I absolutely loved your "Perfect Day" video this year Brad. It was a uplifting theme that seemed to fit perfectly with Kodacha. I remember watching fansubs of this series on VHS tapes back in high school.MisterFurious wrote:Okay, time to put in my two cents.
I agree with a lot of the others, that it seems odd that such a funny video as "Death Note Rhapsody" was allowed to stay in Drama. A general audience is going to vote for the funniest video regardless of whether it's correct for its category.
I will give the judges the benefit of the doubt. Since they probably saw the video more than once, they were able to get over the initial comic shock of L singing "Galileo" and break it down and see if it really was a drama video. On subsequent viewings, I'm sure the drama stands out more.
However, the judges forgot one thing. The audience would only get one chance to see the video before voting. Therefore, they would vote based on their initial reaction ("this is freakin' hilarious"), and audiences like laughing a lot more than the deep introspection brought on by the other drama finalists.
Were I judging the contest, I would invoke a rule that if a video makes the judges laugh their ass off the first time they see it, it needs to be moved into comedy, because that's how the audience will react to it. Heck, people laughed more at "Death Note Rhapsody" than my comedy entry! That should be a big hint that something is wrong.
I also can see Vlad's point that it seems weird that the audience is the final arbiter of what is "Best of Show." For the record, the only reason I won AX 2006 was because back then, Audience Favorite, Creator's Favorite, Staff Favorite, and Judge's Favorite were all given equal weight in determining the "Best of Show." Had Audience Favorite been the sole criterion, then Castor's "Battle of Epic Proportions" would have won. Instead, he and I were in a tie that was broken by the judges. However, I can also see the rationale in letting the audience be the deciding factor, since they might feel slighted that their favorite video didn't actually win (I still remember getting some flak for "stealing" Best of Show from Castor).
Overall, I was pleased at the diversity of videos. I was thoroughly entertained, and there was a broad base of videos. But yes, the sound was too loud.
As I always say, every convention is different. The reaction Rider got to "Lord of the Anime" at Fanime had me so convinced that she was going to take it all at AX (and her video screened stretched there, too). Even more puzzling was the lack of uproarious response to "Robots." Do the AX attendees not know the hilarious awesomeness of that video? Maybe Fanime has more Mac users.
But the jury is still out for me. Are the humans dead?
As for the entry itself, personally, I felt this was a better fit for the Drama category than some of the others. Drama entries shouldn't have laughter involved in my opinion. Cheering or silent awe usually dictates if this is done properly during a screening. Comedy is the one category where the should be non-stop laughter.
This is the 2nd time in a row that my panel room ran your AMV 101 panel. As an AX Staffer, I am the room manager for Live Programming 3. As always, it has been fun having your panel in our room again this year. I always find something new to learn from you guys and it is always entertaining to watch your older classics (Bride of Berserk) and your newer Baccano video. Learning from people such as Vlad and yourself has helped me becoming a better and stronger AMV editor.
Someone said that if you made it to the contest, you've won already. This could be seen as true. I suppose given the prestige the AX contest has been known to have over the years, being in the final cut should stand for something. Unfortunately, popularity contests always seem to beat out skilled editing in some contests. As a general note, audiences only look for something that stands out based on song or the anime; whatever seems recongizable or popular. While as a whole, "Death Note Rhapsody" was entertaining, but along with the overall theme of it being more comedy based, I found some quirks with the editing that did not make it a viable contender for my vote in the Drama category.
