VJing with AMVs

[That Guy You Met Once]

I'm new here, so forgive me if any of these are N00b questions or have been covered elsewhere:

Also, all of these are theoreticals. I'm in no position to actually try this yet.

What would it take in the way of gear?

Most likely, the videos would be shown on a projector (or multiple ones), and the audio would be played over standard club speakers. So what does that mean for the audio/video quality you'd need?

Would there be any copyright issues with playing licensed films and anime in public?

[Otohiko]

inb4 Vlad

No, seriously, if you want to seriously know about this, Vlad G. Pohnert is the person on this forum to go to, and probably the only person who's advice on the tech side of this I'd really trust. I had the honour to sit in behind the tech desk with him at a con earlier this year, and that was exactly the setup I'd be looking at were I running an event like this.

On the downside, he's currently heading to AWA so you probably won't hear anything from him for a few days!

As far as copyright issues, those would obviously apply. Anime conventions often work out licensing agreements or just risk it; but technically speaking, unless you have a license permission you aren't supposed to be playing this stuff in public.

[BasharOfTheAges]

Friend of mine does it in conjunction with con dances @ AAC.

I'd never risk it outside of a con unless it was a private venue.

[That Guy You Met Once]

OK. Cons or private events would probably be the only place there'd be an audience for this kind of thing anyway. I can't imagine playing it at a normal club.

But there is a club I frequent that plays whole movies, muted with subtitles, while the DJ mixes. They've never gotten in trouble for it, to my knowledge, so they either have a license or no one cares.

[ngsilver]

Here is what I use to VJ with AMVs:

Laptop with my set materials converted to xvid AVI (program I use doesn't quite like x.264)
PCDJVJ (VJ program)
Neumark Total Control (controller board in order to control PCDJVJ)
Neumark M1 USB (sound card / dj mixer used to mix the audio feed, adjust levels, ect)


I've thought about picking up the Neumark NuVJ in order to do more advanced mixing and live effects work. It should work just as well as PCDJVJ and it comes with it's own controller board.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I use something entirely different at cons, but at a con playing videos you don't really need all the fancy effects and things that DJ/VJ software provides.

[That Guy You Met Once]

Thanks.

Is your source material mostly downloads from here? How much of it do you make yourself?

Of course, I'm seriously considering getting into this (I've only seen a few VJs in my city at all, and none working with AMVs/Movie fan vids/found footage) and I'm trying to figure out whether I should take the leap and start investing in gear and learning the skills.

[ngsilver]

The majority of what I generally use has been gotten from here. I do make my own custom effects and clips used for live mash-ups but it is generally all from here. I only spin at cons though..

I say go for it. It's a lot of fun and is somewhat unique.