A brief moment of BLAH, or, Mediocre Editor's Syndrome.

[SarahtheBoring]

Allow me to explain.

I was watching a video I like a lot ("Liberation of Memories Past", incidentally) when the thought came to me: "Everyone else is just too good at this. I'm never going to make anything that cool. <i>Ever.</i>"

Has anyone gotten that kind of "hopelessly outdone" hunch, or is this REALLY a sign to quit before I inflict more crappy newbieishness upon the world? Is it a common phase? An omen?

And don't say I'll get better or any of that BS, because that's exactly what it is, BS. I'm never going to be as good as the best. So what's a mediocre editor to do? Shut up and enjoy those with talent? Or struggle, perhaps only to fail?

Opinions, flames, whatever you wish. If this is considered OT, then please move it, but I thought it related to AMVing as a hobby overall.

[mexicanjunior]

Has anyone gotten that kind of "hopelessly outdone" hunch, or is this REALLY a sign to quit before I inflict more crappy newbieishness upon the world? Is it a common phase? An omen?

And don't say I'll get better or any of that BS, because that's exactly what it is, BS. ;) I'm never going to be as good as the best. So what's a mediocre editor to do? Shut up and enjoy those with talent? Or struggle, perhaps only to fail?

Opinions, flames, whatever you wish. If this is considered OT, then please move it, but I thought it related to AMVing as a hobby overall.

Actually, I think this is one of the things EK was talking about. Don't make videos to try and outdo someone else's work, do them because you wanna see them done. ^_^ Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna work on my "Odikuuri killer" (just kidding Omni ^_~).

[SarahtheBoring]

Well... I don't, at first. I do them because I have an idea I like, and it's fun. While it's still on my HD and in my head, it's fun.

But when it's out in the big bad world, there's that moment of "wait, this has probably been done before, why have I wasted my time?!"

Also the fact that there are too many bad/mediocre/not-awesome vids out there already, and I don't want to be a part of the problem, knowwhatI'msayin'?

I definitely agree with your point, though. I've preached that in the non-AMVing world for years. But that's a field where one can get better just by practice, and there isn't that "spark of artistic talent" necessary, just dedication and skill.

Blah. Need sleep and to get away from editing for a while. ;P

[silver_moon]

SarahtheBoring: Never ever give up. The only way you're going to get better is to set goals for yourself. The goal that motivates me is "I want to make a video I'm proud of and I want to make a video that makes me happy and inspired." Before I started work on my current project, I was giving myself the impression that I was getting into the competive side of AMV's too much, then I got the idea for this video, and I planned it and I wanted to make it. Then I had so much fun doing the actual project, all my worries were blown away. I realized I'm doing it for the fun, not to prove something. The best part is when you are happy with how something turned out.

The very first realy AMV I saw was "Blue Mercury" by Aluminum Stuios. I was blown away, to say the least. I couldn't stop thinking "HOW did he do that?" I learned a lot from that video, and it inspired me.

Instead of being jealous of others videos, try to learn from them. Learn from others mistakes and think about what makes the good videos good. When I compare my current project with my first video, I realize just how much I changed. I changed for a few reasons, one being I was inspired by great, motivating videos like Odorikuruu and Believe. Another thing that motivated me was some of the opinions people left. I'm pretty lucky, becuase at least three quarters of the reviews I got were helpful to me, particularly Digital Dojo's reviews, that made me realize how much more I could do with my videos if I looked beyond Final Fantasy. I am now almost done my first anime video, which I never would have started if I hadn't learned from Digital Dojo, and it looks much better than it would have if I hadn't learned from all the reviews I got.

You have to realize what you can improve on, and you have to tell yourself that you want to get better and that you can. It's not BS, IT'S TRUE that you can get better. To be very honest, I was impressed with the creativity in your FF preview video. Just the fact that you asked for advice on it shows that you care about it.

Main point: learn from the masters, set your goals, and tell yourself you can do it!!!!

[Fluxmeister]

Editing is an obsession for me. I truly love it. No matter the project, all the decisions and possibilities make it all so much fun.

Every project I work on is something I put a lot of passion and personal thought into. Even my latest video, though described as pure action, really is just me expressing myself. I don't like telling people what a video 'means' as though my interpretation should be that of everyone else.

Example:
Ultra to me is about the production of children and people as utilities, and the utilities breaking away in a form of self-realization... ...much like people in our society... PLUS loads of action to entertain me!

Your interpretation of course could be "duh editor put clips to music and stuff go boom" Which is a pretty sweet interpretation! lolol.

Make the videos that you want to see. Express yourself through your work. Have fun!

[leathelanime]

Well I Feel like Crap sometimes when I see a badass video *Coughcough*FluxmeisterMachine*CoughCough*

but ya gotta keep moving man!Learn new skills and other hardcoreshit like that!

[iserlohn]

Sarah should read my journal from yesterday 'cuz it's loaded with a lot of nifty REM information that she may appreciate.

[klinky]

The problem with me is that editing is so slow.....it's so god damn slow...it's like ugh... hurry up and render.. and you want the best quality but at the cost of it going 4.3fps when editing with AVISynth @ 720x480... and then there's the "am I doing this correctly" routine I constantly go through. "I know there's a better way and Iam just not smart enough to figure it out..." <---blah blah blah....

Most all of my videos have flaws in them due to laziness..... Iam not the person who will sit down with a video and work on it for months until it's perfect. I need to get it done and out of my system and usually half-way through the idea has already played itself out and I just want to get the damn thing done with!!!!!

I made my last AMV in April. I had this grand scheme going before that... My Opus..my amazing talented ALL TIME BEST video, I even spent three months programming in VB and hacking around with the VfW apis so I could create my dream of a lypsynching program. Of course the program is pretty freakin' clunky and some strange errors have prevented me from re-compiling it or even opening the damn thing up. Not only that but I feel I need to make a better version of the program and then it's WTF am I spending so much time on this program it takes forever to export from it am I really going to lipsynch 20 people at 20 different angles... I need a batch feature added to it!!! OMGG! That would rock!!!
Hmmm yess yess.........

I don't think Iam going to make another AMV unless it's really revolutionary for me. If I feel that I have changed the anime "made it my own" then I will feel I accomplished something. I've made 14 videos with the standard, cut, fade,clip,cut fade,clip,overlay..... I change the visuals and make them my own.... Moi hahahhaa.

Well this really isn't helping much. I think the idea here is to think of something that is all your own, original to your liking. Many AMVs that I like are not by the words best AMV creators, but are original and have decent editing. All flash and glamour doesn't really meant it's excellent. Like AD's Shameless Rock Video, excellent effects and editing skill shown, but I kinda find it boring still a good video tho and Iam wondering how he did the funky color effect in there...


Anyways, think of how you can make a difference in your editing talent and not in the entire community. I think it's more important to feel that you have accomplished something within yourself. Of course it's also nice to have a #1 video here too or win a con If you force yourself, it will not come out good and you'll treat it harshly.

~klinky

[Chaos Angel]

Best advice I can give you is to practice. Get into Premiere and mess with all of the features and buttons and whistles and doodads and dealybobs and whizzbangs and whooziwhatsis. That way, you'll learn how to do them for yourself.

If you see an effect in a video that looks really awesome, then try to re-create it. That's what I always do. If I see something I liked, I try to learn how the person did it. The more I learn, the more I can recognize how someone achieved this-or-that effect.

And NEVER sell yourself short. EVER. True, some people have a natural talent for AMV crafting, but many others that are just as good, if not better, started out not-so-hot and grew to become great.

Have faith in yourself, and work for it. And never forget this one piece of advice.

If someone tells you that your videos suck, and you are an absolutely horrid AMV creator, grab the nearest blunt object and run at them SCREAMING!!!

Good luck, and have fun.

[TooMuchTime]

How do you get to Carnage Hall? Practice.

Unless you are just going to be in the audience if that's the case you can take a taxi. Seriously though you won't get good unless you continue to try at it and there will always be room for improvement because there is no ceiling.