Anime Expo 2010 Anime Music Video Contest Rules Up

[DigitalPanther]

Oh, and all members can also wear those cool anime hats too and Rider4Z can be the appointed social coordinator… so there

my first act as social coordinator would be to provide t-shirts to match the hats

ooooo T-shirts AND Hats? AWESOME!!! Make mine 2X and hat size el skullo de hyuggeo


-DP

[The Wired Knight]

That being said, I do agree with cutting videos that don't stand up to the quality standards. If you did something wrong, learn how to fix it. I see a lot of people posting in contest threads when they have videos disqualified for the technical aspect of it, so there is an obvious willingness to learn how to correct it. I have seen a few contest rules that link to the guides here and I think that is an awesome idea that I'd like to see more often. Just add a little link to the DQ e-mail. "Your video was disqualified due to _____. Here is a guide that can help you fix the problem so that you can resubmit."* It'll help them help themselves and keep the quality of the contest higher.

I think that is a great idea. Part of the problem is that 98% if not 99% of all the entries don't get mailed till the very last possible minute.So resubmission is impossible. Most entrants wait down to the wire to send. be it procrastination, lazieness, anxiety, whatever. If you wait till the last possible minute to submit and get DQ'd for tech the you are sol till next year. I sincerely wish more people would submit early enough to have resubmit time. I think that would have helped a couple of the vids this year.

For the record...4 days before the deadline is not what I would consider in enough time. I am thinking more like a month before.
my .02
-DP

Michael you may want to try this, it served me well for Yaoicon for a number of years.

Set two deadlines for submissions, an early deadline and a late deadline. Mark the early deadline as for those who are uncertain about the technical aspects of their video and that if a video submitted BEFORE the early deadline sufferes from certain issues that would otherwise DQ it, that you will notify them and they have until the late deadline to get the video back in with the appropriate fix.

The late deadline recieves no leeway and videos submitted by that one run the risk of being DQed for the problem. You just have to leave yourself enough time between the two to know that you will have sufficient time to review whatever videos get submitted before the early submission deadline.

I stopped doing this only because I found not enough entries were taking advantage of it but frankly yaoicon has so few entries on average I never worried about it too much. However for AX I think the early deadline will not only improve quality of entires but also give you more flexibility on the ability to disqualify videos for technical reasons without having to worry about being too nitpicky.

[Rider4Z]

Michael you may want to try this, it served me well for Yaoicon for a number of years.

Set two deadlines for submissions, an early deadline and a late deadline. Mark the early deadline as for those who are uncertain about the technical aspects of their video and that if a video submitted BEFORE the early deadline sufferes from certain issues that would otherwise DQ it, that you will notify them and they have until the late deadline to get the video back in with the appropriate fix.

The late deadline recieves no leeway and videos submitted by that one run the risk of being DQed for the problem. You just have to leave yourself enough time between the two to know that you will have sufficient time to review whatever videos get submitted before the early submission deadline.

I stopped doing this only because I found not enough entries were taking advantage of it but frankly yaoicon has so few entries on average I never worried about it too much. However for AX I think the early deadline will not only improve quality of entires but also give you more flexibility on the ability to disqualify videos for technical reasons without having to worry about being too nitpicky.

[Niotex]

I don't want to sound rude or anything. But given how early the deadline was this year compared to the actual con date. I always assumed this was in place already. There was no excuse to not open the files real quick as you got them in, scrub through them looking for any major issues. And then if something was wrong getting back to the editor. Shooting them a non personal automated message to fix said problem. This honestly takes less then 5 minutes per faulty video. 20 seconds top's for a problem-less video. Given the sheer volume of entries for AX one should expect 2 afternoons/evenings tops going through this. Then having people resubmit within a week. If entry doesn't comply then, then too bad. Doesn't sound unreasonable or hard if you ask me. A system like this is used at contests like an Acen etc. I've personally used this system for all the contests I've run in the past 3/4 years now. I think you'd be surprised with how small the workload really is.

Trust me, at the end of the day everyone is happy.

Also people really need to read their PM's.

[XStylus]

I don't want to sound rude or anything. But given how early the deadline was this year compared to the actual con date. I always assumed this was in place already. There was no excuse to not open the files real quick as you got them in, scrub through them looking for any major issues. And then if something was wrong getting back to the editor. Shooting them a non personal automated message to fix said problem. This honestly takes less then 5 minutes per faulty video. 20 seconds top's for a problem-less video. Given the sheer volume of entries for AX one should expect 2 afternoons/evenings tops going through this. Then having people resubmit within a week. If entry doesn't comply then, then too bad. Doesn't sound unreasonable or hard if you ask me. A system like this is used at contests like an Acen etc. I've personally used this system for all the contests I've run in the past 3/4 years now. I think you'd be surprised with how small the workload really is.

Yeah, you do sound rude. It is not a coordinator's responsibility to check and notify the editor of fuck-ups that the editor is supposed to have checked prior to sending.

If a contest coordinator of any convention provides such a courtesy notice, it is just that -- a courtesy. If the coordinator wants to be a hard-ass and let the creator reap the consequences of their shoddy proofing, that's his or her prerogative.

Relying on the coordinator to do what is the most basic responsibility of the editor is a total lack of professionalism.

[Kazemon15]

What if, for example, the discs get damaged in the process of getting to the coordinator? Who's fault is it then? The editor doesn't know the shape their discs are by the time they get there, only the coordinator can let them know if there are any problems. There's also that little percentage that the package could get lost in the mail and never arrive.

[XStylus]

What if, for example, the discs get damaged in the process of getting to the coordinator? Who's fault is it then?

Now you're grasping at straws. If a disk arrives and it's damaged, that'd be pretty obvious the moment the disk arrives.

There's also that little percentage that the package could get lost in the mail and never arrive.

Which is why some contests state that an entry has to be in the coordinator's hands (not simply postmarked) by a certain day. If in doubt, send early.

[Brad]

I don't want to sound rude or anything. But given how early the deadline was this year compared to the actual con date. I always assumed this was in place already. There was no excuse to not open the files real quick as you got them in, scrub through them looking for any major issues. And then if something was wrong getting back to the editor. Shooting them a non personal automated message to fix said problem. This honestly takes less then 5 minutes per faulty video. 20 seconds top's for a problem-less video. Given the sheer volume of entries for AX one should expect 2 afternoons/evenings tops going through this. Then having people resubmit within a week. If entry doesn't comply then, then too bad. Doesn't sound unreasonable or hard if you ask me. A system like this is used at contests like an Acen etc. I've personally used this system for all the contests I've run in the past 3/4 years now. I think you'd be surprised with how small the workload really is.

Yeah, you do sound rude. It is not a coordinator's responsibility to check and notify the editor of fuck-ups that the editor is supposed to have checked prior to sending.

If a contest coordinator of any convention provides such a courtesy notice, it is just that -- a courtesy. If the coordinator wants to be a hard-ass and let the creator reap the consequences of their shoddy proofing, that's his or her prerogative.

Relying on the coordinator to do what is the most basic responsibility of the editor is a total lack of professionalism.

As much as I hate to help perpetuate yet another argument in this thread (which I'm sure it will inevitably lead to), that's total bologna. I've had contest submissions where I was absolutely sure, based on everything I could tell, that the file I had submitted worked perfectly fine. I had played it back myself and had other people play it and it worked completely fine. Then I get a notice from the coordinator that the file isn't playing back correctly. I remember in one case, something had fucked up in the upload and I hadn't noticed. I re-uploaded, and everything worked out just fine. Are you honestly going to tell me that not knowing that an upload had worked properly means that I didn't do my due diligence and that I shouldn't be allowed to enter? Or any number of unknowable mess ups? Sorry dude but that's fuckin' bullshit.

[CodeZTM]

Michael you may want to try this, it served me well for Yaoicon for a number of years.

Set two deadlines for submissions, an early deadline and a late deadline. Mark the early deadline as for those who are uncertain about the technical aspects of their video and that if a video submitted BEFORE the early deadline sufferes from certain issues that would otherwise DQ it, that you will notify them and they have until the late deadline to get the video back in with the appropriate fix.

The late deadline recieves no leeway and videos submitted by that one run the risk of being DQed for the problem. You just have to leave yourself enough time between the two to know that you will have sufficient time to review whatever videos get submitted before the early submission deadline.

I stopped doing this only because I found not enough entries were taking advantage of it but frankly yaoicon has so few entries on average I never worried about it too much. However for AX I think the early deadline will not only improve quality of entires but also give you more flexibility on the ability to disqualify videos for technical reasons without having to worry about being too nitpicky.

That's a fantastic idea.

[Niotex]

total lack of professionalism.

A lot of people seem to be lacking that these days.

You seem to forget that upon uploading a video for instance there is the possibility of the upload corrupting. This can happen due to any number of things that are completely out of the editors control. This is why we have a double-check system on this very site, so we can check if files arrive as they should. And even if the upload is successful there is still always the possibility that upon downloading the file corrupts. You generally don't have a hash file to check these things.

If as a coordinator you wish to increase the overall quality of the contest you're organizing. It would also be in your best interest to possibly correct simple things that people might not know about. Shooting someone a message telling them something is interlaced, has frame blending or something else silly that can be remedied by reexporting properly. Insures that for future reference people learn right from wrong. All while increasing the overall quality of the contest.

People shouldn't complain about the amount of "bad" video's if they themselves have hand in correcting people for future reference. This is a two way street between editors and coordinators. Communication is key.

Now you start treating me as a troll/flamer, look at what I'm trying to get at. As aggravating as it might be to you. I'm merely giving advice from one coordinator to another. And if the way I formulate my sentences comes off as rude then pardon me as that is far from what I was trying to do.

Again I can't stress how valuable this is for a con that takes pride in their contest. Then again if you wish to ignore the insight and advice I just gave. Then feel free to do so.