Video Game Music Appreciation Contest #2 - DEADLINE TODAY

inthesto · Post by **inthesto** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 12:56 pm

UPDATE: Although the deadline is still February 1st, I thought I'd give this topic a bump due to the fact that it's crawling up, and I only have two entries at the moment, and quite frankly, they both kind of suck. Pull out an AMV using video game music out of your ass, and you could win free shit!

(Prosperity's Compensation) An Introduction

Okay, I'm a little late this year, but I had trouble deciding whether or not I wanted to do it. However, after consulting many wise Magic 8-Balls and a few that weren't as wise, I figured that I had nothing to lose by running a contest that would get no entries, since I lost all sense of self-esteem a number of years ago. It's at this point that I would write "So without further ado, I introduce the:" and then have a giant, dazzling image for the banner of the contest, but since I'm way too lazy and unskilled to be making any images of the sort, I'll just say read the god damn topic title.

The Inside Skinny

Here's the basic rundown of what's going on: You have until
February 1st, 2007 to make and enter an AMV that uses video game music as its audio source. While this contest is being held through a-m-v.org, live action and non-Japanese animation are allowed, reason simply being that this is a contest more focused on audio sources than video. The deadline is not set in stone by any means; three and a half months should be enough to work, but if you really want to enter and can't finish by that deadline, talk to me personally and we can hammer something out. In order to enter, you only need to link me to your video, either in this topic, in PM, in e-mail, or any other way you can get a hold of me.

Winning (Shot!)

So, what's the possible prize for entering this contest? After all, I'm sure you want to be compensated for your time and effort wasted. Well, other than the glorious prestige of having impressed me with your editing skills, there are material prizes involved. Here's the breakdown of what each place wins:

Grand Prize Winner: The first place winner gets a new copy of The Guilty Gear XX #Reload Korean Version OST. Probably the best metal soundtrack in any video game, and a two-disc set at that. The grand prize winner also gets the promise of free opinions and beta-testing from me for the year of 2008, but I'm very subject to breaking promises, as anyone who knows me will tell you.

First Runner-Up: The first runner-up gets a copy of any video game of their choice that is worth 20 USD or less. They also get the same promise as the grand prize winner.

Second Runner-Up: The second runner-up gets no material prize, but does get the opinion/beta promise that the other winners get, which effectively means you win nothing. However, you do get the whole "winning a contest" prestige or something.

(Time Of) Judgement

Okay, this part is going to be the same as last year, so I'm just going to be a lazy asshole and copy and paste the entire block from the previous topic:

Visual/Audio Quality - Self explanatory. Am I looking at DVD quality visuals, or are you giving me macroblocks the size of my cranium with a DivX logo? Does it sound like I'm listening to an actual CD or did you encode to .005 kbps WMA? I'm really quite lenient about this and it doesn't actually hold much weight in my book, but it can be the make or break factor.

Concept/Direction - I have a difficult time explaining what I mean by this, but I also think it's the most important part to a video. When I watch your video, can I tell what you were doing as an editor? Can I get a feel for what you mean with this video? Or is it all just random clips with lots of pretty effects to hide a lack of direction? That's the sort of thing I'm talking about.

Technical Editing Ability - Did you synch all the big hits of the video to hi-hats within the music or do you have a thirty second uncut clip that runs over the best part of the song? Do you transitions and effects follow the flow and feel of the melody or did you just throw in white flashes on every beat because you didn't have anything else to do? Sure, effects and the like sure are pretty, but too often I've seen them get in the way of the underlying video (this would be one of my biases that you can pander to, people). Remember, while it may be difficult and "good" from a technical standpoint, doesn't mean I'll like it. Sometimes less is more.

While I'm not going to be formalizing any numbers, a rough percentage breakdown of how much I value each category would be 10/60/30, respectively. Don't take those numbers to heart, though, as this sort of thing is highly subjective and will obviously vary on a case-to-case basis.

Dangerous (Parking Lot)

Just like last time, there are songs you will not be allowed to use. The list is nearly the same as last year, with one addition (formatted by Composer - Game - Song Title):

*Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy 6 - Dancing Mad
*Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy 7 - One Winged Angel
*Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy 8 - Eyes On Me
*Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy 8 - Liberi Fatali
*Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy 9 - Melodies of Life
*Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy 10 - Suteki da Ne
*Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy 10 - Otherworld
*Noriko Matsueda/Takahito Eguchi - Final Fantasy 10-2 - 1000 Words
*Yasunori Mitsuda - Chrono Cross - Scars of Time
*Hikari Utada - Kingdom Hearts - Simple and Clean
*OverClocked Remix/VGMix - Anything - Anything
*Anybody - Any rhythym game - Anything

Just so you're sure, using any of the above songs will get you automatically disqualified. This means your video will not be judged, it will not have a shot at winning any award, it will be burned and have its ashes pissed on, and then I will drop a giant load of zebra placentas on your house. The reason for banning these songs is mainly because they have been done to death and generally done poorly, and I'm looking for something new.

On that note, do not enter old videos. In theory, any video in this contest should be made for this contest, but I'll never know if you just happened to be working on a VGM video while I made this contest. The other big DO NOT DO is that you shouldn't go and take Zelda music and edit it to Zelda footage, or any other bullshit like that. Be original, it doesn't hurt as much as you might think.

As a clarifying note that Sergei brought up, otherwise liscenced music that appears in video games do not count as video game music for the purposes of this contest. This means stuff like the soundtracks for Crazy Taxi and Tony Hawk games. If you're not sure, just contact me personally and I'll give you a yea or nay.

Also, I discourage people from using vocal tracks, as they always feel like some kind of forced aside and are generally sung in some gobbledeguk language that most of us can't understand.

Finally, I encourge contestants to not feel constricted to original game audio. If you can find a great (non-shitty OCR/VGMix/whatever else bland, oh-my-god-I've-heard-this-shit-a-billion-times-before fan) arrangement of a track that just clicks with you, by all means use it. I am in no means trying to bind you to the looping insanity.

Conclusion (Sol vs Ky)

I'm tired of writing inane shit. You know the drill; it should be simple. If you have any questions of clarification, feel free to ask them and I'll edit the original post to address them.

Get editing.

KWC10 · Post by **KWC10** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 1:00 pm

hmmm interesting, ill see what i can pull

Kitsuner · Post by **Kitsuner** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 1:02 pm

I don't know if I'll be done in time, but I'll do my best. :/

Rem0 · Post by **Rem0** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 7:34 pm

Very interesting concept. Good choice on eliminating the cliche VG music Tracks.

CodeZTM · Post by **CodeZTM** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 8:15 pm

Awsome! I love the final fantasy stuff. I'll probably try and enter with One-Winged Angel or 1000 words. Both are so neat! As for anime, I'm feeling either Chrono Crusade or The Place Promised In Our Early Days. Both kind of have the final fantasy feel to them.

Kitsuner · Post by **Kitsuner** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 11:08 pm

code_chrono wrote:Awsome! I love the final fantasy stuff. I'll probably try and enter with One-Winged Angel or 1000 words. Both are so neat! As for anime, I'm feeling either Chrono Crusade or The Place Promised In Our Early Days. Both kind of have the final fantasy feel to them.

Damn, I was going to enter, but you'll definitely win. I won't even bother.

Rem0 · Post by **Rem0** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 6:26 am

lol his Rules say you can't enter either one winged angel OR 1000 Words

. Look at his list of exclusions. Those are the easiest o make videos with

.

Douggie · Post by **Douggie** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 9:47 am

I'm so in if there are going to be max 3 entries like last time! How many entries can you send in? Because if you're that good and there are little entries you can claim the first 3 places by yourselves!

But seriously though, "do not enter old videos", does that mean: one that hasn't been submitted to a contest and/or one that hasn't been uploaded to a-m-v.org? Because I'm currently busy with one - which I'll submit to an AMV contest at a local con within a week (will premiere end this month) and maybe some other ones. So I guess this one I'm making is out of the contest?

Ro Sohryu · Post by **Ro Sohryu** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 4:33 pm

I think I might enter as well.

As for music allowed. Would music from movies that are based on games be allowed?
'Cause I know theres Doom and Mortal Kombat out there. And some of the tracks of those movies that are remixes of the original game music.

Like track 19 of Doom (The Movie) is titled "First Person Shooter" and its a remix of one of the tracks from the Doom games.
Would that type of track be allowed?

P.S. I will NOT do the Mortal Kombat theme, that has been done to DEATH.

inthesto · Post by **inthesto** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 11:49 am

As for music allowed. Would music from movies that are based on games be allowed?

Normally, I'd say no, but...

'Cause I know theres Doom and Mortal Kombat out there. And some of the tracks of those movies that are remixes of the original game music.

Like track 19 of Doom (The Movie) is titled "First Person Shooter" and its a remix of one of the tracks from the Doom games.

This example sound acceptable, but I think you'll have to show me the original and the arrangement so I can determine that it's an actual remix of a video game theme and not just a movie OST track.[/quote]

ALSO: I updated the grand prize, mostly because why not.