"I can do better!"

[kenisama]

Here's the thing, though: if no one has any date information, a well-done video is likely to be assumed the original.

Oh I've had that trouble before, and I didn't even use the same video source as the "better video" but I made mine first, still I got several comments from people who said I copied, or mine was a cheap rip-off which is funny because the other didn't even exist for a long time after mine did.

lol that has happened to one of mine before

[l33tmeatwad]

Here's the thing, though: if no one has any date information, a well-done video is likely to be assumed the original.

Oh I've had that trouble before, and I didn't even use the same video source as the "better video" but I made mine first, still I got several comments from people who said I copied, or mine was a cheap rip-off which is funny because the other didn't even exist for a long time after mine did.

We all know you have a time machine and go back in time after copying videos

[Kireblue]

I always check to see if a idea has been done before I even start editing. There was actually only one time where I decided to go ahead and make a video even though someone had already done it. When I was making my "Maya and Company" AMV, I saw that someone had actually made that song/anime combination 3 years earlier. I really didn't like the way that it was edited, so I went ahead and made mine anyway. And since Maya has so few scenes in Azumanga Daioh, I couldn't even avoid using the same scenes as the original editor (but at different places in the video). The two videos are undoubtedly different though.

I'm glad that I check before I start editing though. If I didn't I would have actually went through with my Shugo Chara / Tic Toc AMV (gawd that combination is depressingly overused. I still haven't found a good one, but the internet really doesn't need another "Tic Toc" amv)

[HalOfBorg]

Here's the thing, though: if no one has any date information, a well-done video is likely to be assumed the original.

Oh I've had that trouble before, and I didn't even use the same video source as the "better video" but I made mine first, still I got several comments from people who said I copied, or mine was a cheap rip-off which is funny because the other didn't even exist for a long time after mine did.

We all know you have a time machine and go back in time after copying videos

It's also a good way to get past copyright on your Encyclopedia.

[Bakadeshi]

At first when i first started editing, I used to check, but If i get an idea I really like, I just make it. I don;t even check before hand if it has been made anymore, because I don't want it to influence my editing.

I make videos because I want to see my ideas come to life. I really don't care about anything else. That said, I would be lying if I said being recognized for a video you are proud of does not feel good. But I look at that as a bonus, not the reason I make them.

[Cyanna]

At least two times I was working on a project and then discovered that the song/anime combo already existed.

I also check to make sure the combo hasn't been done before. But by the time I get to that stage, I have some idea as to what I want my own to look like. If the other editor took things in a mostly different direction then I'll stick to the project. If the vision (the scene selection in particular) is mostly identical. The question I ask myself really isn't "Can I do better?" but "Do I have something "new" to contribute?".

[Shinta Kakumei]

I generally look to see if an idea I have has been done - that is, if I remember - but I kind of decide on a case-by-case basis. I've taken a couple very overdone ideas and made them just differently enough to feel good about it (Death Note to Another One Bites the Dust, for example). But if I find that someone has taken the same anime/song, and done the same or better editing, with the same idea, I won't bother to make my own. I'll just be happy watching theirs. Only once have I ever watched a video and thought "this is such a great idea, but such a terrible video, that I want to make my own." And in fact, the creator ended up liking mine better than hers, so she didn't mind. XD

But in all honesty, I often don't even think to look until after I'm done or almost done anyway, and by then, I'm too far into it to stop if I wanted to.