First, what is your definition of an AMV?
Simply, it is a music video using a combination of song and anime.
However, in a more definitive sense to me, its the mix of both the song and the anime to promote sources and hopefully help create an atmosphere which creatively combines the connection between them, as well as, the way we perceive the anime and the song on its own.
This leads to... How do you feel about the directions that AMVs are heading?
Though most AMVs are pretty consistent and doesn't really try to break away from this definition in my eyes, there are many that cross these bounds into what some people call 'digital art' (not really sure how to define this, if I did, then it would probably lead into questions of whether all AMVs are digital art...etc..). Some examples of these 'conceptual' videos can be found hereand here.
I'm not quite sure whether to like such videos as AMVs. Technically, they are very very competent, but I just don't really feel any kind of appeal towards them. They merely use the anime and the song as a vessel for me, and no substantial connection is really made other than using them as plain source to house a certain 'concept.'
What about those videos that change or create their own 'story' using anime characters that we know, you ask? Though those videos do use the anime(s) as a vessel as well, they usually also play upon the connections we have as an audience towards the characters, we merely see a different side of these characters, not necessarily just using them to further a concept.
I suppose I'm also asking what it is within AMVs that we are hoping to see in terms of originality. There are people that say 'concept' is the biggest thing that defines originality for AMV, but if the 'concept' takes over the whole video, aren't we just left with a video that is purely that and doesn't really matter what anime or song (or combination of both) is used? (same thing could be said for effects, theme, etc..) So, yes I feel that the AMV is lost within the concept and is no longer an AMV, not necessarily a bad thing, it just loses it's appeal to me.
I have similar gripes towards many MADs, though fun, I find it hard to see them as an 'evolution' or 'going beyond' AMVs. They have a different appeal altogether, but I find it difficult to be impressed by most of them. Not to say all MADs are the same, but they do suffer the same monotony that many AMVs do within their own realm.
Sorry, my thoughts are kinda all over the place on this one... there's a lot more I could say but I'd just like to hear people's thoughts on this.
Short version: Koop doesn't find 'concept' videos appealing. How about you?
