Anime North AMV Contest 2007

[TaranT]

(For those who don't have access to the mailing list...)

Anime North AMV contest report

Scheduled for 21:30 at the auditorium of the Toronto Congress Centre,
the show actually started at 22:10. By my count there were between
300 and 400 people in attendance, a sizeable crowd but lots of empty
seats. Four big screens and a powerful sound system made it easy for
all to see and hear, but one problem was that the theatre was absolutely
freezing cold. The girl who handed out the prizes (and whose only job was
to physically hand out the prizes as the coordinator announced
them, I'm not sure why) was a scantily-clad Pikachu who
was clearly feeling very, very cold.

I will talk about the AMVs shown and the crowd's reactions. Information
will be quite incomplete since no programme was available, and no title
cards were shown (unless the editor made their own, but those were
either too hard to read or faded too quickly). Comments are my own,
take them with a grain of salt since my idiosyncrasy towards AMVs
is such that I pretty much hate 99% of all vids, and in return my
own vids are pretty much universally reviled. The applause at the
end is probably the best gauge as to how the AMV was received.

Show starts with the "challenge" finalists (using old anime as source).

1. Akira/Not To Touch The Earth
Holy distortion Batman! Sound is pretty bad, but I'm not sure
it detracted all that much from the AMV. It didn't make much
sense to me but the audience seemed interested. Light applause.

2. City Hunter/Big Poppa
Good sync but I couldn't make out the lyrics (even though the sound
problems seemed to have been fixed). I have "feisty" in my notes.
Sound is OK now. Applause.

3. Megazone 23 Part 2/Destination Unknown
An action AMV with some OK lyric sync. Rather generic IMO, but then
again, I stopped caring about action vids some time ago. Light applause.

4. Grave of the Fireflies/? (an old-time song)
Audience was a bit bored with this one (saw some people yawning).
It had a lot of literal lyric sync (which the editor seemed to have
given up upon in the end) and my impression is that it's good-hearted
but bland. Some people liked the match between the oldie song and
the WW2 theme, but to me it's rather obvious and not that interesting.
Light applause.

5. DBZ/Montage (that South Park song)
I rather hate it when the audience applauds the moment an AMV based
on a popular anime starts. It kinda shows where the real priorities
lie. I should be used to it by now, but anyway. So a DBZ montage set
to a song about montages. The audience liked it, although I think that
near the end the joke got a wee bit old for people. Still, respectable
applause.

Show now continues with "novice".

6. Final Fantasy XII/Serenity end credits song
AMV starts with a "Serenity" quote, audience goes wild, my eyes roll
to the back of my head. A typical FF epic AMV, it really felt generic
to me. Applause.

7. Castle in the Sky/Keep Holding On
Good sync, both lyrical and rhythmical. Very strong AMV, the best of
the show in my opinion. Strong applause.

My notes got messed up from this point on, order may not be as
shown.

8. Mezzo TV/Land of Confusion
I may not like action vids, but I can tell a good one when I see
it and this was pretty good. Very strong, and very, very, very loud
(I actually had to cover my ears). Some head-bangers in the audience
really loved it. Light applause, though (perhaps people were just
too dazed in the end).

9. Cowboy Bebop/Living in the Fridge
A one-note joke, I thought, and rather uneven at that. There are
a couple of clever sight gags and the audience laughed, but not
that much it seemed to me. I guess it was OK. Applause.

10. Noir/Two Lost Souls
I think this video was OK. It's not particularly memorable to
me, but then again I forget 90% of the stuff I watch. I thought
that it suffered a bit as a serious vid coming right after a
comedic one, and hence light applause.

11. Full Metal Panic?/Sexy Back
A fan-service vid. Audience _loves_ it. I didn't care for it.
Regardless, strong applause.

12. Weiss Kreuz/Rock Star?
Action vid with OK sync. I thought it was pretty generic, but
the hard-rock crowd really enjoyed it. Light applause, though
(again, auscultatory nerve damage may have been the culprit).

13. BCG 2040 + ? /?
I really couldn't tell what this vid was about, either because
it didn't make much sense to begin with or it's somewhat subtle
and requires repeated viewings. I'll give it the benefit of
the doubt and assume the latter. I think the audience didn't
quite get it either. Light applause.

14. Various/? (some song about shit)
Scatological humour. Not my thing. Audience eats it up (get it?)
OK, lots and lots of laughs, and tremendous applause at the end.

15. Various/?
Lip sync. As far as I can tell it's just about the various characters
lip-syncing the song. It's good lip sync, though. Then again, it's
_only_ lip sync. It got its respectable round of applause in the end.

16. Bleach/Sam, the Guy From Quincy
Well, the audience laughed a lot. I don't know why, but I'm humour-
impaired so I guess it really was funny, and it did get a good
round of applause in the end.

17. End Of Summer/White Houses
Light applause.

18. Various/Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me
Although it wasn't funny to me at least I can tell why it's funny,
and with an added touch of fan-service the audience really loved
this AMV. It was well made and got huge laughs and very strong
applause.

19. ?/?
Something happens in space set to something that sounds like
Enya. I thought it was nice but after a comedy video the audience's
enthusiasm grounded to a halt. It got light applause.

20. Final Fantasy XII/?
An action/epic FF AMV (how very original!) This one was very well
edited though, with impeccable pacing. The coda of the song arguably
detracted from the momentum it manages to generate near the end and
the applause wasn't as strong as it deserved.

21. Earth Girl Arjuna/Mad World
Very heavy-handed AMV, far too serious for the overall tone of the
show. I didn't like it, but I may just be biased because of the
terrible context (as in, big flashy con show). Light applause.

22. Dogtato/? (instrumental)
A truly WTF entry. The _least_ cynical AMV I've ever seen, cute
to a fault. So unrelentingly saccharine one has to admire the
editor for that sheer audaciousness. This one I will not soon forget.
Light applause.

23. Various/Fly
Save for a brief "Sound of Music" clip this is a near MAD clone.
It was well done, but like most MADs it didn't seem to have much
of a point other than being cute and pretty and jpop-y (which I'm
sure is what the editor intended). People laughed and it got a
light applause.

It's 23:30 by now and I'm getting really tired and so, so cold...

24. ?/Maniac
Kinda sorta story AMV which kinda sorta follows "Flashdance" and I
think it was kinda sorta not very good. Light applause.

25. Various/Chronicles of Narnia trailer
Probably the most admired video of the show, and the audience really,
really loves that Totoro roar at the end. Biggest applause by far. It's
very well made... critic-proof, really... but it's not an AMV.
Huge applause and closes the contest at 23:35.

AWARDS

Here's the moment you've all been waiting. And the winners are:

Um, well, I have no idea. Well, I have some idea. There were a lot
of awards, but by that point hypothermia had kicked in, and I find
AN's categories rather Byzantine. It's not "Best Action" but rather
"Criterion Award for Excellence in Editing". Also, I was distracted
by the cute Pikachu girl. In any case, I think 2, 9, 10, 14, 17, 20,
25 won... something or another. Or maybe not.

[harrison29]

well glad to know my challenge video was a finalist, even if people were a little bored and apparently missed the ironic choices as opposed to literal choices at the end... still good to know it was enjoyed.

[shumira_chan]

well glad to know my challenge video was a finalist, even if people were a little bored and apparently missed the ironic choices as opposed to literal choices at the end... still good to know it was enjoyed.

Was it the "Grave of the Fireflies" AMV? The thing about making
subtle connections between what is sung and what is shown...
particularly if it's going to be ironic... is that unless you hit people
over the head with it it's hard to get across (and furthermore, one
person's opinion doesn't mean that others in the audience didn't
get it). It's my contention (which is often disagreed upon) that for
the most part there is a difference between a video that is an
audience-pleaser and a video that's interesting to watch on a
computer where the nuances can be more readily noticed. For
what it's worth, you did make it to the finalists, which wasn't an
easy task given the complicated manner in which AN tallies votes.
Furthermore, speaking to other editors and judges (i.e. the experts)
they really liked your video (and in the case of the judges they
clearly had a chance to watch it carefully and realized what you
were trying to do).

[harrison29]

Hey, thanks shumira_chan! I'm actually quite happy to hear that the judges and editors appreciated my video! Believe me I am quite happy I'm a finalist, I was a finalist as well last year in the novice category and I made it out for that competition so I know how good some of the other entries are. Thanks again for giving me an esteem boost I guess as it were? Hahaha.

[MioMug]

So it did start late. When I arrived I though I missed alot more than I did, shame I missed all but the last challenge video though. damn, have to download them now.

All in all I enjoyed the majority of the Open category. In particular, "Another Crap Video", the one with "everyone has had more sex then me", and the open's FFXII vid.

Time well spent. I wasn't able to see the awards though as I was called away by my cell phone near the end of the final vid, then had to hurry back to my hotel room to deal with a few things.

Hope next year is just as good.

[Osakaness]

From what i remember...


5. DBZ/Montage (that South Park song) - momiji's challenge

13. BCG 2040 + ? /? - HM (Novice)

2. City Hunter/Big Poppa - HM (Challenge)

10. Noir/Two Lost Souls - Novice Award

16. Bleach/Sam, the Guy From Quincy - HM (Open)

17. End Of Summer/White Houses - Artistic Vision Award (I think)

20. Final Fantasy XII/? - Cinematography Award

23. i got my editing award back

18. Various/Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me - Northern Lights Award (best of show)

25. Various/Chronicles of Narnia trailer - Judges Choice

14. Various/? (some song about shit) - Creativity Award

[Fizziks]

Man, I really wanted to go this year to the AMV contest. Hopefully next year I can attend.

Congrats to all the winners!

[guy07]

Aw i didn't win lol

Didn't expect to, glad to hear people actully applaused at the end of my video (i did the mezzo/disturbed one.)

Guess it was a good show, too bad i missed it

[Resk]

I enjoyed your video Guy. It was loud, but I got into it while I was watching it.

I'm still a little surprised I won Cinematography again. But, great job to all the finalists and winners!. It was a really cool show this year!

[inthesto]

The Earth Girl Arjuna video was insanely out of place in the contest, but I really do think it slaughtered nearly everything else in the competition. Definitely my style of video, ironic as that may be as my video was the finalist on the complete opposite end of the spectrum.