One of the most sought out events to attend at Anime expo, the Music Video Contest gives its viewers a chance to witness some very creatively compiled videos combining anime and popular music of today and yesterday. Aside from the massively huge crowd awaiting outside of the Long Beach Terrace Theater, the unnecessary 2 hour wait, and the utter disappointment of the postponement of the event to an 8 am showing the following day do to technical difficulties; the music video contest showcased some very well done videos made by talented anime enthusiasts using clips from anime titles such as Akira, Dragon Ball Z, Escaflowne, Rurouni Kenshin, Card Captor Sakura, and many more. With computers, unbound imagination, and patience, the creators spent endless hours synchronizing music and voice to their selected anime clips. Also, they added special effects by utilizing video editing software to come up with inspirational, dramatic, comical and unique creations.
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With over 100 entries submitted to the contest, only the top 33 videos selected by the judging staff made the cut for this event. Set to categories in the areas of Action, Fun, Drama, and Comedy, the music selections used within the videos included songs from music artists such as Duran Duran, Linkin Park, The Offspring, Enya, Bush, Ace of Base, and even selections from the soundtracks of Batman and Moulin Rouge.
Judging was based on audience applause using a voice activated applause meter box after each category showing, allowing for enthusiastic audience involvement for the final winning selections. As the host of the event called out each of the video titles, the audience gave their votes by cheering for their favorite video. The winning finalist titles, interestingly named by their creators, included Chemicals, Shameless Rock Video, Silent Lucidity, and A Total Waste of 6 minutes and 35 Seconds.
An event like no other at Anime Expo, the Music Video Contest involved not only Anime and music, but creativity, imagination and technical skill. Apart from the technical difficulties run into by the Anime Expo staff for this event, the hard work put into the music videos by its creators was well received by the audience, making it an event well worthy to attend in future Anime conventions.