Losing interest

[ShonenDizzyCow]

To me it's quite simple on how to keep at a video over 6 months or more.

Only make videos to anime and songs that you REALLY enjoy. This way you'll never get bored. It goes get a little tiring after about 80 hours or more, but I've somewhat gotten used to it.

And/or make one incredibly hard-to-make video - and all your future projects will seem easy in comparison.

[TobinHood]

I've got tons upon tons of little projects just sitting on my comp that will never be completed. This isn't abnormal, you're just setting your standards higher than when you started and demand more from your videos now.

[Mr. Fancypants]

thank you everybody for your great feedback. I guess I'm in the same boat with a bunch of ya!

[Castor Troy]

I get too lazy most of the time. I usually work my ass off on an amv when a contest deadline is approaching..

[acomalas]

Lot of good suggestions here, so in the same "based on my experience" vein I'll add a couple thoughts

Start small. Don't try to build that 1/1 scale gundam just yet. There are several reasons in my mind for doing this, but mostly because your first effort will suck. If you make it three to five minutes, thats a lot of sucking, if you even finish it.

Acomalas's Intentional Accident Plan (AIAP)
1) Make a plan
2) Inevitably mess up executing the plan.
3) Instead of deleting mistake, see what it looks like. Hmmmm

Don't underestimate the gift of chance. Many people marvel at the fact that the best parts of their video are all accidental. Let yourself make these accidents, because they usually look pretty damn cool and serve as encouragement. Leave the monotanous meticulous editing for when you have developed a bit more amv masochism.

Barring all that useless advice, I'd have to say I actually do my most concentrated music video work when I have no free time to spare. If I have a relaxed schedule, I get bored. I don't make AMVs out of boredom, I need fuel to make them. Sometimes they feed me back if I am lucky, otherwise I might give up on them.

So best environment to do a video? For me: 10 page paper due in two days, speech tommorrow, friends are going out but I can't cuz I have dem paper to write, well two days is a lot of time and I'm pretty stressed <adobe premiere insidiously loads itself in the background> No adobe! I have work to do! Yes, your filters are very pretty..but you see--hey, that is a good idea, I better try it before I forget it. <five hours later> Well, the idea didn't work, but I somehow finished the second half of the video instead. And now for a night of lovely--oH HELL the bus!!

On a related note, I'd like to say that if you live off campus, get a damn car. Trust me

[temaranight]

My mood is what motivates me on alot of my videos...hence I'll start a serious vid being in a rather drab mood..then something happens and I'll get all hyper and ....well..it shoots the serious vid all to hell and I have to start on something more upbeat...a vicious cycle I tell you. But for the most part...I do try and get them done sometime or the other...unless I see that the video is going absoulty nowhere...& I've also been told that I work on too many at one time...but I don't see it that way. At any given time I usually have 2-4 in the works at various stages of progress...and a notebook full of ideas on new ones. I just call it the creative process.

[Rozard]

Whenever I hear the song that I'm making a vid to, or a song I'm planning a vid for, I always try to envision what it's going to look like. I usually have key sequences already planned out, so I try and add filler. I have to be careful not to do this when I'm driving, though.

[FurryCurry]

I get some of my best ideas listening to music while daydreaming behind the wheel.

At 22K miles per year, that's a lot of ideas (and a lot of not paying attention to my driving. Clear the roads! )