Anime North 2006 AMV Competition Results

Initial B · Post by **Initial B** » Sat May 27, 2006 10:15 pm

15 Judges in three different cities and two countries spent hours judging and prejudging this year’s crop of AMVs. We had a lot of high-calibre entries this year. We’re sorry if your video did not make the finals, but the judges could only take so many Final Fantasy: Advent Children videos before they started to go loopy. This was also the first year in a while that we had to make a separate block for entries that we reclassified alternative because they were judged to contain too much graphic content to be shown in the main programming blocks. (Apologies to the creators, but there is no way we could show graphic dismemberment, hardcore pr0n, torture, and beating puppies to death before midnight.

)

Honourable Mentions:
“Diving” by Jonathan Doda and Tabetha Lulham.
The Novice Runner-up, the synthetic music and lyrics matched well with the footage from Ghost in the Shell 2nd Gig, providing a glimpse into what it might feel like to travel through cyberspace.

“We All Live in Azumerica” by Todd Serge.
This delightfully subversive warning against American cultural imperialism using Azumanga Daioh characters set to German hard rock scored high marks with the judges, but not quite high enough to score an award.

“Everything I Know = Weird^2” by Miles Klub.
Blending the quirky lyrics of Weird Al Yankovic with the insanity of Excel Saga footage, the solid editing and catchy tune made this entry a judges’ favourite.

Newbie Award for Best Novice Video:
“Always Searching for You” by Melissa Shaw.
Melissa took a classic Spice Girls ballad and added footage from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle that matched her artistic intent, crafting a sad and nostalgic drama about Shaoran and Sakura’s relationship in the series. We look forward to seeing what she will create for the Open Competition next year.

Momiji’s Challenge Award for best video with a country and western theme:
“Sue” by Michelle Girard.
Using the Johnny Cash classic “A Boy named Sue”, Michelle took Full Metal Alchemist and Street Fighter II V footage to create a humorous tale of a boy is search of his deadbeat dad just so he could try to beat the snot out of him for making him so short… er, naming him Sue.

Criterion Award for Editing:
“Chapter 219” by Mike Martignetti.
Mike wowed the Judges with his fresh take on the Naruto series by skilfully setting the scenes in a panel-by-panel format and adding the appropriate Sum 41 lyrics in word balloons around the characters. In effect, he created something new – a black-and-white manga come to life and turned into a full audio-visual experience for the viewer.

Criterion Award for Cinematography:
“Worlds Unbroken” by Laura and Valerie Fremmerlid.
Laura and Val mated the earnest music of Jars of Clay to the beautiful animation of the series “Air” to create an entry that submerged the judges into the video’s environment, while depicting an uplifting and moving portrayal of the two couples paralleled in the series that struck a chord with the judges.

Criterion Award for Creativity:
“StopWatchingAnimeandGoOutside” by Tim Park.
Tim utilized many different anime series and crafted them around the original tune “There is Life Outside your Apartment” from the soundtrack of the off-Broadway musical Avenue Q. The judges agreed that this video is a “Vital Message to all Otaku about the importance of fresh air and socialization.”

Criterion Award for Artistic Vision:
“Top of the World” by Fred Graupp.
Fred’s artistic vision was to combine old anime and even older music in a simple yet clean style and keep the focus on emotional delivery and character interactions. The result was a pleasant and sentimental journey to a bygone era that was easy for the judges to watch.

The Momiji no Video Award for Judges Choice:
“Azumanga DIE-OH 2” by Justin Rollins.
This second instalment of his comedic Azumanga Daioh character profile focuses on the inter-relationships between some of the characters on the show. By a narrow margin, the judges liked this video best overall.

The Northern Lights Award for Best Overall Anime Music Video
“Resident Eva: Apocalypse” by Ashley Hakker.
This parody of the Resident Evil Movie Trailer using Neon Genesis Evangelion footage impressed the judges enough that it achieved the highest overall technical mark this year.

Well, those were the winners for this year's competition. Thanks to all the participants and we look forward to seeing what you will come up with next year.

Sadly, this is my last year in charge of the Competition since I need to devote my time to raising my three kids. Try not to give my successor too hard a time next year, okay?

Ganbatte!

Ileia · Post by **Ileia** » Sat May 27, 2006 10:47 pm

Azumerica > all

Initial B · Post by **Initial B** » Sun May 28, 2006 6:01 pm

Personally, I marked "Azumerica" better than both "Azumanga DIE-OH 2" and "Resident Eva" as well, but when the marks were tallied the results were what you see above.

We try to select 15 judges to get a representative population sample of anime fandom. And the three groups of judges do not know how the other judges marked in order to counteract group-think. There were 8 female and 7 male judges, so gender bias probably didn't effect the marking, either.

I have to abide by the judges' collective marks to determine the winners and trust that we did our best to ensure that marking was a fair as possible.

DJ_Izumi · Post by **DJ_Izumi** » Mon May 29, 2006 3:04 am

I wish I had met Initial B at AN so I could chuck this glass piece of crap at his head for banning me from the AN forum.

Man, you can even see where the glue oozed out where they tried to put this... What ever the hell it is together. It's like a funny glass stick man. And the bottom part looks like it used to be an ash tray.

I bet my cat will break it in a week.

Oh, and I'll tell you how I won. I used Eva and made it look cool. Cause seriously, trailers rarly have any TRUE creative componant, you just copy the scenes from the real movie. Doing REAL trailers, like Pwolf's Ace Combat Zero III, that takes effort and creativity.

But I still won.

Initial B · Post by **Initial B** » Mon May 29, 2006 7:21 am

Izumi, please don't take offense. I did like your AMV (scoring it high on Judges Choice), but I honestly thought that there were some entries that were better in some of the individual objective criteria. Then again, "better" is subjective and that's why we have so many judges in order to come up with consensus. I was trying to point out to aielI_Ileia that what each individual thinks is best is not necessarily what the collective thinks is best. I have no qualms about you having the best mark.

As for the AN forum, I believe you are misdirecting your ire. I'm not one for stiffling freedom of speech (although I do prefer if forumites debate in a kinder, gentler manner). Iczer Eh was the one who banned you, not me. I think you must have raised her Irish temper somehow.

And I'm sorry about the quality of the award, I was not there this year to do quality control prior to receiving shipment from the awards maker (we're expecting a baby any hour now). If you want, I can pass on your displeasure to the manufacturer. If I was in your place I would probably do the same if there is evidence of poor workmanship. If anyone else is disappointed with the quality of the award, make sure you PM me so I can put together a defects list.

Please, I did not start this thread to have it become a flamewar. I congratulate all winners and entrants on what was a great competition this year. I hope you all support the new AMVC coordinator next year.

Resk · Post by **Resk** » Mon May 29, 2006 10:44 am

Well, although I didn't make the finals this year (which I was hoping to do), I still think the contest went pretty well. The room was definitly a lot better, and I didn't see any divx logos, so compared to last year, this year rocked in that aspect lol.

Congrats to all the winners, and to everyone who entered

DJ_Izumi · Post by **DJ_Izumi** » Mon May 29, 2006 5:52 pm

I uploaded my video in Lagarith with the rules didn't even allow. \o\ Course I also uploaded my video by MSN rather than FTP which I imagine not many people did either...

basoul · Post by **basoul** » Mon May 29, 2006 6:16 pm

do u guys remember the last surviving kingdom hearts amv? the one that was played arround 5 pm i think it was a runner up or somthing

SuperS4 · Post by **SuperS4** » Mon May 29, 2006 9:27 pm

DJ_Izumi wrote:I wish I had met Initial B at AN so I could chuck this glass piece of crap at his head for banning me from the AN forum.

Yep, because chucking your award you didn't even deserve, at the head of the AMV Coordinator, would have been a great idea. You would have then gotten pummeled by various other people. Probably for the best you didn't do it then.

Man, you can even see where the glue oozed out where they tried to put this... What ever the hell it is together. It's like a funny glass stick man. And the bottom part looks like it used to be an ash tray.

If you don't like it so much, throw it out, we all know you didn't actually deserve to win it anyways. There were many other videos entered in that contest that were editted much better then your own. But alas, the judges for AN are not the greatest.

Oh, and I'll tell you how I won. I used Eva and made it look cool. Cause seriously, trailers rarly have any TRUE creative componant, you just copy the scenes from the real movie. Doing REAL trailers, like Pwolf's Ace Combat Zero III, that takes effort and creativity.

Congrats at admitting you suck at coming up with a good idea. Glad to know you aren't creative when you make videos and just like to copy the real trailer and just insert anime clips.

But I still won.

Yeah, still haven't quite figured out how that one happened. Judges must have been drunk/high/sleeping when they judged that one.

Though for the topic, I congratulate those of who you deserved to win. Though, sadly Initial B, I have to disagree, the quality of the AMVs this year, while better then last year, were not all that good. I noticed numerous flaws within even the finalists, including people unable to properly encode their video to the proper size, 640x480 or 720x480. Some people had multiple frame sizes within their video. Personally, I think if a person can't even properly encode their video to the correct frame size, they should not be shown as a finalist, since they can't do what was asked of them.

dokidoki · Post by **dokidoki** » Mon May 29, 2006 9:28 pm

DJ_Izumi wrote:I wish I had met Initial B at AN so I could chuck this glass piece of crap at his head for banning me from the AN forum. Man, you can even see where the glue oozed out where they tried to put this... What ever the hell it is together. It's like a funny glass stick man.

It's an inukshuk. You might have known that had you actually showed up to accept your award when they were handing them out in the first place.

I would have been happy for your win, had you not later gone and waved your trophy in my face and gone "HA!", and posted the above drivel. I'm not jealous... I have four of these inukshuks already, and would have more if they had given them out prior to 2002. But you know what? They don't have to give them out. They don't have to give you anything. They don't have to show your video. They don't even have to organise a contest. And insulting the prize they graciously gave you and ignoring the effort they put into distinguishing the prizes from other cons shows an astounding lack of class. Out of the trophies I've received from eight or so cons, Anime North is the only one that has gone to the effort of personalising it by printing creator and video names on them.

So yeah, since you obviously don't appreciate it, just chuck it somewhere and let your cat have at it. Mine will go in my display case.

Ultimately I have to respect the decision of the judges, but in my view if there was any justice, your award would have gone to Fall_Child42. I'm sure he would have appreciated it more than you did.