The Otakon 2010 Thread (OK now panic)

[irriadin]

I don't know, from the only a viewer perspective i'll chime in that not just contest amvs but stuff I watch in general it's usually uncommon for me to have a AMV I like that's over 3 minutes. It can be done, but especially during a extended contest it's a bit of a fight to keep the interest of people in the seat. I've seen some videos that had great starts, good editing, but after a while anything gets old. A good 5 minute AMV has to be either telling a compelling story, keep having new and eyecatching things happen, have a constant stream of varying comedy, or just generally be made for the upbeat/dance category and have some rocking party music.

Making a single tone/image/theme video doesn't work on the five minute scale, or at least really hurts your odds. It's not an absolutely bad move, it just puts a lot bigger burden on the editor to find a way to make much longer footage remain interesting, a challenge not everyone is up to. I think overall we had shorter AMV's this year and the contest was better for it. I usually leave dashes on the listing next to the AMV's I liked even if they weren't the one i was going to vote for, so i can look them up later. Last year it was mostly only the winner/runner-up that got that, this year the majority of the finalists have a dash Saying which ones didn't get one would be overly mean, but to further my point, if i glance at my card sitting here, the handful of one's not marked off are the mostly the one's that ran longer.

I agree with you, for the most part. I think videos get exponentially more difficult to manage the longer they get. The song I used in my AMV is actually a 5:24 song, but I cut it down to 4:38 because there was no way I could fill the remaining time. (That, and the rest of the song was unbridled guitar wankery.)

[TheTsunami]

Keep in mind that not every year does someone make the Romance finals with a video containing comedy (as well as dwchang's wins being 6 and 7 years ago now).

Now to be fair, my last win was three years ago, not six or seven so I'm not THAT old school. Even if my first Otakon win was 7 years ago...OK maybe I am that old...thanks -_-;;.

Sorry, I did forget about 2007 (probably because that video had been a different style than your winning videos in those other two years).

Now... to watch Macross Frontier and 5cm Per Second so I can watch the videos I had to look away from for spoilerific reasons.

Good god, how have you made it this far without being spoiled on 5cm/sec videos?

[Gaelstrom]

Now... to watch Macross Frontier and 5cm Per Second so I can watch the videos I had to look away from for spoilerific reasons.

Good god, how have you made it this far without being spoiled on 5cm/sec videos?

I turn my head and just listen to the music I still have ballots from years ago for the names of videos to watch. The only time I ever get angry is when I get a spoiler it seems. My friends have even developed new methods of cryptic words to not spoil things for me that I haven't seen yet They are trained well! I had a lull of anime watching over the last couple years where I haven't gone through many series besides all of One Piece over a manner of months and a few of the more popular series to minimize spoilers from those ^^

I didn't have an AMV to have a chance to win anything, but AMV Salad 4 landed quite strongly Saturday night. Even with the horrendous audio issues, it was fun to see the work everyone did on that got such tremendous reactions. So a win in its own way. I'm sure all of you were in Iron Editor still. Miko, having seen the polar opposites of your Poet and the Pendulum vid and the Family Guy one made me laugh at it like the first time I watched it

[jubjub2]

Oh, not many people I saw mentioned it, but was I the only one that really liked 'Stupid Couple'? I thought the idea and execution of that was just amazing.

You made my day. Thank you! I will upload it eventually.

[Rider4Z]

Just glad to be a part of the dance. Maybe one year I can go to Otakon, gotta get paid though.

Congrats to all teh winnarz.

PIZZA HUT!!!!

ditto.

KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEEEEEEEEN!!!!

[TheTsunami]

Just glad to be a part of the dance. Maybe one year I can go to Otakon, gotta get paid though.

Congrats to all teh winnarz.

PIZZA HUT!!!!

ditto.

KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEEEEEEEEN!!!!

I did my best from the middle of the room at Closing Ceremonies to make sure everyone was clapping along for that one. Hilarious video.

[Scintilla]

Oh, not many people I saw mentioned it, but was I the only one that really liked 'Stupid Couple'? I thought the idea and execution of that was just amazing.

I did really like it myself (it's always heartening to see people willing to use classical music!), but I wished it had stayed in its original category of Romance rather than getting moved to Comedy -- I thought it was much more of a romance video (not to say that I didn't still laugh).

So did anyone even notice my AMV (Defying Gravity)? I know it was kind of overshadowed by the ginormous 10 minute one right before it, so I'm not sure if the applause was more "I liked that, yay!" or "the drama category's finally over, yay!"

Yours was actually one of my favourite drama videos, partially because the inspirational/uplifting type of drama video is something we could really use more of in AMV contests in general, and partially just because it was edited really well and fit the mood.

[Anicsi]

Kinda late but congrats to all the winners!!!
Wished i could've been there.
I didn't place but there's always next year :3

[BasharOfTheAges]

Heard some of the winners from a friend that went and was kinda O.o at the vid from 2008. You really do have a unique and odd rule set for this contest VicBond.

[Scintilla]

Someone was asking about the full finalists list? Psiten was nice enough to transcribe the finalists list in her LJ and allow me to copy it here, so here goes:

Trailer/Parody:
"Tonight, on a very special Section 9..." - Sabotage (Beastie Boys), Ghost in the Shell
"Inception" - Theatrical Trailer, various
"The Job" - Get Smart Theme, Cowboy Bebop: Knocking on Heaven's Door
"The Headband of Eli" - theatrical trailer, Afro Samurai

Drama/Serious:
"Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" - ~ by Cage the Elephant, various
"Today, Forever" - What We will Never Know" by InnerPartySystem - Clannad
"A Journey Through the Pages" - "Diary of Jane" (Breaking Benjamin) - EF a tale of memories
"Coming Home" - Major Tom (Shiny Toy Guns), Macross Frontier/Voices of a Distant Star
"Whore for the Cold World" - Poet and the Pendulum (Nightwish), Death Note
"Defying Gravity" - ~ by Idina Menzel, Macross Frontier

Action:
"Bring it Back" - Astrosexy (M-flo feat. CHEMISTRY), Samurai Champloo
"Fight for Life" - 10th Man Down (Nightwish), various
"Condemned Project" - "I'm so Sick" (Flyleaf), Ergo Proxy
"Skin" - ~ (Machinae Supremacy), Claymore
"Fallen Souls" - "Falling Down" (Oasis/Prodigy), Soul Eater
"Gunsmith Cat City" - Bad City (SHOGUN), Gunsmith Cats

Romance/Sentimental:
"Nara" - "No More Tears" (David Nevue), various
"Chain of Memories" - "Down" (Jason Walker), 5cm per second
"Never Have Known" - "You Found Me" (Kelly Clarkson), Welcome to the NHK
Second Guesses - "Safe Side" (Tim Be Told), Kare Kano
Anything But - "Ordinary Day" (Vanessa Carlton), Howl's Moving Castle
AMG in a Nutshell - "That Face", The Producers, Ah My Goddess

Upbeat/Dance:
Pacific Coast Party - ~ (Smashmouth), various
"I ain't marryin' no friggin' horse!!!" - "Big Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" (KT Tunstall), Haruhi/Lucky Star
"Nucking Futs" - "Basket Case" (Green Day), Sora no Otoshimono
"Children of Daicon" - "Prologue/Twilight" (ELO), various
"Magic Oven Mittens" - "I ain't got rhythm" (Phineos and Ferb), K-On
"Noise Pollution" - "AM Radio" (Everclear), various

Comedy:
"And Now, a word from Our Sponsors (Bland Name Edition) - "Burger Dance" (DJ Otzi), Code Geass et al.
"Stupid Couple" - "Barber of Seville Overture" (London Symphony Orchestra), Lovely Complex
"Nausea in D Major" - "I'm so Sick of You" (Weird Al), Nodame Cantabile
An AMV about TV - "Famous" (Scouting for Girls) - various
Britannia, [Expletive] Yeah! - "America, F*** Yeah" (Trey Parker), Code Geass