Anime North AMV Contest 2015

[AnimeNorthAMV]

Anime North 2015 Music Video Competition Winners

Here are the winners and Finalists of the 2015 Anime Music Video Competition! Congratulations to all our winners and participants! We had 76 Entries this year of which 17 were Novice Division (a record breaking number for that division). I want to thank all of the Participants and creators who entered. Even if your video was not a finalist, all qualifying videos were still shown at the convention in the Sunday Block. I hope to see all of you again next year. Once again thank you for entering and Congratulations to the Winners





Category Awards

• Northern Lights – Best in Show Award
Matthew Gutierrez “Anime 404”

• Momiji no Video – Judges’ Choice Award
Xophilarus “Aria of Perseverance”

• The Newbie – Novice Award
William Bennet “Can’t Hold the Boxers”

• Momiji’s Challenge
Nicolio1313 “My Neighbor Figaro-kun”
Criterion Awards

• Editing
Nicolio1313 “Anime World Tour”

• Cinematography
Tigrin “Blank Space”

• Creativity
Celia Phantomhive “The Fangirl Chronicle”

• Artistic Vision
Serith “Outcast”

Honourable Mentions

• Silver Medal – Overall Merit
Zazzle “Notice Me”

• Silver Medal – Overall Merit
Knage“Stand in the Rain”

Challenge Finalists

• How Not to Train Your Ohju … Special Ed
• Memoirs of Kaguya…NepNep
• Waltz of Baka … Oula Piipari
• Cost of Dignity … Ann Crissel Darroles
• Homura de Lune… Adam Thompson
• Bluff… Caroline Feild

Novice Finalists

• Sailor Guardians of the Galaxy… Renee Crozier
• Maritime Melodies … hamstar138
• Phoenix Rising… Fulla
• Unholy Trinity… Gina Nelson
• Ripple Through the Music… Jesse Eng
• I Can Make You Dandy… Tristan Hassan
• We’re Invincible… Freitzen VanderMuelen
• Kings and Queens… Maaz Siddiqui

Open Finalists

• Superhero … MoonlitxShadows
• We fight. We Die. Wishing doesn’t change that.… NWJ
• Siriously… Miles Klub
• Bliss… Muhammad Ali
• Rainbow Stalin Saves the World… Drew Brisco
• Notice Me… Zazzle
• Stand in the Rain… Knage
• Blank Space…. Tigrin
• Aria of Perseverance… Xophillarus
• Anime World Tour…. Nicolio1313
• Outcast… Serith
• Anime 404… Matthew Gutierrez

edit:fixed the mis print of the amv title for winner of Artistic vision

[SeNniN]

ah.. tartar sauce. I was hoping to win something this year with bliss, but ah well.. congrats to everyone that won. :]
Anime 404 is well deserved.

[Gippy]

I became a judge this year so I didn't enter. (Last year, I won the challenge with "Invisible Girl") All the music videos were wonderful, and I had a great time watching them!

SeNniN - I love the works of Makoto Shinkai (5 Centimetres per Second is one of the few 10s on my MAL list) but this year the majority of the judges seemed to favor more technical videos. My favorite AMV in the open division wasn't a category winner either, but each judge has their own tastes and experience. My Neighbor Figaro-kun was the only AMV that I rated the highest in its division that went on to win an actual award. However, in the end, I'm satisfied with the results, since everyone worked so hard on their AMVs!

[SeNniN]

I became a judge this year so I didn't enter. (Last year, I won the challenge with "Invisible Girl") All the music videos were wonderful, and I had a great time watching them!

SeNniN - I love the works of Makoto Shinkai (5 Centimetres per Second is one of the few 10s on my MAL list) but this year the majority of the judges seemed to favor more technical videos. My favorite AMV in the open division wasn't a category winner either, but each judge has their own tastes and experience. My Neighbor Figaro-kun was the only AMV that I rated the highest in its division that went on to win an actual award. However, in the end, I'm satisfied with the results, since everyone worked so hard on their AMVs!

I will admit that at times I feel the judging could use some work. I find that mostly it's more on the judges taste in music and source, or complete lack of experience in judging even, rather than the actual editing it self. I've been editing for years now, and I believe I've seen and done enough editing to really tell from a quality vs okay edit. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that I deserved anything, but it does make me wonder at times why some videos didn't get the awards they deserved, but rather it's some half baked okay amv.

This is just my opinion, no hard feelings to anyone. I know everyone works really hard on their entries, and that's exactly why better judging should be encouraged.

[flamefield]

I'm just happy I was a finalist XD congrats to the winners!

[Xophilarus]

I will admit that at times I feel the judging could use some work. I find that mostly it's more on the judges taste in music and source, or complete lack of experience in judging even, rather than the actual editing it self. I've been editing for years now, and I believe I've seen and done enough editing to really tell from a quality vs okay edit. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that I deserved anything, but it does make me wonder at times why some videos didn't get the awards they deserved, but rather it's some half baked okay amv.

This is just my opinion, no hard feelings to anyone. I know everyone works really hard on their entries, and that's exactly why better judging should be encouraged.

If you want results based off of what you consider a good video you honeslty shouldn't enter AMV contests. The thing is, you should submit to amv contests being fully aware of those potential biases, especially since most awards are judged by audiences who, for the most part, frankly don't care too much for the quality of the editing overall. I actually think Anime North is better about this than most cons, but honestly it is just something that happens in literally every AMV contest. That's just how they are naturally. Honestly, the fact you have edited for years also does not automatically make your opinion better or more valid, it is just that, your opinion. It doesn't mean your opinion is better or not, but it is not fair to just assume there are issues with judges and such because then you would have to complain to most judges at conventions. Didn't mean to sound rude or anything, I just feel like it is good enough to know they go through the effort of judging the videos rather than coming up with one judges award and letting the audience do the rest. Keep doing your thing guys!

Edit: On a lighter note, I feel like now would be a good time as any to congratulate all of winners and finalists of the contest ^.^ SO GOOD JOB EVERYBODY

[SeNniN]

I will admit that at times I feel the judging could use some work. I find that mostly it's more on the judges taste in music and source, or complete lack of experience in judging even, rather than the actual editing it self. I've been editing for years now, and I believe I've seen and done enough editing to really tell from a quality vs okay edit. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that I deserved anything, but it does make me wonder at times why some videos didn't get the awards they deserved, but rather it's some half baked okay amv.

This is just my opinion, no hard feelings to anyone. I know everyone works really hard on their entries, and that's exactly why better judging should be encouraged.

If you want results based off of what you consider a good video you honeslty shouldn't enter AMV contests. The thing is, you should submit to amv contests being fully aware of those potential biases, especially since most awards are judged by audiences who, for the most part, frankly don't care too much for the quality of the editing overall. I actually think Anime North is better about this than most cons, but honestly it is just something that happens in literally every AMV contest. That's just how they are naturally. Honestly, the fact you have edited for years also does not automatically make your opinion better or more valid, it is just that, your opinion. It doesn't mean your opinion is better or not, but it is not fair to just assume there are issues with judges and such because then you would have to complain to most judges at conventions. Didn't mean to sound rude or anything, I just feel like it is good enough to know they go through the effort of judging the videos rather than coming up with one judges award and letting the audience do the rest. Keep doing your thing guys!

Edit: On a lighter note, I feel like now would be a good time as any to congratulate all of winners and finalists of the contest ^.^ SO GOOD JOB EVERYBODY

You seem to be taking it too personal, I'm simply expressing my opinion here. I never said my opinion is superior to anyone, but yes experience does come from years of editing, or doing any hobby with a passion for that even. I don't have any problems with the results, I was the first one on here congratulating everyone. I just happen to share my opinion after what gippy said.

I completely agree with you, that this is something that happens in most amv completions. You asked why do I even submit here, I actually submit in Anime North because I live in Toronto, it's a local con here, so it's great to submit a video if I happen to make something.
I'm just glad to be able to share my work, I don't expect anything in return, but... a guy can hope now, c'mon.

[Gippy]

I'm unsure how much I'm allowed to say or whether I'm allowed to reveal my own scores for this contest, so I must remain tight-lipped unless the head judge gives permission. But the judges generally aren't allowed to confer with each other during judging. What happens is that the range of scores becomes vast, and the results may be very surprising in the end. (I knew they were for me!)

The audience doesn't influence judging at Anime North because AN needs time to engrave the winners' names on the trophies. That being said, when I was working on Invisible Girl last year, I knew it had a snowball's chance in hell of winning if I gave it a sad ending. A happy/hopeful ending would play to the judges' emotions, and so I scrapped the original idea of Tomoko being "forever alone" in that AMV and gave it a hopeful ending instead. In addition, I had not entered the AMV contest in three years, so to prepare myself, I watched almost all of the finalists from previous years in order to better understand what makes an AMV good to the judging panel.

If you are entering to win, you may not be making an AMV which you feel is best to you personally. You're making an AMV which will capture the hearts of the judging panel, some or many of which may have completely different tastes than you. I will note that the judges are instructed to give higher marks to AMVs which make good use of special effects. All of the best-in-show AMVs for the past four years have featured extremely intensive use of special effects, so if your AMV is lacking in them, it'll have almost no chance to win best-in-show/editing/cinematography.

[Kieop]

Nothing to see here. The error has been corrected.


Thanks.

[AnimeNorthAMV]

I do feel transparency of the judging process would be useful, and as such I'll try my best to explain a bit about how it works. I will admit there are flaws in our system, but I feel we have minimized them as much as is possible without having the equivalent of an olympic style list of controls.

Gippy is correct in that one our main instructions to judges is to keep discussion about the amvs to a minimum during judging. This it to prevent the group from influencing any judge one way or another. We want to have each judge to be as uninfluenced as possible, to provide a large range of opinions on the amvs.

Though I must clarify one point, the instruction on special effects is how they are used and how they detract or add to the overall amv (ie a difficult seeming effect may increase your editing score, but if it detracts from the visuals, or the overall presentation of the amv it may lower it in the other categories).

The judging itself is done on a scoring system. Each judge judges the 5 categories and gives a score between 1 -10. This allows for the overall average and score to be found out at the end by the judging coordinator. This makes it so that there is no voting on a winner, but rather a score based on all of the judges individual scores. This can lead to interesting things, as if some judges believe an amv is extremely original but others do not, the overall score may be lower than an amv where all judges agree it is somewhat original. Usually scores for most amvs are above 5, as 5 is classified as an average amv (for which the definition of such varies based on judge as if one only watches winning amvs, or if one browses youtube).

It is for this reason judges with a range of experiences and ages are sought. Older fans have seen more amvs, and have a different way of judging creativity, and can sometimes miss (or see new angles) in messages that rely heavily on knowing the source material. New judges may judge different in creativity, but have a higher understanding of themes relying on knowing source material. There are weaknesses to this set up, but I believe that it's a strength to draw on old and new fans, as everyone can enjoy amvs.

As to bias, this is a problem that we've taken steps to minimize. The first four categories (editing, cinematography, creativity, and artistic vision) are supposed to be objective. That is to say, we ask our judges to look at each individual category and to try to avoid scoring based on song, anime, or personal enjoyment. While avoiding all bias is perhaps impossible, by instructing the judges to be aware of their bais and to avoid it, we have minimized it. As humans we can't completely avoid it as personal feelings will influence our perception to a degree, we can try to keep these four categories as objective. Thus hopefully an amv will be judged on technical and artistic merit separate from it's theme or style.

The fifth Category of Judges choice is an entirely subjective score. It's a score of 1 -10 of how much an individual judge liked the amv. Judges will score based on personal feelings and enjoyment (which may vary based on anime, song, style, ect). This is the category that often varies the most because an amazingly well made amv may just not do anything for a particular judge.

I hope I've been able to illuminate a bit about how the judging process works. While I am aware of flaws within the system, I strongly believe in our style of judging for this competition. I'm aware other conventions do things differently but I rather like the current categories, as they look at an amv slightly differently than most contests. It is for this reason sometimes good videos may not win any one category despite being very good amvs (my favorite this year did not win anything, for which I was sad). But trying to score amvs in this manner is something that creates a different way of looking at them, and in judging them. I hope my explanation is somewhat helpful. And while I don't check the forum often, I can be reached via the amv contest email that can be found on the contact page of the anime north website.