requiett wrote:Postmodern Cinematic Retrospective Culture in Regard to AMVs
What is an AMV? How would you describe it? What constitutes the formula for the modern anime music video? Many would definitively maintain that an AMV is the notion of sequences of anime selectively edited and placed in synchronization to various musical selections. Some would call it faggotry. But the vast majority of global culture remains in the dark from this shady underworld subculture. Seeking an answer to this puzzling conundrum, I opted to enter this community in May of 2003 and study this field populated by cliques of "fanboys" and possibly "fangirls" who devote such great time and effort to constructing the modern AMV.
Whilst traveling abroad amongst this harlequin mandala of intrepid editors, I learned many principles and ideals regarding the emerging paradigm in postmodern cinematic retrospective culture. To fully understand anime music videos, one must understand the neoconcept of postmodern cinematic retrospective culture. Postmodern cinematic retrospective culture can be most adequately summarized as transfiguring a cinematic work in such a manner that either reconstitutes its original intent or enhances it with emphasis on canon characterization. Notable examples of this recent archetype would conceivably encompass the smallest parody to the largest theatrical endeavor. For example, many do not realize that award-winning director Michael Bay's crowning achievement of the year 2007 A.D. "Transformers" was infact a retrospective cinematic piece that originated in a series of obscure miniatures referred to by the very same moniker. Bay had ingeniously borrowed from the concept of an older paradigm and revived it in such a fashion that it would translate into an entirely resynthesized masterpiece. For these purposes, we can also refer to this type of magnificent revamping as a "Bayism."
Among the less prestigious Bayisms of our time, we find that films such as Cape Fear and The Manchurian Candidate hold lesser value to culture than their preceding counterparts. This may be largely due to a factor in which the first rendition of a title would counterbalance the majority of the overall zeitgeist or attitude toward retrospective cinema. The same component seen here can be observed into history futher than the advent of motion pictures. Among the most retold, we have Homer's ancient epic, The Odyssey. Reworked, even to this day, we can find such influences in places as The Odyssey, James Joyces' Ulysses, and O' Brother Where Art Thou? How would this observationally implicit factor now apply to AMVs? Judging by the marked majority in anime music videos, we can infer that at one time there would have been an anime music video of Dragon Ball Z and Linkin Park of such splendid quality and redeeming value that it would continue to influence editors for years to come, having been remade more than any other endeavor seen to date in retrospective cinema.
We have observed how the value of cinema has largely decreased over time due to a prevailing entropy in retrospective cinema. We can even observe how this would affect the current economics of the situation. It is generally accepted that anime music videos hold no monetary value. Perhaps it may be stated that AMVs have arrived at the point where no reasonable consumer would trade any goods, services or currency in exchange for an AMV. The inherent decrease in value of retrospective cinema holds strong against the select few who do manage to strive against the tide of falling worth.
If modern retrospective cinema has continued to dwindle, we can see how many new subgenres will continue to take root in light of an inevitable dampening of conceptualism. Every story possible has been told. Now we must find a method in which to shatter them and rework them to our benefit while synchronizing them to Green Day and Good Charlotte. Perhaps we can even find ways to increase the value of stories once again. Popular advertisements have served well in modern retrospective culture as we can see in Transformers with the Autobots being branded by General Motors, or in I, Robot where Will Smith self-sacrifices dignity for the good of mankind by proudly displaying the latest models of Converse, vintage 2004.
Lawrence Lessig, a prominent expert on the topic of remix culture [a variation of retrospective cinema], in an interview by the O'Reilly Network said:
"Nobody's going to remake the way Hollywood makes films right now, but the point to recognize is that the rise of digital technologies and the spread of the internet has encouraged a different kind of filmmaking to go on. One way I've begun to think about this is to question whether within our culture, writing is allowed. Now when you say the word writing, for those of us over the age of 15, our conception of writing is writing with text, and in fact our tradition protects the right to write with text and to draw upon other people's writings with text quite substantially. People can review my book and quote my words in reviewing my book, criticize me, do whatever they want, and that's protected by a tradition of fair use that has taken hundreds of years to develop but is now pretty strong." *
I believe what Lessig has to say in regards to retrospective cinema and anime music videos would be that we have every right to reinterpret culture as we see fit. However, the more we interpret a subject, the more generalized it becomes and tends to lose originality, and therefore lose value. This same ideal can be extracted from the proposal in my earlier 219 page thesis from 2004 "Feng Shui and the Art of Determining an Anime Music Video's Interponently Juxtaposed Value." This is also at odds with Adam Smith's basic philosophy of economic principles. AMVs have only increased in supply steadily and at a far higher rate than their demand. If we continue to produce at a rate skewed to their consumption, the current glut in remix culture will saturate to a point that will only cause a great and disasterous collapse.
With the future of anime music videos and retrospective cinema at stake, we must look to greater means of resolving their declining status. You look at that river gently flowing by. You notice the leaves rustling with the wind. You hear the birds; you hear the tree frogs. In the distance you hear a cow. You feel the grass. The mud gives a little bit on the river bank. It's quiet; it's peaceful. And all of a sudden, it's a gear shift inside you. And it's like taking a deep breath and going, "Oh yeah, I forgot about this." Future generations may well have occasion to ask themselves, "What were our parents thinking? Why didn't they wake up when they had a chance?" We have to hear that question from them, now.
* Quote used without permission by Lessig or Fox News
Did you kiss your mother with that mouth?
