Awa Pro video discussion

WalterScott · Post by **WalterScott** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 8:08 am

SailorDeath wrote: I'm sure everyone already knows that video was mine, The quality was crap in a few places with the effects, but in my defense it was the first amv, well first ANYTHING that I did using after effects. Never used AE before I made that video. Hopefully it won't be the last. Now that I know how to use it a little better I can make a better impact with my comedy entries.

Lots of fun. Reminded me of when I had to sync a lot of random Stevie Wonder lyrics to Beru Bara. This would be a good/insane video for Iron Editor quiz shows...

btw you forgot to include Spring & Chaos in the video profile

Brakus · Post by **Brakus** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 9:12 am

Illia Sadri wrote:Brakus, not every video can win.

I know that, but then again, I don't enter Pro to win. I enter to be nominated. By extension, not everybody can be nominated for at least one thing. Still, what videos are being discussed above all the rest? The ones that were nominated. Again I feel like I'm out of the Inner Circle because I've *never* been nominated for *anything* in Pro in the 3 years I've participated.

I know this is not an indication of how well/poorly it will do in later contests; "I Am Fullmetal", my Pro entry from last year, wasn't nominated for anything (not even Character Profile, which I truly believed it should have been nominated in if it weren't for certain other videos), but it still went on to do very well in several contests. Yet even still with those accolades, I still feel left out among my AMV editor peers. One person, discussing Bakuretsu Con's contest where I won Best Drama with that video, went out of his way to diss my video ("The fangirl vote won on this one, the video isn't even canon, that's not how it actually happened in the anime") in favor of another one (that I frankly found boring). It's not like they went, "Oh, that Pro video did win some awards. How about that, I guess he *is* one of us after all."

Actually I know of at least one of what everyone would consider a really good editor who didn't make it into the finalists at all.

Me too. The difference is that they've been nominated before in prior years, and they're already established editors who (I consider) are already in that Inner Circle.

Effects do not make a good video but nor do they ruin one. It can be used well or poorly and that is what should be looked at.

It's easier to understand that among other editors. If only the public at large can understand that, though.

SailorDeath · Post by **SailorDeath** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 9:13 am

WalterScott wrote: btw you forgot to include Spring & Chaos in the video profile

Ah thanks, and that still doesn't include the 8 or 9 raws I had used to make the video. I forgot what they were called...

AquaSky · Post by **AquaSky** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 10:28 am

Brakus, no offense intended, but complaining about the fact isn't going to change things. It's not normally something I would say, except that I've seen a lot of these types of posts from you in the past. I mean, sure, everyone gets disappointed if their video doesn't make finals. But if you're not satisfied with that, the only thing that will change it is to put more effort into next year's entry.

Experiment, gather feedback, and see what exactly it is in your past videos that could use improvement. Focus in on the weaker aspects until things are up to snuff. It's obviously not some sort of collective editor vendetta, since the judging is blind to begin with. Sorry if any of that came off harsh, but honest feedback is usually the best bet.

Beowulf · Post by **Beowulf** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 12:01 pm

IcyCloud wrote:Brakus, no offense intended, but complaining about the fact isn't going to change things. It's not normally something I would say, except that I've seen a lot of these types of posts from you in the past. I mean, sure, everyone gets disappointed if their video doesn't make finals. But if you're not satisfied with that, the only thing that will change it is to put more effort into next year's entry.

Experiment, gather feedback, and see what exactly it is in your past videos that could use improvement. Focus in on the weaker aspects until things are up to snuff. It's obviously not some sort of collective editor vendetta, since the judging is blind to begin with. Sorry if any of that came off harsh, but honest feedback is usually the best bet.

x2

In short: LEARN 2 PLAY NUB

ngsilver · Post by **ngsilver** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 12:02 pm

I guess I did put SOME effort into the video ^^ well... a LOT more effort then Dance 3 ^^() I just don't considering taking an animated gif, that is already set to be transparent, and putting it overtop another clip all that technical, because it is so simple to do...

I wonder what reaction people would have had last year if I had submitted Dance!!! rather then Do You FEAR? like I had origionally intended... It would have made guessing my video this year even easier I think, rather then going from High Concept Drama to fun crowd pleaser ^^ Who knows, maybe I'll toss another curve ball and submit an Action video next year. But we all know at the rate I make videos, it'll wind up being Dance 5.0, and people will complain about quality again... meh, oh well ^^

Fall_Child42 · Post by **Fall_Child42** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 12:35 pm

Illia Sadri wrote:Brakus, not every video can win. Actually I know of at least one of what everyone would consider a really good editor who didn't make it into the finalists at all.

I would like to think my video made it into the finals in comedy because it was an amusing concept, not because it had effects. In fact I mostly avoided being too outrageously flashy so I could instead pick scenes to do the whole joke. If effects are the only reason someone may have liked mine at all, then I failed as an editor. But no matter what happens, I enjoyed making the vid. I can't submit it very many places anyway due to the whole content issue. It's not a vid made to win, it was a vid made to be very cheap and I will admit I took a cue from what i felt was the golden age of comedy vids a few years back. Pro for me is not about winning or losing.

I am sure SailorDeath is in the same boat as well. He made his vid to be weird and silly and upbeat and happy. His effects added to the silly cheese factor. It could have been done simpler and still been a really fun video. It was his playaround vid with AE and the title was the most appropriate. The video made no sense. The song was odd, the effects were bizarre and the content was about as random as Excel Saga. And it fits in the categories that it ended up in.

Some videos do seem to almost entirely rely on the effects. However not that many videos really were entirely based on the effects. BTB, Developers, Firewall and the Samurai Champloo vid were the only ones that really were all about the effects. And on the other hand, Ashyukun's video is very simple and made it to the finals. A lot of us are saying ngsilver's vid, which had some simple and some more complex portion that his video was fun with his issue being the source footage. None of the romance videos were overly complicated. The Texhnolyze video in drama.... Undiscovered Countries hardly had the most tech heavy effects. even Metropolis used the effects in the best way of any in the contest because while that video relies on effects, it made the concept work.

Effects do not make a good video but nor do they ruin one. It can be used well or poorly and that is what should be looked at.

It's like the divinci code ... !

Castor Troy · Post by **Castor Troy** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 1:06 pm

IcyCloud wrote:Brakus, no offense intended, but complaining about the fact isn't going to change things. It's not normally something I would say, except that I've seen a lot of these types of posts from you in the past. I mean, sure, everyone gets disappointed if their video doesn't make finals. But if you're not satisfied with that, the only thing that will change it is to put more effort into next year's entry.

Experiment, gather feedback, and see what exactly it is in your past videos that could use improvement. Focus in on the weaker aspects until things are up to snuff. It's obviously not some sort of collective editor vendetta, since the judging is blind to begin with. Sorry if any of that came off harsh, but honest feedback is usually the best bet.

Yeah, don't they show ALL the videos during the pro showing anyways? You can even request to show it!

Sephiroth · Post by **Sephiroth** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 1:39 pm

Castor Troy wrote:
Yeah, don't they show ALL the videos during the pro showing anyways? You can even request to show it!

Is what i'm planning to do.

aoi_neko · Post by **aoi_neko** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 3:18 pm

Without trying to trivialize or offend, Brakus, I think you're just looking at this the wrong way.

AWA Pro is *not* all that much like the Academy awards. It's not "all editors" voting, just 50 self-selected ones. And we're not voting on all your output from the year, just one submitted video, with the unspoken rule that it not be something that's won big elsewhere.

I think it's more fun than Expo, so I submit to Pro, knowing I'm gonna lose. But I don't think it's more prestigious.

AWA Pro is really just an audience-judged contest whre you know the samll audience is going to have jaded and quirky tastes. And if you're winning else but not getting nominated, it's probably as much to do with the quirky tastes as the quality of the work.

If you're looking for nominations and awards, "right for this audience" always matters, but in AWA Pro, it's everything.