Anamorphic Productions wrote:This is a newsletter geared towards the AMV community. Whether you’re watching or creating, we hope to have something to interest everyone. Our beginnings were strange; a post was made on the .org’s forums, asking about the status of the newsletter, because an option to receive one is in your profile. Then, interest was sparked as it was admitted that no, the org didn’t have a newsletter – but quite a few people thought that it should.
And here we are.
That was actually a quote from the very first issue of AMV NEWS MONTHLY written 12 years ago by Anamorphic Productions. Its been almost 10 years since the last issue was released on November 17, 2007. But on a whim, I felt that it was time to bring it back. It took some time for me and the AMV Monthly Staff to figure out the most efficient way of doing this, but after throwing around a lot of different ideas, we finally decided that the site's forums were actually the best place to host it (at least for the time being).
Our goal is to consolidate information relevant to the AMV community into a single location, and to create a new outlet for members to share information among themselves. We also hope to appeal to the interests of our readers, and to become something that you look forward to every month. So if you're interested in helping with that, we're currently looking for additional people to either join our staff or contribute content for our monthly releases. Feel free to PM me for details.
The 2017 VCA Nominations have begun! You can now vote for your favorite AMVs of 2016 here. Also, you can make your picks known by posting them in their corresponding category threads. And If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to post them here
Another Story of Another: Interview of Mr Memory by TritioAFB Index
AKROSS Con 2016 - Mr Memory - Another Story of Another - The Interview
As part of the tradition every year, I started some interviews to some of the finalists of the AKROSS Con. This time, I'm sharing the interview with Mr Memory, editor from China. You can find his video here: http://akross.ru/index.cgi?act=video;id=4864;
and Now the interview:
1) Hi and welcome to this new interview series for the finalist of AKROSS Con. Would you like to introduce yourself to the audience?
Mr. Memory wrote:Hello! This is Mr. Memory from China. It’s great to have the opportunity to take part in an international competition like AKROSS Con. Thanks to all the viewers and editors who supported my AMV, without your appreciation I would not make into the finalist of AKROSS Con 2016. You can follow me on Bilibili(http://space.bilibili.com/6908138/#!/index) and support my future AMVs. Thank you.
2) What was the idea behind your video?
Mr. Memory wrote:The idea behind my AKROSS’s video is love and hate.
3) what was the hardest part and the funny part when you were editing the video?
Mr. Memory wrote:It’s my first attempt to make a crossover, and I came across a lot of difficulties during the making of this AMV. I personally think the hardest part during editing is to find the anime clips that you need to make the scene and to tone it right. The funny part is that sometimes you might accidentally create some hilarious effects.
4) What's your opinion about the contest?
Mr. Memory wrote:I think the contest provides a wide platform for editors all around the world to compete and communicate.
5) What were your favorite entries this year?
Mr. Memory wrote:My favorite entries of this year are xDieguitoAMV’s “Eternally”, Duczmen’s “Godsend”, DarkCat’s “Invisible Embrace” and S†eelshine’s “The Fall: Friends Forever”.
6) Would you participate in AKROSS Con 2017?
Mr. Memory wrote:Of course. If AKROSS Con 2017 happens and I have enough time to edit, I will participate in AKROSS Con 2017.
7) Do you have any future proyect you will like to mention?
Mr. Memory wrote:For now I want to keep my future projects as a secret.
8) Do you have some words for the audience reading this interview?
Mr. Memory wrote:Thanks to the audience for taking your time to read this interview.
February 17th marks the deadline for four contests and what many people believe to be the 2017 contest season. This looming deadline is for the following contests: SakuraCon, Kawaii Kon, Agamacon, and Anime Boston. SakuraCon has given an unofficial extension until Saturday but shhh it's always best to get those videos in before the last minute. Still haven't woken up from your post-Christmas food coma? Slipping into your post-Valentines cheap candy coma? Have no fear! There will be plenty more contests coming in the next few months. I heard our pals down at AMV Central have a pretty dope calendar to keep you organized during this frantic time. Let the late, caffeine-fueled nights and avoiding of all other hobbies begin!
With that, dear readers, I wanted to solicit some opinions and views of the convention contest structures. I sent questions to convention contest coordinators about their views on the current convention contest scene. Hopefully his answers will inform you and make you think about your own opinions on these contests. Please use the questions below as reference to the answers provided by the coordinators.
From a coordinators POV: 1. In your experience, how has the convention contest scene changed over the years? 2. Has there been anything that has remained constant in these contests? 3. How arduous is the work up to the contest, including coordinating prescreening and printing ballots? 4. Is there anything you would like editors to keep in mind while they enter their videos into your contest?
From an editors POV 1. How do you feel about the manner categories have changed over the years and between contests? Has this caused any struggles or confusion while you are entering videos? 2. How do you think audiences and contests differ between smaller and larger conventions? 3. How do you feel about freshness vs. award limits on videos? 4. What method of entering do you believe is the easiest? 5. What is something you would like other contest coordinators to know that might make the convention contest experience better for editors?
1. Over 50% of all entries arrive in the last few days. 2. Drama is always the most entered category. 3. Depending on how professional a coordinator wants their show to look, planning and scheduling as much as you can is crucial. 2 months is a golden number for deadline to show. The most stressful part of the entire show is the tech set-up AT con. The more prepared you are, the more likely you are to tackle roadblocks that will come up. 4. We don't appreciate editors waiting until the last minute to enter videos that have been finished for months. Having a lackluster amount of entries a week before the deadline can be very stressful. Also read the rules carefully, specifically grounds for disqualification rules.
Editors POV
1. There is a broader amount of categories. Some conventions even have their own categories unique to their con. It makes you pay close attention to the rules for each contest. 2. Smaller crowds in a packed room tend to have more energy than giant halls full of people. 3. I favor an award limit over freshness. Awards mean they've enjoyed the spotlight. Freshness has no determination on how much it's circulated. 4. I appreciate a digital entry form that includes the option to leave a link instead of uploading to their own site or ftp. 5. Make your contest with the assumption all your finalists will be at your contest.
Coordinator POV: 1. The expectations in most cases are higher on how you present a contest. The biggest change has been the move to HD, pretty much becoming the standard and so quality has improved. Also, seems less people seem to know have a good understanding of encoding as it's gotten a lot more automated and templated. 2. People still go to AMV contest a lot and that remains popular. 3. The AMV contest is one of the most hardest contest to run and takes the most time to prepare. This has not really changed a lot but as expectations are higher it has added more to the work load. 4. Reading and following the rules. A lot of times some of the most simplest things are overlooked. Also, please keep in mind file sizes for judging and presentation, especially in large contests with many judges who have to download them all it makes a difference. It's important to have good quality, but not to overkill it with too large bit rates and file sizes.
1. I've been organizing AMV contests for about 7 years now, and one change that I noticed is that contests have become a lot more competitive than what they used to be. Due to both the increase in quantity and quality of the entries, its become increasingly harder for even veteran editors to make finals. Although this can be discouraging for a lot of participants, its causing the overall quality of contests to increase and motivate even more aspiring editors to try their hand at competing. So that's definitely a good thing. 2. Although the number of entries that contests receive has gone up over the years, the weight distribution among categories have stayed about the same. Action and Drama have always received the most entries. And Comedy has always gotten the least. I do believe that there has been a significant spike in the quality of the videos in the Trailer and Upbeat categories though. 2016 was actually a insanely strong year for both of them. 3. Preparing for a contest is a lot more difficult thnn most people realize. There are so many small details that go into a contest that can easily ruin the entire event if left unnoticed. And so the month before the convention is usually one of the busiest and most stressful times of my year (second only to the actual day of the contest). I pretty much spend every single day at my computer sending emails, testing files, creating images and signage for the event, coordinating with tech ops and the logistics department, and also coordinating all the other AMV events that happen before and after the contest. Its one of those job that looks easy if done right, but crashes and burns if half-assed. 4. Please save the extremely high bitrate/ 1080p 60fps versions of your video for youtube or online distribution. 720P is usually perfectly fine and won't risk crashing the contest. has Vietnam flashback to MomoCon 2015
Editor POV
1. I haven't really noticed a lot of changes as a whole. Some individual contests have made slight alterations to the naming of their categories, but for the most part, they've remained the same. More contests have started to bring back their trailer categories now that the genre is off of life support though. So I'm definitely a fan of that. 2. I think that audiences are pretty much the same everywhere. I used to think that I was fairly good at predicting how a particular audience would vote or react to a specific video, but its impossible to tell these days. Small conventions used to be the places where you'd see more surprise results, but honestly, it happens at big cons as well. 3. I usually retire my vids after a couple of months or once they've won X number of awards. And so the freshness/ award limit rules of contests rarely apply to anything that I'd want to submit. But freshness rules make a lot more sense IMO. Having an award limit puts pressure on the coordinator to research the videos and every contest that they've won at. Its a lot easier to simply look at the video's youtube page or org upload date, and its a lot easier to ensure that the rule is being applied to everyone equally. 4. IMO, the best submission method is to simply have a google form (or something similar) and allow participants to paste links to a file hosting site. No offense to coordinators that do this, but telling participants to copy and past the information into a email, send you a txt document, or request upload permissions feels like unnecessary steps. There are so many contests bidding for editor's attention that having a unnecessarily long or complicated submission process makes the process daunting sometimes. 5. Always ask not only yourself but also your audience what you can do better or how you can improve. Watching the exact same show every single year can get boring after a while. Also, it really helps when you put the convention date in your contest thread.
Coordinator POV: 1. Compared to when I started staffing contests 11 years ago, I feel that the scene on the convention side has changed dramatically, but for the better. More conventions are realizing the value of fan-created music videos and their consistent pull for their audience, especially in comparison to their declining panel and video room attendances. The entire convention scene, in my observation, has changed to the point where panels are being overshadowed by mass socializing and with more showy or involved events like raves and rock concerts. Fan-created video events usually work to similarly include their viewer in many of the events, like Comedy blocks. 2. Other than falling into the same categories year-to-year, not much else stays truly constant in an AMV contest IMHO. There always tends to be those stand-out videos that come across the table of a coordinator that also hook the audience of the convention. Also, even though many complain of videos being "trolled" to multiple conventions, because there are many who can only afford to go to no more than a couple of conventions a year, the videos end up with essentially a brand new audience at every convention. 3. It depends on how you approach the work as to if it becomes a pain. Once you have templates crafted and experience in place, a contest can become a lot easier from year-to-year. 4. First and foremost should be doing a lot more learning and working more on the technical side of things. Over the years I have been seeing little minor technical issues creep in: bad or shifting Aspect Ratios, orphan frames, inconsistent unrelated lip flap... there is just so much that comes into contests that could have been good videos had these minor technical issues been resolved. Show your video to others, especially those with experience, and let them help guide you to a better video.
From an Editor's POV
1. It typically has not been any issue for me. I usually create videos along "major" category lines, and usually I try to adapt whenever I want to fit a video into a contest with categories usually against the norm. 2. Smaller conventions can be more intimate experiences and more invested in AMV events, whereas larger conventions tend to draw more towards socializing between people rather than attending panels and workshops. AMVs will always have fans, just that the larger the convention, especially one without an entrenched base, the harder time it will be of getting con-goers drawn into the contest and related AMV events. 3. Freshness and award limits not only keep videos rotating but also gives creators experience and chances to progress and improve. Also, a video that tends to dominate contest awards tend to lead to negative depression withing creators and thus less involvement in convention contests. Even if it is unintentional, it is still there, and without a mechanism to control that, creators will not have the drive to continue to try better and feel like they will have a better chance the next time around. Creators have to feel like their projects have a chance in a contest, and I would agree as a creator that these limits are the best compromise towards that. 4. The method that allows me to easily enter information, provide a file directly to the coordinator, and has the coordinator able to respond if there are issues with the entry form or upload. 5. Always make creators feel like they are part of the events at every stage. Invite them to meet with you at the convention and have live awards ready for them should they be at the convention. Incorporate creator-specific panel events like creator spotlights and AMV request blocks when you can, so that creators have the power to show their works to the audience.
5. The conventions are for the attendees, and most attendees can only afford to go to one convention a year. Just because your video's been to convention "A" doesn't mean everyone at "B" has had a chance to see your work. Submitting isn't fishing. Send us your videos, please.
Now readers, I shall guilt trip you into thinking about these questions and posting your opinions and/or rants in the thread I have made in the AMV Contests subforum found here.
Gasp! How could I ask you to do something? Well this is a give and take relationship we are in right now and discussions are the backbone of this community. Also, that tie does not suit you. Now, post post post!
Valentines Day Special! 15 Years of AMV Romance Index
Did you miss our Valentines Day social media blitz? This year we celebrated Valentine's Day and our annual Viewer's Choice Awards by showcasing 15 years of AMVs that were voted "Best Romantic Video".
it's always best to get those videos in before the last minute. Still haven't woken up from your post-Christmas food coma? Slipping into your post-Valentines cheap candy coma? Have no fear! There will be plenty more contests coming in the next few months. I heard our pals down at AMV Central have a pretty dope calendar to keep you organized during this frantic time. Let the late, caffeine-fueled nights and avoiding of all other hobbies begin!
