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There Are "rules" To Making A Good Amv


Grant-Sud

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So yesterday my sister is looking up Skyward Sword Trailers, when she clicks on an AMV for The Legend of Zelda. It was so terribly done. My other sister and myself were in the same room, and we started talking about AMVs we had seen for our favorite series. (Note, AMV stands for Anime Music Video but you can really find them for any series of movies, video games, shows, whatever) We looked through a few of our favorites and found a lot of un-favorites.

 

We all three agree, there are RULES to making a good AMV and I can't understand how people just don't see it. After discussing it, (my sisters added to this list) the rules are as follows:

 

Rule # 1: DON'T use pictures of characters, location, etc in the series.

 

It's a music video, not a slideshow which is different. And if you MUST place images in your AMV, PLEASE refrain from using images that are so common that you can find them on box covers, posters, or any other generic image that people have seen a million times before. The only reason someone looks for an AMV is because they are a fan of the series. If you must use an image, please try Fan Art (GOOD fan art) or Concept Art from the real creators. Don't forget about decent quality. Never blurry.

 

Rule # 2: Match the tempo of your song with the video correctly!

 

You start watching, I dunno, an AMV for Animaniacs. While Yakko, Wakko and Dot are bouncing all over the place and causing chaos, the music chosen for the AMV is Dear Prudence by the Beatles. Slow songs with fast videos, or quick hyper songs with slow emotional videos. It just doesn't work. Especially if your video has a ton of action in it, you need to stay with the pace.

 

Rule # 3: The theme of the music and video should (generally) coincide with each other.

 

This somewhat ties in with Rule # 2. If you want an AMV that strikes emotion, then you should choose an emotional song with emotional video scenes. Or build up to that climax of emotion. But don't just show all the heart wrenching stuff in random order with no outline given. It doesn't matter how sad the song or video is, bad pacing will completely ruin it. This goes for anything else: action, comedy, character progression, upbeat videos. I speak this in general, because there are some exceptions where people can use, for example, Civil War by Guns and Roses, and not have any action in it at all, instead showing the struggle between two characters. But you get what I mean.

 

Rule # 4: Try to find good quality.

 

I can't tell you how many times the video quality of an AMV is just so poor that it ruins the whole thing. I do understand that this one is harder to follow, and finding video quality isn't easy, but try your best to locate it. It'll make a smoother video, and more memorable.

 

Rule # 5: A Heavy Metal, Rap or Screamo song may be your favorite one. But that doesn't mean it belongs with what you've created here!

 

It is very very rare, I find an AMV that has a song in those genre, that is actually good. It doesn't mean the songs are bad, but really, if you're going to use a Heavy Metal song, you need a vid that plays CONSTANT action, with no end. Not many people can pull these off and rarely are they done right. (It doesn't mean there aren't good ones, but really these are for the experts) Even Dragon Ball Z AMVs can be ruined by a song like those, no matter how much action there is.

 

Rule # 6: Using the songs, Bring Me To Life, Kryptonite, What I've Done and New Divide DOES NOT MAKE IT A GOOD AMV.

 

Agh! I have nothing more to say. These are over done and you can find these songs in AMVs everywhere. They are great songs, but please remember everyone else has used them already!

 

Rule # 7: TRY to avoid placing romance, or shipping characters in your AMV unless that's the theme you are going for!

 

I swear these are everywhere. If any AMV is about a specific character, they usually have some other character in it, taking up more then half the main character's screen time and showing all the "moments" they've had together. But the AMV isn't even supposed to be about ROMANCE. That's the main problem. By the way, IF you're AMV is about shipping, please try to avoid songs that don't match with the relationship between characters. (overdoing the "love" they have for each other) Thus, always down tone it imo. It gives a more sweeter tone when you know they are "friends", not just insanely unrealistically madly in love. Also, try to avoid lyrics that have the cheesy lines...

 

Rule # 8: Don't have character lip-sync with the music being played!

 

Period.

 

 

----

 

And that's the end of this review for reviewing how to make a good AMV. I also just watch the How Scream Should Have Ended the other day, so I took the same concept. lol Hope you all enjoyed ^_^

 

If you have more rules to add, please do so.

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