OTAKON 2003 AMV

[Castor Troy]

Why can't anime trailers be part of the contest? They're parodies!

You can get them shown in the fan parody rooms.

[You choose Sam,the rest]

Why can't anime trailers be part of the contest? They're parodies!

You can get them shown in the fan parody rooms.

Yea and your point is....?

[OmniStrata]

Hmm, trailer = Music Video?

DOH!

[Castor Troy]

Why can't anime trailers be part of the contest? They're parodies!

You can get them shown in the fan parody rooms.

Yea and your point is....?

You might get your trailers advertised in a nice little brochure along with the parodies. I think.

[Cybermat]

Why can't anime trailers be part of the contest?

Yeah, the basic concept and means of production of anime+movie trailers do have a lot of similarities to anime music videos. They're made pretty much the same way -- by putting anime clips on top of an existing sound bed -- and made using the same equipment, and often by the same people. People love seeing a well-done trailer as much as they love seeing a well-done music video.

But for all their similarities, they're not the same. If you went to an anime+movie trailers web site and every file you found there was an anime music video, you'd be pretty bummed out.

There are significant differences between the two forms that make them distinct from one another. An AMVs is, by definition, a music video first and foremost. A music video made with anime clips. It is tightly focused on the music, or is at the very least heavily dependent on the music. Without its music, an AMV is not a music video.

In an anime+movie trailer, the music is not paramount. It may not even be present. The soundtrack of a trailer is typically a voiceover supported by disconnected snippets of many pieces of music, sound effects, and even dialogue excerpts. It is a little tiny condensed version of the movie it is advertising. [Deep-voiced announcer: "In a world... where Men fought like Dogs, one Man must make a Stand for what he knows is Right <music swells> <dramatic pause...> <huge explosion>" You get the idea.]

The focus of an AMV is to be a statement unto itself, to make you appreciate the essence of the song/music, or the anime, or (ideally) the fusion of both. A trailer is a commercial, plain and simple. It's not originally there to be a self-sufficient artistic experience unto itself; a piece of music or a song is.

It may seem obvious to state, but people are accustomed to watching movie trailers before a movie starts. At a con, it just seems more correct to run them before a longer fan parody. There's no expectation for music videos to lead up to anything further: they run and they're done.

In addition to such abstract ideals, there's the thorny issue of fair competition. An AMV Contest is about competition--and that means a very few winners and a whole lot of losers. For people to accept defeat graciously and respect the winners, rules have to be understandable, fair, and uniformly applied to both the high and the low. Ideally, all biases must be balanced out. An unfair win is no win at all in the minds of the non-winning contestants.

If a trailer wins over a bunch of non-trailers is it because it's better, or just because trailers are newer and more novel than AMVs are right now? If there's only one entry allowed, does a trailer count as an AMV because they're so similar or does it count as a trailer so you can enter one of each?

The solution to this situation would seem to be to dedicate a new category within the AMV Contest just for trailers, to create a separate contest at the convention for anime+movie trailers. One problem with this is that there may not be any more spare time to give the AMV Contest, so adding trailers means losing good AMVs. There may not be enough dedicated people to sustain more than one contest. All cons run on a shoestring.

Time and manpower issues aside, more contests not be the best thing to do. Contests by their very nature disappoint more of their participants than they reward. The more elusive the victory, the more ardently it is pursued. Ultimately, competing becomes more important than creating and the original justification is lost.

When the time comes that there are so many anime+movie trailers that the herd needs to be culled to keep attracting an audience and the exceptional need to be rewarded to keep them interested in participating, then we may have to fire up another contest. Until then, we'll let the trailers enjoy their age of innocence for a little while longer.

[Chaos Angel]

Oh good... there will be at least two AMVs then.

We haven't received hardly any entries as of yet...

I shall be in attendance, and I shall enter a vid!.

[genestarwind21122]

I e mailed otakon and asked them about the contest they sent me back a forum to fill out for the contest anyway. When they say the submitters will vote does that mean like some day before Otakon the submitters get to decide which one gets entered in the contest and which ones don't.

[Vlad G Pohnert]

I e mailed otakon and asked them about the contest they sent me back a forum to fill out for the contest anyway. When they say the submitters will vote does that mean like some day before Otakon the submitters get to decide which one gets entered in the contest and which ones don't.

If memory serves correct, last year they had a few public showing at local clubs and all those there got to rate each video on a ballot. Also, they sent out a judging tape to anyome who sent a blank tape with thier entry.
The the highests scores are those that go into the contest. At the con, the winners are picked by attendies voting on a ballot form you get when you register for the con...

Vlad

[Yosho]

Oh good... there will be at least two AMVs then.

We haven't received hardly any entries as of yet...

I shall be in attendance, and I shall enter a vid!.

Me too! Me too! Still working on my video though. I should have it done before the deadline. (hopefully)

[Scott A Melzer]

Personally, I don't want to see trailers in an AMV contest, but I can see what the issue might be. People just want to see an audience for their work, and want to be recognized. I don't think that the AMV contest is the right place, but it IS high profile so I can see why people would want to be shown there.

Otakon did something WAY cool last year and had an entire video track (in a huge room that sat at least 500 people) dedicated to pan produced works. Nothing but. Music videos, fan parodies, etc. It was... awesome. I definately like this trend! The room was always at least half full, and when it was packed it was THE BEST PLACE AT THE CON! Being shown in that room is JUST as good as being shown during the contest. Even better, I think, since there's NO competition. Personally, I'd be happier with no competition with AMVs, and I'm really enjoying making parodies since there really isn't any prize or worrying about who's better than whom.

I think that the main reason that AMVs became popular things to make was because cons would show them. Cons are now setting aside time and room for fan produced works, so we can only expect to see more of them. This can only be an awesome thing.

Another reason (aside from Cybermat's excellent reasons) not to allow trailers into the contest is that that would open a huge can of worms. Trailers today, then what next? I think that trailers are a subset of short parody films. If people are making them, then cons should show them. Either along with an AMV contest (such as PortConMaine is doing this year), or a separate showing (like Otakon does). Having your commercial or trailer shown at MAT3K is a HUGE deal. There were, like, 3000 people at the MAT3K show last year, I think?

So, I don't think that we should be trying to get trailers shown during an AMV contest, but I think we should push for more parody/short film showings. I think that if Otakon or other cons encourage this, they'll receive a LOT of submissions and we'll all be rewarded with more fan produced works.

Why limit ourselves to just AMVs?