Whats More Important: Talent or Hard Work?

[Beowulf]

I think theres two schools of though on this subject and it applies to AMVs.

Some people say that we all started out the same as clueless newbies knowing nothing about anything, and that those who stuck around, learned the tricks and read the guides, developed their skills into what they are today. Through tireless work, we have been able to achieve what we have achieved so far.

Other people say you either have it or you don't. Naturally, if you know nothing about the technicalities of AMVs your not going to make a brilliant one right off the bat, but the essence of your talent will shine through into the final product no matter what. These people always start out better than people without talent because they just have a "knack" for it.

My question is, what do you think is more important? Look at your favorite editors. Do you think they are a product of incredible work ethic, talent, or both?

[ssj4lonewolf]

its clearly both, because you can have it but not work hard at it and come out good or crappy. Or you may not have it, work hard on it and it can come out nice or crappy. It has to be a nice combo of the two. Cuz most good amvs that come out dont take under 32 hours to finsh. I'll say myself for instance, my first amv i made took me 5 days to make it, however i spent 8 hours each day working on it.

[sketchers]

To me it's only hard work. Because you can only acheive what you want your amv to be like if you work hard at it. I had no idea about amv's before but with some help from my friends I'm doing better but I know I'm not great at it or anything. Even if you do have the talent to make amv's great from the beginning that doesn't mean you won't have to work a little hard at the amv you're working on. So that's my opinion.

[requiett]

Hard work, if you're new. Talent, if you've been doing this at least a year.

[amvwizard]

I think it is hard work. No one was good at making amv's when they first started. The reason they are good now is because they did hard work. As far as talent it is a good thing to have, but if your not exactly cut out to make amv's then u have to do hard work to get better so yeah

[Zarxrax]

Some people ARE good when they first start though... I can think of a few Japanese or French creators off the top of my head
A lot of that comes from having help from someone who knows what they are doing though.

As far as talent goes though, I tend to think that a person can "earn" talent if they keep at something long enough. A talented person probably has to work a lot less hard than someone who isn't talented. But if the person who's not talented keeps working hard and gaining experience, I tend to think that one day, he will be just as talented as the "talented" person.

[Scintilla]

I'm guessing that a good part of what some would call "talent" can be attributed to watching others' videos and really paying attention to what works and what doesn't. Which, I suppose, also takes effort.

[Otohiko]

I don't know if it's an either/or thing; and it's definitely a complex scenario in general.

Assuming that 'talent' = artistic taste, I would suggest that the key ingridient in talent is not so much a natural ability or hard work, but patience and the ability to stand by and observe. The really talented artists are those who can patiently observe, analyze, and conceptualize. After that, the amount of "physical" work that they do is really a relative thing - you can make a lot with a little, or spend hundreds of hours - but it all depends on the creative drive.

A good AMVer is a good artist, not neccesarily a good technician. A good artist is a good observer.

[NMEisMIA]

Talent.

[Bote]

Originality/Idea of a vid-Talent
Sound/Video quality-Hard Work
Timing-Hard Work

That'd be it I guess. A brilliant and original idea is spawned by talent, whereas execution of the idea is nothing but hard work. Talented editors would be the ones that look in various and different directions and always trying to make something new (which makes me untalented ), but without lots of work the vision can never come to life. Apparently both are important, but hard wort more.