Amv theory 101

[burntresistor]

In an Amv is it possible to make the anime fit your music and the story you want to tell with it and go outside what whatever plot the anime actually follows or is it usually better to find a song that clearly represents and fits with the anime. I don’t know if that made sense or not.

[Zarxrax]

You can make it however you set your mind to. I particularly like videos that go outside the norm. When you just retell the story of the anime, that feels boring to me.

[Beowulf]

Its possible to do anything with AMVs. There are as many AMV theorys as there are art theories which is infinite in my opinion.

About your question, its a big challenge to be original and accessable at the same time. While thinking outside the box is what keeps creativity going, I like to see the connection between the song and source immediatly. It needs to make immediate sense to me. I don't want to need to have an intimate knowlege of the source in order for it to make sense. The mood should be right, the animation style should be right, the pace should be right, ect.

[Kalium]

In an Amv is it possible to make the anime fit your music and the story you want to tell with it and go outside what whatever plot the anime actually follows or is it usually better to find a song that clearly represents and fits with the anime. I don’t know if that made sense or not.

The latter tends to be easier, but the former is more interesting.

Beo: Meta-theory, ugh. You're going to give people headaches before long.

[Otohiko]

There's a reason theories are called theories and not axioms or something.

For me, there is no real principle; or rather, if there is, I (consciously or unconsciously, more likely the latter) go specifically against it.
My advice is, if you have an idea, try it. You never know what (good or bad) might come out.

***

Interesting point that Beo makes BTW:

It needs to make immediate sense to me.

This is ironic, because my favorite videos of his never made what I would call immideate sense to me, but they did and very well after I'd watched them a few times.
Just goes to say that not everything that makes sense to one person makes the same sense to another. I'll also be the first to admit that not all my AMV's always made sense to me, but I still made them and don't regret it.

[requiett]

You can also make your AMVs orally pleasure you and fix you a submarine sandwich afterward.

[lilgumba]

Twisting the plots of anime to make your own little world is fun. It's the thrill of the manipulation and making the characters do what you want them to do. You control their "fate." Seeing how far you can stretch the anime is a good experience. It helps your creativity. If you got an idea go for it. If no one else likes it at least you can say you got the idea out of your head.

[LightningCountX]

The thing i love about being an editor is that I can do whatever I want. I can make something look beautiful, or look like crap. I can create my own effects, or use the preset effects. I can switch scence sequences around to make 4 seperate scenes look like 1 flowing scene that never happened in the anime.

Its up to you to choose how to do it.

Me, myself I try to keep it alittle original and make up my own special edits for things to liven up a video a bit. If your a hardcore fan of the anime and you see the video you will say "WTH, that never happened?!?!?" and make you maybe re-watch the anime and enjoy it even more.

[Kerydwenn]

I think that both will work; it just depends on what you try to reach. Granted, fllowing the basic timeline of an anime can become boring after a while; on the other hand, completely twisting plots and characters (for instance, a very serious anime done to a funny song) can give good results, but can also be hard to achieve, as it's easy to fall into something "wrong" or ridiculous. It's a mater of experimenting, seeing what works for you, what kind of "stories" you'd like to tell. In any case, there's no written rule that says that you NEED to have a song that perfectly fits the chronological/plot development of an anime.

[FoxJones]

Nowadays I actually seem to have trouble trying to get my AMVs to follow anime series' plot.. I always end up distorting the original plot.