Otakon AMV contest- next year

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Otakon AMV contest- next year

Postby Superios » Thu Apr 01, 2004 8:14 pm

due to the number of submissions, I will have a problem next year with getting everything done.

I have thought of three solutions...all of which I hate, but in varying degrees.

And, in no paticular order, they are...

Cancel the prescreenings...
Pro, gives me time to go over the vids on my own time, which by that point, w/o screenings I would have plenty of
Con, it's what makes this contest so good

I hate this one the most and will try to avoid it at all costs


retract the deadline
Explaination...I announce the contest in, say, December and make the submission deadline in April...as an example
Pro, Gives Patrick and myself a better timeline with room for mistakes to be made and fixed
Con, just a bloody pain on the amv creators with all the time they would need to spend making their vids and their personal lives

I hate this one...but not by much....I see it as just annoying


Cap the number of submissions.
I.e. "After 180 videos, I will refuse any more"
Pro, again...more time for me and Patrick
Con, this is just bad from the get go. I think the amv contest would be abolished if I did that

I hate this almost as much as I hate the first idea....you get the idea


I'm looking for some feedback on this thread...If you can think of another alternative, speak up. You'll be doing a service to the contest and your fellow creators


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Postby genestarwind21122 » Thu Apr 01, 2004 9:57 pm

I don't think you should get rid of the prescreenings because that what makes Otakon so great. I had some people come up to me at Katsucon and said I got screwed out of the contest because the judges didn't like my vid. But the crowd loved it. Two having a cap wouldn't be fair. The best thing I can think of is have a sooner deadline and that will give you more time for next year. This year well it still looks possible but just keep in mind all of this for 2005. Because without prescreenings Otakon wouldn't have the best of the best. And that's one of many reasons we're #1.
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Postby Vlad G Pohnert » Fri Apr 02, 2004 1:42 am

Maybe it's time to start getting more people involved in the contest to handle all the video entires....

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Postby VegettoEX » Fri Apr 02, 2004 1:45 am

Vlad G Pohnert wrote:Maybe it's time to start getting more people involved in the contest to handle all the video entires....

Agreed...
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Postby TaranT » Fri Apr 02, 2004 4:35 am

Money is the usual solution to these types of rationing problems:

a. Charge an entry fee - I believe Nan Desu Kan does this.

b. Require entrants to purchase a convention ticket (e.g. JACON). Whether they actually attend is up to them, but their names need to be on the prereg list by some fixed date.


Another solution is an entry window. For example, videos will only be accepted between April 1 and May 1.


If you can't find extra help (which comes with its own problems), then something drastic will have to be done regardless of the blowback. Even capping the number of entries is better than having the whole event fall apart, or you in the ER, or out of a job, etc. I mean, it's just a video contest.

BTW, this topic was discussed here in the forums a couple of years ago. People knew the day was coming for the largest contests. Even AWA has had to bend under the weight.
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Postby genestarwind21122 » Fri Apr 02, 2004 9:52 am

TaranT wrote:Money is the usual solution to these types of rationing problems:

a. Charge an entry fee - I believe Nan Desu Kan does this.

b. Require entrants to purchase a convention ticket (e.g. JACON). Whether they actually attend is up to them, but their names need to be on the prereg list by some fixed date.


Another solution is an entry window. For example, videos will only be accepted between April 1 and May 1.


If you can't find extra help (which comes with its own problems), then something drastic will have to be done regardless of the blowback. Even capping the number of entries is better than having the whole event fall apart, or you in the ER, or out of a job, etc. I mean, it's just a video contest.

BTW, this topic was discussed here in the forums a couple of years ago. People knew the day was coming for the largest contests. Even AWA has had to bend under the weight.


I think that a is just plain out a) bad idea. Then b) wouldn't be fair for creators that couldn't make it to the con because they didn't have the time to take off. Or other stuff might be going on. So why possibly take away some of the good amvs from the contest.

However I do like idea of an entry window. So that way you don't have amv's coming in at random. They come in almost all at once so that way you don't have to worry about last minute entries.
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Postby aluminumstudios » Fri Apr 02, 2004 11:24 am

I think capping the contest or canceling the pre-screenings would be really horrible things to have to do. As pointed out the pre-screenings are what makes teh contest the best of the best and capping it could damage it's quality because it would cause more of a rush and frenzy to get videos done and in than an earlier deadline.

Many AMV creators know when the cons are and can keep track of deadlines and plan their time. I know many people who don't start until the last minute too ... so I don't see an earlier deadline as being that bad of a thing.

Another potential compromise to deal with this is start pre-screenings before the deadline. I'm sure you recieve enough submissions early enough to start pre-screenings before the deadline. It won't be quite balanced because not each pre-screening group will have the opportunity to see the exact same videos or whatever, but it will still get a similar range of public opinion on which are the best videos for the actual contest.

Pre-screenings should definitly be supervised in some fashion, so if you need help perhaps you could ask AMV creators who are invovled with anime clubs and have been invovled with Otakon to hold small pre-screenings at their club and send them a tape or two to screen (with the understanding that the AMV creator you ask would act as a supervisor at that prescreening to make sure it's all handled fairly and properly in your abscence.)
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Postby dwchang » Fri Apr 02, 2004 5:38 pm

I am with Vlad and Vegettoex in that maybe you should get more people helping you. I mean Otakon *is* one of the biggest amv contests in the nation and it's not "wrong" to say you need help or whatever.

As for the deadline thing, I personally would dislike that, but majority rules. The main reason for me (and a few others) is that Anime Central and Fanime are both semi-large cons and fall a few weeks prior (or during) the current deadline. If you were to move it, it'd be pretty difficult for those submitting to fanime/acen to make unique entries for Otakon.

Now this of course isn't a "OMG THE WORLD IS ENDING" situation since I could easily just submit my ACen entry, but I guess I'd just rather make something special and unique for Otakon every year.

At the same time, to be honest, I imagine *at most* maybe 20 submitters would be affect by this (~10%), so not really worth pining over.

In any case, I'd much rather have a larger staff than moving a date. I mean with a deadline in late May, that gives you ~2.5 months and with a sufficiently large staff, you should be able to do fine :).
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Postby Fungie½ » Fri Apr 02, 2004 6:44 pm

First of all, I just want to point out that "getting a larger staff" is not one of the three things listed in his post. Perhaps an e-mail would've been more suited for that. We have to remember that he is running the contest, not us, but I'm sure he's open to suggestions.

Hmmm... I'd say do the deadline. Cancelling the pre-screenings would be a bad idea, having only 1 person judge all of the videos would be a bit uncool. Also capping the submissions would be a bad idea, because then you'd be missing out on a lot of good entries. Cutting back the deadline would be a smart move, especially if you announce it earlier.
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Postby dokool » Fri Apr 02, 2004 7:09 pm

A good start would be a stricter pre-prescreening process. Each prescreening tape we watched had a couple vids that got disqualified for whatever reason (Subs, dubs, bad language, etc), and it would have saved everyone time if they weren't put on the tapes to begin with...

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Postby Toji Fujawara » Fri Apr 02, 2004 11:03 pm

Ok what the hell i put my 2 cents in. Ok as stated by everyone cutting the pre-screenings out sucks. Next making an earlyer dead line. That really doesn't seem to effect me much and was best stated by

aluminumstudios wrote:Many AMV creators know when the cons are and can keep track of deadlines and plan their time. I know many people who don't start until the last minute too ... so I don't see an earlier deadline as being that bad of a thing.


Ok other then that the only real solution i can see is making geting more help. I mean as it has been stated before Otakon is a huge amv contes and 2 people running it alone is a hell of alot of work. Get some help. The stricter pre-screening and multiple pre-screenings aren't that bad of an idea. So lets see out of the proposed solutions i have to say your best 2 are:

1)Earlyer pre-screening

2)more help

P.S Im toying with a notion in my head that might work but its only on paper at the momment if it comes out to any kind of sence in the next few days ill post it.
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Postby aluminumstudios » Sat Apr 03, 2004 12:54 am

Fungie½ wrote:First of all, I just want to point out that "getting a larger staff" is not one of the three things listed in his post. Perhaps an e-mail would've been more suited for that. We have to remember that he is running the contest, not us, but I'm sure he's open to suggestions.


He said "I'm looking for feedback on this thread" and "If you can think of another alternative, speak up." so this seems like the place for discussion of alternatives, even if not originally mentioned by him.

Also, he is the coordinator, but the contest is for the benefit of #1 - the thousands of people attending Otakon and #2 - the AMV creators. So input from those groups is important and I'm glad he seems to think so too.

I don't think there is one solution to this large challenge, probably a combination of more and earlier pre-screenings (possibly with an earlier deadline), more strict requirements (disqualifying videos before the pre-screening if they obviously violate rules or quality standards such as subs, watermarks (I'd like to see that darned DivX logo be a disqualifying factor), inappropriate content, etc.), and additional people to help out. More people helping out doesn't necessarily mean that the central coordinator has to give up his position or share coordination responsibilities too much, it can be as simple as delegating specific responsibilities such as running pre-screenings, pre-filtering the videos looking for ones with obvious disqualifying factors, etc. to others.
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Postby Mroni » Sat Apr 03, 2004 6:44 am

Would this mean I can't submit my plushie vid Lol. Charging at the door for the prescreenings isn't a bad idea. If you want to see the competition early you have to pay. Oh well that's my 2 shillings.


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Postby Senta » Mon Apr 05, 2004 2:28 pm

Mroni wrote:Charging at the door for the prescreenings isn't a bad idea. If you want to see the competition early you have to pay.

It's not a bad idea... it's a HORRIBLE idea. How would charging people who volunteer their time to prescreen even help solve the problem mentioned by the opening post? Too many prescreeners isn't the problem.
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Postby aluminumstudios » Mon Apr 05, 2004 2:57 pm

Senta wrote:
Mroni wrote:Charging at the door for the prescreenings isn't a bad idea. If you want to see the competition early you have to pay.

It's not a bad idea... it's a HORRIBLE idea. How would charging people who volunteer their time to prescreen even help solve the problem mentioned by the opening post? Too many prescreeners isn't the problem.


Charging for pre-screenings wouldn't be good, but it's not unheard of to charge entrance fees for various types of contests in other fields. Perhaps a nominal charge (like $5) to enter the AMV contest (due when you send in your signed paper) would help. This money would go to support the contest and it's growing costs. It could also help reduce the overwhelming number of entries by discouraging those who may not be serious about it and are just sending a video for the sake of sending it. If Otakon did this, then perhaps they could offer the option of having your video screened in the screening room, but not be eligable for the contest if someone doesn't wish to pay the nominal (keyword - nominal, so anyone can afford) entrance fee.

I can imagine some people having a strong objection to this idea, but if you stop and look at how other types of contests and tournaments are managed (and manage to survive) it doesn't seem completely unreasonable of a concept. The important thing is to ensure that the cost is low enough that anyone capapble of making a video could afford it easily and that there is an option to have a video screened without competing.)

Speaking of screening, is there any type of option for someone who might want to have their video shown at the con during the AMV screening but not necessarily be part of the contest? I've run into a numer of people before who were intersted in simply having their video seen and who weren't necessarily focused on being in the contest. The AMV screening rooms were packed last year, it was really nice too the way posterboards were placed outside listing the videos that would show during the different time frames. Perhaps an additional thing to consider to help with the growth is to offer an option to have the video screened during the con, but not up for the contest. This way you may have fewer to pre-screen for the contest (since these would only have to be checked quickly to make sure it has appropirate content by the coordinator?)

Just some thoughts ...
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