I would say it's been pretty significant. If anything, the people I choose to be around were/are editors. These people have become my greatest friends. Before I really got into editing, I wasn't really into music all that much either. The hobby has expanded my views on music and also introduced me to many different genres and musical talents. I was also terribly anti-social. The hobby, through pushing myself to be more active in the community on the internet and at cons, as made me much more confident in myself as a person. While I still believe I'm the same person I was back then, I have changed a lot in the past 12 years. And over those past 12 years, through the many rough patches in my life and bad memories, some of the happiest moments in my life have been with the people I met through this hobby. I wouldn't trade them for anything.Phantasmagoriat wrote:"How has the hobby made a difference in your life?" Anything big/small, feel free share your story, as I have just shared mine.
I can't speak for anyone else but, for me, I use AMVs as a way to express myself. I'm a relatively private person and I don't like to express myself too much. I use AMVs to almost vent or express what's on my mind. Wither that's trying to express my emotional state at the moment (I Wish You Were Here) or on a larger scope of trying to get people to see things outside of their immediate environment (As The World Crashes Down). And then of course, there's also that desire to get other people interested in something I really love and enjoy (Macross: Angle's Voice). Its incredibly difficult to do this though. I think a lot of people picked up that I made a lot of drama videos over the course of several years. This was a rough time for me but I don't think anyone really knew this was why I was doing it. Even more so with As The World Crashes Down. A lot of people missed the point of the video and assumed it was supposed to be about 9/11 when I was trying get people to not thinking about it in that manner.Phantasmagoriat wrote:"AMV's use [Effort to Understand; Effort to be Understood; to see through Different Eyes] on so many levels. How?"
I learned early on that you can't assume people will understand or get what you're trying to do. It's just not possible. I'd be happy if someone watched my work and got somethign out of it at all. I was never angry that people thought my video was about 9/11. I was actually rather happy that the video sparked enough of an emotional response from these people that they felt like it was and were upset about it. It means I accomplished something wither or not it was what I originally intended.
Music in of itself is a medium of communication as are movies and tv shows. They all have some kind of story or agenda behind them. If not, then there's almost always an emotion(s) being conveyed. I think it's only natural that AMVs would fall into that realm as well. Even if the creator isn't directly trying to communicate said story or emotion, you can bet someone viewing the video will see something. There's no way around it. So in essence, I they communicate everything and anything. It all depends on what the editor and viewer get out of it.Phantasmagoriat wrote:"If AMV's are a form of Communication. What do they Communicate?"[/list]