Are AMVs better than real music videos?

Lyrs · Post by **Lyrs** » Sat Jul 19, 2003 2:40 am

Avalanches "Frontier Physcothriast"

www.sputnik7.com under the music videos section

/end

Flint the Dwarf · Post by **Flint the Dwarf** » Sat Jul 19, 2003 2:58 am

Despite all the shit they get now, Metallica did a great job with Enter Sandman.

So... there are a few good music videos. And Beo's right, All Is Full of Love is a great video. Come to think of it, Bjork has a lot of cool videos.

WilLoW :--) · Post by **WilLoW :--)** » Sat Jul 19, 2003 5:22 am

trythil wrote:Oh yeah, a few more:

The animated series of music videos done by Leiji Matsumoto for the first four songs on Daft Punk's "Discovery";

The whole album, actually (the entire movie's title is "Interstella 5555")

EarthCurrent wrote:Fatboy Slim's "Weapons of Choice"
Best video EVAR.

agreed

FurryCurry · Post by **FurryCurry** » Sat Jul 19, 2003 5:42 am

There are some really good music vids out there, but there are also plenty of mediocre ones, just like...here!

Personal anecdote:

When I completed my first amv, I needed help doing a good mpeg2 encode for a contest I wanted to send it to, and I enlisted the help of a friend who knew what he was doing to help me.

He showed his encode to a non-anime enthusiast friend, who pronounced it better than the "real" video for that song.
That vid of mine has been described as "good, but not great" by a trustworthy friend, and "one of the ones that didn't suck" by someone who saw it at SakuraCon 2003. I guess that just goes to show that things aren't so different between the org & MTV/VH1.

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Sat Jul 19, 2003 8:22 am

EarthCurrent wrote:Fatboy Slim's "Weapons of Choice"
Best video EVAR.

True dat!

Some videos are really nice, a lot are quite dumb. This is also the case with AMV's. Except, when I'm watching AMV's, I get to choose what music artists/anime/creators I want to have involved in the AMV's. So, it's largely a choice experience. But on TV, with real MV's - they run the same stupid, shitty, dumb videos with a few real gems hidden within. However, I got sick of watching Backstreet Boys and rap videos just to get to Fatboy Slim, so I decided to drop cable altogether and switch to AMV's.

OmniStrata · Post by **OmniStrata** » Sat Jul 19, 2003 9:08 am

Anime Music Video...

Music Video...

the difference is both small and big...

5 letters, "anime..."

Nightowl · Post by **Nightowl** » Sat Jul 19, 2003 9:33 am

Do any of you have any concept as to how hard it is to create a real music video? Have you shot film, let alone an entire music video with cameras and actors and set designers and continuity? Have you ever created a video work from scratch, rather than using somebody else's footage to create a fan work? Does anybody else realize how inane this thread is? Why in the hell would a producer give his or her two million dollars, give or take, to a fanboy who sits at home playing on the computer when they don't even know how to batch capture? Music videos don't come on DVDs and you can't use HuffYUV to cut them. Sorry.

-N

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Sat Jul 19, 2003 9:41 am

Effort is not an exceuse for something that sucks.

I'm not saying all real videos do. I'm just saying I still have more fun with AMV's.

Noone watches the effort in the videos. Effort is the painful process that you don't directly see in the final product. Effort doesn't guarantee good results.

If a fan can create something that engages me more than a real producer, guess whose vid I'll like more? Even if the producer spent a 1000 more hours and 1000000 more dollars on it?

VegettoEX · Post by **VegettoEX** » Sat Jul 19, 2003 9:46 am

The best video in recent years that I can think of is probably Smashing Pumpkin's "Tonight, Tonight." Anything like that is always going to stand out :D

That said, I've had conversations with many a friend for many an hour about this "problem." I'm tempted to say that in recent years, there hasn't been as great a stride to really accomplish anything in music videos; everything's all "bling-bling."

Then again, the counter-argument against myself is that I don't really watch MTV, or anything :/

One of the bands that I see going against the trend has been, yes, Linkin Park. Anything that Mr. Hahn directs has a very surreal.. well... ANIME... atmosphere to it. They try to do different things than the masses, which I give "mad props" to.

Someone mentioned Alkaline Trio's video for "We've Had Enough" (which is quickly becoming a favorite song). I really like the video as well... but it also reminded me far too much of "Stir of Echoes," and I'm not sure if it was intentional or not... can't really tell with their video, unline Taking Back Sunday's "Cute Without the 'E' (Cut From the Team)," which was a CLEAR (and fantastic) parody on "Fight Club."

All in all, I've mostly been seeing performance videos and "house party" videos taking the main stage over the last few years. There have been a few standouts (like "Weapon of Choice"), but I just don't like the artists have really strived to produce anything so insanely artistic like we've seen in the past (like Peter Gabriel, Bjork, Smashing Pumpkins, etc. videos).

Nathan also pretty much hit the nail on the end... creating something artistic from COMPLETE scratch (other than having the audio) is much more demanding than anything we do. We can just throw some DVD rips into Premiere, toss some filters on 'em, and we've got a music video (not that I condone such editing ways :P).

What other recent videos (say, post-2000) have come out that really stand out? I always like to check them out for some editing ideas, as well :D

koronoru · Post by **koronoru** » Sat Jul 19, 2003 9:49 am

Nightowl wrote:Do any of you have any concept as to how hard it is to create a real music video? Have you shot film, let alone an entire music video with cameras and actors and set designers and continuity? Have you ever created a video work from scratch, rather than using somebody else's footage to create a fan work? Does anybody else realize how inane this thread is? Why in the hell would a producer give his or her two million dollars, give or take, to a fanboy who sits at home playing on the computer when they don't even know how to batch capture? Music videos don't come on DVDs and you can't use HuffYUV to cut them. Sorry.

If the above were actually true, then the low quality of "pro" live-action music videos would be even less excusable. When someone spends $2million and hires "real" talent to make a music video and it still comes out looking like the crap many of the videos shown on MTV are, that's just pathetic.

Counterbalancing Nightowl's argument: do you have any concept as to how hard it is to create a music video when you have to use footage that already exists and was shot for a completely different purpose; where if there's a scene you need you have to either find it in your archive or not use that scene, period (no, you don't get to shoot the scenes of your choice); with no staff other than the director; on the run from the RIAA; for an audience that considers you to be "a fanboy who sits at home playing on the computer when they don't even know how to batch capture"; on consumer equipment; and without getting paid for your efforts? The fact that we can do this at all, let alone get as good results as some of us do, amazes me.

Some others in this thread have mentioned "pro" music videos that happened to be animated, and I'd like to nominate the animated segments from Pink Floyd: The Wall. Great stuff in there.