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A New Taste Sensation
2009-11-19 12:40:49
I've always had kind of a problem with how the AMV community - by which I mean this site, not so much the Toob - regards this hobby. This is an amateur hobby, usually enjoyed (or in my case, despised) by young, inexperienced people who probably turn out what passes for quality work more by accident than by design.
What the hell am I talking about? Most AMV editors do not spend years and years honing their skills, regarding professional-level work as their ultimate goal and evaluating their own work against that standard. Yet, somehow, there is most definitely an attitude that ye-old random 17-year-old editor can and should be able to produce something on a par with professional work, and that should they fail to do so, it is...well...Fail. There is, of course, much debate over what qualifies as truly good work, but I think that in itself is a striking reflection of how many people in the AMV community a) don't know very much and b) subsequently have skewed perceptions of what is quality work and what is not.
This is not to say that ye-old teenager is incapable of recognizing good work, but when that body of work is soooo narrowly confined to extremely amateur attempts, the definition of what is "good" becomes inescapably bound to the high end of amateur (with exceptions, of course).
In any case, I think a lot of people also have bad taste. Causes all sorts of problems. Some people have good taste and some people have bad taste and that's just the way it is. People with good taste can make bad AMVs (and so can people with bad taste) BUT the good taste folks will likely see the flaws in their own endeavors, be disappointed or unsatisfied with their work and constantly strive to reach their own good taste vision. The idea of someone striving to reach a bad taste vision is quite appalling, and yet this can explain how an awful lot of irksome AMVs come to be - I don't care HOW technically competent the editor is. How can you possibly make a good AMV if you've got bad taste?
Anyways, Ira Glass explains this well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hidvElQ0xE -
Oh, hello AMV Gods, didn't see you there. ehehe .. he...he.....
2009-11-14 18:05:16
Up: AMV Hell 5 - I can kick some more AC ass!
Down: I'd forgotten that my computer has an unexplained issue with the Dirge of Cerberus PSS files I've carefully hoarded for just such an occasion. I have proof that, at one time, they worked fine, because I have an AMV Hell prototype clips made from them (also carefully hoarded, thank god). The problem: the files made from the FMV rips play too fast, something I've always attributed to Vista, b/c they were fine on XP. Now that I've got W7, they still run too fast. Worst part is, I never could figure out what the hell the problem was.
Up: I discover I backed up the AVI files which created my proto. clips! Yay! I don't need the PSS files anyways!
Down: For some reason, my computer also has an issue with those AVI files, and plays THEM too fast. WHAT THE HECK?!!
Equilibrium: My desperate little brain hit upon the possibility that perhaps the original files are not playing too fast, perhaps my old prototypes are playing too SLOW. But why? And how? And I don't like it anyways! It looks really screwy! I really don't think this is right...the newscast segment in DoC, the reporter winds up sounding like she's a professional auctioneer, she's talking so fast. Is this a codec problem? A graphic card problem?
Down: I also recall some kind of bizarre AR problem with DoC which drove me equally nuts, although I eventually overcame it. Don't remember how though. There's something about DoC...it has an abnormal DAR or something.
*crawls off in search of assistance* -
AHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2009-11-13 18:30:59
The answer to my AMV prayers born upon the wings of CorpseGoddess: AMV Hell here I come. This is what I get for not poking my head into the forums more often: late to the party.
The question now remains: are my comedic urges up to an AMV Hell? Or perhaps, is AMV Hell up to my comedic urges?
*prepares the noose for Advent Children* This means I don't have to bother making full-length AMVs to fulfill my irrational desire to defile one of my favorite (irrationally so) movies. I was quite disappointed to see only one AC clip in the last edition of 'Hell and this is clearly a call to action.
*plots convincing concept statements* At least they'll know I'm dead serious when I pitch my ideas. :| -
ok, so!
2009-11-12 19:35:09
Came up with a new way to perhaps improve my attitude and motivation: if I've got a great concept, then the "only" thing left is properly crafting an AMV which represents that concept, right? I get waaaayyy too interested in things which are not concepts so much as "OMG, but just imagine IF...!!" You can't make an AMV out of "just imagine if." You have to make AMVs out of an "if" that actually exists, the "if" being a solid concept. The concept can be making an eye-popping, synched-to-death action video - nothing wrong with that - but there's got to be a goal, a purpose, a method behind the madness.
Now, I've got a great method/concept behind XII. Always did. The question is, can I figure out the right way to showcase that concept? Yee! A challenge! *fixates on challenge* Must...rise...to challenge!!
*deletes lengthy evaluation of old-school AMVs which is neither here nor there*
Not that I can do any editing while I'm still employed and wrecking my health being in front of a computer 14 hours a day. This is probably the #1 reason I haven't made more videos: I can't physically hack it.
Minor amusement of the day: At work I discovered one of the folders on the server is named - for some reason - "lol." I definitely got a chuckle out of seeing THAT pop up in my program. -
And thus I return to days of yore, when bizarre and long-winded internal conversations regarding AMVs bored untold hundreds.
2009-11-11 10:32:01
But first, a bit of irony: Surgery on my AMV-induced fractured ankle is scheduled for next Friday. I injured it on my way out the door to the 2008 AAC convention in N.H., which just happens to be taking place this year on the very day I get on the operating table. Further proof that my life is just one set of crazy coincidences after another.
Meanwhile, I had a really depressing dream last night about AMVs and conventions. It seems that I'd made a video which I didn't think was very good, but which managed to get into the finals of Anime Boston. I won a Best Concept award for it...and was not only less than excited by this, but rather unappreciative all around. Afterwards I found myself sitting in the audience of some AMV panel hosted by Bashar (which makes him the third or fourth AMV editor to somehow wind up in my dreams - not sure Godix counts since I've never met him in person, surfer dude or not). The audience was primarily made up of non-editors, and I distinctly recall the impression that I didn't belong in an environment with AMV enthusiasts at all, despite having a video in the con's competition. Most people would say that this qualifies them to be in the AMV enthusiast crowd.
I tend to suffer the after effects of my dreams for a good long while, which means today I'm depressed about how jaded and unhappy my dream-self was about AMVs - how far removed I was from the enjoyment people get out of them and their value as expressions of creativity, hard work and a desire to entertain others. Bad Lauren, BAD!
While I'm not going to psycho-analyze it extensively (HAHAHA - did I actually write that? - DR), I think this does reflect the attitude I've somehow developed towards future (if any) AMV projects. I've gone from an extremely positive view of what AMV making means to me - one that dictates if I put enough work and passion into a project, it will be a success regardless of what others think of it - to a view that is mostly focused on inevitable failure b/c my idea of what is required for "success" seems impossible to attain. This is a bad attitude to have, particularly when I consider that almost all my AMV ideas are less ambitious than those I've previously had.
I believe one problem is that I'm more aware now of my own limitations than I was before (ignorance is extremely powerful bliss). Another issue is that now there's a certain standard for what I make, a certain bar I and others will inevitably evaluate future endeavors against. That's a problem b/c that's not how I work, I don't ever consciously try to do BETTER simply for the sake of improvement or one-ups-manship. I do better b/c it comes naturally as I learn and grow and/or because whatever I've set out to do is just inherently better than what I've done before. I set very high bars for myself, which is one reason I can do what I do even when other people think I'm nuts, but there's a fine line between lofty goals and unrealistic goals.
Or maybe what's happened is that I've exhausted my store of "very original, but coherent and doable" AMV ideas and am left only with truly outrageous, impossible concepts? *mentally reviews concepts* Yeah...no...drat. :(
One familiar with my journal posting habits should be able to tell that I am getting close to becoming embroiled in another AMV. It's kind of funny how obviously distressing I find the process.
JOURNAL: DriftRoot (Lauren C.)
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