Fair enough. It depends on your intention I suppose. I've made plenty of videos I thought were "fun," but not "serious" or whatnot and also made videos purely to test my technical abilities (or lack thereof). It's all about intent (and what you want to get out of it).Doomimus wrote:Then again, I think that those of us who take the hobby seriously do take both questions into consideration. Personally, I prioritize entertainment value above all else. I've seen videos that demonstrate superb technical skill (the kind I admittedly wish I had), with all sorts of special effects, lip-syncing, masking, etc., but leave me cold and don't exactly make me rush back for a second viewing. This is taking it to a logical extreme, of course, and I think technical skill can and should be the deciding factor in choosing the better of two videos that are equally entertaining. By this token, I feel that in the past, I've rightfully lost to videos that excelled both these areas.
In all fairness, I have not watched your video (or any video since like 2008) so it wasn't a snipe at you so no worries. I am just commenting on a common trend that I've been seeing since around 2005. I obviously have my own preferences, but I voice them with my one vote (as does everyone else) and I accept the results accordingly.Doomimus wrote:I don't think incorporating comedy into AMVs is necessarily going down the path of least resistance (whether your aim is to win or simply to please yourself), provided the comedy is genuinely funny and fits the overall theme of the video. This isn't always easy to do. In fact, I had a heck of a time trying to piece the audio and video footage together in the best way possible for the AMG video.
As noted in my first reply, the audience is entitled to vote for what they enjoy and it's silly for us to force them to our "standards" of what is "acceptable" and whatnot. Even if TsunamiX and I disagreed with the video that won in 2005, we still accept the result. Otakon would prefer a more "fun" and audience participation contest which is why they go with an audience vote. If they wanted a more "serious" contest, they'd go with selected judges (i.e. AWA Pro/Masters). In submitting a video to Otakon's contest, we are submitting to their rules, which is fair.
I think that's pretty much all that matters and the right attitude towards any video you make. At the same time, it's also nice to win once in awhile. Were you at Otakon? At first it's a bit daunting to pick up your awards in front of a large audience, but it still gives you a warm fuzzyDoomimus wrote:At any rate, I'm very pleased with the results, and even if I hadn't won in the Romance category (which I'm very grateful for), or even made it to the finalists, I would've felt the same way.
.I don't blame you since as you said, it was very different from anything else I've submitted (a more upbeat/slapstick romance video). At the same time, the fact I won kind of goes back to your point earlierTsunamiX wrote: Sorry, I did forget about 2007 (probably because that video had been a different style than your winning videos in those other two years).
. In any case, I was just commenting since more than one person has commented on me being "old school" or that I haven't been editing in FOREVER and that's not entirely true...it's only been 2 years >_>. I've said a million times, but hopefully I'll finish this one video that's been half done forever and submit to Otakon some day. 
In any case, this is the first Otakon I've missed since I started attending, but I still congratulate both the winners and finalists. Otakon has (almost) always been a well-run (I had to add almost since I forgot about a few coordinators in the past
), highly competitive and respected AMV contest and all of you should be proud.
