Otakon Winners?!?

[Adv1sor]

'cmon now, it's been over for hours already, who won?

And what are the dates for next year?

And thanks again John for another great show! That big room was great!

And, while I am honored to be included again in this year's contest, I promise here and now to offer a much better AMV for next year's consideration!

And, ____, I'm sure I'll think of something else to say later...

[TnAdct1]

The brief list:

Romance/Sentimental: Where the Sidewalk Ends by Daniel Chang
Serious/Dramatic: Ves-'ka Gankutsuou by Kusoyaro Productions
Action (and Fan Favorite): Sesshomaru Champloo by One-Winged Angel Productions
Upbeat/Rhythm: Ouran: Love! Angst! Crack by ForeverZero
Humorous/Satirical: I'm Available, Ladies by Parodic Productions
Coordinatior's Choice: Epic Symphony by Astrobright Productions

[TheLongshot]

Romance/Sentimental: Where the Sidewalk Ends by Daniel Chang

It was a close second for me. I went with Better Than Me.

Serious/Dramatic: Ves-'ka Gankutsuou by Kusoyaro Productions

Normally, I like Kusoyaro, but this kinda left me cold. I voted for The Other Side.

Action (and Fan Favorite): Sesshomaru Champloo by One-Winged Angel Productions

Pretty much a shoe-in.

Upbeat/Rhythm: Ouran: Love! Angst! Crack by ForeverZero

Overall, a weak category. I went with Please Drink Responsibly.

Humorous/Satirical: I'm Available, Ladies by Parodic Productions

This one probably would have gotten my vote if it weren't for the onscreen text which seemed to take away from the song. I went with Another Crappy AMV instead.

Coordinatior's Choice: Epic Symphony by Astrobright Productions

Can't argue with this one, particularly since it had no chance against Sesshomaru Champloo.

Jason

[Adv1sor]

Gratz to the winners!

That big room on Friday night was great!

[dwchang]

Romance/Sentimental: Where the Sidewalk Ends by Daniel Chang

Lies! I heard he quit editing and plays Guild Wars all day so this must be a mistake...

Congrats to all the winners!

[Katrina]

I was a bit dissappointed to see no runner-ups posted. (I mean, in past years they've posted 2nd and 3rd place.) Some of the categories seemed *really* close, in my opinion.

[Ashyukun]

I was a bit dissappointed to see no runner-ups posted. (I mean, in past years they've posted 2nd and 3rd place.) Some of the categories seemed *really* close, in my opinion.

This isn't the 'official' winners thread, I imagine the coordinator will post the official results once he's had a chance to recover from the convention. I remember most of the results, but don't have my list of the exact names of the videos to post it exactly so it wouldn't be of that much use.

The runners-up were announced when the awards were given at the end of the Iron Editor though- so I imagine John will post them when he does the official results announcement (if he hasn't already done so on the Otakon boards). It's highly unlikely that he'll be posting the actual vote counts though- that's something typically only available to the competitors if at all.

[MousePotato]

OMG old school triumpts once again!!!!1

-Floyd

[Bakadeshi]

I agree the firday showing was awesome.


I didn't agree with the choice to include that very first video in the romance category, there were better videos that didn't make it.

It also felt like people where purposely submitting comedy videos to upbeat (*cough* and romance *cough*) to get a better chance of winning, to the point that comedy would have actually been weaker than upbeat if it wasn't for the crapy and I'm available ladies ones.


Those 2 points aside, pretty good showing this year, and I agree with most of the winners.

AWA still > all though ;p

[Skyebox]

The brief list:

Romance/Sentimental: Where the Sidewalk Ends by Daniel Chang
Serious/Dramatic: Ves-'ka Gankutsuou by Kusoyaro Productions
Action (and Fan Favorite): Sesshomaru Champloo by One-Winged Angel Productions
Upbeat/Rhythm: Ouran: Love! Angst! Crack by ForeverZero
Humorous/Satirical: I'm Available, Ladies by Parodic Productions
Coordinatior's Choice: Epic Symphony by Astrobright Productions

Congratulations to everyone!

[Kusoyaro]

Serious/Dramatic: Ves-'ka Gankutsuou by Kusoyaro Productions

Normally, I like Kusoyaro, but this kinda left me cold. I voted for The Other Side.

I agree. I was genuinely shocked to have won. I felt like that was the weakest video I've ever submitted to Otakon.

[ReligionX]

I didn't agree with the choice to include that very first video in the romance category, there were better videos that didn't make it.

It also felt like people where purposely submitting comedy videos to upbeat (*cough* and romance *cough*) to get a better chance of winning, to the point that comedy would have actually been weaker than upbeat if it wasn't for the crapy and I'm available ladies ones.

Hey now. If real romance weren't ever fun, or god forbid funny, by golly it would be boring and down-right awkward. It's not "Sentimental Romance." It's Romantic AMVs or Sentimental AMVs.

And if upbeat videos weren't amusing at times, you'd only have a bunch of Cartoon Heros dancing a Kaliedo Star rendition of Perfect Blue while trailing rainbows or other fruit snacks. After all, we all just want to be Happy Boys and Happy Girls, don't we?

There's nothing wrong with submitting cross-genre videos to the best of my knowledge. I mean, really, just about every video had some degree of cross over.

"Where the Sidewalk Ends" - Romantic Upbeat
"Ves-ka" - Dramatic Action
"Shesshoumaru champloo" - Action Comedic
"Ouran: Love! Angst! Crack" - Romantic Upbeat
"I'm Available, Ladies" - Romantic Dramatic Comedic

Haven't your past few videos really been Dramatic Action, besides your ENOZ video, which I thought was Dramatic Upbeat (what? yes.), yet you marked it as Romantic.

Now, how is that any different than what Captain DWChang or Mr. ForeverZero did?

I've been trying to negotiate, and I've been failing, with AMV Contest persons to change the AMV Categories. Maybe in a few years, there will be some changes. Hmm. Hmmmmm...

By the way, I love AuN Studio AMVs.

[Shockgrrl747]

Coordinatior's Choice: Epic Symphony by Astrobright Productions

Can't argue with this one, particularly since it had no chance against Sesshomaru Champloo.

Jason

I was just surprised I got any award at all. XD;

There were so many great amvs, so congratulations to all who entered and/or won! ^^

[jasper-isis]

Serious/Dramatic: Ves-'ka Gankutsuou by Kusoyaro Productions

Normally, I like Kusoyaro, but this kinda left me cold. I voted for The Other Side.

I agree. I was genuinely shocked to have won. I felt like that was the weakest video I've ever submitted to Otakon.

I personally liked it a lot, and not only because the source is my favorite anime. I was pleasantly surprised to see it win, mostly because it seemed like you and I had received the most, uh, reserved applause on Friday night.

[Ashyukun]

The problem of videos not being easy to categorize and possibly falling into multiple categories is a perennial problem that every contest faces. Honestly very few videos fall purely into one category and can (as was pointed out with the contest winners) be easily given multiple categorizations. It's therefore up to the editors who submit (and recommend a category) and the contest coordinators (who should have the final say) to determine where a video best fits in normal contests. My personal favorite is of course the AWA Pro format where videos aren't assigned a category up front and it is left up to the judgment of those watching and voting.

Personally, I was pretty satisfied with the categories each of the videos this year was placed in- there were plenty that would have fit in several different categories easily, but I felt they were in the category where they fit best.

Honestly, my only real complaint (other than none of the videos I voted for winning anything- Sorry, DW ;P ) with the contest was something out of the control of those directly involved in the contest and (from talking with friends on the staff) apparently even out of the control of the staff themselves, and that was that at least I thought that in the back half of the extended 'Main Events' room the audio and video setup was really, really bad. The projectors weren't the right distance they should have been from the screens and were also so high up relative to the screens that they had to be keystoned so badly that the several already marginally title-safe videos (including the winning comedy video) were nigh on impossible to follow because of text getting cut off (as well as being squashed due to the keystone). On videos with titles/text I found myself watching the front screens waaaaay far away, since they were rear-project and actually set up properly. And the sound system in the back half of the room was also really bad- with very few exceptions I was straining hard to understand any lyrics on the songs, making it very hard to follow any lyric-matching being done by the editors if I didn't already know the song. Further adding to the problem was the fact that there was such a great distance between the front sound system and the back half of the room that on songs with very distinctive beats (TJ's 'Stir Fry' video demonstrated this most prominently) you got hit with the sound from the front speakers and the ones right in front of you with a very solid separation due to that pesky speed-of-sound thing.

I was at the concert on Sunday, and was actually fairly satisfied with the sound and projection at it- so as odd as it may sound given how much I've pushed for larger venues, I'd say that I think it would have been better (in the absence of the ability to go back to the upstairs ballroom of course, which would be ideal) to either not have the full-length room altogether and just use the 'main events' room, or a) keep the airwall closed and b) improve the projector/sound setup in the back room and effectively 'simulcast' the contest.