AWA pro thoughts/followups?

[Cenit]

Finally managed to watch them all. Here you go:

Spoiler :

01. Didn’t like the quality, very half hearted executed, needs some Spice
02. Kind of funny … catchy song.
03. Okay I guess … could have been more.
04. Just no. No way I can let that pass by.
05. Well Okay … creative I guess?
06. All of my why?
07. If there is so much going on why is it so boring. Must be the song but this didn’t give me anything.
08. And here I thought all this Anime was about are big balls. Interesting.
09. What the shit did I just watch? Music and Anime didn’t fit and thus destroyed it for me.
10. Okay I guess? Prefer AppleTree though.
11. That text … its oversynched but interesting to watch. But could be a lot better.
12. Fun - good mashup.
13. Couldn’t stop it.
14. Ever heard of story structure. Its about focusing on key elements. And if your song doesn’t support it choose another one … you just screwed up a source you couldn’t do wrong with.
15. Okay I guess.
16. Made me smile. Good combo.
17. Its great. Sadly not exclusive.
18. Prefer the original but it was fun to watch.
19. Like it. Good work.
20. Great style. Love it.
21. Awesome! 3 videos in a row that I liked. We’re finally getting there. Good work.
22. Cute. Well done.
23. Why are you still doing Inception Trailer AMVs … over and over again? It’s 2012!!!
24. MenMenMen.
25. AHAHAHAHAHA AWESOME!!!
26. Nice one.
27. This was beautiful … UNTIL YOU STOPPED HALF WAY THROUGH… Dafuq?!?
28. Great Stuff. I will enjoy seeing this on a big screen.
29. When Video and Music go in2 different directions this is what you get. Could care less.
30. Didn’t get me. Catchy Song, Cute Anime … just the scene selection didn’t work - lost me that once. Also the editing was sort of underwhelming.
31. Nothing epic here. Out of Kit. Move on.
32. Oh that song again. Totally forgot the Anime already.
33. DUBDUBDUBDUBDUBDUBD-STEP-T_bepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep dubiduuu.
34. Already got one. Funny.
35. A bit short … to much lyrics. Still alright I guess.
36. Yeah cute but the same scenes over and over again.
37. Nice one. Good storytelling.
38. I tried to like it but it lost me more than once. Mainly due to the Song but the editing also wasn’t up to speed.
39. TURBOOO!! Never liked that series and don’t like it now but .. its fun!
40. Here cums the Spider Man. Not so friendly when you actually know him.
41. Ehhh what?
42. Dafuq?
43. Welcome to the Space Jam. Whoop there it is. Nice one.
44. Okay I guess - could have been better but okay.
45. Ehh … what?
46. Hahaha … okay whatever
47. This was nice. Like the movie. Like the Song. Like the editing. Like the AMV.
48. Why what I don’t get it.
49. Like the emotions. Visuals could be better. Editing could be better. Still alright.
50. Nice one … a bit too much flash but ok.
51. Oh god wtf.
52. Okay … those hoppin smokers aye.
53. Strange. Funny I guess but it didn’t really get me.
54. Things I like. Nice one.
55. Liked it back then. Like it now. Good one.
56. Not that good idea … interesting but it actually bored me due to being to long and music and editing not up to the same sped. Couldn’t get into it.
57. Nice one. Liked.
58. Not in my torrent but if I guess right I liked that one.

I gotta admit that i got drunk while watching the second half. Sorry.

[ngsilver]

Cenit: 58 isn't suppose to be in the torrent. It was added late so you have to direct download it from the site.

[AimoAio]

After about 5 years I finally managed to get through all of them. I didn't know watching AMVs can be this exhausting. >__> A few of you might know I'm normally a nice commenter but since this is a professional contest, I wrote a lot of my thoughts as honestly as possible so it might sound a little...harsher than usual. But it's not that bad I don't think, I redacted a lot of my original comments already. xD

Spoiler :

#1: Decent trailer but I was expecting something better for a professional contest. While most scenes synced well with the audio, there were a few parts I felt were slower and didn’t work quite as well.
#2: Nicely edited though sometimes I felt like the scene choices didn’t really convey the mood of the song that well. Perhaps it’s because the source is so unknown to me so I can’t relate to it at all.
#3: Jittery scenes were pretty noticeable, lip sync could be improved and pacing felt slow at certain parts where the song was more upbeat but otherwise a decent romance video. Very cute!
#4: Haha that was really good. Interesting choice of scenes and colour work but some transitions felt a little stiff. Good job with showing the concept though, I really enjoyed this one.
#5: Nice idea, sync was good but quality could be better because I have seen some MLP videos that have fantastic visual quality.
#6: This quality hurts my eyes. The editing is…ok but some borders are still lurking about. Troll face at the end was LOL though.
#7: Ok watching this on a laptop up close and with earphones in is not a wise move for a scaredy cat like me. I ended up pushing my seat really far back because the beginning terrified me but wow that was good. Really good. Feels like an authentic trailer but at the same time has its own short story, hmm…almost like a mini-movie?
#8: Great video in general. Good story and mostly well edited. Flashing got a little excessive at times after a while but is a minor issue.
#9: I found this somewhat kinda long and boring. The editing is good and the visual quality is superb, but the sources and the song don’t connect at all so it was mostly a mash of action/fight scenes set to rap. Definitely could have used more facial expressions/scenes to help bring out the feel of the song better, especially the Redline part.
#10: Another awesome live action entry. Great mesh of different sources and I loved the sync.
#11: Those text effects are awful. Seriously. I was actually getting into the video after a while and then wham they appeared, instantly destroying it. >__> The HQ version though, looks absolutely amazing. I mean the quality that is.
#12: Haha, good one. Felt a little long though but source and song combination worked out very well together, nice.
#13: This internet viral idea has been done already and done much better than this video. The masks looked really artificial and didn’t fit/blend with the screens they were supposed to be replacing. This could have been easily remedied if you spent more effort to focus on the shadow/lighting of each screen instead of just cutting out the mask and replacing it with a pony scene. Personally I didn’t find it that funny but that’s probably because I’ve seen a similar idea before.
#14: Aww that was really sweet. I haven’t seen the movie but you did a great job in retelling the story.
#15: Awesome parody of the original. I especially loved the parts where you created your own version of the scene from EF.
#16: Very nice transitions, the masks looked really smooth and went perfectly with the flow of the video. Not too fond of the colour scheme though.
#17: I loved this the first time I saw it and I love it even more now. It’s adorable, cute and incredibly heartwarming. The photograph idea was extremely well done and the little notes/comments with the arrows were a nice touch. Also the drawings on the background behind the photographs show you put a lot of thought into the theme design for this. Only thing I wasn’t a huge fan of was the bevel and emboss around the edges of the photographs since they didn’t blend as well with the 2D element of the video.
#18: I uh…um…laughed? XD
#19: That was quite a refreshing KnT video. I love the sharp contrast between the oversaturated colouring and the much darker and cooler scenes. It’s like a contrast between fantasy being all colourful and reality being well…gloomy. Which I think, is exactly what you’re trying to show with Sawako taking even the smallest things and amplifying it into something more meaningful in her imagination, and then eventually she ends up projecting her fantasy into “reality” only to have it hurt in the end when she wakes up and realizes the cold hard truth. I like this concept. The editing was decent too, though I did think some of the zooms and the blurring was a bit much.
#20: It’s got a good story, a great fx idea and good background designs but the masking/chroma is pretty bad. The edges and outlines in particular look unclean and just ugh.
#21: Some masks at the beginning could have been neater and I would have liked some more character based fx design elements like the ones at 1:54ish but otherwise, great action scenes, good sync and has a nice upbeat feel to it.
#22: Sweet but that’s about it really. Nothing really outstanding.
#23: Hmm..this didn’t quite work for me. I felt like the source matched at times but at other times it felt disconnected.
#24: Quite a funny idea but the editing is really simple and the quality is awful. The borders and the aliasing make me cry.
#25: I laughed. This song… But a great example of how old footage can still look fantastic if you take the time to clean it. Editing was good and text was placed well.
#26: Good colouring and editing but I couldn’t help but feel some of effects look similar to the ones in Starving by Kainxspirits. Otherwise the sync was awesome and I generally enjoyed watching it. You also made the show look really interesting.
#27: Ehhh…quality is bad with a lot of visual artifacts particularly near the end. Editing is kinda bland and boring. Also felt like it was cut off way too early so there wasn’t a story or a mood buildup to connect it all together.
#28: Uhh…what exactly was the point of this video? It’s long. And boring. For a start, the middle section could have been cut down a lot shorter so I didn’t have to keep watching and thinking something will happen soon because nothing does.
#29: At first I didn’t really understand the relationship between the song and the source because your scenes didn’t really make sense until like…way later in the video. They were also too long, more cuts would have helped break the video up and make it easier to digest for the viewer. But hey, I am now quite interested in this movie! Which is a plus point.
#30: Ugh…I love Toradora but that frame blending is killing the video. The editing is sub-par and kinda messy but the video is cute in its own way I guess. It feels like it could have been so much better with a lot more polishing, just now it looks like a really rough beta.
#31: I like the varied expressions you chose for Okabe to fit the song but the video relies heavily on the song to do the work so it ends up being boring and slow. Would have been better if you added some typography work or alternatively, more backgrounds/scene changes to give the video a better pacing could work too.
#32: Great fx design work that blends well with the footage but the video itself has no substance to hold it together.
#33: The effects look horrid and the sources do not mix well together at all. They look as if they were randomly chosen and thrust in just for the sake of it. If you had just stuck with the first source, something decent might have been the result but instead just now it looks like a mess.
#34: Masking looked bad and the video in general was very boring.
#35: The manga colouring is the only part of this video that deserves any merit. The transitions are weak and plain and there is no explicit relationship shown between any of the characters.
#36: Transitions felt stiff and some scenes were very static. I also wasn’t fond of the camera shakes and zooms since they felt rough and the blurring was excessive at times but it was really sweet and I found myself smiling at times.
#37: Quality wasn’t that great but pretty nicely edited for a drama video. The additional FX/colour was a nice touch to the story.
#38: Felt really long and very boring. Lacks dynamics to keep up with the pacing of the song.
#39: Fun upbeat entry. Not my cup of tea though.
#40: Loses its impact after 25 seconds. Nothing else about it stands out either.
#41: Really slow. The pacing is waaaaay too slow for the song, transitions are weak and editing isn’t very interesting. Cute idea though.
#42: What.
#43: Good song and source match. Pacing and editing was pretty good. And I swear my obsession with Kuroko no Basket is getting a little out of hand since I swear the first time I saw the name on their shirts I thought it said Shutoku. >__> I think the footage can be a little bit cleaner and a bit more variation in the scene selection would have been a good thing to consider since the basketball scenes did feel like they went on for quite long.
#44: Great energy throughout and nice editing. Overall a very fun video.
#45: Nicely edited but I felt like it ended prematurely. It was like an introduction and then the middle and end is missing.
#46: Cute idea.
#47: The interlacing is really distracting. But good song and source pairing. I like this one.
#48: This video is kinda weird and I don’t think I got what you tried to show. The LA part was kinda nice though?
#49: Generally well edited but I felt the pacing of some parts were a little too fast for the song. The mood was good though and I love this song.
#50: It’s a good idea and the matchup fits but it would have left a better impact if it was cut shorter. After a while I felt like it was just going on and on…and kept wondering when it’d end. Also those borders. >__>
#51: It had great dynamics but a lot of the masks didn’t blend well, especially those with colour shadows on the edges and the sped-up frame rate looked unnatural and awkward.
#52: I liked 0:12-0:17. So about 5 seconds of it? =|
#53: I found this horrendously long and boring sorry. :\
#54: I like how the song starts off normal and gets weirder and crazier along the way. But uhh…nothing else really stood out.
#55: Fantastic. Simply phenomenal. Incredible. I don’t know enough awesome words to describe this video, it’s just so heartwarming and touching and I love it so much. Every time I rewatch this, I get this urge to go and rewatch one of the studio’s movies (or watch a new one I haven’t seen before) and it really makes me smile. And damn I want that Totoro plushie so bad. XD
#56: I didn’t think the song and source matchup was that good but the editing is really nice. Good job.
#57: Another one of my personal favourites. While it feels just like any other pretty scene mashup multisource video, I like how you kept the common theme of water which helped linked the video together as a whole.
#58: Not bad but not particularly outstanding either.

There's a few gems in this year's contest but some videos are so awful, I can't tell if it's on purpose or not. (troll perhaps?) That or people didn't read properly and entered the professional contest by accident because for a professional contest...well let's say I was expecting videos with a lot higher standard than usual.

[Cenit]

Cenit: 58 isn't suppose to be in the torrent. It was added late so you have to direct download it from the site.

I've seen that one on another Convention already. Will download it later though.

[OtakuForLife]

First year doing this contest and I wasn't sure how much we were supposed to talk about it in
advance. Thanks for the feedback provided! I'm happy no one was displeased enough not to sit through
it all. Time to vote soonish so good luck all.

Spoiler :

I made the IWMLB Award category

[Fall_Child42]

it's sad.

I really liked pro much better when everyone was under the impression that the videos should be new.
It would take like maybe a couple hours to determine if a video was "new" or not. At least that's how long the "google" rule would take.

As a side note, for this particular category, it would be the editors policing pro, not Daric, so ... whatever.

[l33tmeatwad]

it's sad.

I really liked pro much better when everyone was under the impression that the videos should be new.
It would take like maybe a couple hours to determine if a video was "new" or not. At least that's how long the "google" rule would take.

As a side note, for this particular category, it would be the editors policing pro, not Daric, so ... whatever.

I think you ignore a lot of things that factor into this. Let's face it, AWA used to be considered the big thing for a lot of org editors, but as they got older and made fewer or no videos, the new people starting to enter contests don't seem view it the same. Let's also not forget that there are more contests, and many of them center around the summer months, and with people putting a lot of work towards contents like Akross that REQUIRE exclusive videos, you have less of a desire by already busy editors to make another new video for a contest that does not require it.

[Rider4Z]

i actually didn't realize before hand that new entries were encouraged for Pro lesson learned, i'll remember next time.

[Fall_Child42]

people putting a lot of work towards contents like Akross that REQUIRE exclusive videos

This is what I'm saying should happen.
This is what used to happen.

It can easily happen again for Pro.

[Mr Pilkington]

The google rule would have been awesome! But being the time constraints this year it just wasn't feasible.
Jingoro not only had to take care of the basics, he also had to build the site and everything was a mad-dash. On his part there was just no time. If we keep bitching though, maybe next year....
In general I can forgive if this is the first offense, but you repeat offenders know better and should show a little more respect for the coordinators. Hell, I keep mine from my studio members in the (unlikely) chance they actually edit something.


As for the category, I'm 50/50. I think its the slap that some people need, but since the blindness isn't policed it's not really appropriate. Even if it were policed the award would be redundant. I am however in favor of shaming some folks.