AMV Taboos/Stereotypes/Cliches: Old and New

[Castor Troy]

AMV Taboos are the (mostly stupid) things that people usually tell you what you shouldn't do in making amvs which are considered the stereotypes of amv making. There were tons of them when I started and I know they've evolved quite a bit throughout the years.

One of my favorite aspects of this hobby being able to take these taboos, making a good video out of them, and completely shoving them in the naysayer's faces.

I know there's the obvious tech taboos like "don't encode in wmv", "don't use mp3s in premiere", which are plentiful, but I would rather focus on the taboos that focus on the creative aspect.

Probably the biggest taboo is "Don't make a crappy video", but one man's trash can be another man's treasure.

Here are the ones I remember:

Popular music + Populpar anime = Bad: This one probably still stands today, but I remember back then, people would make amvs with the popular song which was literally just background noise in the video since the video had little to no editing.

Using more unknown sources = Better Video, Popular source = Bad Video: A good or bad video can be done with any source. Unknown shit is still shit.

DB/Z/GT = Bad: This was the overabundance of (bad) DBZ videos made and especially with the series' reputation, many people who never watched the show would automatically deem anything with DBZ bad. I would like to say that I (and a few others) will continue stomping out this taboo as much as we can.

Linkin Park = Bad: Linkin Park is the most overused band for videos and their songs are always on the emo/angsty side which obviously led to this one. The irony is that all of the Linkin Park hate back in the day turned me into a fan.

Linkin Ball Z: The result of the above 2 combined. I think this died out in 2002

Song from the anime + anime = Bad: This by far is the stupidest taboo I've ever heard. I know it's a preference for some people not to use the same songs from the anime since it just feels like watching the anime itself. I remember one guy on old phorum (remember that?) was so adamant on this that he would say you deserve 0 originality. The greatest thing was when he was pwned by many other editors, even a few old school ones. A song is a song no matter where it's from and it's up to you to know how to use it.

Effects = Bad: This one's still going on today, but if you're creative enough, you can use them to enhance your video, yadda, yadda, yadda.

I know there's tons more, but I can't think of any right now since I have to get back to work. Feel free to add more!

[Ileia]

No, badly done effects = bad. I have never seen anyone complain about use of effects unless they were badly done. I don't think that belongs in a list of taboos at all.

[Castor Troy]

No, badly done effects = bad. I have never seen anyone complain about use of effects unless they were badly done. I don't think that belongs in a list of taboos at all.

I dunno, there have been a few people who've complained about any effects. Mostly people who never learned after effects.

But I remember it kind of being a big thing during the effects boom from 2001-2003.

[Kireblue]

"Using the same scene twice is always a bad idea"
I think that Ileia's "Continuous Play" completely shattered and disproved that rule.



Abundance of crossfades = bad
I remember that people were bitching about seeing crossfades in videos last year. It really annoyed me since most of my AMVs are Drama vids and use nothing but crossfades.

[Nya-chan Production]

"Using the same scene twice is always a bad idea"
I think that Ileia's "Continuous Play" completely shattered and disproved that rule.

You mean my video, right?

[Kireblue]

You mean my video, right?

oh yeah, your "Just passing by" AMV also deserves credit for disproving that taboo. I never even noticed that your video actually came out first.

[BasharOfTheAges]

Most of those seem like poor wording and bad explanation of what's considered bad because it's easier to make a simple, one-line statement than one filled with the appropriate amount of qualifiers and conditionals (to indicate your precise opinion) that people will tldr over.

Also - Lensflares.

[JaddziaDax]

Subtitles = bad. Granted this is more towards the use of fansubs, but I've seen quite a few amvs that pull off subbing the song, or use of subs in general in a good way. (I thought this was an obvious one lol)

Lipflap = bad. While excessive lipflap where the characters are doing nothing but talking and the scenes are static and boring, is bad, a little lipflap to show that the characters do communicate with each other isn't harmful imho.

Lipsync = funny no matter what the context. This is especially true while watching in crowds, but I've seen lipsync used in ways that it didn't make me laugh, usually when I'm by myself though.

[Sephiroth]

Effects = Bad: This one's still going on today, but if you're creative enough, you can use them to enhance your video,

Yup, just have a good reason for doing them is all.

Same with DBZ, fightclub+Tyler Durton+DBZ one is one of my favorite vids too bad DBZ vids in general suck.

[Qyot27]

Abundance of crossfades = bad
I remember that people were bitching about seeing crossfades in videos last year. It really annoyed me since most of my AMVs are Drama vids and use nothing but crossfades.

That one just sort of came out of the blue, too. I think it was simply a few editors that don't like them using their personal tastes to dictate a 'shouldn't do that' list, rather than a true consensus or stereotype. Particularly relevant because the two most important transitions in video editing are the straight cut and the crossfade. This was reiterated to us in the Digital Media classes I took, although I already knew it from AMVs. I have to wonder, if it wasn't just personal dislike on the part of a few, what source was it telling people that crossfades are bad? 'Cause that's some horrible advice.

Yes, you should try to make the video flow, which means knowing when a crossfade is appropriate and when it isn't, but the idea that if something is all crossfades it's bad or not edited correctly because too many of them is bad is sorely missing the point.