AMV titles

General discussion of Anime Music Videos
User avatar
seasons
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 12:31 pm
Contact:
Org Profile

AMV titles

Post by seasons » Sun Jun 10, 2018 12:51 am







Editors on YouTube don't really give their videos actual titles any more. Yes, I know this is a cherrypicked bunch of videos but they're just a couple meant to show what I mean.

In the earliest days of AMVs, did editors give their AMVs titles? I don't believe that the 1982 Beatles/Star Blazers video had an official title like anything we're used to. More than a decade later and Kevin Caldwell wasn't giving his AMVs titles other than than the name of the song he was using, except for once.

Then the Org came along and editors all decided they were going to title their AMVs just like anyone who's created a film or written a song or a book, whatever. And then this was the norm for a long time.

Put anything you want in the video title while uploading to YouTube, but why bother with an actual title at all when you know what information or lackthereof is actually going to be even more effective in driving clicks to it? Listing the song title and anime will help your video drift to communities across Youtube (AMVs, anime content, music) and extra words may just get in the way of that.

And what's wrong with being honest? What do you really want, even more editors who don't even list their sources?

I like titles, they're unique or meaningful (sometimes both or sometimes neither, yes I know) and they're important for helping provide a way for people to talk about AMVs, to think about their history or their personal favorites and to establish them as self-contained creations (or at least something different from the effect of"[song title/band name] edit]" as I see a lot these days (maybe, I don't know, something must've got me to write all this down). Titles convey meaning. It seems I've taken this for granted as a norm that would never change. Maybe it might? Maybe it is?

I know, people never stopped doing this, even as The Org made entering a title mandatory for every AMV entered into the database, thousands of editors still just put "Linkin Park DBZ AMV" or whatever into that field and didn't care. This doesn't even address the "Naruto vs. Pain"-type AMVs. I'm talking about really well edited and creative stuff that people are putting good work into but then just kind of floating it out and titling it like it's just an mp3 that you like or something. When an editor doesn't put a title on something, I feel like they're either not completely happy with it or are suggesting that they weren't taking it seriously in the first place (this goes for some really good AMVs that I feel are really creative and well-made, obviously this can lead to a bit of confusion).

I had a bigger point I wanted to make about this but I'm not even sure this makes sense to anyone.

User avatar
CrackTheSky
has trust issues
Joined: Sun Aug 27, 2006 11:01 pm
Status: Maybe editing?
Location: Chicago
Org Profile

Re: AMV titles

Post by CrackTheSky » Mon Jun 11, 2018 3:31 pm

I agree with all of this. In fact, this is possibly one of my biggest pet peeves when watching AMVs. I feel like a good title can give your work some real weight and even shades of meaning that viewers may completely miss otherwise. It can make your work stand out in a unique way (although yeah, it makes your work harder to find, I'm sure...). If nothing else it's a good opportunity to have a little fun, you know?

It's always kind of confounded me that editors who, almost by definition, thrive on creative expression and use AMVs as one of their creative outlets, often default to insipid, lackluster titles for their work. I mean, ultimately it doesn't really affect my enjoyment of these videos, it just seems so counterintuitive.

User avatar
Kireblue
Forum Admin
Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2007 10:44 pm
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Contact:
Org Profile

Re: AMV titles

Post by Kireblue » Tue Jun 12, 2018 9:05 am

I love giving my videos titles, and there are cases where I've made a video just for the title :asd: . I've actually dropped a number of trailers because I couldn't think of a good title for them.

User avatar
seasons
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 12:31 pm
Contact:
Org Profile

Re: AMV titles

Post by seasons » Thu Jun 14, 2018 4:58 pm

CrackTheSky wrote:It can make your work stand out in a unique way (although yeah, it makes your work harder to find, I'm sure...).
I honestly believe that if you called your AMV "GUNBUSTER FUTURE FUNK a e s t h e t I c A M V" instead of "VY CMa," it would have like 100,000 views on YT.
Kireblue wrote:I love giving my videos titles, and there are cases where I've made a video just for the title :asd: . I've actually dropped a number of trailers because I couldn't think of a good title for them.
I usually start editing without a title in mind and just hope that one will come to me before I'm done. This really doesn't work out for me like I hope it would!

User avatar
CrackTheSky
has trust issues
Joined: Sun Aug 27, 2006 11:01 pm
Status: Maybe editing?
Location: Chicago
Org Profile

Re: AMV titles

Post by CrackTheSky » Thu Jun 14, 2018 7:17 pm

seasons wrote:
CrackTheSky wrote:It can make your work stand out in a unique way (although yeah, it makes your work harder to find, I'm sure...).
I honestly believe that if you called your AMV "GUNBUSTER FUTURE FUNK a e s t h e t I c A M V" instead of "VY CMa," it would have like 100,000 views on YT.
But at what cost

User avatar
Tigrin
Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2011 3:36 pm
Org Profile

Re: AMV titles

Post by Tigrin » Thu Jun 14, 2018 8:22 pm

recently I had someone comment on one of my videos on YouTube to correct the title of the video because it didn't match the song... um, that's the point? If there are dozens of similar AMVs, how is anyone supposed to find mine without a title different from the song title?

User avatar
seasons
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 12:31 pm
Contact:
Org Profile

Re: AMV titles

Post by seasons » Thu Jun 14, 2018 9:21 pm

CrackTheSky wrote:
seasons wrote:
CrackTheSky wrote:It can make your work stand out in a unique way (although yeah, it makes your work harder to find, I'm sure...).
I honestly believe that if you called your AMV "GUNBUSTER FUTURE FUNK a e s t h e t I c A M V" instead of "VY CMa," it would have like 100,000 views on YT.
But at what cost
Diebuster, I meant :uhoh:

User avatar
DJ_Izumi
Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2001 8:29 am
Location: Canada
Contact:
Org Profile

Re: AMV titles

Post by DJ_Izumi » Fri Jun 15, 2018 7:34 am

Tigrin wrote:recently I had someone comment on one of my videos on YouTube to correct the title of the video because it didn't match the song... um, that's the point? If there are dozens of similar AMVs, how is anyone supposed to find mine without a title different from the song title?
It's YouTube. No one is going to find your AMV by looking it up by it's 'name'. They're going to find it as the algorithm suggests it based on it's relation to previous searches and views, or because the user searched the song used or the anime used.

If you're posting your AMVs on YouTube, it's now a game of SEO.
Image

User avatar
Scintilla
(for EXTREME)
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 8:47 pm
Status: Quo
Location: New Jersey
Contact:
Org Profile

Re: AMV titles

Post by Scintilla » Fri Jun 15, 2018 11:04 am

DJ_Izumi wrote:
Tigrin wrote:recently I had someone comment on one of my videos on YouTube to correct the title of the video because it didn't match the song... um, that's the point? If there are dozens of similar AMVs, how is anyone supposed to find mine without a title different from the song title?
It's YouTube. No one is going to find your AMV by looking it up by it's 'name'. They're going to find it as the algorithm suggests it based on it's relation to previous searches and views, or because the user searched the song used or the anime used.

If you're posting your AMVs on YouTube, it's now a game of SEO.
Shouldn't the tagging system help with that though? I always tag for music, animé (unless it's Studio Ghibli...), and any conventions it's been to.
ImageImage
:pizza: :pizza: Image :pizza: :pizza:

User avatar
Tigrin
Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2011 3:36 pm
Org Profile

Re: AMV titles

Post by Tigrin » Fri Jun 15, 2018 12:39 pm

DJ_Izumi wrote:
Tigrin wrote:recently I had someone comment on one of my videos on YouTube to correct the title of the video because it didn't match the song... um, that's the point? If there are dozens of similar AMVs, how is anyone supposed to find mine without a title different from the song title?
It's YouTube. No one is going to find your AMV by looking it up by it's 'name'. They're going to find it as the algorithm suggests it based on it's relation to previous searches and views, or because the user searched the song used or the anime used.

If you're posting your AMVs on YouTube, it's now a game of SEO.
You'd be surprised, actually. The title is more for people who see the video at conventions. If you can come up with a fairly memorable title, people will search for it. I get a lot of search hits for "A Sporting Chance" by its title, for instance. But you're right, the vast, VAST majority of views I get on YouTube actually come from YouTube recommending the video on peoples' home pages, or at the end of another video. In that case it really doesn't matter what you name the video, so name it whatever you like. :)

Locked

Return to “General AMV”