How do you do Drama/Romance without being just DULL? - Comments and advice please, when it's time to put together the next contest!
It all depends on your audience, not everyone thinks Drama and Romance is dull. If they were considered dull they would not be some of the best seller animes. That is the whole reason for distinct categories. If someone doesn't like Drama they are free to use the bathroom and come back later. There were quite a few people who only showed up for certain categories and left for others. You can never please everyone but you should try to provide a wide audience with a good variety. The main idea of an AMV contest is to showcase AMVs, not just a specific theme like comedy or trailers.
If you believe Drama and Romance is dull then there isn't a real way to make it not dull. We all have our own opinions on anime, what we like, don’t like, etc. That is why it is important to have a good judge’s panel that prescreen but also are diverse. If all the judges have the same opinion and everyone leans towards one style then the AMV contest just ends up being a show of what their likes are, instead of the vast audience of anime fans.
One rules page I visited was quite explicit and specific: "No Linkinball-Z vids," it said. I have also seen DBZ blacklisted from one other AMV contest category.
Yes there are some AMV contests that basically say no DBZ. There might be a list of 3 or less but the rules that were setup for Kumoricon were very restrictive and exact. I mean the blacklist rules went on for almost a page and a half, "if this then you can do this, but you can't do this," etc.
But what about electronically created chorus sounds?
There is no real way to tell if a sound is electronically created chorus or not. You could research the song or if it was self composed you would know. A judge shouldn’t have to research or search to verify if something was electronically created. I believe in K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid), if it requires lots of research it most likely shouldn’t belong. Most electronically created choruses are actually recordings of chorus type sounds replayed through the synthesizer. Not to mention a chorus is still a voice whether synthesized or not. Even humming gives more "umph" to an instrumental that gives it an unfair edge.
Although the instrumentals were beautiful, those entries are what killed the AMV for me. However like I said I simply waited for the other categories which were what I was interested in. As I am sure there are some that preferred the Instrumentals more than some others.
What to do if two creators each submit a work using the SAME SONG?
That is part of the pre-screen process and judge’s panel issue not necessarily a rules issue. However you would hope that one person's work wouldn't get thrown out because they have the same song as another entry. If one piece is clearly better than the others great. But if there isn't a large selection and it was decided to make it more diverse, they threw one out and instead let a lesser quality video in, then it wouldn’t be fair.
Entries with the same song tend get judged more harshly though and it is harder for a person to win, it provides more challenge. I download quite a few videos because I like a song. After going through them all though you start to easily pick out which ones you like faster just because of the way the video is done, it has nothing to do with the song. At that point you actually start to look at other identifying features (other than the hook of the song) like quality of video, did it fit the video, how it was laid out, etc. It is basically just the same song but I tend to look at them as a video remix.
one problem I see with using AMV.org's list to determine 'overused' anime is that I think there's kind of an 'afterglow' which the database doesn't depict well:
This is why I don't tend to put much faith in 'overused lists'. Not to mention a lot of things in AMV.org's database are not real entries. There are a lot of "projects" that have never been completed or even started that are listed. Overused doesn't mean it will be a bad video, that is up to the creator to make it interesting or prove theirs is better than the others. If it isn't then it isn't and it doesn't make it through the judging process. I however never just throw something out because I've seen an anime or song before. If you don't even watch it you'll never know what can be a masterpiece and what can be just a bland video. Some of the best videos I have seen have actually been from overused anime or songs. They are overused for a reason because they are popular anime or music which means people like them.
Another statistic to remember was that the 32 entries used 28 series - as opposed to a sameness-lameness of 20% Naruto, 20% Trigun, 20%FMA, 20% Bebpop, and 20% "other."
To keep an AMV contest interesting can be hard however you have to look at more than just the statistics. As an example I consider this year's selection bland compared to last years. Sure there was a lot of new animes I haven't seen or may have just seen glances of. However the symbolism of the music and video was lost to me. None of it really moved me at all. If I don't know the characters then I tend to not be able to relate to them. There are some AMVs that even if you have never seen them they can move you, those are great but rare. The majority of people get moved by AMVs because of characters they relate too (have seen). They understand if it is a sad song why a certain character is loved, they understand the relationship between them.
Real music videos move people through music but also through the actions, facial features and the body language of their videos. However with anime a person is very limited with facial features and body language because they are already drawn. They instead have to rely on the music, rhythm, how it matches the anime and how a person can relate to the character. Hence if you don't know the character you can't relate. It is why typically popular anime win, get the loudest cheers and end up getting overused.
That isn't necessarily a bad thing and not all AMVs are popularity contests but majority of them are when judged by audiences. However if you have a New and Unseen type category then the anime should be new and unseen or at least not playing on primetime television.
