Music is evolving right along with everything else as we rush faster and faster towards the singularity. These days, you can use your cell phone or tablet to enjoy any kind of media they support, but with the correct apps you can so much more; you can create the music yourself, limited only by your imagination and skill set. Using the same devices and the proper social media software, you can be in touch with other like-minded friends and creators from all over the world around the clock, to brainstorm, write, and jam, until you get a grasp of exactly what you want to bring to life. Finally, again with the smarter versions of the same devices, you can actually play the music and display the video together, in real time, from anywhere on the planet, for everyone to experience. Here are a few examples, starting with the Korean Pop Star Yoari and her iPhone playing band covering a Beyonce song, and then the MoPho Ocarina Band (with instrument details) looking into the concepts behind using smartphones with social media interfaces as musical instruments. As a music addict from long ago, I find this topic one of the more exciting aspects of living in today’s modern world of the future, and will be returning to it again.
Dragoncon is one of the biggest media parties every year, based solidly in Fandom from its origins to its current incarnation, and encompassing one of the largest collections of creative folks from the US. One aspect of that creativity is expressed within the AMV or FMV competition, an event many cons have taken up. In its simplest form an Anime Music Video or Fan Music Video contest encourages you to take some video footage, either created by you or extracted from a favorite show or film and give it a song for a soundtrack. It rapidly gets more complicated than that, as you select the best scenes, try to match the lip movement to the song lyrics, and finally try to tell a unique story from these component parts. But even if you only achieve the first level, you have created something that has never before existed, which is always a good thing. I should also mention that the source laws for fair use have changed this past year, so you are allowed to rip your video segments directly from the DVDs if you want to now.
The DragonCon AMV 2010 is now over, and you can see the winners at that site (and maybe one or two at the end of this post). But the competition for 2011 just got serious this past October 1st, when the Fandom Music Video Awards went live. They are accepting contest entrants in three phases, or rounds: October 1st to December 31st, now underway, January 15th through April 15th for round two, and May 1st to July 31st for round three. Each round shall have its winners, and the finalists will be part of the con itself. The first video in the next segment includes some rules, hints, and trips. The others are a few of last years winners, starting with the Best In Show winner Building Steam, made from video from Steam Boy and the soundtrack being Steampunk band Abney Park’s Building Steam. Good Luck!
AMV – Anime Music Video – Is one of my favorite art forms. It includes the obvious, animation and music, but also the detail that makes it art; the ability to combine any two of those sources into something wholly new. These are a few recent AMV builds that I particularly liked.
Yes, there really is such a contest, and you have until November 18th to submit your entry. The folks at the animation software company Toon Boom have teamed up with Shatner’s My Outer Space to put the competition together. According to the contest page you become a member of My Outer Space (it’s free), and then download three William Shatner audio clips which are 22 seconds long each. Using the Personal Learning Edition of Toon Boom Animate or Animate Pro (free download), you then design, storyboard, and animate your own video to create an imaginative finished product. Prizes in this contest include online animation courses, a full suite of animation software, and the grand prize is getting to work on a full animation project being developed at My Outer Space. Have fun building!
Trailer mashups have been happening more and more frequently lately, and as you might suspect getting better and better. This one is so good that Edgar Wright gave his seal of approval to the Scott Pilgrim/Last Airbender mashup. Someone else did the same thing with The Matrix. The final one is very outrageous; and Expendables/Supertoons mashup. I gotta admit, these do bring a grin.
Yes, the Scott Pilgrim Avatar Creator can be used by you to create an Avatar and share it with the world. I was a bit disappointed they only let you enter two characters for the age (I was going for 105, but it only gave me 10). And I might have gotten a LITTLE distracted when I realized I could also play the web page as a game while building the Avatar. I think the one I built lives here.
