So You Want to Start a Revolution?

Beowulf · Post by **Beowulf** » Thu Oct 30, 2003 4:59 pm

Dannywilson wrote:Or totally shit on it

gets my vote

DJ_Izumi · Post by **DJ_Izumi** » Thu Oct 30, 2003 5:00 pm

All depends on yer fetish I guess.

Pie Row Maniac · Post by **Pie Row Maniac** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 2:58 am

It's that hard to think of number between 1 and 5 that describes your personal opinion of a music video?

How much easier can it be done to give your damn opinion? Do us all a favor, stick a fork in your ear, turn your meatloaf-of-a-brain on and think.

/end vent

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 9:40 am

Apparently, someone has a short attention span. Come on, you can at least recall the general impression of the vid, like I do.

****

Something really bad would have to happen on the screen and speakers to make me put a one.

Something pretty bad would have to happen on either the screen or speakers to make me give a 2.

3's are for those who've tried, semi-suceeded, and their videos were quite watcheable with room for improvement.

4's are for very good videos that haven't quite toched either their goal or my interest. 4's and up are usually the ones I keep on my HD for future viewing/showing.

5's are for stuff that I save in my 'Best' folder and are the ones that make me laugh/cry/say WTF and/or cause me to run out and buy/rent/borrow/download the anime/music source.

***

Oh yes.

I hope this thread dies.

And soon.

Maybe even now.

Nightowl · Post by **Nightowl** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 9:58 am

Otohiko wrote:I hope this thread dies.

And soon.

Maybe even now.

Considering what it has become, agreed (though I do see the relevance in actually paying attention to the star thing, even if I don't agree with its implementation).

Besides, I got what I wanted out of it...

-N

MistyCaldwell · Post by **MistyCaldwell** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 1:16 pm

And I was just about to contribute....I just found this thread

well...I have to go to work really soon anyway...so it'll be short for now...

I would like to address the issue of how mvs have changed since the olden days. I am just going to start off assuming you guys know what I am referring to because I haven't much time.

When the old school people started making their videos using linear methods (can I include myself in that?

) they sometimes had seen a few amvs, maybe some by their friends, maybe they hadn't ever seen any at all and thought they were doing something original! But you have to remember where people start now-a-days. They see the most techincal and flashy videos that may or may not be anything more than fast edits....they start there. It may never occur to them to do it any other way because they don't know the other ways.

A lot of the older vids I like, and even made...that were linear don't exist as anything more than an entry on the org catalog. No download. But they are completely enjoyable! It's the way it makes you feel to watch or make an amv. FRor me, it's like an obsession when I get an idea (same as when I draw) that I have to get out of me or it'll make me explode...or at least feel all jittery ^_~

So....since it may not be the amv's, it may not be the newer set of creators...it may just be they started at the middle of the line and not the beginning where we did so they don't just forget about it, they never knew it.

MistyCaldwell · Post by **MistyCaldwell** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 1:45 am

Oh and I wanted to say that I did in fact read every word of the posts on page 1. In fact I read every word from every single post (except from the page before this one) and that is why I had no time for my own post

dokool · Post by **dokool** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 3:56 am

So I've watched this thread for 5+ pages, and I might as well make a contribution, although I'm sure some of my points have already been repeated by now. Let me just preface this by saying that yes, I know that some of you have been anime fans for, well, a helluva lot longer than I have, and a few have been making AMVs since back when I thought the greatest thing to come out of cels was Looney Toons.

My first video was as close to the "Dogme95" style of editing (referenced earlier in this thread) as you can get. The only applied effects were speed changes. I had made MPEG clips at 24fps, chopped the whole damned thing together in a downloaded copy of Media Studio, and got a friend to host it.

And, well, I got some good reviews. I thought I was hot shit. Since most of the criticism had to do with video quality, and since I wanted a version to submit to a convention, I vowed to remake Warning.

So, cut to December. Now on a pirated version of Premiere 6.5, a newly-installed AMVApp, ripped VOBs and AVS files, I get to work on Warning v2.0. Throughout this process, I was encouraged by friends to do more... "That should be a lip-sync!", they said. and I did, because the person in question was female and I was whipped. And at the end, I had a perfect-quality version of Warning.

Over that same break, I made Fine Again. I got a bit fancy. Faster cuts. A fade here and there. Tried to be more direct in scene selections, go for emotional impact. That video got submitted to Anime Boston, and reached the finals.

So there I was, sitting with a good friend, watching the AMV contest, and seeing all these great videos, and then there's my video with simple cuts and fades... and I realized that god dammit, I can do better.

It was only after that weekend that I started getting involved in the community more. I'd make more posts to the forums, op more videos, etc. And all the while, trying to figure out what I could do to make a video that would be remembered. I wanted to make an AMV that proved that I could be as good as Tom the Fish or TaranT or AD...

Then came SYLN, and, well, making Otakon. At the con, I really felt like I was a part of the community, because not only did I get to meet all of these amazing editors (Vic, Will, Doki, Vlad, etc) that I'd previously thought of as lesser gods of some sort, but, hell, I was on the same ballot as them. Only my third AMV, and in my first year of AMV-making, and I made *Otakon*.

So, here I am, after a 24 hours which have involved three renders, two test burns, a trip to the post office, and a finished AMV that I'm proud of on a legal (!) copy of Premiere Pro.

What's the point of all this, you may ask? A "me-too" post that lets me gloat about being the one lucky n00b that made it to Otakon?

Well, yes. And no.

Nightowl made some good points in his very, very long posts. All of them. And it's true, the community *is* going to hell in some ways. But if we complain nonstop about newbies who don't seem to want to be helped, bad videos being uploaded 2 or 3 times to the Donut, and bitch that despite the availability of guides that could help Spielberg fit the Indiana Jones Trilogy onto a DVD-R with no quality loss, vids look more pixellated than ever... well, then it stops being fun, for everybody.

When you complain about a shitty DBZ vid, you don't think about how it was made by some 8th grader in a computer lab, who decided that trying out Windows Movie Maker was better than listening to his CompSci teacher explain basic HTML.

When you attack an editor for using obvious fansubs and not compressing them well, no consideration is paid to the girl in Bumfuck, Nebraska who lives a few hundred miles away from the nearest Suncoast, but is fortunate enough to have a DSL connection in her home and a copy of Kazaa Lite.

You can never forget that no matter how many people think an AMV sucks, there's at least one person in the world who doesn't: the editor that made it. The hobby will never die until editors stop enjoying their own work.

So, what can we do to make the 'Org the place we want it to be, free of sub-par videos and full of original ideas? Do it. I'm for a mentoring program that requires that an editor with at least one year's experience and Overall average of 8+ to *approve* a new member before he or she can use the Golden Donut. Or perhaps a test should be made based off of basic parts in AD+ErMaC's guide: if the prospective editor can't complete easy tutorials and figure out how to use the most basic and essential of AMV-making tools, they can't take full advantage of the site. Doesn't mean that *have* to follow the Guide in making all their videos after they pass the test, but it can generally be said that once a person is technically competent to do the things that AD and ErMaC talk about, they can do whatever they want.

What's the logic behind this? Well, the 'Org is a database. As mentioned earlier (I think), databases are for information. The Golden Donut, as generous and as amazing as it is, shouldn't be a right, but a privilege.

I think that while there will always be a fair share of people who just don't learn, there's also newbies who will take advice and use it. Although we grow intolerant of all the newbies out there who can't type, can't follow directions, and can't seem to do anything right, we can't alienate the newbies who *will* listen to us, who *will* learn, and who *will*, eventually, do great things.

Remove duplicate entries on the 'Org, and ban those who have intentionally tried to subvert the rules regarding the Donut. Remove inactive or "one-time-only" members. Get a couple dozen volunteers, give them moderation powers, and throw them at the database. Have them fix incorrect song and artist info, incorrect anime info, you name it. Get people who know what they're talking about to write some new guides, I find it shocking that the latest guide we have is now over a year old. Have Koop write a 20-page tutorial outling how he made Euphoria so all the people who want to know can read it and shut the hell up.

These are a few of my suggestions, but to close I want to reiterate my point: Everybody: you, me, that newb who things "Bring Me To Life" is a great song, everybody, makes AMVs because they like it. We don't make money on it, in fact we lose hundreds of dollars every year between DVDs, shipping to contests, that new plugin you *had* to get, whatever. We do it because we love it. Otherwise Vic wouldn't live on ramen for half a year so he could make CSD, or Ashyukun wouldn't spend $100 on a DVD-R, or I wouldn't stay up till 3AM finishing a video justintime to mail it to AUSA.

So, if other people are going to detract from your enjoyment of your hobby that much, maybe you need to find something else to do with your time.

Thank you, and goodnight.

-DOKool

Jebadia · Post by **Jebadia** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 9:02 am

yes we do torcher ourselves for the love of the hobby...gotta love it.

OmniStrata · Post by **OmniStrata** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 2:09 pm

MUAH HAH!

I DON'T CARE ANY MORE!!!

[cackles evilly]