AWA 2005 Pro Contest Discussion Thread

[The Wired Knight]

I got the idea of a common thread, and you know, by the third video I got the point. After that it felt monotonous. As a few others have said, I'm not necessarily complaining about the CONCEPT of the video, I'm complaining about the length.

Pointing out that it's the Pro contest is a moot point, consider proffessional movie critics or book reviews. No matter HOW good your film or novel is, if you are trying to get something across, polt or thematically speaking, there is a point where it is understood and going further makes it redundant or hard to watch/read. As a result, interest is lost and so can the point. This video I think crossed that line and just got redundant.

Take the movie Gettysburg, I love this movie, as a historical film it is both enjoyable and educational (wish I could find a better word than that). BUT the film is four hours long, this is far too long for such a film considering that most of it consists of watching the battles, sure there is relevent information both historically and in terms of plot within that time but it still drags on for far too long and unless you are REALLY in the mood, you can't just sit and watch this movie at a given notice.



On a related note: Does anyone else find it amusing that if you pull up ALL the videos entered in the PRO on a-m-v.org in the super search, less than HALF of them were actually on those DVDs.

[doughboy]

Does anyone else find it amusing that if you pull up ALL the videos entered in the PRO on a-m-v.org in the super search, less than HALF of them were actually on those DVDs.

Seems like quite a few people think that Expo, Pro, and Masters are the same contest.

What's really funny is that one of them seems to think "Windows Movie Maker" is their studio.

[Scintilla]

What's really funny is that one of them seems to think "Windows Movie Maker" is their studio.

That's actually a fairly common problem and has been for the past year or two, as far as I've seen from browsing the catalog.

[WalterScott]

I simply believe that discussion around a particular video should be based around its actual editing skill/quality etc., very little of which was actually happening (a bit more is now).

Bingo.

I think part of the dues for entering Pro is to put some effort into judging and give each video a fair shake. With very few exceptions (due to sheer offensiveness) I try to watch each one several times, especially if they are a finalist. I pay attention to lyrics. In the case of a few videos, including the long one, I looked up lyrics online and read them.

I also think you have to watch out in judging in how much you "enjoyed" or were entertained by a video vs how it stacked up in a particular category. For example, action videos are generally not my cup of tea. But I still try to root through the submissions and vote for the best damn action video I see.

I found a similar factor applied to the Manson video. Let's face it, it is dark. Unrelentingly dark. Each time I was going to rewatch it I thought "gee, I could do this, or I could watch Grave of the Fireflies again" (note - I think GotF is a masterpiece, and I doubt I'll <i>ever</i> watch it a second time) "or maybe I could just kill myself instead."

But, you know, I did get more out of it each time, especially after reading up a bit more on Manson. The Key segment I found to be the most effective, unfortunately that was at the very end. One quote I found seemed to particularly fit the amv: <i>Don't expect the end of the world to come one day out of the blue - it's been happening every day for a long time.</i>

I think this one will stay in my collection, in the "difficult listening hour" folder right next to tom the fish's "True = False" video from 2 years ago.

[MCWagner]

If it wins, it should be played in its entirety, because that is what was voted for...the ENTIRE work. Let the audience decide whether we are worthy to be considered professional judges of the genre, or practitioners of the art.

Although the entire video will be shown at the convention, if it wins we will not be able to show it in its entirity during the awards ceremony. We're up against a hard time limit this year, as we're followed by a musical group and we can't run even five minutes over. A select segment will be shown during the awards, with the entire video shown at some other time.

We've had to do this once before, five or six years ago, when someone sent us a 17 minute video done to Lain and segments of Pink Floyd's "The Wall".

[Lord Rae]

Although if I remember right the lain video didn't get shown at all at the awards ceremony...later I'm sure as awa is very good about that...but I've still never seen it.. heh.

[MCWagner]

Although if I remember right the lain video didn't get shown at all at the awards ceremony...later I'm sure as awa is very good about that...but I've still never seen it.. heh.

I'm pretty sure it did... but it was so flippin' long ago I can't even remember who did it.

[Brad]

So, how about those other videos in the contest that aren't 26 minutes long? Let's bitch about those

[Beowulf]

I really wish the Jonny Cash video was better edited. The concept was very fresh and the song fit perfectly with the weird vibe the video had, but the editing in the middle and ending section was just downright weak. I really wanted to like that video because its so ORIGINAL and arty but the editing really killed my enjoyment of it.

[Brad]

I really wish the Jonny Cash video was better edited. The concept was very fresh and the song fit perfectly with the weird vibe the video had, but the editing in the middle and ending section was just downright weak. I really wanted to like that video because its so ORIGINAL and arty but the editing really killed my enjoyment of it.

That's the exact same thing I thought when I watched it. Weird.