Avatar Expo 2014 Avatar Music Video Competition - Now Open! (DL: May 3rd)

This forum is for the announcement and discussion of Avatar music video contests.

Re: Avatar Expo 2014 Avatar Music Video Competition - Now Open! (DL: May 3rd

Postby Rider4Z » Thu Jan 23, 2014 9:19 pm

neko kitkat wrote:yes the link worked! Thank you so much. I read the rules and guidelines thoroughly. I was able to register fine. I dunno why the above think was giving me issues. Thank you for the help.

i'm excited to see what you have this year! :D
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Re: Avatar Expo 2014 Avatar Music Video Competition - Now Open! (DL: May 3rd

Postby XStylus » Thu Jan 23, 2014 10:47 pm

FYI to any to registered:

As of this moment, I am up-to-date on all registrations. If you've registered and have not received your submission code, check your spam filter. If you still haven't received it, email me privately.
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Re: Avatar Expo 2014 Avatar Music Video Competition - Now Open! (DL: May 3rd

Postby Castor Troy » Fri Jan 24, 2014 1:04 am

XStylus wrote:Hey Castor, you're slacking, man! You missed several cues for "drama" the past few pages. :beer: :awesome:


Oh crap, you were right.

bleh.
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Re: Avatar Expo 2014 Avatar Music Video Competition - Now Open! (DL: May 3rd

Postby Castor Troy » Fri Jan 24, 2014 1:05 am

Rider4Z wrote:i was tempted but the scenario was already too embarrassing. :down:

Tsu! wrote:Is there a pic of this weapon- I mean, trophy somewhere? :lol:

Quoted Image converted to link:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v126/Rider4Z/CAM00729_zpsb0eabfff.jpg

the katsucon trophies are actually a bit sharper, but this one's got meat.


I'll trophy duel you. :bzz:
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Re: Avatar Expo 2014 Avatar Music Video Competition - Now Open! (DL: May 3rd

Postby neko kitkat » Fri Jan 24, 2014 5:08 pm

[quote="Rider4Z"][quote="neko kitkat"]yes the link worked! Thank you so much. I read the rules and guidelines thoroughly. I was able to register fine. I dunno why the above think was giving me issues. Thank you for the help.[/quote]
i'm excited to see what you have this year! :D[/quote]

Aww thank you! I am excited to see what you submit too! XD
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Re: Avatar Expo 2014 Avatar Music Video Competition - Now Open! (DL: May 3rd

Postby Rider4Z » Fri Jan 24, 2014 6:52 pm

Castor Troy wrote:I'll trophy duel you. :bzz:

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Re: Avatar Expo 2014 Avatar Music Video Competition - Now Open! (DL: May 3rd

Postby XStylus » Wed Jan 29, 2014 5:13 am

It has come to my attention that there's a bit of confusion regarding the way categories are being handled this year.

I expected this since we're doing things slightly differently this year. In fact, I'm surprised things had been silent on that, and for a while I thought that the rules must've done a good job getting the idea across.

Well, apparently it seems questions indeed are being asked, but they're being asked among each other rather than here, which makes me sad panda. Please, if anyone has a question, speak up. Ask myself or Vlad directly, or post the question in this thread.

For the rules I aimed to explain it with as much brevity as possible to avoid the TL;DR effect, which of course left plenty of room for ambiguity or lack of clarity. So, let me try to clear some of that up.

And so, here we go:

Why are [the categories] split into two different sections [Prime and General]? Why not just combine them?

Because it made describing the changes easier and far shorter, though I’m seeing where the word “Prime” can lead to confusion.

I think the real question being asked is what are the Prime and General categories?

Here’s the difference:

Prime Genres:
1) Each one is automatically going to be a “Finalist Category”?
2) Have some simple restrictions on how many entries you may submit.

General Genres:
1) Will each be paired with another General Genre (to be determined once all entries are received) to create a “Finalist Category”?
2) Have fewer restrictions on how many entries you may submit.

That's it!

The “Prime Genes” are called “Prime” because they’re the juggernauts. We get lots and lots and LOTS of them. The word “prime” isn’t meant to denote anything “upper tier” about them. In fact, the words “Prime” and “General” are discarded once we’ve got the Finalist Categories determined. In retrospect, “prime” probably wasn’t the best word to use since that seems to insinuate a higher tier or something, but that’s not the case. Primes are just really big juggernaut genres that won’t ever be going away. I might replace the word "Prime" with "Limited", and "General" with "Standard", but for now it is what it is.

Bottom line, there is no difference between Prime Genres and General Genres, except that there are limits on how many Prime Genre entries you may submit.

Is there going to be a showing for each genre or just the prime genres?


Each genre will be represented. As I said above, Prime Genres don't get any special treatment.

Hopefully this will make it clearer: There will be five (possibly six) Finalist Categories. Three of them are each Prime Genre. The remaining two (or three) will be created by pairing General Genres together, which we will determine once we’ve received and screened all entries.

I think the best way I can answer this is to give some examples of what a final competition may look like:

Spoiler :
Example 1:
Finalist Category 1: Drama/Theatric
Finalist Category 2: Adventure/Action
Finalist Category 3: Romance/Sentimental
Finalist Category 4: Comedy/Fun/Parody
Finalist Category 5: Upbeat/Dance

Example 2:
Finalist Category 1: Drama/Theatric
Finalist Category 2: Adventure/Action
Finalist Category 3: Romance/Sentimental
Finalist Category 4: Comedy/Parody
Finalist Category 5: Upbeat/Fun
(Dance dropped altogether due to lack of entries, with what few entries it received having been recategorized to "Upbeat")

Example 3:
Finalist Category 1: Drama/Theatric
Finalist Category 2: Adventure/Action
Finalist Category 3: Romance/Sentimental
Finalist Category 4: Fun/Parody
Finalist Category 5: Upbeat/Dance
Finalist Category 6: Comedy
(A huge surge of great Comedy entries merited it getting its own category this particular example)

And there are other possible combinations, but these are just three examples. Note, we don't know what the genre combinations will be until we see what kind of videos those genres get.


Why are the sections split up into duplicates? What's the difference between "Upbeat" and "Fun"?[


They aren’t duplicates. However, you've zeroed in on an inherent flaw in the very concept of categorization, which is that each person has different definitions for each category. It’s a problem with all categories, not just “Fun” and “Upbeat”? One person's definition of "Fun" is another person's definition of "Upbeat”? Even still, another person’s “Upbeat” might be another person’s “Dance”? On that same note, one person's "Fun" is another person's "Comedy”, and vice versa. Thus, if we were to pre-specify a “Fun & Upbeat” category, we’re asking for trouble. This was a problem we discovered the hard way last year at AX and, to a slightly lesser degree, at SakuraCon. You’ll note that the category pairings we ultimately had at both events were not as we originally specified in the rules.

That's why we set about making these changes.

Since genres skew very differently from year to year, we wanted to implement a way to be flexible. So, now we don't pair genres until after we see what the crop of entries is like. If "upbeat" skews more dance'ish, it could get paired with dance (like last year was)? If Fun skews more comedy'ish (or vice versa) they could get merged together, again, like last year. That's the whole idea behind this method. It lets us determine how best to arrange the entries in the most competitive manner.

Again, what's the difference between "Upbeat" and "Fun"?


If I were entering an Avatar Music Video, here's how I interpret those two genres:
Fun entries are ones that are weird, strange, unique, and entertainingly experimental, though not quite to the degree of comedy.
Upbeat entries can be ones that that amp you up, and there's also ones that simply make you feel good. They straddle the nebulous border of action, dance, and perhaps even sentiment.

Ultimately though, it's up to you. The genre you specify is a guide which lets us understand the intent of your entry, which we will use to aid us in placing your entry in the category where it will be most competitive.

Why do this?


Because changing the entire category structure last year well after the rules were released felt like changing the contest, and that felt extremely unethical to me. Thus, I wanted to codify it into the rules so that I could do so again the following year, but be transparent about how it would be done. As you can see though, it's not exactly something that can be clearly described in just a few sentences (though I spent two months trying)?


I hope this clears some things up. As always, if any of you have any questions whatsoever, please ask.
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"Darkness.?? is.?? coming." BZZZT!<3<3 [Crowd ROFLs] -Yuusharo's vid as the power went out.
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Re: Avatar Expo 2014 Avatar Music Video Competition - Now Open! (DL: May 3rd

Postby Cyrix » Fri Jan 31, 2014 1:53 am

I was going to message you to suggest removing the one-video limit from the comedy category due to the difficulty in building that category, but it looks like you already took care of that :up:

I have one submission ready (two if you happen to have decreased the minimum video length back to 15 seconds >_> <_< >_> ) but nothing else prepared yet. Would you prefer we send videos in one at a time as they are ready (to avoid a last minute flood) or all at once? I think I or someone else asked this last year but I forget the answer.
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Re: Avatar Expo 2014 Avatar Music Video Competition - Now Open! (DL: May 3rd

Postby XStylus » Fri Jan 31, 2014 2:04 am

Cyrix wrote:I have one submission ready (two if you happen to have decreased the minimum video length back to 15 seconds >_> <_< >_> ) but nothing else prepared yet. Would you prefer we send videos in one at a time as they are ready (to avoid a last minute flood) or all at once? I think I or someone else asked this last year but I forget the answer.


If a convincing argument can be made that the minimum video length that we currently have is too limiting to creativity, I can be persuaded to consider such a change, but I'd need some convincing examples.

For what it's worth though, I almost did have a "Challenge Genre" this year, and the maximum length for it was 15 seconds, thus being the challenge.
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"Darkness.?? is.?? coming." BZZZT!<3<3 [Crowd ROFLs] -Yuusharo's vid as the power went out.
"Lol! Okay, some margin for error." -Pwolf
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Re: Avatar Expo 2014 Avatar Music Video Competition - Now Open! (DL: May 3rd

Postby Cyrix » Fri Jan 31, 2014 2:12 am

I don't think you addressed my main question :P

As for minimum length, the cuppycake video mave have been a disaster on the technical side, but it was ****ing hilarious. A good 15 second shock-value video can be a real highlight of a show; I'll certainly never forget that experience. Maybe some editors wouldn't be pleased with short videos they perceive as lacking in artistic merit, but I see it as one of those situations where audience enjoyment is a key factor.

Also, the beauty of a 15 second video is that's a minimum of 75 seconds less time the judges have to spend watching and potentially rewatching that video, cutting down on laborious judging time. And they barely increase the length of the show at all!

Is it too late to include the Challenge Genre? That sounds fun as hell.

edit: Entirely unrelated question, is the show an online-ticketed event this year? Last year was very frustrating to find out the tickets were only available online weeks after they ran out.
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Re: Avatar Expo 2014 Avatar Music Video Competition - Now Open! (DL: May 3rd

Postby XStylus » Fri Jan 31, 2014 2:15 am

Cyrix wrote:Would you prefer we send videos in one at a time as they are ready (to avoid a last minute flood) or all at once? I think I or someone else asked this last year but I forget the answer.


You can send them whenever you're ready. If you want to send one now and one later, or if you prefer to send both at the same time, it matters not to me. Last year it was a pain, but this year not so much.
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Avatar Expo 2014 - Avatar Music Video Events Manager

"No margin for error." -Pwolf
"Darkness.?? is.?? coming." BZZZT!<3<3 [Crowd ROFLs] -Yuusharo's vid as the power went out.
"Lol! Okay, some margin for error." -Pwolf
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Re: Avatar Expo 2014 Avatar Music Video Competition - Now Open! (DL: May 3rd

Postby XStylus » Fri Jan 31, 2014 2:39 am

Cyrix wrote:Is it too late to include the Challenge Genre? That sounds fun as hell.


I was talked out of it for this year. :P I could very much consider it for next year though, but with off-the-wall ideas like these it's hard to predict how receptive people would be to it. If we tried something new like that and people didn't respond to it with enough entries, it'd be an embarrassment.

Honestly, the new Commercials sub-genre is the test. If people send a bunch of videos to it and are receptive to it, then that tells me it'd be safe to try other ideas too. Innovation at work here!

edit: Entirely unrelated question, is the show an online-ticketed event this year? Last year was very frustrating to find out the tickets were only available online weeks after they ran out.


Yeah, and imagine my ire when I walked out onto the stage and still saw a slew of empty seats. I could give a page-long rant on that BS. The lesson was learned though. Tickets will be obtainable at-con only, as they were done prior to last year. There's also plans being thought up regarding how/when to release no-show seats and let last-minute standby folks in.
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Avatar Expo 2014 - Avatar Music Video Events Manager

"No margin for error." -Pwolf
"Darkness.?? is.?? coming." BZZZT!<3<3 [Crowd ROFLs] -Yuusharo's vid as the power went out.
"Lol! Okay, some margin for error." -Pwolf
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Re: Avatar Expo 2014 Avatar Music Video Competition - Now Open! (DL: May 3rd

Postby Tsu! » Fri Jan 31, 2014 4:42 am

XStylus wrote:
Cyrix wrote:edit: Entirely unrelated question, is the show an online-ticketed event this year? Last year was very frustrating to find out the tickets were only available online weeks after they ran out.


Yeah, and imagine my ire when I walked out onto the stage and still saw a slew of empty seats. I could give a page-long rant on that BS. The lesson was learned though. Tickets will be obtainable at-con only, as they were done prior to last year. There's also plans being thought up regarding how/when to release no-show seats and let last-minute standby folks in.


Ooh. I'm grateful for this. While most of the space around where I was seated was packed, the remainder of my row was entirely empty. Considering I'd been approached by multiple people while waiting in line that had wanted to get in but weren't able to get tix, I couldn't help but feel for 'em.
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Re: Avatar Expo 2014 Avatar Music Video Competition - Now Open! (DL: May 3rd

Postby Rider4Z » Fri Jan 31, 2014 6:27 pm

Stand by seating is a brilliant idea.
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Re: Avatar Expo 2014 Avatar Music Video Competition - Now Open! (DL: May 3rd

Postby Scintilla » Sun Feb 02, 2014 10:21 am

Another question. I know you said that genre classification is up to us, but considering how different the rules are for Commercials & Trailers, I thought I should ask just to be safe -- would an opening sequence parody video be properly classified under Parody, or under Commercials & Trailers?

(and no, I am not thinking of sending the one I made ten years ago.)
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