and fun, fun, fun!

Comedy:

Some of the strongest videos in the entire contest were shuffled into comedy this year. Corsair's Addiction has some breathtaking transitions and effects, in addition to a rather serious subject matter. The grossness at the end of the video never fails to make me twist a little. Veebee deserves multiple accolades for having the funniest moment in any of the videos this year, and building up to it perfectly. Seriously, it makes me laugh so hard I cry. My pick for comedy. :up:

Finally, I picked PixelBlended Studios Eva video as best of show. I'm not in the habit of voting for comedy videos for best of show, as they're usually the de facto choice regardless. But in this case, it legitimately was my favorite video of the contest. Fantastic text effects, great comedic timing and a really fun presentation make this one the winner.

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Re: The Otakon 2011 Thread

Post by Neverend » Sun Aug 07, 2011 5:19 am

irriadin wrote:
Action:
Neverend's Guilt was like, friggen awesome. Talk about style! One of the hardest things to do with KnK is take those beautiful single cut fight scenes and somehow edit it. I thought the color scheme was gorgeous, it told a compact little story and had a few moments of great internal sync. Only complaint would be that it was over way too fast!

Glad you liked it :up:

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Re: The Otakon 2011 Thread

Post by Miracle_Falcon » Mon Aug 08, 2011 7:51 pm

irriadin wrote:Drama/Serious:

There were a lot of good videos in this category, but I prefer Letting Go, Mahou Shoujo Requiem and Ready to Ignite. Letting Go does a great job of conveying the dramatic nature of Angel Beats, and Mahou Shoujo Requiem is just awesome on many levels (editing, thematic presence, etc). Anyway, I had a very difficult time choosing which to vote for among these three, but eventually decided on Ready to Ignite. It has a rather fantastic flow and the scene choice is ace. Only unfortunate downside would be the slightly anachronistic lyrics ("taking chances in the back of your car" just doesn't seem to jive with what appears to be a feudal era japan setting.)
Actually, you sound like just the person I've been wanting to ask stuff to. I know nothing about the anime that Ready to Ignite was from, and because of that, the song choice sounded really, really off to me - but you seem to think otherwise. So: were those lyrics about "sexual desire" in keeping with the theme of the show? Because if so, this bumps my opinion of the video up quite a bit, but watching it without seeing the show, that lyric felt incredibly out of place.

Also: What could I have done, as an editor, that would have improved my video for you in this contest? May as well ask that too, while we're here.

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Re: The Otakon 2011 Thread

Post by irriadin » Tue Aug 09, 2011 6:17 pm

Miracle_Falcon wrote:
irriadin wrote:Drama/Serious:

There were a lot of good videos in this category, but I prefer Letting Go, Mahou Shoujo Requiem and Ready to Ignite. Letting Go does a great job of conveying the dramatic nature of Angel Beats, and Mahou Shoujo Requiem is just awesome on many levels (editing, thematic presence, etc). Anyway, I had a very difficult time choosing which to vote for among these three, but eventually decided on Ready to Ignite. It has a rather fantastic flow and the scene choice is ace. Only unfortunate downside would be the slightly anachronistic lyrics ("taking chances in the back of your car" just doesn't seem to jive with what appears to be a feudal era japan setting.)
Actually, you sound like just the person I've been wanting to ask stuff to. I know nothing about the anime that Ready to Ignite was from, and because of that, the song choice sounded really, really off to me - but you seem to think otherwise. So: were those lyrics about "sexual desire" in keeping with the theme of the show? Because if so, this bumps my opinion of the video up quite a bit, but watching it without seeing the show, that lyric felt incredibly out of place.

Also: What could I have done, as an editor, that would have improved my video for you in this contest? May as well ask that too, while we're here.
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Re: The Otakon 2011 Thread

Post by Brakus » Tue Aug 09, 2011 7:14 pm

Just want to drop a line and see if you entrants were interested in sending your videos to AWA's contests. I'm on VAT staff, and I know there were some videos that I wanted to show last year in the VAT, but couldn't because we never received them. Please consider sending your entries so we can show them there, too. :)
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Re: The Otakon 2011 Thread

Post by VivifxAMV » Wed Aug 10, 2011 2:02 am

Brakus wrote:Just want to drop a line and see if you entrants were interested in sending your videos to AWA's contests. I'm on VAT staff, and I know there were some videos that I wanted to show last year in the VAT, but couldn't because we never received them. Please consider sending your entries so we can show them there, too. :)
I have been considering entering mine actually...but I would need to fix somethings first. When would we need to submit by?
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Re: The Otakon 2011 Thread

Post by Kireblue » Wed Aug 10, 2011 6:07 am

VivifxAMV wrote:
Brakus wrote:Just want to drop a line and see if you entrants were interested in sending your videos to AWA's contests. I'm on VAT staff, and I know there were some videos that I wanted to show last year in the VAT, but couldn't because we never received them. Please consider sending your entries so we can show them there, too. :)
I have been considering entering mine actually...but I would need to fix somethings first. When would we need to submit by?
Since I live less than 10 minutes from AWA, I'm going to submit mine just so I can see if it gets the same crowd reaction. AWA has 3 different contest that all have different rules and deadlines. Since your "Moe Moe Rebellion" AMV premiered at Otakon, you'd have to send it to AWA's expo contest that has a deadline of September 2nd. http://www.animemusicvideos.org/forum/v ... 5&t=105480

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Re: The Otakon 2011 Thread

Post by Scintilla » Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:33 am

kireblue wrote:
VivifxAMV wrote:
Brakus wrote:Just want to drop a line and see if you entrants were interested in sending your videos to AWA's contests. I'm on VAT staff, and I know there were some videos that I wanted to show last year in the VAT, but couldn't because we never received them. Please consider sending your entries so we can show them there, too. :)
I have been considering entering mine actually...but I would need to fix somethings first. When would we need to submit by?
Since I live less than 10 minutes from AWA, I'm going to submit mine just so I can see if it gets the same crowd reaction. AWA has 3 different contest that all have different rules and deadlines. Since your "Moe Moe Rebellion" AMV premiered at Otakon, you'd have to send it to AWA's expo contest that has a deadline of September 2nd.
Well, you COULD technically send it to the Professional contest, but you're encouraged to send brand-new works to that one so that none of the contestants voting on your video will know whose it is.
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Re: The Otakon 2011 Thread

Post by VivifxAMV » Wed Aug 10, 2011 2:04 pm

kireblue wrote: Since I live less than 10 minutes from AWA, I'm going to submit mine just so I can see if it gets the same crowd reaction. AWA has 3 different contest that all have different rules and deadlines. Since your "Moe Moe Rebellion" AMV premiered at Otakon, you'd have to send it to AWA's expo contest that has a deadline of September 2nd. http://www.animemusicvideos.org/forum/v ... 5&t=105480
Okay I will do that -- considering I have time to fix it then. I am afraid I really have no idea how none of this con AMV contest stuff works -- since I have only ever really entered Otakon, but I will definitely try to educate myself XD Thank you so much ^^
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Re: The Otakon 2011 Thread

Post by l33tmeatwad » Wed Aug 10, 2011 3:52 pm

VivifxAMV wrote:
kireblue wrote: Since I live less than 10 minutes from AWA, I'm going to submit mine just so I can see if it gets the same crowd reaction. AWA has 3 different contest that all have different rules and deadlines. Since your "Moe Moe Rebellion" AMV premiered at Otakon, you'd have to send it to AWA's expo contest that has a deadline of September 2nd. http://www.animemusicvideos.org/forum/v ... 5&t=105480
Okay I will do that -- considering I have time to fix it then. I am afraid I really have no idea how none of this con AMV contest stuff works -- since I have only ever really entered Otakon, but I will definitely try to educate myself XD Thank you so much ^^
It's just a matter of reading the rules thoroughly. AWA is actually harder to decipher than any other contest out there, lol...
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