Post
by Brad » Sat Oct 20, 2012 10:54 pm
To me (that's a huge qualifier here. Again, personal definitions, eye of the beholder, etc.) it all comes down to 2 key criteria. Intent and content. I don't really take the specific words that make up "AMV" to be the only criteria for how I define it. On the intent side, I've always seen it as being a fan-made work, as opposed to something that was either commissioned by somebody else (usually with money involved).
When I decide to take The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and combine it with Today by Halou, I am a creator with the intent of making a music video, using sources I didn't make to create something totally new. And that's where the content plays in. Primarily using something that I did not create, or was not specifically given by a third-party and asked to craft something out of it. And I made the conscious decision to use those sources for artistic reasons, either because I was a fan of one or both sources, or I just simply had a vision for how they could go together. So, with those 2 criteria are taken into account, something like, an official movie trailer no longer applies. The content side applies because they're using something they didn't create, to make something new, but the intent was not based on their own creative impetus. They were hired to do it. Same goes for the flip-side, but mostly as far as the visuals are concerned. For example, if I decide that I really like some song and I want to make a music video to it, but rather than use a pre-made video source (like anime or a movie or whatever), I either animate something totally new or I shoot something or whatever. In that scenario, I had the intent to make a music video based mainly around my love for a song, but the content was solely created by me.
Now, I know I brought up Pencilhead as something I don't see as an AMV, and that certainly skirts the line with respect to both criteria. There's definitely a ton of room for gray-area with my definition and if somebody saw Pencilhead and told me "that's an AMV" I would certainly not fault them at all for it. Just one of those things where I don't see it that way.
So, as far as this video is concerned, I'm ASSUMING that because it's an official music video, somebody was tasked with creating it, by the band/label/whoever and they didn't use a pre-made source. So to me, it fails both criteria, and is simply, just a music video.
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