The Vent Thread

[Otohiko]

Who the hell edits because it's fun?

I'm always on the edges of my creativity and it's just exhausting work

/just started his Madoka amv and already wants to do something else than editing.

Haha, funny, I've started editing for the first time in a while just now and I'm having this whole "why am I editing?" debate with myself right this moment. Coming at it from a different angle, though - I'm very happy to be editing and am having a lot of fun, but I'm also questioning whether the result is gonna be something that anyone but me is actually going to like.

The real problem isn't editing, the real problem is what you're editing for. If it's pure impulse and self-satisfaction, it's gonna outweigh the pain that underlies the technical processes behind it for me. I think you might be very much in the same category of editor as me though - which I suspect is kind of a minority. There are a lot of people in the community who get a genuine kick out of solving the technical problems, producing slick graphics work, and out of competing with each other. I have 0 interest in any of those things and edit on pure impulse, and I more or less refuse to look at editing as anything other than pure montage. If we look objectively at the community, a large swath of it has long moved past being interested in pure montage and moved into the realm of putting motion graphics and other shitty shiny things all over everything - not that I actually have a problem with it and I admire those who are good at it, but I feel like a particular side to what editing is about (simply combining footage with music) is being forgotten. That doesn't make it any more difficult (or any easier) to edit, but it does make getting motivated to put a video out there a bit more complicated.

All that makes for a fun (and exhausting) creative side of it, but ultimately a very unsatisfying experience with both the technical side, and the social pressures from the community to improve and compete (which I can't and don't want to) sometimes drive me nuts.

Bottom line: love/hate is the nature of editing, especially for people with a purely creative motivation for these things.

[BasharOfTheAges]

The desire to improve ones self is healthy. The outright rejection of that urge can be considered a symptom of depression.

[Azexous]

People who fail and yet they ,somehow, find a way you the mistaken one.
Congratz, you just defined family.

[Pwolf]

The desire to improve ones self is healthy. The outright rejection of that urge can be considered a symptom of depression.

x2

[Azexous]

People who fail and yet they ,somehow, find a way you the mistaken one.
Congratz, you just defined family.

they ,somehow, find a way to make you the mistaken one.

Bleh at not being able to edit post.

[Emong]

@Otohiko,

Yes, I think we're on the same side here. I'm not a priori against effects-based amvs. It's not like I don't edit them out of some great principals but simply because I can't use the software needed, nor am I motivated enough to learn it, nor do I really have the equipment. But you're right, even if I could handle all that I'd nevertheless use the effects in an instrumental way, to support the story, mood and sync.

And about having fun etc., I certainly don't get any enjoyment out of the editing process itself. The enjoyment comes afterwards when I get a sense of accomplishment and when I've shared my work with the community and see that people watch and enjoy it. And I'm not ashamed to admit that sharing my work with other people is an essential part of why I edit. Some people seem to think that it's narcissistic but I'd rather think it's the opposite, which is more on the egoistic side: when you edit purely for yourself you're also at the same not giving anything to the community. There's nothing evil about wanting to share your work with others, wanting them to like it and be recognized yourself. Self-expression is a social matter

So yeah, I suppose I edit for two things: for my own sense of accomplishment and for the community, and I need both things equally. I couldn't edit if you took away the other. What I certainly don't edit for is competition. I'm not a very competitive person. I even hate to win a debate because I need to feel equal with others Not saying that competition is necessarily always egoistic but it's just not in my nature. I suppose that's also one of the reasons I never sent anything to cons (I'll be considering it though when I finish my Madoka project. Although I can't really attend any cons myself I like the idea of showing my work on a big screen to lots of people )

@BasharOfTheAges,

I'm getting a little side-tracked here but... I agree to a certain extent but I also tend to think that you cannot have an ideology of hard work and self-improvement without the necessary transgression of anxiety due to social pressure and excessive disappointment with one's self. If you can learn something about the ideological environment of Japan from anime (work ethics, hard discipline, drive towards self-realization and success) then it should give some clues about why the country has such a big hikikomori problem. Depression also results from having expectations that you fail to meet. Sometimes you just need to say "no thanks" to this ideological injunction of working hard to realize your true potential.

Also, I was suddenly reminded of this

[Otohiko]

Also, I was suddenly reminded of this

Haha, good old Zizek. Reminds me also of a lot of what Baudrillard would've said, coming at it from perhaps a somewhat more cynical angle. You might get a kick out of this one, unless you already read it:

Spoiler :

Since I stopped having one, I have become very curious about people's daily schedules. Whatever can they be working at from the moment they wake up? How can they bear having something to do right after breakfast? How can they spin round all day long like fluid in a washbasin, until they reach the orifice of sleep? They tap away at the touch screens of their own lives, on which is perpetually displayed a hysterical daily round, and, from time to time, the ecstatic daily round of empty time.

Those whose time is gobbled up by useless activities cannot even conceive that you have nothing to do. You have to keep up their belief in this illusion, for they then accord you the same artificial respect as they have for their own all-consuming activity. By contrast with the other hysteria - that of slowness and boredom - the uninterrupted dynamism of business is merely the hysteria of dead time.

Modern activities have the same subtle function as scavengers in the desert: by devouring dead time, they leave pure time at our disposal. By putting an end to free time, they deliver us from the anguish of full time.

In the same spirit, we have to be thankful to the politicians who give their all to digesting the corpse of the political sphere - living sarcophagi who protect us from the rotting of a dead body which would otherwise invade the whole of society. All calamities protect us from something worse. Thus, the stupidity of critics must have a higher function - that of protecting us, by the thick layer of intellectual grime they secrete, from the secret violence of judgment which, without them, we would be forced to deploy, and turn round against ourselves.

It is the same with all those who deliver us from the wearisome obligation of managing money, business, leisure and morality. These are all superfluous tasks, happily devolved to the charlatans, predators and speculators, not to mention the waxen-lipped philosophers. Whatever we do, we must not try to correct the illusory nature of their discourse, since that would expose us directly to an unequal contest with stupidity, and with the burden of our freedom.

As far as editing and creative pursuits, you can put on whatever excuses you want, but you can never be completely rid of insecurity about it. Making stuff is hard work, putting it out there is always a risk, especially if you invested feelings into it and are afraid that others are gonna hurt them. But I guess creative risk is what always makes it interesting.

Looking forward to your video then, I guess

[BasharOfTheAges]

Too busy with work to elaborate, but that's just a False Dichotomy followed by a Straw man. You can do better.

[Emong]

As far as editing and creative pursuits, you can put on whatever excuses you want, but you can never be completely rid of insecurity about it. Making stuff is hard work, putting it out there is always a risk, especially if you invested feelings into it and are afraid that others are gonna hurt them. But I guess creative risk is what always makes it interesting.

Looking forward to your video then, I guess

Ah..maybe I have too big of a self-esteem then because I'm always just excited about announcing a new video But then again I'd at least like to think that I can manage criticism pretty well. And thanks, good to know there's already someone to show it to

[TEKnician]

GOD DAMN IPAD LAUNCH SCHEDULE!!!!!

NOW I CAN'T ATTEND THE V.A.S.T. AMV CONTEST AT KAWAII-KON ANYMORE!!!!!

FUUUUUUUCKKKKKK!!!!!!!