TheAX AMV Contest 2009 Finalists are...

[MisterFurious]

Okay, time to put in my two cents.

I agree with a lot of the others, that it seems odd that such a funny video as "Death Note Rhapsody" was allowed to stay in Drama. A general audience is going to vote for the funniest video regardless of whether it's correct for its category.

I will give the judges the benefit of the doubt. Since they probably saw the video more than once, they were able to get over the initial comic shock of L singing "Galileo" and break it down and see if it really was a drama video. On subsequent viewings, I'm sure the drama stands out more.

However, the judges forgot one thing. The audience would only get one chance to see the video before voting. Therefore, they would vote based on their initial reaction ("this is freakin' hilarious"), and audiences like laughing a lot more than the deep introspection brought on by the other drama finalists.

Were I judging the contest, I would invoke a rule that if a video makes the judges laugh their ass off the first time they see it, it needs to be moved into comedy, because that's how the audience will react to it. Heck, people laughed more at "Death Note Rhapsody" than my comedy entry! That should be a big hint that something is wrong.

I also can see Vlad's point that it seems weird that the audience is the final arbiter of what is "Best of Show." For the record, the only reason I won AX 2006 was because back then, Audience Favorite, Creator's Favorite, Staff Favorite, and Judge's Favorite were all given equal weight in determining the "Best of Show." Had Audience Favorite been the sole criterion, then Castor's "Battle of Epic Proportions" would have won. Instead, he and I were in a tie that was broken by the judges. However, I can also see the rationale in letting the audience be the deciding factor, since they might feel slighted that their favorite video didn't actually win (I still remember getting some flak for "stealing" Best of Show from Castor).

Overall, I was pleased at the diversity of videos. I was thoroughly entertained, and there was a broad base of videos. But yes, the sound was too loud.

As I always say, every convention is different. The reaction Rider got to "Lord of the Anime" at Fanime had me so convinced that she was going to take it all at AX (and her video screened stretched there, too). Even more puzzling was the lack of uproarious response to "Robots." Do the AX attendees not know the hilarious awesomeness of that video? Maybe Fanime has more Mac users.

But the jury is still out for me. Are the humans dead?

[MisterFurious]

I just don't see the pull of Death Note Rhapsody. As I said before, very entertaining, but past that, nothing. Not only was it in the wrong category but it is riddled with jumpy lip sync scenes, frame flashes, and other easily discernable editing flaws. Now granted, that doesn't mean a thing to the average viewer. My question is, were it put into Comedy, would it have taken the category or even Best of Show? I tend to think no, but I'm not sure.

Agreed on both counts. The lip-synching made me cringe, but you're right, the audience obviously didn't care. If it had been properly entered into Comedy, though, it probably would still have been defeated by "We Need You" (and my video wouldn't have qualified to make room for it).

Comedy: This was, as always, the strongest category IMO.

I have to disagree with you there. IMHO, Comedy has been the weakest category for quite a while, and not just at AX. I have seen a trend at contests that creators feel intimidated by dominating videos such as "Football", so they shouldn't even try for the category (or they should instead enter a funny video in Drama). As a result, Comedy competitions of late have consisted of one, maybe two obvious winners ("Robots", "We Need You") and videos that either have a funny concept that cannot be continued beyond the first 35 seconds of a 3-4 minute song, or videos that are fun, but just not that fun-ny ("Perfect Day").

Come on, AMV creators! Bring on the funny! Vlad had to come back from semi-retirement to show us all how it's done! I will be answering the challenge by entering a Comedy entry next year, too - one that's actually funny, not cute and upbeat.

[The Wired Knight]

Alllright, back.




I am shcoked as all hell that Death Note Raphsody won. Not only was it a comedy video in drama but it had so many glaring editing errors to me that it just didn't feel like it should have been there at all. Audience vote was clearly in its favor given the typical audience distase for drama and that video made them laugh. I especially agree with Ryvannas, I noticed all those errors during the video as well (lip synch problems made me laugh inside however since Brad and Nic were talking about this very issue not but a day earlier).

How it got best in show I have no idea. Typically the way it went was that a video taht got two out of three in Staff, Creator and Audience would win it with Michael I think breaking a tie in teh event that it happened. So by the old system, Vlad's video should have won best in show. BTW Vlad, once again very nice job on We Need You. I would like some clarification as to how the awards went since it seems different from previous years.

Overall it was a very good contest but I have to agree with Brad that I think comedy was the weakest catagory as a whole; Braqd, don't get me wrong, I love your Perfect day video but it just feels like more of an "upbeat" video than comedy (not your fault of course since AX has no such catagory, I had the same issue with one of my submissions this year). Audio was bad during action but tthankfully got fixed.

I would love to see an AMV room at AX, it probably wouldn't be that big so its issue of being full would be worse but having one would be very nice, especially since I felt that there was very little anime worth watching this year at the cont.

Hope everyone liked my death note video that played during pre-show. I'll have it on the org soon, I typically don't post my work till after AX since it's the first con I submit to so there's usually a delay. O_O Baffled the crap out of me to see Purpose of Persocoms playing again.

[machina21]

Are the humans dead?

Well...

L.A. is surrounded by poisonous gasses

Hope everyone liked my death note video that played during pre-show. I'll have it on the org soon

What was the name of the song you used? I've heard it a bajonko amount of times and I never get the name

[MisterFurious]

Brad, don't get me wrong, I love your Perfect day video but it just feels like more of an "upbeat" video than comedy (not your fault of course since AX has no such category, I had the same issue with one of my submissions this year).

No offense taken at all. I would have thought my surprise at being in the Comedy category was clearly stated in my previous posts.

You bring up another point, though. AX is a little out-of-date when it comes to categories. Just the basic three plus "Pro", which to me equates to "upbeat dance videos with tons of effects". Rider's was the only one that stood out in that category because it had a story and a visual theme. All I remember of the rest of the entries were technology demos that made my head hurt (or was it the sound?).

Perhaps if "Pro" were changed to "Upbeat", then the emphasis would be less on "make your video look as effects-laden as possible" to "tell an upbeat story that wouldn't necessarily make it into Drama because it's not angsty or romantic enough." There can always be a technical award added for the one video in any category with the best eye candy.

[MisterFurious]

Are the humans dead?

Well...

L.A. is surrounded by poisonous gasses

Not poisonous enough. I've become immune. In fact, if I were to ever visit pristine Lake Tahoe, I'd probably hack up a lung from an allergic reaction to clean air.

[machina21]

Are the humans dead?

Well...

L.A. is surrounded by poisonous gasses

Not poisonous enough. I've become immune. In fact, if I were to ever visit pristine Lake Tahoe, I'd probably hack up a lung from an allergic reaction to clean air.

Immune? Huh, I thought you were glowing at the AMV 101 panel, but I just thought that was your personality.

Btw.I got a little star struck because I got to sit next to Nighthawk at the show . I wanted to thank him because "Be A Man" inspired the AMV I did for AX. So wherever you are Nighthawk, thank you.

[The Wired Knight]

Hope everyone liked my death note video that played during pre-show. I'll have it on the org soon

What was the name of the song you used? I've heard it a bajonko amount of times and I never get the name

Pepper from Butthole surfers. Best reference I can give is that it used shots of Light walking in the opening sequence, wherere I had the shots running backwards.

[Vlad G Pohnert]

But the jury is still out for me. Are the humans dead?

Well, I did see 6000+ humans at a contest screening at a certain con And they did vote for comedy, so they must be human

Come on, AMV creators! Bring on the funny! Vlad had to come back from semi-retirement to show us all how it's done! I will be answering the challenge by entering a Comedy entry next year, too - one that's actually funny, not cute and upbeat.

EXCELLENT... My job is done! I really do need more comedy videos to be played during comedy hour in the AMV rooms I run, so I'm all for it

Vlad

[milkmandan]

Con is finally over, and I am done with staffing @ con. But still lots of work ahead for me for AXBackstage, *sigh*.

Feeling down... all the excitement is over but anyways...

Comedy: I had heard so much hype on r0b07$ and it really lived up to it, but Vlad just found the inner fanboy in me and fed it so well, so he ended up with my vote (Sorry Ben/Bryce).

Aahaha No problem Stryyder~ Vlad had a great video, he definitely put way more time into it than we did r0b07$ is a video you might need to watch a few times to fully enjoy it. As Brad said, people go with initial reactions. The stand up comedy show on uTube is the type that grows on you anyways, i suggest you all look it up if you haven't already.

I am very surprised at the reaction to our video though. :\ I am surprised no one got the Mac symbol. I guess this just shows that the audience (if anyone of them are using Macs) are all recent fans. I really wish more people had gotten the pre-System 9 logo :\
I had a Macintosh Performa in early 90s, i loved that thing.

Being the summer of movies, I had though about adding Transformers footage/images or even Terminator footage/images (seeing how both had new movies come out this summer and are related to robots killing humans) to add to my video. But I felt that it was a risky move. But seeing the reaction from Vlad's video, I should've added it >_<.
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Anyways...
I am pretty much in line with what everyone said here about the contest.
Death Note Rhapsody is a shocker to me :\ It really did not fit to be in the Drama Category, let alone win Drama and Best of Show (at least the initial reaction). Jittery editing and all that stuff. I am sure Kerry would have a blast, picking that video apart frame by frame. Again, as Brad said, maybe if you've watched it several times it can be counted as drama in some parts, but more than 50% of it was in a comedic nature or at least taken as comedy. I kinda feel bad for those that entered into Drama and got beat out by this video. But if anything this only reflects the audiences understanding of how to vote for each category.

AX attendance has been growing constantly and consistently, we are the largest Anime convention in North America, I wouldn't be surprised if we had a good number of people in the audience who are new to AMVs. Possibly an explanation of what each category winner should contain, should be explained. :\
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As for AMTvPro
I am really tired of DDR type videos winning this category or getting insane hype. Flaring rainbow colors and DDR arrows flying around isn't exactly cutting edge awesome. It is almost like seeing an AMV Hell like montage comedy video winning every year. The crazy effect videos in the pre-show are what we should be seeing in AMTvPro.

Maybe there should be another category called, 'dance/upbeat'. I know many other cons have this type of category.

oh well just my two cents.
the contest was awesome in any event.

Gratz to Michael and his staff for pulling off Main Events in that awesome hall!