Otakon Winners?!?

[dwchang]

OMG old school triumpts once again!!!!1

-_-

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.

Since you're coughing at me, I guess I'll respond .

My satirical answer would be "I learned my lesson in 2005 that Comedy > Romance...in the Romance category"

My more serious answer would be, I wanted to make something different this year. Everyone was expecting a super sappy video the moment they saw my title card, so since I hadn't edited in two years, I wanted you to see something different. I went with something 'cute' instead of sappy this time. While making it, I only thought two scenes were 'funny' and really just a giggle so the reaction on Friday was a pleasant surprise.

I will however admit that I of course knew that cute/upbeat has a better chance at 'winning,' but that wasn't my only intention or anything like that. I've had this idea for at least three years since Me First and the Gimme Gimmes do AWESOME covers and this of course is a cover of a VERY famous love song (well famous imo). Also I'd like to think a Cute Upbeat Romance still belongs in Romance .

Deshi, I'll promise you this. In 2008 (if I enter), I'll make something super sappy...just for you. In fact, the homeless at Baltimore helped me choose a song...no seriously .

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.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I find purely romantic and serious AMVs to be fun and good too . In fact, all of my other entries (and wins) at Otakon have been on the more serious and sappy side.

I just wanted to get that out of the way since some of us like 'boring' Romance videos . At the same time, I agree with your overall sentiment.

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! ^^

I wasn't surprised. Your video got the best reaction and although it wasn't a traditional crossover video with a ton of masks and whatnot, you had excellent scene selection. For example, you'd have one person swing their sword down and then the other series would block it as if *gasp* it were coming down on them .

Some would call that lazy (i.e. not masking), but I call it good scene selection. I will however agree there were other good entries in all the categories so winning in any category wasn't exactly easy.

Regardless, congrats. Especially since after talking to you on stage, you seem like a newcomer .

I do have my own complaints about the actual showing and venue but they are not related to this so...

[TheLongshot]

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.

While Gankutsuou is one of my favorites, I have yet to see a good AMV using it. So far, I've seen two, and I found both somewhat underwhelming.

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.

I'd be for that as well, if just it would get rid of the "filler" videos that seem to appear in every contest and get more of the best of what was submitted. Certainly, there were a few WTF moments from the people around me for some videos that didn't quite fit the category they were nominated for.

BTW, I seemed to have a better experience on Saturday morning than some of you on Friday. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be at the con on Friday, so I had to catch the replay, which seemed to go off without a hitch.

Jason

[Kusoyaro]

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.

Yeah, I was pretty sure my video had received the least applause of any video at that point...which for a contest determined by ballot, wasn't a good sign

[Katrina]

Comedy would have actually been weaker than upbeat if it wasn't for the crapy and I'm available ladies ones.

I don't think that's true at all. Code Monkey was very entertaining to watch. (I have no idea what the anime was, but it fit so perfectly and was well-executed.) I guess I'm biased on Pride vs. The Cows since I made that one, but certainly I don't think it weakened the category.

Also, Sesshomaru Champloo, IMHO was mostly an action video. Yes, it was an amusing premise, but the whole thing was a fight sequence. As I recall, most of the laughter was centered around the beginning and end. I think the action category fit perfectly well.

I've submitted to Upbeat in previous years with an AMV that could've gone to comedy, and I didn't even make it to the finals - the upbeat was highly competitive that year and the comedy was quite weak. So it varies from year to year, I think. It's not always easier to submit a semi-comedy to other categories.

[blahcubedbuddy]

Does anyone know when the Akira "Acrophobia" video will be put up? I freaking loved that one.

[ForeverZeroo]

Lemme just say that im happy I won. but EXTREMELY shocked. I think my video is maybe the weakest AMV i entered into a contest, but it got a good reaction friday night so i was happy with it. I honestly entered it just to enter it to get it shown and hear the reaction...never EVER thinking id win.

I saw alot of people were commenting on how my video might have been romance and not Upbeat. I kinda had that problem myself but i never thought it was romance. I was debating between upbeat and comedy. The video really isnt ROMANCE more like a summing up of the show its self which is based around a romance/comedy storyline. i was leaning toward the comedy mostly. there wasnt really many "oooh i love you" moments....mostly crack. I decided to put it in upbeat because of how FAST it is and how UPBEAT the song is. I feel it was best placed there. but thats up to whoever cares to judge ^_^;;

Either way im glad to have entered and won. it was a pretty good show, better then last year i believe...though the techy stuff on friday like turning the lights out, show have been fixed.

either way thats my two cents

congrads to everyone and good luck in the future ^^

[ANTDrakko]

I think I'll ramble for a bit. Feel free to interrupt at any point to tell me that all my opinions are wrong, that I'm a bad person, and what my mother does with goats...

As mentioned previously in another topic, I'm kind of curious as to why the finalists were decided upon they way they were.

From what I gather from the scores and some rough assumptions, some videos received a close-to 10 score (Highest Average = 9.8?), however, most videos received a 4-5? How was this scaled?

Perhaps it was just me, but I didn't see any videos in the contest what "wowed" me. Although all the videos in the contest were of great quality, none of them seemed, for lack of a better word, deserving of said scores. I really, REALLY wanted to go into that contest thinking that I'd see a video I'd be like "Wow. That was DEFINITELY a 10 or 9.8!" . Am I under the wrong impression that the choosing of finalists for Otakon is normally Finalists = AMV Editors Judged and Contest = Fan Ballot Judged?

I'd probably feel differently if the Highest Average = something like 7 or 8, but 9.8? Thats a bit much.

All that aside, I'm pleased with most of the winners. Though I have to agree with Kusoyaro in that its certainly not the best of his work yet it still managed to come out on top.

Your still the man though, John. That suicide booth line was too good to pass up at the AMV Panel.

~Seen

[Tsunami Jones]

Congrats to everyone!

[krzT]

I feel that most people are misunderstanding what Bakadeshi is trying to say (not that I want to belabor his point, but whatever ). Of course most videos are going to touch various category lines, that's pretty much a given and there's nothing wrong with it. But when it comes down to deciding what category to submit a video to, it's under the editor's discretion, and sometimes they'll consider submitting to whichever category they have a better shot at winning in than the category that is most "true" to their video. I'd say that usually this wouldn't be much of a problem, especially if the distinction between categories is vague, but this time around he just thought it was done in an obvious/needless way. ['deshi: feel free to shut me up if i'm wrong ^^;;;]

Besides...I would've liked it a lot if comedy were a bit stronger this year. T_T

Ah well. Congrats to all the winners and honorable mentions!! It was nice to see such a huge turnout for the Friday showing as well as in the general screenings. =) And thanks to John for running a smooth contest.

[Junipertay]

I wasn't surprised. Your video got the best reaction and although it wasn't a traditional crossover video with a ton of masks and whatnot, you had excellent scene selection. For example, you'd have one person swing their sword down and then the other series would block it as if *gasp* it were coming down on them .

Some would call that lazy (i.e. not masking), but I call it good scene selection. I will however agree there were other good entries in all the categories so winning in any category wasn't exactly easy.

Regardless, congrats. Especially since after talking to you on stage, you seem like a newcomer .

Haha, thanks DW! I hope I didn't come across as lazy---I would have LOVED to do more/better cutouts/masking etc, but good lord, my Premiere 5.5 could barely handle what I did! lol As it was gave me a heart attack at least five different times, with crashing/freezing/and the lovely "file not found" error message. Blargh! So yeah, I opted to try and do some "clever" editing instead. I'm hoping that I can get some better software this year, thus allowing me to do much better masking, effects, etc.

And yep, I guess I am pretty much a newbie...lol...I did the "Seven May Cry" vid last year and that was my very first. I'm a professional Graphic Designer and I took a few classes on Premiere and video editing back in college, but that's about it.

I thought all the vids in the contest were fantastic, BTW!! Everyone did a great job!

~Junipertay

[tobywan]

Hi blahcubedbuddy,

Well, I'm glad somebody liked it. I was thinking of waiting until after I made the Cousin of Sparda Studios logo before uploading "Acrophbia" so maybe not for a couple of days. But maybe I'll just upload it without the logo and save it for my next amv.

[blahcubedbuddy]

tobywan:

Actually, I sat with about 10 people and we thought you were a shoe-in. Hell, it had great music, great anime, excellent scene selection, and did all of it without the need for some sort of major adobe special effects. In essence, a quasi-minimalistic masterpiece in my book.

[Bakadeshi]

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. .

Actually the romance bit was just to pester chang, he knows why ;p (same thing happened to us back in ... er... 2004 or 5 or something)



I actually can accept changs as romance and the Oran one as upbeat, as they both also had strong romance and upbeat qualities to them aswell, onpar or more so than their humor. My complain was more towards the ones that were blatantly trying to be funny like the drinking one, and only complaining because the audience will almost always vote something they find funny even if there is a better video for that category in the category. (if that makes sense)

When I saw the Oran one I pretty much expected it to win, not because of comedy but more because of the source (You could literally hear the fangirls squeel at the title alone before it even started) and because it was fun.

Anyway it was more of an observational complaint than a me raising my fist in anger-protest complaint, if my words seemed otherwise.

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! ^^

Your reaction on stage to receiving this award made me smile ;p

I liked the vid, and I'm glad you got the award. congratulations.


Edit after reading page 2 : I didn't question the action one at all, it was primarily action, even if it had funny elements in it. I even voted for it. It was very creative in its direction even if it didn't have the level of masking and technical editing that most crossover vids usually have. I was impressed.


oh and cows with guns, don't get me wrong, I liked yours. I just felt those 2 were the strongest in the category. I don't remember liking code monkeys that much, and don't remember why. I'd have to watch it again.

As for everything else, pretty much what krzt said. Over and out ;p

[Katrina]

Thanks. Sorry if I seemed sensitive. I know my editing skills don't hold a candle to a lot of the well-known editors out there, but I like to think that every once in a while, I can pull off something decent. (In this case, the video probably would've been very much improved if I hadn't tried to throw the bulk of it together in 3 days.)

The crappy AMV was funny, but honestly, I liked Doki Doki's other videos a lot more. (I think I'm drained of poo humor since those are the only jokes my preschoolers know, and I hear them 8 hours a day.) If I wasn't in the contest, I would've voted for Code Monkey or I'm Availible, Ladies

When I saw the Oran one I pretty much expected it to win, not because of comedy but more because of the source (You could literally hear the fangirls squeel at the title alone before it even started) and because it was fun.

Lol, I know what you mean. I went to the Saturday showing and I think I could pinpoint where the Fruits Basket fangirls were because of the concentrated screaming when Haru came onscreen.

For me, this was probably one of the last AMV's I'll enter. Life is being... well, life, and when it comes down to cutting things from my schedule, AMV's seem to take the first hit. (I'll probably still do them once in a while for gifts, though...) I was very pleased to get into Otakon at all, and getting a positive audience reaction was very satisfying for me. (Someone told me I got third place in comedy, but I haven't heard any official confirmation yet - that would be awesome if it's true.)

Anyways, thanks for a great show![/quote]

[ReligionX]

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I find purely romantic and serious AMVs to be fun and good too . In fact, all of my other entries (and wins) at Otakon have been on the more serious and sappy side.

I just wanted to get that out of the way since some of us like 'boring' Romance videos . At the same time, I agree with your overall sentiment.

I like romantic AMVs and Sentimental AMVs and all that good emotionally stirring stuff. However! As you may know, a 4 minute AMV of Fushigi Yuugi is far more enjoyable and totally different experience than watching all of the latter episodes of the series. I’m just saying that I can’t remember seeing any anime that is 100% Romantic, Drama, Action, Upbeat, or Comedy. Most AMVs are 100% one specific genre either. And there’s nothing wrong with that. ^-^

I am on a crusade to change the physical categories of AMV Contests rather than the placement of AMVs into Contest Categories. My plan may never come to fruition due to conservatism, but it could alleviate many of the feelings of, “that video didn’t belong in that category.”

Am I under the wrong impression that the choosing of finalists for Otakon is normally Finalists = AMV Editors Judged and Contest = Fan Ballot Judged?

AMVs were sent to Otakon. AMVs were privately viewed by a group of judges 1 month before Otakon. The 30 highest rated videos were put into the Otakon AMV contest. Everyone at Otakon was given a ballot to vote for AMVs. The AMV Contest was viewed by thousands of people at Otakon. The ballots were counted by Otakon Staff. The videos with the highest number of votes won the AMV Contest. ALL other AMVs submitted to Otakon were shown during the General Screenings (Overflows). None of the AMVs in the AMV Contest were shown during the General Screenings.

Anyway it was more of an observational complaint than a me raising my fist in anger-protest complaint, if my words seemed otherwise.

Same on this end.