The Online AMV Iron Chef Tournament v1.0 - Round 1
Round 1 Matches:
Match 1: Devolution VS Wonka
Match 2: DoKool VS AisuzuZwei
Match 3: Burntoast VS Tash
Match 4: Tom the Fish VS Rozard
Match 5: SSJVegita0609 VS OtakuForLife
Match 6: Makenshi VS MexicanJunior
Match 7: Voices Of Ryan VS Corran
Match 8: NME VS dcdeveloperx
Exact breakdown of what you need to do now:
Each contestant will contact their opponent through AIM, .org PM, e-mail, whatever. You will discuss what time you can both be online for around 4 uninterrupted hours (will probably be more like 3 hours, but I'm saying 4 as a buffer). Once you have agreed to a day and time, you will either talk to AtomX on AIM or e-mail him (brad@planetbrad.com) or PM him on the org. It would be very helpful if you could list around 3 different days/times just in case I have an unavoidable conflict. Generally, I'm figuring the majority of the battles will take place in the late evening.
The day before the scheduled battle:
AtomX will contact you and request your list of 6 anime DVD sources (numbered 1-6). Once he has both, he will meet both opponents in an AIM chat room, and use AIM's built-in dice roller to randomly select your sources. Once you know your source, you will begin to rip the VOBs, write d2v's and avs scripts, convert to MJPEG, however you'd like to prepare your footage to be editted. Please test the footage in Premiere ahead of time so you know for a fact that it works and you don't start your battle and realize your source is messed up. Take that as a warning that you will be expected to be ready to edit with no problems once your battle starts.
VERY IMPORTANT!!!! Because this is blind judging, you MUST NOT reveal to anybody what your source is. If a judge knows what your source is, he will know which video is which, and the judging is then compromised. So once you know your source, you must keep it a secret to only yourself, your opponent, and AtomX.
Another thing you should definitely consider doing in this 24 hours is WATCHING the footage. Even if you've seen it before (which I surely hope you have), you'll be able to remember and find scenes much better if you've seen the anime RECENTLY.
The day/time of the battle:
One the day of the battle, the 2 opponents plus AtomX will meet on AIM in a chat room around 15-20 minutes before the match is set to begin. I will give you a link to download the song you are going to be using. Take this time to convert the song to WAV if you so desire, and to LISTEN TO IT, A LOT. Concentrate on it. Think about it in terms of your footage. How should you start off the video? What scenes go with what lyric? What kind of transitions would be effective with this drum hit, and so on and so forth.
Also use this time to GO TO THE RESTROOM. And get whatever soda/booze you'd like to have on tap (;-P).
The Battle Itself:
I will down 5 to 1 countdown to trigger the start of the battle. Once I say GO, the match has begun. I will be counting down from 2 hours from that moment. It will be up to you keep an eye on your time (either that or keep AIM sounds on, because I will be IM'ing you when your time is up). Use an external alarm clock if you have to. And for the love of all that's sacred, assuming you're using Premiere 6+, TURN "AUTO-SAVE EVERY 1 MINUTES" ON!! You will not be very pleased when Premiere crashes halfway in and you realize you forgot to save and now you are down 1 hour to do your whole video. So yeah.
When time is up:
You will receive an IM from me to signify that you must stop editting. I will refuse any pleas for "one more minute" or what have you. When 2 hours is up, your editing must cease. You will then export your video to Huffyuv (don't forget to turn on any tracks you may have turned off for whatever reason). Then you will take that Huffyuv into VirtualDub/TMPGEnc/Whatever you use, and export your compressed version. As stated in the previous thread, this will also be a test of your technical skills as an editor, henceforth, we want to see a good looking encode. Now granted, great editing will take presedence, but if it looks like utter crap, it may make a bad impression on the judges. Keep this in mind.
Once your compressed video is ready to go, I will give you an FTP server and login for you to upload your video. You can feel free to talk to your opponent, share videos, etc. Once the videos are uploaded, I will put them into a central location, and rename them randomly to VideoA and VideoB. Then, I will let the judges know that the match has finished and the videos are ready to be reviewed. Now, keep in mind that not all 3 judges have to be online during the match. If they cannot review your video until the next day, you will simply have to be patient to find out the results.
When voting is finished:
Once the votes are received by AtomX, he will inform both opponents, and then post into the Round 1 thread. The loser will be out of the tournament, and the winner will move on to Round 2.
That's the skinny! If there are any questions, please let me know and I will address them promptly. Anyways, lets get these matches underway!! Remember that you have until Feb. 29th to complete your match!
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