DragonCon 2006 - Winners & Stuff

[Nimthiriel]

Hey Everyone!! Thank you so much for showing up to support DragonCon's first AMV contest. After many many.......many many many bumps I have learned a great many things about AMV contests and I will be streamlining the rules for next year. As one person said my rules looked like I picked the weirdest rules from different contests and mushed them together. I will fix that. I had the opportunity to speak with a lot of different people in various levels of AMV contests who offered suggestions and some even offered to help next year. I look forward to working with those people in order to make the contest even better.

We had 6-10 creators in the room that I saw raise their hands and a total of 90 people in the room and crowded in the doorway. I also had the pleasure of speaking with a few of you guys before and after the contest.

We found out 2 hours before the contest that a bigger room was made available to us if we wanted to wait until 11:30 pm but because it was so late in the game we were unable to move to that room. Plus it was a crappy time slot. I will be fighting to get us a bigger room and a better time slot for next year so bear with me. I apologize for all the confusion regarding the room and the time. I found out yesterday that some of you guys were asking about the contest at 11pm Sunday night.

We also had some very big bumps due to the fact we were unsure if we were going to be able to hold the contest at all. We found out two days before DragonCon that the contest would continue which led to a few more problems. Including the above mentioned room problems.

I'm sure some of you could tell I was a bit nervous standing up there talking but I did have a lot of fun. Yes, that means I was the one in the dress, wings and face paint standing on the chair with the glaring light in my eyes.

We had approximately 25-30 entries most of which were action meaning we had to change the rules a bit at the last minute. Instead of having 3 winners from each category we had 1 from Drama, Romance, and Comedy and 3 from Action. There were just not enough entires in the other categories to fairly give awards to those categories. We also picked a Best of Show and based on the response from the audience I think we chose well. Now, just so no one misunderstands me, I am coordinating the contest. I put myself outside of the contest and I do not judge. I have a weak point in that respect since I like pretty shiney things and it causes me to lose focus on the technical details meaning I can't judge fairly. I have too many people who are more quailfied for judging so why not let them do that.

So now to the part you have all been waiting for: The winner.

Action:
1st: TKO by Judge Holden set to TKO by LeTigre

2nd: Mr Alucard by Anneke set to Mr Roboto by Styx

3rd: Waiting for Tomorrow...all my life by Anneke set to IN the Shadows by Ramus



Romance: Love & Sorrows by Devil Shin set to Sadness and Sorrows by Toshiro Masudu

Drama: Major Tom by Boyd Hale set to Major TOm by Peter Schillings

Comedy: Channel Surf 2 by Bryan MS Minnix set to a mix of various music artists

Best of Show: Channel Surf 2 by Bryan MS Minnix set to a mix of various music artists

If anyone has any questions or comments I would love to hear them and I would also love to hear what suggestions and feedback you have for next year.

Thanks again for your support.

Nim

[JudgeHolden]

Congrats to Everybody!

JH

[anneke]

I won twice in action...thanks. Congrats to the other winners. I wish I could have been there.

-Anneke

[Rem0]

Grats to all the winners, DragonCon looked like a blast. Bet everyone had fun!

[Nimthiriel]

OMG!! I can't believe that I forgot to mention congratulations to all the winners.

CONGRATULATIONS to everyone who won and thanks to everyone who entered. I really enjoyed watching the submissions!!

Thanks,

Nim

[Devil^Shin]

Romance: Love & Sorrows by Devil Shin set to Sadness and Sorrows by Toshiro Masudu

nice, congrats to other winners

[theliel]

it was a blast, and the anime room was handled much better than in the past (no random changes of schedule).
The winners really, REALLY *REALLY* earned it.
PS - the channel surfin' 2 that was shown is slightly differnt from the one on the a-m-v.org direct download.

Only thing I missed from previous years was a general AMV 'slot', but the contest was pure distilled teh win and gave me my yearly fix.

[Bryan Minnix]

First of all Congrats to all the other Winners. From What I can tell It was a realy good line up.

As far as Channel Surfin'2 is concerned the virsion I sent to Dragon con is the same one I posted here at "the org".

[Shinodude]

w00t grats to all winners and grats to judgeholden and devil^shin

[AMV_4000]

it was a blast, and the anime room was handled much better than in the past (no random changes of schedule).
The winners really, REALLY *REALLY* earned it.
PS - the channel surfin' 2 that was shown is slightly differnt from the one on the a-m-v.org direct download.

Only thing I missed from previous years was a general AMV 'slot', but the contest was pure distilled teh win and gave me my yearly fix.

well, CB-R made a few amv slots open.. one per day.... cept monday... but yeah, congrats to the winners... i personally didnt enter, but i have been talked into either judging or entering the contest next year...

We had 6-10 creators in the room that I saw raise their hands and a total of 90 people in the room and crowded in the doorway. I also had the pleasure of speaking with a few of you guys before and after the contest.

4 of us were in the back row... and it was nice to talk about the contest, we got to clear up some misunderstandings that we had about the contest, and we talked about ways to improve for next year.. PM me as soon as you want to go over the plans for next years contest. I'll help you guys write some rules and stuff out for it. *and addy says it will be free as all amv contests should be *


Overall, i was unimpressed with most of the videos up there. i got a lugh out of the 2 comedy videos shown... but come on amv hell is SOOOOOOO overraped... the romance one *i dont really remember to well* was an alright video, the Action video.. come on judge... i know you can do better... and the Mr. Alucard video wasnt really action as much as it was comedy... and waiting for tomorrow *if thats the one with the cheap effects in AE* had its moments, but it had interlacing issues *drngd* and there were some scenes where it looked like they added the effects just to fill time... Drama... wasnt really drama, then again neither was insomnia, but it wasnt that good of a video either.. overall, dragon con needed more entries... this year i said i wouldnt enter drgoncons contest *for certain reasons* but since its cleared up, i will next year, and everyone else should too...

the contest ran VERY smooth *some cons have TONS of tech difficulties, but this one ran almost flawlessly* there just wasnt enough time to show all of the entries, not only that, but the room was FULL and people were sitting in the doorway trying to watch... they needed a bigger room... so, we the staff *i guess i can call myself a part of that* are going to talk to dragon con people about getting a bigger room next year. after we fix that... and get more entries... and *MABY* get some prizes (sponsors) then we might give something away next year *maby a Best video from con attendee award* (must be in attendance) oooo that might help attendence *cause there went a bajillion people there to begin with* and it would draw a bigger crowd to the amvs, plus it would be more mv entries... i think...

anyways, if anyone read this, its just me rambling bout how we can and prolly will improve the con next year... but until then... we shall plan...

[anneke]

Well as for Mr. Alucard, it's not a comedy, it has a few funny parts but it's really a story, so a drama or action. As for Waiting for Tomorrows... Well it made the finals at AX and Fanime, and I didn't use After Effects at all. But your welcome to your opinion.

-Anneke

[Nimthiriel]

I created the anime lineup in addition to running the amv contest. I had worked the rooms before but this was my first year actually creating the line-up. One week before DragonCon I was told I had to redo my entire playlist because of ASCAP. My diet consisted of TUMS and Advil. In the original playlist I was showing amvs between each block of shows and the amvs pertained to the different shows. The line up was awesome. I was very very angry over this new playlist and I was really worried that it would not go over well. Even though this playlist was put together in less than a week I seemed to receive a look of positive feedback. Unfortunately I had to throw in Cardcaptor Sakura since I was having problems getting other stuff I owned to rip. The s--nd wa- --ally ba-. If you get my meaning.

I really wish we could have had time to play more amv's but I only had time to play the best ones because of all the room and time slot confusion.

I'm so glad that everyone liked what they saw and everything turned out as well as it did. I kept looking for the bright light of the oncoming train. (trainwreck)

I'm glad to hear that everyone thought it went well.

As far as Mr Alucard is concerned. It was funny but it was more action and it even had a nice mix of drama. While the juding was taking place I asked the judges about that specifically and the response was it was more action with comedic undertones.

Thanks again you guys!

[Nimthiriel]

AMV_4000 before you get ahead of yourself we can not add additional staff until the DragonCon heirarchy approves. Right now I am gathering information on how to improve the contest and I am doing a prescreeing for a panel of judges for next year. All my questions have been so that I can make the contest the best it can be for the creators from a creator's point of view.

It was very helpful to hear from creators on what aspects needed improvement and what aspects of the rules were misunderstood. I plan on using this information to improve the rules for next year.

Since the contest went over so well I am confident that we will be able to get a bigger room and a good timeslot for next year. The fact I'm getting an early start will help immensely in securing these for us.

Thank you and I hope this clears up any misunderstandings.

[JudgeHolden]

the Action video.. come on judge... i know you can do better...

Yes I can, but TKO is what I sent ......

JH

[anneke]

Some people just assume Lipsynch = comedy. I'm glad the judges were able to see beyond to the complexity. Some people can not comprehend that a video can be multiple categories at once. They want a video to fit into one category and one only.

(I have another video 'Amadeus' which is worse then Mr. Alucard for switching between categories. I still love the reaction of the audience when I showed Amadeus for the first time. They were laughing one minute and dead silent the next, then when humor came back in they were a few nervous giggles, people so unsure if they should laugh or not.)

Anneke