If AMV's are so unoriginal, then why...

[anneke]

Well most all of my videos score well for originality. Usually it's based on that I've used a new song, a new artist, or a new anime that hasn't been done to death.

The other side of things is the 'on crack' factor. That's where I think true originality comes from. It's when you watch a video and see that it's just different. That no one has done something like it before. Or that it twists things in such away that no one thought to do that. I often get comments about what the heck was I thinking? when I made the idea... My favorite comment in regards to a video I made was, 'My head just exploded'. Yeah...that's what happens when you pair two things together that shouldn't be paired, and yet works.

Anneke

[Tormentor]

Many people are fond of saying that it's all been done before and no one makes any original videos anymore (or never did in the first place.)

Well I have seen quite some original videos in the last time. There was a self-drawn video (Lost Kitten) and some other stuff like Farewell Letter by Ingow, so there are a lot of original videos out there.

Oh and to get ontopic, there are always some ppl that have seen the amv that is searched, and if they remember it or still have it, it can be found. Although I guess this is not always the case (no one would find any of my vids just by a describtion I guess).

Originality is one of the main aspects a video should have. The case is, that not few original videos are released, but that the amount of unoriginal linkinball z videos is decreasing percentage of the original videos.

[trythil]

If AMV's are so unoriginal, then why are they so easily identified?

It's probably because of this community.

I conjecture the following: with people in the anime community but outside of the AMV community, you will find that the majority of those people can identify very few AMVs by verbal or graphical description.

Try asking one of those "help me shot AMV" questions on some other, more general anime forums. I would be interested to see what happens.

[trythil]

If AMV's are so unoriginal, then why are they so easily identified?

It's probably because of this community.

The implication there, of course, is that originality has nothing to do with it, and that there's people in this community who have just watched so many videos that they can remember which video is what based on some words and maybe a quick search or two.

Personally, I find a lot of AMVs rather boring, but I'm also an asshole, so.