Anime Boston 2011 Unofficial Ballot and Winners

[CodeZTM]

I am a terrible procrastinator too.

WHERE'S THE XX PROJECT, KIARRENS?

#linesupwithdokoolwithtorches&pitchforks

[kiarrens]

I am a terrible procrastinator too.

WHERE'S THE XX PROJECT, KIARRENS?

#linesupwithdokoolwithtorches&pitchforks

>.>



<.<



*hires some 15th century Italian whores and sics them on dokool & Code, then makes a run for the rooftops*

In all honesty, I think I might just release it with no "opening" and some simple credits. Just to get it out there. I still have all of it on a small pile of DVDs.

*cough* Back to AB?

[Sayoria]

While I can say, I was surprised the Romance one won (no offense to the creator at all), it really shouldn't be shocking at the same time. Think about it this way....

There are alot of anime fans out there, that just hates romance. Some will call them "chick flicks", others will say "mushy gushy love" stuff, and so on. The romance video that won, was not really that. It was pretty much borderline comedy. It got people laughing. When you have an audience full of people who do not like romance, yet, they feel they need to vote for something in the category, what do you think they will vote for? Obviously, the comedy-like one, because it wasn't that "mushy love" stuff, but was entertaining enough for them.


In short: Almost anyone that hates romance will most likely go for something that is humorous, which that romance video was obliviously to most of the audience.

[kiarrens]

When you have an audience full of people who do not like romance, yet, they feel they need to vote for something in the category, what do you think they will vote for? Obviously, the comedy-like one, because it wasn't that "mushy love" stuff, but was entertaining enough for them.

This is a really good point.

[snapxynith]

I looked at it as a trend of the average. Separating romance and comedy tends to be an odd artificial thing. Especially when romance movies that are nothing but romance/drama are much rarer in terms of numbers in America. Especially of word of mouth in a equal gender diversity audience. Popularity tends to side with romance comedies when dealing with popular norms here. Many of the animes that are romance take a lot of cues from one or two Romance sims groups that found success with the push-pull-push formula. This is where the main character is given the initial encounter with the girl(s) and is then taken in circumstance to be pushed away in distance or a social boundary that acts like physical distance. This sense of loss makes for a strong pining in the audience. Then near the end the audience is reintroduced to the girl(s) and the reconnection is a very strong thing to respond to emotionally.It is no surprise that a large average of anime took advantage of these source materials and try to simulate it in anime. Which is why we have so many.

You'll have to excuse me as I usually don't focus or study the Romance categories but in the few minutes we are given it's very hard to pull off this push-pull-push progress and I see it rarely used, if ever. I can remember no personal favorite in the category that does this. This is contrary to the medium we tend to source. From what I have been able to see people focus on the visual relationship tropes that are apparent in the anime available, then display that each person has a lot of emotional investment within the show, and then give a climax. After all this, we as editors hope that something in that display relates with the viewer. It is a very shotgun response method.

Rough love on the other hand played the romance/comedy card which instead of showing nothing but the pains and spurring joys of reconnection. It gave us the result of two bumbling, clumsy characters that don't know they are in love and slowly come to terms that they cannot be apart. The light-hearted direction of the film is much easier to handle than a depressive mindset given by the push-pull-push, especially when an audience is not willing to feel sad. In the past I have thought that any attempts to put comedy in with any other category is frowned on. It is directly assumed that it should compete with other comedies in the comedy section. This is a disadvantage when there are pure comedy constructions that have little substance beyond giving people a gut punch laugh. Having anything that is supposed to be subtle and complex that in a small part includes comedy or where comedy is not the focus goes against the categorization of most AMV Contests. It's like putting a slice-of-life production which is light hearted against a stand-up comedian. We all understand this as editors and so ideas that may be more subtle or interesting will not be winners and only be given a chance to display. This is unless someone with magnificent talent can meld what people expect AND layer the other concepts on top in the same time.

In the end every category has a history. They were made that way because it allowed people to create things that the audience would enjoy while knowing the grand average of people that can submit are learning the art of editing film. The community is growing and we are slowly beginning to learn to do in a short 3 minute span what film has learned to do in larger spaces. With time I hope we can build beautiful, long lasting works that transcend beyond the animation quality or the effects to become true classics to our overall group.

Just remember, romance comedies are looked down on by critics for their simplicity but make money. There's a reason for that. That does not mean romance comedy is not complex or cannot be good but it is simpler at the core to have an audience enjoy it. We may just need to change how AMVs are categorized to allow for the growth of our community. Though that will be a thing of slow progression. I certainly don't know what the end result should be but I'm not a coordinator or a judge so I'll just sit here on the sidelines with popcorn and pocky with a smile.

[Songbird21]

I think they adjusted the levels to handle softer vocals (so it wasn't just a wall-o-bass like last year) but the volume level was just too high. Saturday's screening was much better than Friday's in that regard though.

The music for Friday's contest was definitly too damn loud. It actually made the lyrics of the songs harder to understand.

Well then again that's their choice, most of the audience are viewers watching amvs at the cons. Most of the time They vote for their favorite anime and song. Haven't you noticed that a 30 second to mars song/video always wins something? Not always, but most of the time.

Are you seriously insinuating that my vid only won because of the song/anime combo? That's really insulting. First of all, I had no idea that 30 seconds to Mars was popular. In fact I only heard of "Kings and Queens" because it was on the "Guardians of Gahoole" movie trailer. And second, yes FMA is popular, but it is the only anime I had that fit. Especially the line "We were the victims of ourselves". Seriously, could anything have been more perfect than FMA? Yeah, I thought not.

[Kariudo: Edited out a quote of a flame post, and a little flame at the end of this post]

[Sayoria]

While I can say I am far sick of FMA myself, Songbird, your video was indeed amazing.Even if I don't like an anime or never even watched it, I can appreciate a great video when I see one. I will be honest and say though, while it was an obvious choice to vote on your video, I DID foresee this sort of thing happening, since you did have the better drama video, as well as a known anime on top of it, when looking at the rest... I don't even remember if I heard of any of the others. I think it was pretty clear after watching your video you were going to be called for it.

SO.... with that in light, I did however, vote for the next video I saw in line that was deserving to me. The.....Rin one, or whatever.... it ended up winning the Drama Category. Sorry. Like I said, it was indeed forseeable, so I wanted to vote for another video I liked to give it a chance. ...

Anywho, I never heard of the song/band you used either. I will say though, the song was in my head the other day again though. It was good.

[Songbird21]

While I can say I am far sick of FMA myself, Songbird, your video was indeed amazing.Even if I don't like an anime or never even watched it, I can appreciate a great video when I see one.

Thank you

SO.... with that in light, I did however, vote for the next video I saw in line that was deserving to me. The.....Rin one, or whatever.... it ended up winning the Drama Category. Sorry. Like I said, it was indeed forseeable, so I wanted to vote for another video I liked to give it a chance.

Lol. Not a problem. That was a nice thing to do. ^__^

Anywho, I never heard of the song/band you used either. I will say though, the song was in my head the other day again though. It was good.

Lol. Glad ya like it

[Sayoria]

You're welcome. To be honest, you are one of the people I look forward to seeing videos of every year. Always end up pleased. I look forward to your next year's submission, as well as the rest of the people here.

[Songbird21]

You're welcome. To be honest, you are one of the people I look forward to seeing videos of every year. Always end up pleased. I look forward to your next year's submission, as well as the rest of the people here.

*Blushes* Thanks.