Anime Expo 2014 AMV Competition - Finalist List POSTED!

[Niotex]

Big problems people seemed to have with AX this year were unrelated to us or out of our hands.
Glad to see things we did have control over went seemingly well. Great job Troy, Vlad, Scott and all that helped!

I'll actually be around again next year to help ^^

[XStylus]

I was there at the AMV contest and I noticed that one of the AMVs used subtitles. Isn't that against the rules?

Vids with "unnecessary text" are heavily scrutinized, by me especially. However, because I'm so militant against text, I have my staff confirm my DQs to keep me in check.

I was overruled on Rider's vid.

Wow, I can't believe it had to be overruled...I've seen some poor use of purposed subtitling text and that was not it. Then of course the videos with the hard coded subs that are obvious DQs

Troy hates anything with text in it. He didn't like the crazy thing called love video in Romance

So in other words, even if I hadn't screwed up the AVISynth script and had managed to properly replace my video's subliminal message "OBEY JINGORO" with "OBEY TROY" like I had tried to, it still wouldn't have saved it? Oddly comforting if true.

I'm much more forgiving for comedy, but I feel text has no place in the primes. Show, not tell.

[KagatoAMV]

I'm still surprised, was a bit of a boneheaded move on my part to go watch the DDR Project screening in the AMV room rather than attend the awards ceremony. Hopefully I made the audience laugh when Troy put me on speakerphone.

[Yuusharo]

I'm still surprised, was a bit of a boneheaded move on my part to go watch the DDR Project screening in the AMV room rather than attend the awards ceremony. Hopefully I made the audience laugh when Troy put me on speakerphone.

I just remember screaming and cheering when your name was announced... mostly my own screaming and cheering. I might have scared my friend who was setting next to me.

Congratulations!

[BasharOfTheAges]

Well, damn. My view count doubled overnight. To hell with winning - this is great!

Apparently too great. It got taken down for "view gaming" and then reloaded to a new URL automatically by YouTube. The hell?

[Castor Troy]

Big problems people seemed to have with AX this year were unrelated to us or out of our hands.
Glad to see things we did have control over went seemingly well. Great job Troy, Vlad, Scott and all that helped!

I'll actually be around again next year to help ^^

Tempted to come back next year if you come...

[Castor Troy]

Well, now that AX and the contest are over, it's time to give my thoughts.... it's drama time!

NOTE: I did not attend AX, so I didn't see the contest, nor do I know the order of the entries that were played since I do not have a ballot. My thoughts are about all 270+ entries as a whole.

These opinions are mine and mine alone and are not representative of AX or the rest of the judges. I warn you, I will speak some harsh truths that may upset a few people, but I do this to help make the contest the best it can be and do not wish to offend anyone. However, I do guarantee that my thoughts will be an eye opener for everyone who reads them and I hope people can take steps into improving their game as it's becoming more difficult to get into the contest every year no matter how long you've been editing.

I personally felt a bit disappointed with all of the entries as a whole in comparison to previous years. However, not in the way that you would think.

My initial disappointment stems from all of the entries being good enough, BUT the "Outstanding" entries were going to be very obvious winners. I usually think about AX2003 and 2012 as contests where EVERY entry was so good that you had NO idea which once was going to win. While judging, my intial thoughts were "These entries are good, but the more standout videos are obviously going to win". I really wanted every single entry to be so fantastic that I couldn't even predict which one would even make the finals.

However, judging by what people have been saying here on the thread, twitter, and facebook, the entire contest seems to have the majority of the outstanding entries where it was difficult to predict the winners. So, I guess things turned out for the better.

I judge things based on the following criteria:

1: Video Quality and Sound Issues - Pretty self explanatory. If I see constant pixelation, bad deinterlacing, marcoblocking, subtitles, muddy footage, audio pops, underwater audio, etc, I either DQ the entry outright or request a resubmission. This contest is played on a theater like screen in front of thousands of people and there is no way I would ever let something that looked and sounded like a 7th generation fansub to ever get played on such a big screen. Luckily, the majority of the entries did not suffer through this.

2: Timing, Flow, Concept, Effects - The majority of entries were pretty solid in nailing down what they were meant to do. Not too many entries with overly long lip flap scenes or static shots with nothing happening. Thank God none of the entries had that incredibly annoying shaking zoom effect of last year's entries...

3: Personal Taste - Because the majority of the entries had no problem getting past steps 1 and 2, the majority of my judging came down to this step and step 4 below. Did I simply like the entry? Did the entire video as a whole, regardless of timing, concept, and effects entertain me? Surprisingly, most of the entries caught my eye, but however, this made judging incredibly difficult for me since I could only choose a limited amount of entries that can get into the contest.

4: Will the audience like it? - This is probably the most important step because unlike watching videos on youtube or downloading them, audiences come to contests to get the whole theatrical experience. Since I've been both a competitor and attendee for many years, I tend to kind of know what audiences like and even despite my personal bias, I voted certain entries high due to the fact that they would be good for the audience. However, I also like to challenge the audience's perception of what I think is a solid entry in comparison to what they've been used to watching in past years. I'll definitely be talking more about this later in this post.

Now for the actual results, and this is what really surprised me and probably everyone else. Troy was not kidding when he said the results would drop a lot of jaws.

Sorry to rain on BakaOppai's parade, but I am definitely not happy that Animu Stew won Best of Show and I personally feel that these fan-pandering, aiming for the lowest common denominator entries end up hurting AMV contests. I admit I'm incredibly guilty of doing this and was one of the people who spearheaded this movement. Here are my reasons why I feel these entries hurt AMV contests in general:

- It's an incredibly easy, nearly foolproof method that gets into contests and especially grabs votes, giving other entries (especially well done drama entries) the shaft. Audiences come to AMV contests to have fun and it's an extremely easy formula that panders to that need.

- Entries like these completely dumb down the audience's intelligence by literally giving them a "Look at this, LAUGH!" prompt as opposed to a another video that's naturally funny.

- Other editors, especially new ones will either feel discouraged from trying to enter because they know they will be up against these entries or will try to duplicate them (I know I have), resulting in a huge oversaturation of these entries in the comedy/parody category which usually end up being poorly executed. You know how many times I've rolled my eyes at cheap Family Guy lipsync segments or people telling me they want to mask Stewie Griffin in to fight Haruhi? ugh.

- The audience will come to expect these every year and either they will always end up voting for them or they will eventually get sick of them. Editors and fans alike will start expressing their disappointment that these types of videos are constantly oversaturating the contest every year and want something fresh and new.

You're probably saying that I think the AX audience is dumb and will vote for the big herp-a-derp fan pandering entry, BUT I have 2 examples of when the audience voted otherwise and are much smarter than you think:

AX 2011 - nekokitkat's Calling was a good entry I liked, BUT I never thought in a million years it would win Best of Show due to the amount of FIERCE competition it had from SSGWNBTD's Angels of Neon, Zarxrax's Anime Nations of the World, and Fall_Child42's Shonen Libido. Surprisingly, the crowd found "Calling" to be emotionally engaging enough to get Best of Show and I'm glad it won.

AX 2012 - My Naruto Ball Z Shippuden video can be considered a fan pandering video just due to the concept, but I took a huge risk by not making it as goofy as the original and tried to make it more serious. Even with all the editing involved, it's still nothing more than an action video at it's core. Because of this, it almost did NOT make the AX2012 contest. I was pretty certain my fate was sealed after seeing MysteriousRider's "Ballad of the Nice Guy", and hearing it's reaction. But things turned out differently and I ended up winning Best of Show by a hair's length and I'm glad I took the risk in trying something different.

These are proof that you don't need to pander to audiences and they will appreciate well made videos that don't follow the obvious formula.

Here are my personal picks for each category (NOTE: I can't confirm if most of these played or not during the contest, if anyone has a ballot, let me know):

* = Actual Winner

Action - Fighting Dreamers 2: Not only is this a fantastic DBZ video, it's a fantastic action video that I would even recommened to people who aren't fans of DBZ. A great blend of action and masking effects that enhance the experience (although I didn't think the lipsync was necessary). I loved this one enough to even put it on my iphone to watch whenever.

Drama/Theatrical - Death Silence: AX tends to have a good reputation for choosing drama entries that don't make me want to slit my wrists and opposed to most of the emo entries that usually plague drama, I really enjoyed having a genuinely frightnening video for once.

*Romance/Sentimental - Time Falls Away: I'm extremely happy this one won. I have not watched the anime, nor know the plot or it, but this video connected emotionally with me and I was able to get the story which I feel is what a good amv does for people who haven't seen the source. Kudos to AdventLostKaichou for the win and *my* personal pick for Best of Show (I'm an old man, so I have a thing for the sappy dramas).

Fun/Random - Throwback: A very simple and fun video that doesn't rely on gimmicks or effects. It's kinda funny and ironic that Kiszani's winter video won the category due to it being summertime.

Upbeat/Dance - G6: Another awesome entry that really defines the category and would have literally swept the AMTV category at past AX's. This is one of those videos that is greatly enhanced by the effects and is something I feel the audience can enjoy without having to pander to them.

Comedy/Parody - AMV(&humor): I tend to consider myself someone who's literally seen everything and nothing really gets past me. However, there is always an entry that thinks outside the box and surprises the hell out of me and THIS is it. I literally watched it about 3-4 times before I could even move on to judge the next video because of how fucking brilliant this video is. My only regret is not being at AX to see the reaction this video got.

*Trailer/Intro - Dead Space Cowboy (no link): You don't see much Cowboy Bebop videos anymore, but this one was an incredibly unqiue concept using one of the more obscure parts of Cowboy Bebop and turning it into a trailer for a horror game. Kudos for the win from last year's Best of Show winner.

Commercial - The GMFC Giganto - Hilarious concept and I think this really sets the standard for commercial parodies.

Pretty much out of all my favorites, 2 were actually winners. Regardless of my opinions, congrats to all of the people who submitted, to all the people who made it in, and for everyone who won.

Quite a lot of people brought their concerns to me in private on why they didn't get into the contest and what advice I could give them as a judge. So here it is:

- Make what you want, but make it the BEST entry you can. The competition is extremely fierce and it definitely helps to have another set of eyes give you feedback on what works and what doesn't. There are plenty of people here to lend you their 2 cents in helping you make improvements to your videos.

- Don't feel the need to cater to the crowd or dumb down things for them. It's very easy to follow the fan pandering formula in order to get into contests, but crowds are much smarter than you think and the examples from AX2011 and 2012 prove my point.

- Don't go in with low expectations. If you're coming in with low expectations, that's the wrong attitude to have. Feel confident about your entries and it will definitely show in front of the judges and especially the crowd. The judges can easily smell non-confidence a mile away and will brush aside entries like that before they even reach an audience.

- Expect the chance you will be cut because of the lack of room. With over 270+ entries submitted this year and very limited spaces available for the finalists, the majority of videos have to get cut in order to fit a 2 hour block. Just because you were cut does not mean your video is bad. There just wasn't enough room.

- Take advantage of the AMV Room. If you don't make the contest, it's not the end of the world. Do a Creator Spotlight and you can have your entries shown in a block completely dedicated to you.

- Participate in the AMV Chef either as a competitor or a judge. Wanna know what it's like to edit an amv in 2 hours or less? Or do you want to collaborate with other people to judge what makes a good AMV? Participating in the AMV Chef is a good way to really hone your editing skills and form opinions on what makes a good video that can influence your own.

- If you feel that entering the AX AMV Contest is too stressful, there's no shame in stressing yourself out and nobody will blame you for not entering. If it's no longer fun for you to constantly enter and never get in, you might be better off not entering. It's never easy to deal with the rejection of not making into AX because of how huge the event is and the prizes and recognition you recieve from it. I've dealt with it for many years, as have many others, so we can understand how painful it feels to not get in. The obvious advice is to never give up entering and you'll eventually get in, but if your efforts aren't working, then there's always other conventions and the AMV Room as alternatives. The contest is only going to get more difficult in the future to get in as I predict that AX will start hitting NDK and AWA levels of entries in the 300-400+ range and more entries will greatly reduce your chances of getting in. The 270+ entries have already proven that AX will never have a shortage of entries and will only get bigger from here on in.

Sorry if you were expecting me to have some magical formula for getting into the AX AMV Contest, but the method has always been the same. Make what you want, but expect that you will have fierce competition in return.

I wasn't at the con this year, but judging by everyone's reports, I'll give kudos to Troy and Vlad for running another good AX AMV Contest and I'd like to thank Troy for giving me an opportunity to judge the contest again this year. Sadly, I will no longer be judging since I am pursuing other opportunities and will no longer have the time anymore. The AMV Contest at AX has always been the biggest highlight of the con for me and I wish the best of luck for the contest and it's competitors in the future.

[MaboroshiStudio]

NOW THAT IS SOME DRAMA!!!

- Don't go in with low expectations. If you're coming in with low expectations, that's the wrong attitude to have. Feel confident about your entries and it will definitely show in front of the judges and especially the crowd. The judges can easily smell non-confidence a mile away and will brush aside entries like that before they even reach an audience.

Confidence... you know me man I am not lacking in that department and while I might not have made the finals I know Flashes of Light is still a winner! lol I think the judges didn't want the audience sobbing at AX. haha

[Pwolf]

Sorry to rain on BakaOppai's parade, but I am definitely not happy that Animu Stew won Best of Show

To be clear, it was AnimuStew and Piece of Toast that won best in show.

Confidence... you know me man I am not lacking in that department and while I might not have made the finals I know Flashes of Light is still a winner! lol I think the judges didn't want the audience sobbing at AX. haha

Flashes of Light was in my top 5 for the category btw.

[Pwolf]

Big problems people seemed to have with AX this year were unrelated to us or out of our hands.
Glad to see things we did have control over went seemingly well. Great job Troy, Vlad, Scott and all that helped!

I'll actually be around again next year to help ^^

Pretty much everything AMV related went extremely well. The room was packed full the majority of the weekend, even during times we didn't expect it to be. I wont go into too much detail about what happened at AX other than that communication and lack of Access Control staff was a major issue (other than reg issues). Once Access Control got things together, it ran a bit smoother but they needed at least double the staff they had. We, the AMV Staff, had to fill in the AC roles for the room and even helped out with other rooms as well. It was pretty crazy.