So...do you have to be...

[trythil]

an AMV Editor to be able to tell the difference between a good amv and a bad one?

Not really. Some people* would say that all AMVs suck for legal reasons**, despite having no obvious involvement in the hobby.

* mailto: doesn't work. This is the closest I could get.
** Yay, double entendre.

[ZephyrStar]

an AMV Editor to be able to tell the difference between a good amv and a bad one?

Not really. Some people* would say that all AMVs suck for legal reasons**, despite having no obvious involvement in the hobby.

* mailto: doesn't work. This is the closest I could get.
** Yay, double entendre.

*mailto: sage
(for Some People)

Good and Bad, matters of opinion, yes, but what about Ugly?

Take even some of the best work you see here, and post it on some "professional" forums, and get your ass laughed off there. "wait, you just used a bunch of somebody else's footage to somebody else's song" They won't even consider how good of an editor you are. The best comment you might get is "oh hey, anime is not my thing, so it was just alright :/"

At the same time, some of the work on those "professional" forums looks like it was edited by a 2 year old, and the argument is basically "yeah, but it's HD, I shot it with $5000 camera." But that's a whole nother bag o' worms.

/me digresses

[BasharOfTheAges]

although it's helpful to keep you from being labled a troll if you can tell somebody why you don't like their stuff.

Really? Some of the best trolls on here and everywhere else on the interwebs are really good at making it look (to the untrained eye) like they're being completely sincere (or completely ignorant if that suits their aims better). Now, you have assholes and trolls. Trolls are sophisticated assholes in many cases - they know how not to look like assholes.

[qyll]

I don't think you have to be an editor to be able to tell the difference between a good video and a bad video. Once a video is good enough - it's only a matter of personal preference. The Great Gatsby will always be better written than a random fanfiction.com Harry Potter story(I'm generalizing), but comparing Gatsby to The Catcher in the Rye will elicit conflicting opinions. Though perhaps a crazy 10 year old may like Harry Potter more than Fitzgerald - well, it's all in their tastes I guess. And Zephyr makes a good point => I've seen some stuff done by the guys up at the Vancouver Film School and it blows me away and then I wonder what I'm still doing editing AMVs.

Editing does help, but really isn't necessary. Which is why rejecting someone's opinion because that person does not edit (or draw, or paint, or write, or etc.) is a bad idea. Roger Ebert isn't known for his directing, right?

[ZephyrStar]

although it's helpful to keep you from being labled a troll if you can tell somebody why you don't like their stuff.

Really? Some of the best trolls on here and everywhere else on the interwebs are really good at making it look (to the untrained eye) like they're being completely sincere (or completely ignorant if that suits their aims better). Now, you have assholes and trolls. Trolls are sophisticated assholes in many cases - they know how not to look like assholes.

Tis true, but they usually both fit into the category of "unskilled"

I guess my point is that no matter what you do, people will hate it. And the argument "oh yeah, where's yours" doesn't really hold up, because people don't have to make it to be critics of it. So, you can learn a good deal from actually listening to what a troll/asshole has to say about your stuff...it's like free (although probably not constructive) criticism

[ZephyrStar]

bleh...sorry for a double post, but qyll summed it up nicely.

Also

then I wonder what I'm still doing editing AMVs

I know what you mean :/

[RichLather]

You don't have to be an AMV editor, much like you don't have a film director to appreciate good movies, but watching crappy AMVs and understanding why they're crappy will help you to become a better editor.