Excessive ideas

[JazzyDJ]

Do you ever get flooded with so many ideas that they are all at odds with each other? Ever get stalled not because of writers block, but because there's just too much to decide on for how to make a new idea fit with the old? (That kind of sounds like an advertisement doesn't it? lol.)

Anyway the video I'm working on has been going through countless reinventions. For several reasons: the more I watch AMVs here, the better eye I get for what works well and what doesn't work at all. I spot my mistakes and correct them. And I continously come up with new ideas just from the process. Sometimes even by chance from just messing around. The problem is, that there is so many ideas it's impossible to use them all because alot conflict with another. And so begins the crossroads...

So my questions to you guys is, do you ever get an overload of ideas that conflict with your original ideas?

And in the process of making a specific video, do you find yourself giving the project a big overhaul because of all the new ideas, or maybe for some other reason? And how do you come to terms in the process with it to make your final product?

[Koopiskeva]

All the time.

And that's what I do.. I just revise it till I either just run out of patience or just feel the need to move on. Twilight took me over a year to make partly because of this.

To me, no AMV is ever really finished. It's all about just being satisfied what you make and being able to move onto other ideas.

[Megamom]

Good question!

Well, in my case, I now have many ideas, but I am restricted to use only the best, for various reasons last year, I only use half of my ideas,

Why?

"They're very ambitious ideas"
or
"For lack of time"

Anyway, I have many ideas, but I have to express a long time!

And about your question.

At the moment I am full of ideas on!

[godix]

The creative force that comes up with ideas and the creative force to carry those ideas through to execution are different. If this is a real problem for you, start pre-planning the video in your mind so when you get to editing you're mostly just slapping clips around in ways you've already decided to do rather than working and modifying your ideas in middle of a project.

[CorpseGoddess]

Also, as time goes on and I let some of those ideas percolate in my brain, it gradually becomes obvious that yes, maybe this is an awesome idea in theory, but either

1. won't work in reality

or

2. I just plain don't want to/don't know how to complete it to match the idea in my brain.

I personally don't start editing in reality until I'm convinced I've finished editing in my head.

[guy07]

i used to get that ... not so much these days.

[shinji13]

Funny you mentioned writer's block. As some people know I suck at making AMV's, but my profession is writing- when it comes to writing I tend to come up with all sorts of insane ideas, to facilitate them I have a journal and all I write in the journal is ideas. Whether its a name, a sentence, a quote or a plot outline. Then when I feel the need to be inspired I read the journal, sometimes it helps me come up with new ideas or I find an idea that would fit perfect in the story I'm writing.

I believe editors can use the same concept, write down and store excess ideas for a later video- or write down digital effects that you enjoyed seeing in another video, it could help you finish a project quicker or simply make the project of higher quality.

One problem I've had with AMVs is the concept works perfect in my head until I get to the footage from the anime and realize that what I had played out in my head doesn't exist in the anime and my lack of interest in spending any serious amount of time on the creative process. Not to mention, when it comes to writing, your able to write and then edit (the real writing is in the editing)- but I find editing a music video over again results in having to re-do the entire thing unless each scene you replace comes to the same time because your effects will become un-synchronized.

Remember though, sometimes you just have to sit down and work on it instead of just thinking about how it's going to work.

[BasharOfTheAges]

I've had 4 major ideas that i've kept to the side for months/years because they seemed too ambitious or I simply didn't have the time and at least 10-15 that have fallen out of memory after pre-planning made me think they weren't worth it. If I produced more i'd have probably done a half-dozen of them, but who has the time?

[Vivaldi]

Yes, VERY yes. The truly annoying thing is, I haven't yet found a good system for jotting down amv ideas, And I'm not able to storyboard. That leaves me in the position were as soon as I put down all my focus on one idea, all the others quickly flutter away and are forgotten. Even if I just write down song\anime combos and a basic premise, by the time I get back to it the inspiration's completely gone.

[Infinity Squared]

I do have a lot of ideas floating around. At first I thought it a big problem that I couldn't prioritise or that maybe some ideas will clash but soon I just remembered; there actually isn't any point stressing about it.

Short of having some sort of attention deficit problem or other genuine medical reasons for not being able to concentrate on just the one idea, I always feel that if there's enough inspiration behind a video and you really wanted to finish it, all other ideas/projects can and will wait.

As I've matured in the hobby, I've learned what type of editing would be appropriate for the type video I am making, so the question of multiple ideas of how to execute a video becomes a no brainer. You remember what you and your gear is capable of and you learn the nuances enough that you begin to avoid being bogged down by ideas that aren't feasible.