'concept' videos |:>

[JaddziaDax]

well as for your examples go, as i said i think its interesting some people are trying that sort of thing out but i dont have much of a real connection to them

[Koopiskeva]

and thats where you are talking about a specific kind of concept...

and not just concept videos in general

I addressed this though.. I said pure concept videos in which the concept takes over the whole video..

"They merely use the anime and the song as a vessel for me, and no substantial connection is really made other than using them as plain source to house a certain 'concept.' "

"but if the 'concept' takes over the whole video, aren't we just left with a video that is purely that and doesn't really matter what anime or song (or combination of both) is used? (same thing could be said for effects, theme, etc..)"

That's what I mean by 'concept' videos..

[CrackTheSky]

I generally love concept videos. It's more or less the direction I'm beginning to take as an editor. I like to see how people can use AMVs as a medium to do something different. Don't get me wrong, if edited well enough, your more 'typical' AMVs (i.e. the shiny romance/cliche action/upbeat dance ones) can be just as good - some of my favorite AMVs fall within that realm.

But at the same time, if people keep editing that way and there aren't people to do something different, AMVs have reached a dead end and for the viewer, and it may (probably will) become boring. I find myself bored with a lot of the videos that have been released lately, simply because they're so much like videos that have been released for years. That's why when a video like Silencio or Vertigo pops up, I get extremely excited, because you don't see videos like this every day.

Basically I feel like there NEEDS to be editors out there who are willing to take AMVs in a different direction. 'Conceptual' videos are one way to do this; you yourself, Koop, did this with Euphoria - look how many videos use the techniques you did in that video. It's just another way to express an idea, and if the concept is what's driving you to edit, then obviously that's going to be the focus of the video, with the visuals and music as a vehicle (Urban Suite, anyone?).

Of course, I can see not liking these conceptual videos - some of them are very vague in their concepts and if you don't end up connecting with the video, there's no real reason to watch it again. I personally love both Silencio and Vertigo - I love videos that are artsy and outside of the ordinary. Shepherd is one of my favorite editors because of it.

So basically, I like concept videos, and I think they're a necessary component to the evolution of AMVs as a creative medium. They're not the ONLY way to get AMVs to advance to a new level, as it were (you can call them a fad in that respect), but right now they're one of the more popular means.

[JaddziaDax]

i get what hes saying now...

so euphoria doesnt really fall in that category imo, because even though it was a new thing to use cut outs and effects the way he did, euphoria still had the emotional connection to the anime and the song... it relied heavily on the visual to drive the video foward, the connection to the anime... and the connection to what the characters were going through in the visuals

the other two are more like hay look what i can do with cut outs and random pretties... hes saying you could use any anime and any song and do that... that once its been done once its no longer all that original... they just use the anime as a device because it can be used, it not necessairly a story telling, or an emotional connection to anything its just pure visuals

but people will always take whatever kind of emotion they want from a video even if its pure entertainment or sheer boredom...

[Phantasmagoriat]

First, what is your definition of an AMV?

Simply, it is a music video using a combination of song and anime.

Well yes I suppose. I think if you want to categorize these works as AMVs, one of the main points to evaluate is the 'togetherness' of the two sources. How to evaluate the 'togetherness' is not really universal; a general trend I would say is equal weighting of video pertaining directly to anime, and audio directly to the song/sound-source. When deviations of this occur, it's not clearly an AMV... so if the work relies heavily on the song, the video source doesn't really matter--any visual medium can be used... which yeah... I guess isn't really an AMV anymore, but simply an artistic expression that happens to use anime as that visual medium.

Whether I like 'concept' videos naturally depends on the appeal [like I'm sure everyone is going to say ]. What is meant by this is does it shock you, move you... mainly... does it invoke emotion... which is the natural high I think we all strive for [that could lead to bizarre addictions etc... but that's another story].

So, regardless of if we classify the work as an AMV or not, the invocation of emotion [whatever type] I think is the reason why we watch. It is likely a coincidence that on this site, a lot of our tastes naturally gravitate towards the 'classic' AMV [one that is clearly an AMV].

[Koopiskeva]

Cracky,

It's cool that you like concept videos, but I feel that videos such as those that I mentioned were no longer AMVs in my definition of them. Yes, you can classify Euphoria as being one such concept video, but I feel that it does something (or at least attempts to) that neither of those concept videos even attempted, which was to enhance or even promote the sources it uses, be it the song or the anime. I didn't use Rahxephon simply as a vessel or visual reference, though it may look like that to some (in that respect, it would've been a failure).

In terms of coming up with new 'techniques' that's all I see these pure concept videos for. They give us some insight as to things that can be done, but doesn't actually use them in anyway useful in the AMV realm. In the two examples, yes, it definitely shows creativity, but as AtomX mentioned before, there's hardly any cohesiveness that binds all of the elements of the AMV together. It becomes more of a demo reel of what one can do rather than actually connecting the elements of the video.

'Artsy' is just a word I cannot wrap my head around. Honestly I feel like I could toss somethings together that look 'cool' and have some vague reference, I guarantee you there are people that would call it amazing. This is one of my main problems with these concept videos. I believe it was a few years ago where a few editors did this exact same thing (Spooky Dinosaur Turco? I can't remember exactly), where they edited a few 'artsy' videos and people fell for it, sad really. So as far as technique goes, yea these videos are great, but as an AMV, I just don't get the appeal.

[Koopiskeva]

Phantasmagoriat,

Yea, my views are definitely skewed by the definition of the classic AMV.

[shaister]

First, what is your definition of an AMV?

Just a combination of sound and animation, to me. I don't see why there needs to be a promotion of the source.

I suppose I'm also asking what it is within AMVs that we are hoping to see in terms of originality.

I want to see the greatest variety possible. I want to see action, romances, parodies, artsy 'concept' videos, and everything in between.
For the most part, I don't want an AMV to just remind me of an anime, I want to see something new done with it.

There are people that say 'concept' is the biggest thing that defines originality for AMV, but if the 'concept' takes over the whole video, aren't we just left with a video that is purely that and doesn't really matter what anime or song (or combination of both) is used?

I think it does matter what anime is used, as long as the art and animation style hasn't been warped beyond all recognition.

[FinalResolve]

At the end it all comes down to our subjectivity, it's the only way forward in how we see things in this objective world.

[mexicanjunior]

This is totally a Beo thread...