AWA 2005 Pro Contest Discussion Thread

[istiv]

Hito's I got when I saw his Org avatar in the credits (oops!), and I already knew about "The Purpose of Persocoms" from having seen it on the AX list.

Oups, i was careless in my No-Bumperization. that's true, the #39's race is mine. However my opinion is to think that contest was totally blind (and honnest ?) is a mistake . look at the editors now and have a look on the first posts of this thread ... You'll see that discussion have been self-influenced on some video. friends are the best judges

Anyway there was many good videos. My overall prefered one is Vlad's video, but there was other good ones. I'll let you an opinion when the time will come .

[Ashyukun]

Oups, i was careless in my No-Bumperization. that's true, the #39's race is mine.

*mock surprise* I think most of us guessed that even without any slip-ups in the covering of indentifying features of the video.

However my opinion is to think that contest was totally blind (and honnest ?) is a mistake .

Oh, it's quite obvious that it's not totally blind- the simple fact that you can enter videos that have been to other cons (Purpose of Persocoms, Caught in the Crossfire for example- both of which were excellent BTW) means that it's never going to be totally blind. It's also in some cases simply hard to mask your own style and tastes, as evidenced by the fact that most people I know had pegged Meri & Mike's video, yours, and Vlad's without any hints at all just from either what was used or the way it was done. I actually discussed the possibility of switching Pro over to requiring un-premiered and more heavily enforced blinded entries in the future with Wagner- but he wants to avoid that because it seems that was one of the major problems with Masters, which I can understand.

However, I think that it's not fair to think that having a completely blind entry is impossible- it just takes a bit more effort and dedication to doing it that way from start to finish- and I think that knowing you can pull it off is a pretty nice reward in and of itself.

[Scintilla]

Hito's I got when I saw his Org avatar in the credits (oops!), and I already knew about "The Purpose of Persocoms" from having seen it on the AX list.

Oups, i was careless in my No-Bumperization.

Well, I also found this very amusing screenshot by pausing and going through more slowly:



But anyway, a very nice job, I must say.

[ProphetDK]

Considering the release of information on their vids my first entry into this contest was the Haibane Renmei/Evanesence one #52. my first "piano Key" Vid too heh. Vlad Saw it before since it made it into one of his contests.. but I dont think he knows me... or rather I've only formally met one person from the org to date (that I know of) Tho I have spoken to a few....


Didn't make it into the nominations but hey it was my first time for this contest...

[Vlad G Pohnert]

Guessed Vlad's vid just due to his addiction to City Hunter and desire to combine different anime.
Peace.

OK.. to set the record straight...

The reason for using Ryo of City Hunter isn't because love City Hunter so much, but because he it the best fit "Bond" there is (Yes, a lot more than Spike).. that and the fact that Bond features a lot of gun views in it's openings and so does City Hunter

The reason for Sailor Moon is that bond girls portrayed as silhouettes in the opening titles have so many similar traits of hourglass figures, skimpy outfits and long sexy legs...

Hence both anime's in my opinion are the best fit "anime" representations of Bond elements... the other reason is that I wanted to use older anime as this is also a parody and tribute to the 70-80s bond opening all done by Maurice Binder who did such an awesome job and I love his work! The idea here was to create something artistic in the exact same theme

Hence, I always try to use the best fit anime regardless of it's age or popularity as that really should not effect how good the video is.

The only other comment I should add it, that the “Old School” category should have been called “Classic Anime” as that is more fitting.. Old school is usually more of an expression of a mind set or the ways things are done using older methods (i.e. using two VCRs, etc).

And yes.. I loved the Astroboy vid alot, not because of the use of older anime, but I loved the editing

Vlad

[Ashyukun]

The reason for using Ryo of City Hunter isn't because love City Hunter so much, but because he it the best fit "Bond" there is (Yes, a lot more than Spike)..

Well, other than that whole problem of 'Bond can get pretty much any girl on the planet' and Saeba can't get within a few feet of most without being flattened. Of course, Saeba (and a good portion of the CH cast at that) could probably waste Bond in a gunfight, blindfolded (well, you wouldn't really need to blindfold Umibozu, depending on which point in the show it happened in...).

Excellent work on the video itself. It really did the old Bond openings justice IMO. I can see what you meant about how much work every frame was taking, even compared with what Transcending Love took it must have been insane!

[Therax]

Well a couple guys who knew me thought I was the Noir video entirely on the account that I am a shoujo-ai loving lesbian. I got quite the laugh over that one.

Heh, didn't mean to steal your thunder over that.

I'm the guilty party, your honor

Gorgeous video. One of the few times I've watched flying windows and truly had it suck me in to enjoy it. (Not that I should talk, being guilty of using them myself, and badly. :-X) Some of my favorite videos are those that make me look at characters I'm already familiar with in an entirely new way.

[Therax]

I made the Trigun, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Naruto video to "Get This Party Started" (entry #3). I'll bet you guys weren't expecting me to make an action video.

I got the vibe of "Hey! Let's do a lip-synching high-tech upbeat video w/popular anime characters! We'll get an easy rise out of the fanboys in the audience watching this one!" while watching this video. I thought for sure it was the guy who did Shounen Bushido last year, but it turns out he did a different video for the contest this year.

The video is in no means bad; it's a fine video. It's just... it felt like "Let's pander to the anime fan!" just like I did watching Shounen Bushido last year. (I don't get that feeling watching Elvis vs. Anime however.)

Interestingly, I heartily enjoyed this video, and even though I usually groan at the start of any Trigun, FMA, or Naruto video just by reflex, this one had me sitting up and paying rapt attention very quickly. Most action videos to these souces focus on the action, the fighting, the competition -- the adrenaline.

Somehow this video made me feel the bombast, the cockiness, and the self-assured confidence of all these characters. It seethed attitude, without angst, testosterone without adrenaline. A very character-profiley action video, and I loved it. (And I can say that about very few action videos, period.)

I knew eveyone would think the action vid was mine. I actually went the other direction this time and made a drama video: it was the one right after silver_moon's, the Wolf's Rain one (#4).

Hands down, best Wolf's Rain video I've seen. Good song choice, excellent flow, good pacing with the song structure.

To both of you, after having seen just a bit of your prior stuff, I was impressed, but with both of these vids being some of my favorites from this contest, must move you up to the watch-everything-created-as-it-comes-out list. (Next to suberunker, for entirely different reasons. )

[The Wired Knight]

With SOME creators it may not be necessary, but amongst the AMV world you have to admit that there is some prejudice that lingers between creators and first impressions that stick with some that could easily influence juding.

For example: Let's say someone just made their first AMV and decided to enter it in the pro contest. Let's also assume that they just recently got into AMVs and are well aware of a few creators. Now let's say that Kevin Caldwell entered a video and they see a bumper with his name. This immedietly puts them into the mindset of "Oh, this should be good". Coincidently this can work for or against him but you can see the biased.

Now those of us who can recognize the creators of some videos based on style are generally unbiased enough that it doesn't matter, but it's those that don't that create the need for blind judging.

[Castor Troy]

Since I can't post this in the amv annoncements and to beat the rush, here's my entry..

Title: A ninja's redemption
Source: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003+)
Song: Numb by Linkin Park

http://www.castortroy.net/videos/tmntnumb.zip

Not sure if it can stay up here but get it while you can