At this point the scene may just have gotten so clogged that it's time for people to take a step back and ask themselves, "Why am I doing this?"Scott A Melzer wrote:Maybe it's that we're all so overexposed to each other's work that we haven't been experimenting so much, or that we care a lot more about competing than making something memorable. Are we sacrificing subtlety for overt crowd pleasing? Are we trying to follow the "bigger is better" credo? Is it just that there are SO many of them now, so that every Trigun video looks the same?
I think we're lacking concept. Not just the "I'm doing X to Y" but the actual CONCEPT. I think we're lacking depth in our work.
Seriously. Why do you make AMVs? Is it for recognition? Bragging rights? Because you happen to have the gear? Or is it something else?
I'm working and competing for very specific reasons, reasons which inform evey aspect of my video-making process. I honestly could not care less about winning at competitions, playing to audience taste, or getting personal recognition. My objective is to change people's minds about a certain genre of music, and for that to proceed, I just need to make videos that are good enough to enable the music and foreground it properly. I need to work as quickly as I do to promote a wide range of artists at as many conventions as possible.
I know everyone's got their own reasons for being in this hobby, and for competing or wanting to compete at the elite level. I'm just saying that, given the apparently sorry current state of the craft (anyone else disappointed with the overall level of AWA's Pro contest?), it may be time to really think about those reasons, and possibly make some changes to your style or philosophy of editing.
I'm not suggesting anything to anyone except self-examination. I did this on myself before I even started competing, and the credo that I'm currently following seems like it'll work for me for the forseeable future. Someone (I forget who) dubbed this the "Year of Slump", but as one who has been in a multi-video slump and recovered, the only way to come out of a slump is to (re-) identify your core principles, go back to them, and work on through.
Ask yourselves: what is the sound of perseverance?
<token non-famed, undercompeted, overproductive metalhead returns to his lair>
--Kai