Judging AMVs: a rigorous approach

Beowulf · Post by **Beowulf** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 5:36 pm

mikestrife wrote:
Beowulf wrote:In all seriousness, if anyone is trying to get a legitimate balanced contest off the ground and needs, judges, send me a PM. I'd gladly judge it or help out in any way.

I'm very opinionated and judgmental but I'm also very GOOD, so it will balance out
I was at Anime North this year and in the AMV creators party that weekend we were discussing how the judging was and who we thought should have won and so on. This post just reminded me because two of the guys there were saying how Beowulf should be the judge of any amv comp.

thats so fucking awesome, lolz

guy07 · Post by **guy07** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 5:42 pm

The AN party,the one my friend dragged me away from befor anyone showed up? People actully went? and it was fun? Fuck

And i was all drunk and ready to have fun too. Stupid friends, who needs them anyways?
And i still stand by my pervious statement, hobby,enjoy, no complaining ect.

inthesto · Post by **inthesto** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:50 pm

mikestrife wrote:
Beowulf wrote:In all seriousness, if anyone is trying to get a legitimate balanced contest off the ground and needs, judges, send me a PM. I'd gladly judge it or help out in any way.

I'm very opinionated and judgmental but I'm also very GOOD, so it will balance out :up:
I was at Anime North this year and in the AMV creators party that weekend we were discussing how the judging was and who we thought should have won and so on. This post just reminded me because two of the guys there were saying how Beowulf should be the judge of any amv comp.

Yeah, all...four of us?

Beowulf · Post by **Beowulf** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 10:37 pm

I demand you to name names!

ngsilver · Post by **ngsilver** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 10:59 am

BasharOfTheAges wrote:2. It's been done a few times before. If anyone wants to admit one of their "contempt for audience - and done to prove a point" videos was just that they can (and should do so in this very thread if they're so inclined). I can point to a few that are most likely that kind of video.

Dance 2.0 nuff said... (grant it, I still enjoyed making the video, so I also made it for my enjoyment) it was a crowd pleaser, and made just for that purpose because Dance!!! got such rave reviews at cons voted by the audinece.

As for the major question in this thread... I just pick a panel consisting of 2 editors (because they know editing and tend to be biased to crowd pleasers) 2 AMV fans (because they like the crowd pleasers) and then 2 random members of the audince. The votes tend to ballance themselves out this way. And if there is a tie, I break them by casting my unbiased vote... well... as unbiased as I can be...

In the end, I don't really think it matters how a contest is judged, because in the end the awards really don't matter. I put more weight into AWA Pro because the awards were given by other creators, but even then I couldn't give a damn. I submit my videos to cons simply to get the videos noticed by people. Beyond that, I couldn't care less... though I really want one of those Masters jackets ^^

DriftRoot · Post by **DriftRoot** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 9:29 am

For this thread to really hold water, the following should take place:

Every editor here who's upheld the complaint that most con AMV winners suck and generally bashed the hell out of them and who ARE con winners should voluntarily strip all mention of awards from their various a-m-v.org places, express extreme shame at being associated with fellow sucky editors and renounce all convention contests for the rest of their mortal lives. Otherwise you're all a bunch of egotistical hypocrites and we all know it.

(In a good way, where's AMVing without a little friendly competition?)

"But Drift, MY video was really good! It deserved to win!"

Therax: I think the unbalanced AMV thing you're seeing is just that it's extremely difficult to create a perfect AMV. There's nothing weird about this at all, in fact, it's to be expected. People tend to have better skills in certain areas and exploit/show them off as much as possible, which isn't a bad thing at all. If every AMV out there was properly balanced (by which you mean, I'm assume, the editor did everything right) they'd all be masterpieces. Criterion used to judge AMVs that are not masterpieces (aka balanced) thus "devolve" into narrower categories such as timing, effects, story, emotional baggage, etc. that operate on a more subjective level, in terms of which is more important than the others.

ngsilver · Post by **ngsilver** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 10:58 am

aww... by I like my ego lifting mentions of awards I've won ^^

Not to mention that some of these awards just look really cool sitting on my dresser! ^^

I dont care if I win or not... but if I do I sure as hell am going to toute that fact like the egotistical /b/tard that I am ^^

Therax · Post by **Therax** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 4:31 am

DriftRoot wrote:Therax: I think the unbalanced AMV thing you're seeing is just that it's extremely difficult to create a perfect AMV. There's nothing weird about this at all, in fact, it's to be expected. People tend to have better skills in certain areas and exploit/show them off as much as possible, which isn't a bad thing at all.

I agree 100%, which is why I believe there's a place for the existing awards, and that many of the award-winning videos out there absolutely deserve their awards. I am not proposing to throw the existing award system out! That said, I think there are a lot of videos that are deserving of recognition that don't get it, partly because they don't lodge themselves in audiences' minds with a single, focused, mind-blowing technique.

DriftRoot wrote:If every AMV out there was properly balanced (by which you mean, I'm assume, the editor did everything right) they'd all be masterpieces. Criterion used to judge AMVs that are not masterpieces (aka balanced) thus "devolve" into narrower categories such as timing, effects, story, emotional baggage, etc. that operate on a more subjective level, in terms of which is more important than the others.

Do I think it's hard to make a balanced AMV? YES!
Do I think a "masterpiece" AMV is well-balanced? YES!
Do I expect most videos subjected to a balanced set of judging criteria to stack up well against the rubric's ideals? NO!
Do I think the AMV community as a whole should encourage the creation of "masterpieces?" Of course I do!

AWA Masters is dead and gone. AWA Pro is a fantastic contest, but it doesn't offer the type of in-depth analysis and breakdown that I'm proposing. It can't, precisely because it's major draw -- including every participant as a judge -- makes the logistics for in-depth judging infeasible. I hold that I'm trying to create a new kind of contest; a new forum where videos are judged based on how well they match up to that pie-in-the-sky video we'd all like to make: the video that is first-rate in every conceivable way.

(In a bit of candor, I don't think any of my own videos would stack up to this rubric well at all!)

JudgeHolden · Post by **JudgeHolden** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 1:41 pm

Beowulf wrote:
mikestrife wrote:
Beowulf wrote:In all seriousness, if anyone is trying to get a legitimate balanced contest off the ground and needs, judges, send me a PM. I'd gladly judge it or help out in any way.

I'm very opinionated and judgmental but I'm also very GOOD, so it will balance out
I was at Anime North this year and in the AMV creators party that weekend we were discussing how the judging was and who we thought should have won and so on. This post just reminded me because two of the guys there were saying how Beowulf should be the judge of any amv comp.
thats so fucking awesome, lolz

Oh, that would mean I could enter my epic two hour video "Panty Wars"

godix · Post by **godix** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 4:17 pm

DriftRoot wrote:For this thread to really hold water, the following should take place:

Every editor here who's upheld the complaint that most con AMV winners suck and generally bashed the hell out of them and who ARE con winners should voluntarily strip all mention of awards from their various a-m-v.org places, express extreme shame at being associated with fellow sucky editors and renounce all convention contests for the rest of their mortal lives. Otherwise you're all a bunch of egotistical hypocrites and we all know it. (In a good way, where's AMVing without a little friendly competition?)

Does openly mocking the award I won and making the video unavailable because I think it sucks count? Cause I've <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... 4921">done that</a>. As far all you other sucky editors, I think I've made my feelings abundantly clear about them over the last few years.