The Online AMV Iron Chef Tournament v4.0 - ROUND THREE!

[Pwolf]

It might be the little Godix in me but I've really tried to stay out of any type of conversation about judging or look at these threads but i'm getting pretty ticked off about you people making up stupid excuses why so and so lost and why so and so won by blaming it on the judges for anything other than doing their job (aka, my job).

Videos don't win because "so and so had a better series to work with", "the file size was larger", "there were more cuts", "the video was longer", "the judges hadn't seen the other video's source", "so and so is popular", or a multitude of other excuses i've seen.

Sources are semi random but you are the one who gets to choose them. That has absolutely nothing to do with how I (or any of the other judges for that matter) cast my vote. It has everything to do with wither or not you are able to use the source YOU PICKED. Everything between the editor picking their sources to when Brad tells them to stop editing is all on them. If they can't make a video better than their opponent based on their choices, that's their problem, not mine. I will vote for the video that I think is better.

Videos win because the majority of the judges feel like one video is better than the other. If you're going to make excuses, leave me out of it. Don't tell me why I voted for a video. Take responsibility for your own loss or recognize that you have a different opinion than what the judges felt and leave it at that. I know why i vote for a video over another, i don't like it when people try to say otherwise.

[Brad]

I can't speak for any of the judges in terms of how they're deciding on who to vote for. Personally, I certainly do hope that source bias isn't happening. However, there is a lot to say about visceral reaction. A lot of the time when I'm watching the two entries, I instinctively can tell you "I just enjoyed this one more" and I'll freely admit that sometimes a part of that visceral reaction is based on the source pairing. So that represents a conundrum. If I'm NOT taking the pairing into account from the perspective of "well that was a really easy/hard pairing, so the editing must've been really easy/hard" but simply basing it on "which video did I enjoy more?" then source pairing is still playing a part in that decision from a visceral enjoyment perspective. So, it's kind of a damned if I do, damned if I don't kind of scenario.

Here is how I would approach voting if I were a judge, in order of importance:

1) How well did the editing meld the two sources together? (this is mostly related to scene selection as opposed to timing/sync)
2) Did the editor take risks? If so, did they work, or did they hinder the final outcome? (this is more of a personal thing. I just tend to enjoy videos that give me something unexpected)
3) From a purely visceral and gut-feeling perspective, which one did I simply enjoy the most?
4) How was the technical editing quality? (this is where timing/sync come into play)
5) How was the video quality? (this is more of DISTANT 5th and wouldn't really override the above criteria, but it does have some influence in my visceral enjoyment, like it or not)

Now, that's all just my own personal views towards judging an IC, and aren't the set benchmarks for what the official judges have to do. I never gave them any specific rules and I don't intend to. However, I did pick them knowing that they know what to look for in a good video. They also have different tastes, which is a good thing. I do not believe that there are any "pity votes" being handed out, but I certainly wouldn't rule out the idea that they might look at somebody using a source that doesn't match up with a song well, and still doing a really great job as being a better accomplishment than somebody who does a great job with a source that matches up with the song perfectly. It's one of those "all things being equal" sort of deals where when you weigh the pro's and con's of each and they're right around the same level, you begin to look for other things, and the difficulty of the source material might come into play.

[Radical_Yue]

It's good to know the judges don't wear their pants on their heads.

[Chiikaboom]

Tbh when I finished the IC I was completely expecting to lose. Since this round uses songs used in other amvs, I was expecting to get a song i was already familiar with that was more upbeat or dramatic in which case I could parody it with Maria Holic. I was shocked to get a song that not only was I not familiar with, one that was both kind of upbeat but also dramatic, so I had a hard time finding a middle ground while I was editing. I sincerely hope the judges werent throwing a pity party for me because I ended up with a difficult source though |:

If I got Yue & Mkid's song, I think I would've had a lot more fun ;p

[Brad]

It's good to know the judges don't wear their pants on their heads.

Well, nobody said that.

[Pwolf]

It's good to know the judges don't wear their pants on their heads.

Well, nobody said that.

DON'T TELL ME HOW I WANT TO WEAR MY PANTS MISSY!

[Phantasmagoriat]

Um, I hope nobody is misinterpreting what I'm saying here...

I was simply stating that in my opinion (that's right, only my opinion), my video fit better, and that Chii made her's fit better.
I wasn't implying anything on the judges part, but I'm sure it's safe to assume that if a judge had the same opinion as me (I'm not saying anyone agrees with me...), then they would have quite the dilemma in choosing a winner.

Also, yeah, I wish the song was more upbeat and faster. That really threw a monkey wrench into the match

[Neverend]

I think you judges are doing a great job so far, but ofcourse people will have their own thoughts about a match, but thats why there are 5 judges

[Mkid]

I think you judges are doing a great job so far, but ofcourse people will have their own thoughts about a match, but thats why there are 5 judges

Same

[Prodigi]

I don't know what you're all going on about. I just vote for whoever pays me.