AMVs with watermarked footage

[seasons]

Are there any that are really good? As in, they're well-edited and have a creative concept and that's their only glaring flaw?

I know that most aren't very good, simply because editing with that kind of footage is usually a symptom of a lot of other problems that all come down to just not caring very much about the quality of the final product, or being blind to a lot of other visual aspects of the video that are probably really flawed as well.

I guess it's possible that someone could make an amazing AMV with watermarked footage (or, take your pick: subtitled footage, horribly interlaced footage, etc.) and as there are literally hundreds of thousands of AMVs out there, maybe it's happened before?

Maybe the bigger question that I want to ask is whether or not, for you as a discerning viewer, is this always going to be a dealbreaker for you no matter what? I find this stuff to be really distracting, but how much of that really has anything to do with the AMV itself? Anyone else start watching an AMV, see that it uses watermarked footage, and then immediately start making a lot of judgments/assumptions about the video and the person who made it? Can good editing ever overcome this?

I'm not advocating for using watermarked footage, I hate it. But I guess I'm just curious why I feel that way and if anyone else does.

[Sephirothskr]

Not to toot my own horn, but my video "Divinity and Chaos" has a bunch of watermarks, but it's certainly not bad. I've seen plenty of people with watermarked amvs that are just fine. I mean jesus, it's just a little thing. No big deal.

[Enigmo]

yeah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZFVUniyhFs this is a good one that uses watermarked footage. and honestly, if i feel like i'm gonna just do hard-cut editing and not gonna do any panning or effects to where the watermark becomes distracting, i probably won't care if the source is watermarked. but then again, i always do some mirroring/flipping in my videos so have to avoid them becoming distracting

[Ileia]

Off the top of my head, definitely this one.

[Gene Starwind 21122]

See when I first started editing, editors really, really look down upon it. For me 95% of the time it will be a deal breaker. I have reviewed a lot of AMV's and whenever I do see a good video with subtitles or watermarks I tell the editor it would be an amazing video if they could get the correct footage. However, I have only found one or two AMV's that have had these watermarks or subtitles that I have actually watched again. It still makes me cringe.

My thing is you're going to spend so much time and effort into the editing of the video, then why are you not going to try and clean up the footage. Or even ask editors where they got their footage from. I know we don't discuss torrenting or any of that other stuff. Still there are ways to get clean footage. If you really wanted to my favorite way is to buy USED DVD's. One because it is a lot cheaper than buying them full price, as long as you don't care what condition the case is in. Two usually the DVD's are playable and rippable onto a computer. (Meaning the DVD's themselves are not damaged or just have minor scratches.) I highly recommend buying from a trusted store or site that sells them, just incase.

To me that also falls under the effort of the editor. If I'm just randomly watching videos online and a subtitle pops up or there are noticeable watermarks, it usually gets turned off. Same way with extremely poor source footage. My videos back in 2002-2003 usually got cut off when I read my quick comments or some reviews because of poor source footage. I learned how to clean it up and made sure the editing and the footage were both appealing to the eye.

Gene Starwind 21122

[slimed]

i can't think of any, but that's probably because i almost always stop watching a video as soon as i see a watermark. in addition to being a distraction, it's just kind of a sign that there's going to be more technical issues further in, and it also usually denotes that the eye for detail is lacking throughout the entire video.

[Mr. Fuzzyflippers]

i can't think of any, but that's probably because i almost always stop watching a video as soon as i see a watermark. in addition to being a distraction, it's just kind of a sign that there's going to be more technical issues further in, and it also usually denotes that the eye for detail is lacking throughout the entire video.

I do the same thing. The watermark pretty much ruins the video for me entirely, even if it's in something as simple as AMV Hell.

[seasons]

usually the DVD's are playable and rippable

I sure hope so!

I buy and sell stuff from half.com a lot.

[Castor Troy]

Watermarks are actually an after effects plugin.

[CrackTheSky]

I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I know I've seen at least a few videos with watermarks that I enjoyed (the one Ileia posted is possibly the best example). It depends a lot on the prominence of the watermark; is it a half-translucent fansub thing in the top-left corner, or is it a big, ugly, in-your-face Cartoon Network logo? One is much easier to ignore than the other.

That said, it's also worth noting that I'm hardly the visual quality snob I used to be, so my standards in that area are probably lower compared a lot of the others around here.