I'm sorry I missed out on this 11 page thread, and I ave to admit I stopped reading at page 7 and skipped a bit, brother, to the end.
Instead of focusing on you, I will focus on me. I was a college student when I saw my first anime that I knew was anime. Soon afterwards I saw my first video, EK's "Sledgehammerspace" which is a brilliant video (but it's not hosted here). This was, oh, 7 years ago. I thought to myself "Wow, someone took a great song, and put scenes from an anime that sorta fit the concept of the song, yet didn't...they changed the meaning of the anime with the song, and changed the meaning of the song with the anime! BRILLIANT!" That's what ALL AMVs do; even the ones that stay true to the anime, or true to the song, are still coloring the final product with the influence of the creator. And that's why I still watch AMVs, and finally, about 2 years ago, started making them myself. My videos run the gamut from fairly standard to what I've been told quite bizarre. But I am personally satisfied with all of them. Do I make them for fame? Heck no, who knows I make them, other than a few friends and some random people on the Internet that I may or may not ever meet? (Some of the ones I HAVE met are now in the 'friend' category, and I like that.) Do I make them for the competitive aspect? While I have won a couple of competitions, I have never made a video specifically for a contest. And the day I do, I will quit. I make these videos because they are fun to watch, and because no one else is making them. No one made a video to Weird Al's "eBay" song? Bam, there ya go. KOMPRESSOR feeling lonely, BAM, there ya go. Like Emeril but with a little less garlic.
Now, I have the perfect video for you. Yes, it's one of mine.
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... hp?v=54784
Watch it, bad encoding, improper aspect ratio and all, and when you are done, you will understand what AMVs are to me.
And then, I don't know if someone recommened this one to you or not (considering you Trent Renzor love)
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... hp?v=14617
It's a pretty good recreation of the real video using anime source. Which you might call 'plagarism' but I call 'brilliant'.
