The AWA 2014 Professional Awards Video Review Thread

[MaboroshiStudio]

here are my thoughts... I need to review the adult amvs as well

Spoiler :

006 - I dig the funky laid back song and anime combo... (drama / artistic)
015 - I felt the editing was weak generally outside of the 1 2 3 parts (upbeat / fun)
018 - another laid back AMV… I dig the look / filters… solid (drama)
023 - I found the effects annoying but ok video (action)
031 - Not poorly made, but did not connect for me (drama)
033 - I really enjoyed this drama
034 - Not a great trailer but not bad
041 - Remove the flapping lips - so so drama
042 - Overused song - the editing wasn’t that great for an action video with this song
043 - film grain effect could have been so much better… a bit uneven, but some really great high points. Top 3 trailer for me
048 - Slideshow with images… not much to say- drama
051 - The quality was a bit dodgy and I just didn’t get into it - action
056 - old school pretty cool but the text is annoying and song was way too long… could have been better, but I enjoyed it
062 - Not bad, but not a fan of the effects in the video - drama / action
064 - Not bad drama, but again not a fan of some of the same overlay effect
066 - I didn’t connect with this amv…
069 - Solid trailer but Harlock as Khan I can’t dig lol as it is Captain Harlock afterall. The lip sync was poor as it was limited and often just a single word then cutting to something else which is not difficult. Then there were some lip sync parts that looked really off. I also made a Harlock trailer last year as well with a BMG song that sounded very Star Trek-ish so I have conflicting feelings in regards to this video. Still as I said a solid trailer...
070 - wha?
071 - wha x 2
072 - fun! upbeat but the song match is a bit forced… the beat / feel works, but the lyrics lol
073 - drama - could use better sync / flow…
075 - Dramatic and very solid / not overworked where it flowed with the music
084 - Top 2 trailer… lighting bolt! Good scene selection for lip sync and much better use of the knights of badassdom trailer vs the Final Fantasy one.
085 - upbeat - good but not memorable
086 - drama - liked it
088 - comedy - liked but the lip sync could have been better
089 - so so upbeat, but not memorable for me
091 - comedy - I really enjoyed this hehe
095 - remove that lip flap… so so, but I dig the song anime combo
098 - drama / horror - the song / build didn’t work for me… I could get where the creator wanted the video to go, but it didn’t for me
099 - Enjoyable video and well made
101 - live action / thriller - random - liked
105 - drama - editing felt very simple / a bit lazy
107 - upbeat - ehhh so wrong… so bad… but by the end I was enjoying it lol guilty pleasure
108 - action / drama - too long and it didn’t connect for me
109 - drama - not bad but not in my top
110 - drama - I enjoyed but again the song could have been reduced
111 - drama/action - interesting… I like the song but long and took awhile to get up to speed. Editing could have been better
112 - comedy - really enjoyed this one lol
113 - comedy - cheese but by the end I was ok with the literal match
114 - not memorable but interesting - have to re-watch
115 - upbeat - enjoyed but 1:46?
116 - AMV hell - no...
118 - Comedy - not bad but too long for a 1 note joke
119 - wha???
120 - drama / sentimental - I have a little issue with the song pairing / lyric matching… but pretty song and pretty source. My daughter will loves this video and very enjoyable
121 - drama - long not bad
122 - upbeat - awesome! even if it is all over the place
123 - comedy - enjoyable lol…
124 - top action video
125 - pretty good action and new source!
126 - Very visual and artistic, but not much of a story / drama imho... feel like I have seen other Madoka videos like this so visually appealing, but empty at the same time. Still one of the better artistic videos for me
127 - GUILTY PLEASURE! I love rage music and this movie hehe
128 - drama - the editing and pace could use improvement… but pretty anime and interesting song but it took awhile to build
129 - comedy - didn’t like
130 - drama - not bad with good storytelling
131 - drama - interesting and enjoyable
132 - comedy - not funny for me… but not poorly made
133 - romance - I hate Miley but enjoyable
134 - trailer - I think a better choice of anime would have helped this amv. Needed to be a a more smutty or lurid anime.
135 - drama - good, but too long and the not sold on the effects
136 - trailer - not a fan of this which felt very mish mash
137 - Very lazy editing and the quality looked a bit dodgy
142 - Romance / Upbeat - not bad… but wow those lyrics! haha
144 - DQ ?

[MaboroshiStudio]

Overused songs bother me more than overused video... There are so many artists and so many songs out there and for certain songs to get 20 different versions is kind of crazy.

I tend to agree in regards to music...

[Scintilla]

Got halfway through tonight, here are my thoughts:

6 - Bitch you crazy
15 - Impressive beak sync. Fun, but only when there's dancing going on -- the connexion to the song seems not so great for the rest of it
18 - Those rainbow FX, are they in the footage?! Not really memorable besides that
31 - Didn't grab me, though it was decently edited -- would it make more sense if I'd seen the anime?
33 - I like the story, it's sweet -- just the audio sounds crappy
34 - Not a bad trailer, pretty touching if you know the characters
41 - Not bad but not grabbing me -- again, do I need to have seen the anime?
42 - Well, it certainly is "in the dark"... pretty decent action
43 - Where do you people GET these ideas?! It's a very forced concept, but it makes no apologies for that -- and within those constraints, it's well-executed all the same.
48 - Whoa, pixels! Hit the big important beats, dammit (like *both* times the beats dropped to kick off big instrumental sections, and what happens on screen? Nothing) -- where is the consistency here?
51 - Wrong aspect ratio. Also the action editing does not strike me as very good.
56 - Pretty cool, decently edited, but I'm fairly sure Spongebob doesn't count as 80s. Also, I kept mentally singing "Come As You Are" the whole time.
62 - Audio sounds crappy, but there were some nice visual ideas and different ways of mood sync going on. The last third or so might have been the best part of it. (Don't ask me what the story was though.)
64 - Very good drama, but the cell phone mask at the end took me out of it a little with how it wobbled
66 - Nice enough, if not outstanding
69 - Not bad, might have made more sense if I'd seen either movie involved
70 - I am not dignifying this with a response
71 - WATERMARK!
72 - Why the random typography?; it smacked of "I'm out of ideas for scenes to use". Had its moments, but not enough.
73 - The beginning is nicely done, but then the editing can't find any pattern or consistency after that. The connection to the lyrics seems to get a little tenuous about 1/2-way through, and then there's a jarring and completely obvious edit in the song to cut out the bridge and repeat of the 1st verse. That said, yay 80s!
75 - Very nice mood sync and action; good job building the sense of fear and tension, then releasing it
84 - Most obviously objectionable thing about this one was the lip synching -- yes the flaps matched, but I thought the facial expressions didn't fit well all too often. (I haven't seen AoT, so I don't know if any better expressions were available.) Not bad, but DriftRoot's was better (I can't see any video using this trailer without thinking of her take on it with FFVII:AC).
85 - Pretty, but it does not distinguish itself sufficiently from all the other AMVs I've seen in the past 5-6 years that have this exact same style
86 - I don't get it.
88 - I don't know that the animé really adds much to the song here -- except for the dog, that was pretty great. Also, why just black over the last bit?
89 - Random QB why? Nothing's grabbing me here.
91 - Got kind of old.
95 - Flashing got annoying but at least it was consistent. The rest of the video was quite good -- nice find on the song, it fits pretty perfectly without being blatantly loud and bombastic. Though the lip sync at the end was a questionable choice.
98 - Appropriately creepy. Was this series trying to make the vampires look sympathetic at one point?
99 - Cute and well-edited.
101 - WTH did I just watch? I'm guessing the common theme is that they're all plugged in, but other than that...?

[Scintilla]

And here's the rest of them:

105 - WATERMARK!! This seemed like a little too simple of a retelling of the Rider-Archer encounter; I don't get the connection to the music, though I'm told it's from Game of Thrones so maybe there's something there that wasn't there before I'm missing.
107 - Yay for more 80s, but where did this version of the song come from? I won't deny that the clips used (and in some cases the sheer randomness) made me giggle, but the actual *editing* could be better... felt like there wasn't enough in the way of well-synched impact points
108 - Not grabbing me -- for some reason I feel the musical style doesn't match the film too well; I expected something more frenetic
109 - YES MOOD SYNC (though those color changes, them I can take or leave)
110 - Not bad (even as much as I hate this song)
111 - Okay at first, got better once the music went double-time and the visuals got action-y and more densely cut to match -- and then a WTFey ending
112 - "Mundane Made Awesome" would be a good way to describe this video. Quite amusing.
113 - "Is this a joke? It's not very funny." - Marzipan.
114 - The amount of lyric sync reminds me of, well, me -- cute though, made me giggle.
115 - Song fits, good editing, I like it!
116 - ... amusing, and not as blatant a Pro-grab as #70/71, but still
118 - "What the... Where did you get that?" - Duane Johnson. A little lip sync heavy, cute, but not quite top tier as comedies go.
119 - ... eh? Was that video going somewhere? Feels aborted
120 - It's a plot summary. I'm not getting the connection to the song. It has some moments, but not enough.
121 - Again, yay 80s (this song is so much fun to belt out). Not bad, if you ignore the lyrics and just go by mood sync
122 - This one has its moments, and in between those moments the sheer nostalgia factor is enough to carry it.
123 - I'm sure this took considerable effort, but it didn't make me laugh.
124 - Great editing and transitions; the stealth masking reminds me of another video I saw and greatly enjoyed this year. Use of Ragnarok screaming made me laugh. Lost a beat in the edit though (beginning of the 2nd verse, I think?). I know the song's overused -- I've seen more videos with it this year than with any other song -- but it doesn't matter.
125 - Cool AMV, not the best. I like the musical style... well, until the Hoover.
126 - Trippin' balls -- having seen all of PMMM (and Rebellion), what strikes me is how utterly disjointed the scenes are: they jump around with no rhyme or reason other than sheer mood sync. And yet that mood sync is good enough, and the overall effect pretty enough, to make it worth a watch.
127 - Not feeling it... I expected more of this spectacle of destruction to be hitting the beats?
128 - Not bad, even if I can't follow the story. Also it's good to see series like Gankutsuou still getting some love.
129 - WATERMARK!!! ... the things some people will do just to be able to judge these videos.
130 - Oh hey Rue character profile, I have some experience with those. Not bad, and I like how the story expressed here is not quite what happened in the actual series (though said story is perhaps not as clearly told as in EimiJ7's classic "Deceiver").
131 - Nice, pretty, if somewhat low-key. However I kept expecting guitars to come in like in every other Within Temptation song I've heard.
132 - Too much lip sync -- the anime doesn't really seem to me to add that much to the audio.
133 - Aspect ratio? Crappy audio, with pops and cracks in it after a certain point. The AMV itself is cute though, I approve.
134 - It fits, but it's not that special; nothing really made me sit up and take notice.
135 - Aspect ratio (I feel like it needs to be even *more* widescreen in a lot of scenes, with people's faces and especially that big black circular pupil in the background at one point)? Okay, but not a standout.
136 - ... I don't get it.
137 - Why the big borders? ... and can someone who's seen the movie tell me, was there actual editing going on here?
142 - Not bad, but I feel like any other similarly-styled song would have worked just as well *without* running afoul of the censors. It didn't seem specific enough to the lyrics to justify risking not being able to play it at the awards show if it wins something...?
144 - Not bad (I don't remember the story though)... but you weren't supposed to tell us who you are!

[MycathatesyouAMV]

Guess ill do some reviews. Not gonna do every video, but if I didn't do it that doesn't mean I didn't think it was a good video, more so just getting to some of the one's that I thought would be easier to post thoughts on.

Spoiler :

#15 BUHRDS! One of my personal favs in the contest. Still though the video starts to get repetitive about half way through. Lip sync is well done.

#23 The action part of this video was well done and quite entertaining, but the beginning was just dead to me. Mainly because of all the cookie cutters. Would have been nice if it went longer as well.

#41 Good mood and source pairing, but the visual quality could be highly improved. Some places could use some slight pans.

#43 Another one of my contest favorites. Grain effects could have been lessened. Very entertaining and interesting concept though. One of my best in show nominations.

#69 Well done trailer and one of the stronger ones in the contest. No major complaints.

#72 Entertaining, nice flow and mostly solid editing. Motion graphics are well done but seem inconsistent throughout the video. Would have been interesting to see them implemented more to make the video feel more as a whole.

#84 Another well done trailer and one that gave me some good laughs. Also well edited. A couple of the scene selections for dialogue could have been better so that the characters used have better facial expressions etc. Typography is implemented well.

#88 Only laughed once but still found this highly entertaining and well edited. Good character profile.

#96 Doesn't stand out to me as much as a couple of the other trailers, but still not bad either. Mood is pulled off well. Editing seems a bit lackluster at times and could be spiced up a bit imo.

#98 Storytelling is well done. Thought it could have been shortened a bit though.

#99 Story telling and romance aspects are well done. It's also nice to see a true and entertaining character profile since they seem so rare these days. Editing is solid for most of the video, though I really could have gone without the colorful bars used as transitions and a small amount of the blur/pans looked a bit choppy. Good video though.

#100 (-]==========3

#101 Really nice editing all around and great sync. Best Live Action for sure.

#108 Well edited, but found trouble getting interested in the video.

#11 Not a fan of the source combo and the slower parts were kind of boring. The action parts were really entertaining to me and well edited though.

#113 I was pretty amused by this, not much to say other than that.

#115 Great source pairing. Editing is good as well. Thought a couple of scenes could have been changed and I wish it was longer though.

#118 Very good editing, but the joke gets really predictable and dry quickly. Still worth the watch though.

#120 I haven't seen the movie yet but this seems to be a well done retelling of it. I've seen alot of people nag at videos for just retelling the story, but imo that's something that is difficult to pull well and cleanly in an amv.

#124 Obvious action winner is obvious

#125 Nice source pairing. Some transitions are nice and so is the lyric sync. Video could use some more pull to make it more engaging though imo.

#126 One of my favorites in the contest. Extremely well edited with great transitions and flow. Mood is good too and the video represents the series really well. One of my best in show nominations.

#132 Really well edited but wasn't really able to enjoy it in a humorous way.

#135 The mood is good and the editing is decent for the most part outside of the cookie cutter effects which felt really poorly executed.

#144 Well edited and its nice to see a Naruto video done well for once in this day and age. Sadly dq'd though.

[Gene Starwind 21122]

I'll probably be posting my reviews sometime tonight. Can't wait for voting to start.

Gene

[CrackTheSky]

Here are my thoughts. No offense meant to any of the editors. At least not too much.

Spoiler :

006 - 6/10 - Well-edited, just boring to me. It was too random and didn't really go anywhere.
015 - 5.5/10 - Neither music or video source did anything for me. It was edited decently enough, and it works as a dance video, it was just very forgettable.
018 - 7.5/10 - Good storytelling in this one, and consistent editing. Nothing stood out too much but it was a nice enough video.
031 - 8/10 - Hunter x Hunter videos are usually off-putting to me, but this one was quite good. Really solid editing and great scene selection. Only real problem was poor lip sync and lots of lip flap.
033 - 5.5/10 - Too many crossfades, too melodramatic. If I was familiar with the source this might have some sentimental value but as it stands, nada.
034 - 5/10 - Cute but didn't really work (and yes I get the connection).
041 - 4.5/10 - Good Lord, I thought we were past the age where audio quality was that poor. Other than that though, the video was just very generic. I probably won't remember this in five minutes.
042 - 3/10 - If I see another video that uses this song, I'm going to lose my mind. Also, I just learned that Naruto videos are still a thing.
043 - 7.5/10 - Good idea, executed fairly well. My biggest gripe was that there really should have been some color alteration on the entire video to give it more of a faded, film-y look, but other than that there wasn't really anything wrong. This'll be a crowd-pleaser if it wins anything.
048 - 2/10 - You ever watch a video and wonder what song the editor was *actually* using when they edited the video, and then you wonder why they decided to swap it out at the last moment before rendering the video because nobody does that, it doesn't make any sense? That's all I could think during this video.
051 - 2.5/10 - Oh look, upscaled footage at the wrong aspect ratio. Beautiful. Beyond that, just a really boring action video with no plot or purpose to the scene selection. Also I really hate this style of music so that probably contributed to my dislike of the video.
056 - 7/10 - I LOOOOVE the idea behind this video (I love the '80s aesthetic, especially when it comes to anime), I think the bad effects work actually works really well in the context of that idea, but the actual editing itself was really sloppy and took away a lot of the video's charm. Also, the “80s”/”eighties” text that kept popping up was really unnecessary and looked genuinely bad. Oh, and Kiki's Delivery Service stood out like a sore thumb...the rest of the sources were low quality, and that one looked suspiciously high-def.
062 - 4.5/10 - This one was way too generic for me. Nothing about it stood out, it's already faded into the background.
064 - 5/10 - Dull, boring editing. Too many zooms that messed with the visual quality.
066 - 6.5/10 - I'm not sure how I feel about this one. The video had excellent visual rhythm and was edited really simply, which I prefer, but the anime source was admittedly weird until I kinda figured out what was going on. It was hard for me to figure out what type of video this was supposed to be, but I was really getting into it by the end. This score could increase over time.
069 - 6/10 - Pretty standard and obvious combination. It was edited well, but it also made me realize how weird trailers look without lip sync. There was too little in the video (obviously because of the difficulty of doing lip sync with a 3D animated source), and it kinda ruined it for me.
070 - 5/10 - Weird. Didn't really think the concept was that great and the execution was...interesting, but not endearing.
071 - 5/10 - See my comments above.
072 - 5.5/10 - Who ever thought editing a video about people standing around talking and sometimes swimming could be so uninteresting? Certainly not me.
073 - 6/10 - Someone forgot to disable resample before rendering this out...still though, it was an okay video. Not really sure if the music choice was a good aesthetic fit for the anime, but the story was well-told if nothing else.
075 - 8/10 - Props to this editor for making an SnK video that didn't use a nu-metal song and managed to feel way more epic than any other SnK video I've seen. I really liked this, and I never thought I'd say that about an SnK video.
084 - 4.5/10 - ...Aaaaand it's right back to the status quo. This one was too static with the lip sync, and the comedy came only from the audio source, there were no corresponding visual gags.
085 - 6/10 - And here we have a very generic, OP/ED-gasm video set to electronic music. How many people's faces can you zoom in on to heighten the drama? Watch this video to find out! Still, I do have to admit, I liked this one a lot more than I wanted to. From an editing standpoint it was decent, although there were WAY TOO MANY missed sync opportunities.
086 - 6.5/10 - Well enough edited, but it did nothing for me.
088 - 6/10 - It was okay. The anime/song combo was actually pretty spot-on. But what was with the last 10 seconds of black? Methinks an editor ran out of time...
089 - 4/10 - Pass. I've seen this exact song/idea combination done before, and better. This one just had a really weird, inconsistent mix of anime.
091 - 7/10 - Lol. Not too shabby. I have a guess at who edited this one. I also have a feeling this will win one or two awards.
095 - 7/10 - I don't know if this video was supposed to be funny, but it was the first one to actually make me laugh out loud. Great storytelling, but I wasn't a fan of the beat-heavy editing style (song didn't really need it, imo), the really ugly noise effect, or the excessive use of hard cuts on the beats. Still, it made me *really* interested in this anime, so props for that.
098 - 5/10 - Meh. The editing here felt really disconnected from the audio. Good storytelling, but it ended up being a really boring video for me. I think the audio source is partly to blame for that...what a grating song, I can't imagine having to edit with it.
099 - 7.5/10 - Never seen this anime, and I hate this song, but this video was riveting. There were definitely questionable editing choices (the star-pattern bar swipe transitions, for example), and it really has that “modern” style that I don't like, but still a very solid video with a clear, dramatic presentation.
101 - 6.5/10 - Isn't some incarnation of this video in Pro every year? I'm about 90% sure I know who made this based off of past Pro contests. It's edited well, has a solid concept, etc., but I just didn't really enjoy it. Can't really say why...from a technical standpoint it's excellent, from a personal standpoint I'll pass.
105 - 5.5/10 - I know it's in poor taste to judge a video based solely off the sources, but I think I didn't like this video based on that alone. The video was edited very well, it had a clear story, but I didn't like it :/
107 - 5/10 - Fun in its own (really) kitschy way. If ever a song could have been cut without sacrificing substance though, this is it.
108 - 8/10 - Ridiculous and awesome. One of my favorites from the contest so far. A perfect song/anime combo with tight editing. I would have eased up on some of the crossfades but hey, that's just me.
109 - 7/10 - Audio problems left and right on this one. The first cut in the audio to shorten it up was fine, but the one near the end was very bad. There were also some questionable scene choices, but despite its problems I actually liked this one a lot. Maybe it's because I love FLCL and I love it when people do sentimental FLCL videos, but this one was nice. Especially liked the color manipulation throughout the video...gave it a very dreamy quality.
110 - 7.5/10 - Oh man, I wanted to like this video so much more than I did. It's still probably one of the best from the contest so far, at least as far as how I much I personally liked it, but it had its problems, the biggest being that it needed way tighter, more beat-heavy sync. Still, so cute, happy, and whimsical. The most feel-good video from Pro yet.
111 - 7.5/10 - Really well-edited and smooth. I enjoyed this one a lot.
112 - 8/10 - Ahahaha, niiiice. The editing could have been waaaaaayy better (so many missed or botched sync opportunities) but the idea carried the video so well that most of them were forgivable. I really hope things get tightened up on this video prior to a proper .org release, because there's so much potential here. Still, great video, hope it does well.
113 - 1/10 - And after a run of five good videos we come to the worst one in the contest, so far. What awful, awful literal sync. What a badly mismatched anime/music combo. Just...ugh, did not like.
114 - 5/10 - Eh, this one was weird. Pretty boring editing, and the concept could have been fleshed out a little more.
115 - 7/10 - Nice idea, executed well. I actually really appreciate the scene selection in this one, it woulda been easy to drop this into an action heavy video with really loose lyric sync but the editor stuck to his/her guns and kept it tight.
116 - 5/10 - Needs to be developed into a full video. I think 115's got ya beat though.
118 - 5/10 - Uuuughhh...yeah I wasn't crazy about this one. It went on for too long, the joke was old after the first minute.
119 - 7.5/10 - Interesting concept...wish it coulda been more developed though. Cut out as soon as it started to get good.
120 - 7.5/10 - As someone who somehow managed to avoid ever seeing Frozen, I quite enjoyed this one. I would have liked it more I think if I connected with the song more, but still, pretty well-edited, emotionally engaging, and it told a clear story.
121 - 6.5/10 - Yeah this one was weird. I love the surrealism, hate the song. Really would love to see this same type of video done to a more fitting song, but oh well. The editing was solid and there was nothing particularly wrong with the video, I just really, really couldn't get into it.
122 - 5/10 - Going for the nostalgia vote are we? The editing was way too slow for the song, and while I get what the editor was trying to do (and despite my familiarity of most of the sources), I couldn't get into this one.
123 - 5/10 - These types of videos almost never do it for me. This one was no exception. Well-edited, sure, but nothing I want to watch again.
124 - 5.5/10 - Smooth editing, sure, but where's the heart? This falls into the endless sea of boring action videos where the only difference between them is the song and/or anime.
125 - 5/10 - Ugh, how I hate those masked transitions. See my comment for the video above, I feel exactly the same about this video. Except there were more masked transitions, and I really don't like those.
126 - 6/10 - This is like the drama version of 124 and 125, except with more eye zooms. And I liked the song a little more.
127 - 3.5/10 - This could have been watchable, even despite the atrocious cover of this song, if there had been faster editing and more, y'know, sync.
128 - 5/10 - This one did nothing for me. There was nothing really wrong with it, other than that the editing could have been a little tighter in some places, but it didn't pull me in the way I was hoping it would.
129 - 2/10 - I see that someone just wanted to say they made a video for Pro.
130 - 8/10 - REALLY liked the editing in this one. It had a really nice visual rhythm, wouldn't have changed a thing about it. Excellent video, great song/anime pairing, just really good from start to finish. Only thing holding this back from being my favorite is personal music taste, but from an objective standpoint this is in the top three so far.
131 - 4.5/10 - Full disclosure: It's always going to be an uphill battle to get me to like a Within Temptation video. That said, this had a shot until it devolved (fairly quickly) into scenes that were either facial close-ups or people floating underwater. There was no development of any kind of concept in this video, the editor just chose dramatic-looking scene after dramatic-looking scene without any attempt at explanation.
132 - 1.5/10 - If the whole joke relies on the audio alone, you're doing comedy wrong. If the entire video is just shots of a person's head lip syncing to the funny lines and doing nothing else, you're doing it really wrong.
133 - 8.5/10 - Possibly my favorite. Only got six more to go so we'll see, but man this one was great. It had some major quality issues, both audio and visual, but it was edited so well, and I loved the simple, straightforward cuts and sync choices. A really fun, cute, feel-good video that hit on all the right cylinders.
134 - 4.5/10 - Man I'm getting sick of the trailers. Didn't really care for this one. It was just...really visually boring. Maybe not the best choice for a serious trailer, there was just nothing about this that made it stand out in any way.
135 - 4.5/10 - The song/anime combo was good, but the video itself was riddled with problems. Really poor sync mechanisms that were applied inconsistently, along with mixed ARs. I know that the Eva movies have different ARs, and that should definitely have been compensated for. I'm by no means a visual quality Nazi, but mixed ARs (where you can't have the video playback software fix it without messing up some scenes) really bug me.
136 - 4.5/10 - I think I could go the rest of my life without seeing another AMV trailer parody. This one was edited fine, but it did nothing for me. It could be my complete lack of connection to any of the sources, or my growing numbness to trailers in general, or something else I'm not sure of, but I didn't enjoy this.
137 - 0.5/10 - I thought that there couldn't be a worse entry than that SnK video, then there's this. Troll video? I don't know, but the video stole a minute and a half of my life, I'm not giving it the other two minutes.
142 - 4/10 - Ugh...not sure if a multi-anime approach was best on this one. Horrible song too, and that really did not help, but the editing wasn't really tight enough for my liking.
144 - 4/10 - If you're going to enter a Naruto video into an editor-judged contest, you better make sure that it does something amazingly awesome that's never been seen before, and this one...didn't. Ended up being a really generic drama/action video, like 95% of all Naruto videos, so yeah, nothing doing here.

Some general observations from the contest this year:

• Way too many trailers. I mean I know there was no way people knew ahead of time that there would be so many trailers entered, but holy crap. I'm not really a fan of trailer AMVs so it kinda sucked to sit through them all, and the vast majority of them felt very generic and made zero impact on me.
• Despite that, this was probably the most all-around enjoyable contest to judge, of the now five Pro contests I've entered. Usually I find maybe 5-8 videos from the contest that I like, in this one it was closer to 20, which is awesome. Several of the videos are going to be growers, but still, lots of stuff here that I'll be keeping on my HDD. That makes me happy.
• ...However this is the first Pro contest I've entered without any videos that really, really stood out. Usually there are at least one or two videos that are obvious Best of Show contenders, but there's just nothing here that I would feel confident pinning that label to. #133 is my favorite, but is it a video that would deserve a Best of Show award? Iiiiii dunno about that. It's not a question of there being too many videos that I like to choose from, it's a question of there not being anything that really blew me away.

Good job all! I'm going to give it a few days and rewatch the videos I liked, then see if I can definitively rank my favorites from the contest in like a top 5 or top 10 or something.

EDIT: Also yeah, not watching/judging the Adult videos, sorry guys, personal choice.

[Shin-AMV]

Here's my quick rundown. Videos that stood out to me were: 43, 91, 101, 112, and 126. With honorable mentions to 15, 33, 41, 69, 72, 99, 115, 120, 122, 124, 130 and 132.

Spoiler :

06: This had a mellow feel to it. The pacing worked out pretty well and dug it.
15: The lip sync was pretty well done and it had some really strong moments, but felt there was a lot of empty moments with a lot of filler/fluff scenes to get to the good bits.
18: The pacing was reaaaaally slow and made it hard to get into.
31: Decent and clean editing for the most part, thought some sequences could have used more impact.
33: Dug this video, thought it was fairly enjouable, although some of the crossfades looked muddy and the static scenes could have used some subtle panning/zooming (i.e. Ken Burns Effect)
34: Its ok and works on some levels. Don't have too much to say about it.
41: Love Natsume, but the colors are really washed out in the video. Sentimentally and I dug it, but feel like for people who aren't fans of the series won't get as much out of it.
42: I feel this arc with Obito and everything work well with the song, but I don't think the editing matched the internsity and impact it needed to stand out.
43: This was pretty hilarious and entertaining, but the bad film grain effect was just way too strong and honestly a little distracting.
48: Stupeflix advertisement for its ability to make slideshows? Ok.
51: Aspect Ratio :c Action sequences weren't consistently impactful.
56: 80s in all its interlaced and blended glory. I can give a pass on those tech issues that are way out of your control, but some of the masking could have been better. Fairly enjoyable overall though.
62: Had some technical issues with frame blending. Had some decent flow, sync, and impactful moments. Found it hard to really get into though.
64: The technical stuff could have used another pass at, especially the mask at the end. Otherwise it had good scene selection and pacing.
66: The pairing of the anime/song doesn't seem to quite work, but feels like it could work better with some tweaking of scene selection.
69: I found this to be a fairly solid trailer for the most part.
70: I don't even know what to say about this.
71: This one either.
72: Fun upbeat video, had lots of enjoyable moments. Text work, while done well, just felt out of place and unneccessary.
73: Good pairing and made sense storywise. Felt clunky/awkward at times and could have been cleaned up a bit though.
75: Parts felt really reminscent of a few other SnK videos with the same song that I wasn't sure for awhile if I had actually seen this video or not. Its impactful, and has generally good pacing though.
84: Some of the Facial expressions could have matched better. It works.
85: This isn't bad, but doesn't really stand out. Felt like there were lots of moments that lacked impactful or coherent sync though.
86: I didn't really get the connection with the song at first since it seemed to be at odds with a lot of the visuals, but made more sense on a 2nd viewing. I feel like I would get a lot more from it still if I was a fan of the show, but its cleanly edited and has some decent impact.
88: Well paced scene selection, lip sync could have been tighter in a few places, but overall I thought it was amusing. The few seconds of black at the end could have either been cut off or had something there instead though.
89: Hi Kyubey. Scene selection seemed a bit strange at times, even for an upbeat mashup style video. Some of the sources didn't fit well together.
91: I absolutely hate this song. That being said, I like this video. Well edited, good concept, good pairing. SCHWING
95: Good concept. Good pacing, but I wasn't fan of the flashing overlays.
98: This felt really long and I feel could have more impact if it was shortened and condensed.
99: Good pairing and for the most part good editing. Felt like some of the transitions and technicals could have been cleaned up a bit though. Great scene selection.
101: I thought this was pretty sweet. Awesome job.
105: Crossfades are way too strong and makes it feel really muddy.
107: Out of all the other videos that I've seen like this, this is one of the better ones and is pretty well synced and fun.
108: Just didn't click with me. Had some good sync moments, but the pacing and sync felt like it was lacking a little in the middle.
109: Pretty Great mood and fairly solid editing overall. Some of the audio cuts were a little rough though.
110: Could have been shortened a little, starts off strong, but as it goes on feels to feel less dynamic and impactful and scenes drag on a little.
111: Action parts are pretty well edited. I liked the trippyness towards the end. The slow parts felt a little too slow to me though.
112: Thought this was fairly well done. Fun video and interesting sync and pacing.
113: at first it was amusing but it really drags on once you get the over the top literal sync going on throughout.
114: Good scene selection and was interestingly trippy and engaging at times, but the pacing was a little too slow at times.
115: Good source pairing and nice sync. Ends abruptly though.
116: Good for whats there I guess.
118: Its edited fine, but the joke/concept gets old really fast.
120: Clean editing. haven't seen the movie, but felt like it was basically a retelling of the movie in linear fashion, but was well paced and well timed scenes with a lot of the lyrics.
121: Lots of static scenes that were left on screen too long.
122: Nostalgic, captured somebodies younger years and put it all into one video. Lots of the scene selection was pretty amusing and solid.
123: This was amusing, but the lip sync was hit or miss. Some scenes were great and then others felt a little lacking.
124: The song is overused, but the editing was pretty solid and is one of the top action videos.
125: Like the song/anime pairing. Some of the transitions felt a little stiff, but overall pretty good.
126: Pretty solid editing wise. Liked the connection of the song with Madoka. Could have been trippier.
127: Well edited. I like Pacific Rim, but the songs not really my taste.
128: Intensity level didn't match the song to me most of the time.
129: sure.
130: Good storytelling/scene selection and pretty good pacing.
131: Pretty colors and anime. Felt a little long, but it worked ok for the most part.
132: Parodies political ads fairly well, not a laugh out loud comedy, but I don't think thats what its trying to be.
133: The editing and scene selection are pretty good and work pretty well, but the aspect ratio, audio and visual quality are out the door.
134: I think the pairing works, but some of the scenes weren't dramatic enough for the audio and the door closing definately could have been cleaned up.
135: The cookie cutter/divided frames looked awkward, but the mood of the video was pretty good.
136: This just seemed a little messy and clunky to work effectively. Good idea, but the execution wasn't there.
137: I dunno what to really say here.
142: its ok for an upbeat vid, but the song calls for more raunchiness and ecchi then I think is delivered.
144: For a naruto vid this isn't too bad, I like the focus on Team 7.

[Xophilarus]

Here are my reviews. Sorry if whatever I say offends some people, but... these are my honest general opinions xP By the way, if I happened to miss some, I apologize, there were a lot of things xD.

Spoiler :

006 – Enjoyed this one. The combo was nice and the scene selection was good.
015 – A lot of the sync is nice, but it is only birds dancing so I found it dull.
018 – Don’t think I’m a big fan of the source combo, and the over all editing sort of felt very slow. It wasn’t bad, just sort of ok. There also wasn’t really any sync attempts.
023 – Seen the same techniques done with this song before so it brought nothing I haven’t seen a ton before. I found the scenes very hit or miss as well.
031 – This feels EXTREMELY slow for the song, but I will admit I can’t really give an opinion on this without being biased since I have edited to this song.
033 – Idea is cute and source combo is there, but there’s some unflattering crossfades as well as some just sort of weird pacing.
034- Didn’t like the flow in this one at all. Just feels messy and lackluster.
041 – This video is trying, but I couldn’t get it. There were lots of lip flap and messy looking crossfade. I also don’t like this source combo much at all.
042 – The pacing and sync in this is very weak. Also, lip flap is a thing.
043 – This is one of those so bad ones it was kinda good, but I would have been a lot more amused by this if there wasn’t that ugly filter going on.
048 – Didn’t even bother editing your own video >.> Stupeflix bot video OP?
051 – Pacing and sync is bleh, much of the scene selection is questionable, and lots of lip flap.
056 – Good idea, but I wasn’t a fan of the edit as a whole. I don’t know if the editing was supposed to mimic old editing styles, it probably was, but I still am not a big fan. Again, the concept is really nice though xP
062 – There are some places that I feel like could have a lot more impact, but I found this one very enjoyable as a whole. This video did keep up with the intensity of the song better than most Within Temptation videos do. It loses a lot of strength and impact near the video, however, but it was still enjoyable as a whole.
064 – A lot of ugly zooms, and too many white flashes (feels weird for me to say that). Also, there was a very ugly audio cut. The pacing and storytelling is decent though.
066 – Ken burns would have really helped parts of this video. It was a nice and enjoyable watch though, but I felt like it had a hard time matching the song’s pace a lot.
069 – Combo was good and it was nicely done.
070 – Nope
071 – Nope x2
072 – Nice video with good scene selection, but there was a lot of distracting lip flap. I also have no idea why there was that segment of ugly typography…
073 – Frame blending city. Didn’t like this one. The source comp didn’t go well, and the editing is very weak.
075 – Seen this combo done a lot better. It was alright, but it didn’t feel like that much work was really put into it honestly.
084 – The combo was amusing, but a lot of the lip sync felt off to me.
085 – Lazy feeling standard anime mix
086 – I don’t feel like I can give real opinions on live action videos. Editing was pretty clean though.
088 – So that combo was great xD. Really enjoyed this one.
089 – Another lazy feeling upbeat mix. A lot of the sources really didn’t mesh well as well.
091 – Wiggle wiggle wiggle. Part of me wants to say this is almost too easy xD But anyways, this video was really well done, I enjoyed it.
095 – Not a big fan of this one. Didn’t like the scene selection much , lots of lip flap, and the over all editing was pretty meh.
098 – Had good potential, but I dunno, I felt both the build up and pay off could have been a lot stronger.
099 – Source combo is pretty nice, and the scene selection is good. The swipe transition stuff was very meh. Overall, I think the execution could have been stronger, but it is decent.
101 – Don’t usually feel like I can give opinions on live action videos, but I greatly enjoyed this one. It was just awesome.
105- Source comp is good, but so many crossfades are displeasing to the eye. Also, lots of lip flap.
107- Fun concept I suppose and the sync is decent, but the quality inconsistencies are really jarring jarring, not really much pacing is present, and it doesn’t give me the fun dancing urges I feel this video should.
108 – Lots of ugly crossfades, but the sync is pretty decent. Props for using more than just driving sequences. It doesn’t really draw me in, however.
109 – Good mood, although it is always weird for me to see these sentimental/romantic FLCL videos XDD. Not too much to say, an over all very solid video.
110 – VEEEEERY slow. I cant ever really feel any synergy with the music and the anime. And again with the crossfades.
111: The beginning feels pretty weak with the slow pacing, but it does pick up around half way through the video. I feel like the sync is still lack luster during most of it, however. I see faster paced clips, but it doesn’t feel like they truly sync to anything.
112- Enjoyed this one, it was very entertaining and the sync was pretty good overall. Source combo was, well, interesting XDD So yeah, good job xP.
113 – So I’m guessing the way the lyrics match the source is suppose to be funny, but I found it really lackluster. It was a nice try, but none if it really seems that cleaver which to me is sort the key to all good comedy. It may have also helped to go with a song that was more dramatic sounding.
114 – Found this one kinda boring, but I don’t really think it’s bad either, just sort of meh.
115 – Liked the source combo a lot, and it was definitely fun. Feel like it is too short, though. I find videos less than 2 minutes to not be very engaging.
116 – Don’t really give opinions for videos this short, sorry.
118 – Considering I highly doubt you came up with this combo on your own, I can’t really get engaged by it. The scene selection was decent though.
119 – Good mood matching, but way too short
120 – Very clean and nice story telling, but I didn’t find it that interesting.
121 – Don’t think the sources match well, and there is very limited sync. It overall just feels sorta half hearted.
122 – I feel like this is too nostalgic for me to give opinions on >.>
123 – Would have been a lot stronger without meshing sources. Nice idea though, and have to give you props for trying to lip sync American animation.
124 – If this doesn’t win best action, I’ll eat my hat. It had extremely impressive sync and transitions. Loved this one xP
125 – Fun, enjoyable video. It could have gone without some of the crossfades though.
126 – I have a soft spot for trippy artsy videos so this is my favorite in the contest by a lot xD.
127 – Again, I don’t feel like I can really judge live action videos.
128 – I like the combo a lot, but the video seems kinda messy and I am not a big fan of the pacing.
129 – Another short one so I will not give any opinions on it
130 – The source combo is good as is the story telling and most of the scene selections, but I feel the impact points of the video don’t hit as hard as they should. Especially the end, the video just ends up feeling tired.
131 – The source is very pretty and they match well together. Very nice mood piece, but I feel like the ending could be a lot stronger.
132 – A very nice parody and source of dry humor. Also, good job with keeping up the lip sync.
133 – This video would be a LOT more enjoyable if the visual quality and the audio quality wasn’t messed up. The scene selection is pretty good though, but this video also has some ugly crossfades. There’s also a lot of distracting lip flap.
134 – I don’t know how I’m suppose to react about this honestly XDDDD
135- This video has potential, but you should have gone total drama instead of randomly having goofy scenes in it. Also, I have no idea why you thought the split screen stuff was a good idea. It looked very messy. So yeah, the video has good potential, but there’s a lot that can be fixed.
136 – Didn’t like these two sources together. Honestly didn’t like this one at all. It just felt like a mess.
137 – Had zero energy to match the song. The only way to describe this is lazy feeling, sorry.
142 – Sources didn’t match you well. Generally just a very meh anime combo upbeat video.

[Koopiskeva]

Here are my thoughts

Spoiler :