Anime Expo 2011 - AMV Chef is BACK!

[XStylus]

There will be "WTF IS THIS? KILL IT WITH FIER!!!!11!!1"
Anime Expo is proud to officially present AMV Chef, hosted by Brad DeMoss and Nic Neidenbach!

If you've heard of "Iron Chef" then you already know the gist of what this event is about. However, instead of food contestants "cook" with a preselected cornucopia of demented anime choices as their ingredients

This year's theme is "SACCHARINE HELL." Contestants are charged with the task of creating an AMV that best exemplifies their interpretation of that theme.

The selection of footage for this year is as follows:
Mao-Chan
Tiny Snow Fairy Sugar
Fancy LaLa
Magical Meow Meow Taruto
Bottle Fairy
(Secret Source - To be announced here after the event)

The first three and final three episodes of each series will be provided, except the final episode. In other words, for a 12 episode such as Taruto, episodes 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, and 11 will be provided. Bottle Fairy is an exception, the entire series will be provided.

There will be order! (The RULES)
1) Competitors must use at least three of the five video sources listed.
2) At least one frame from the secret source must be used. Note that you will be judged on how effectively you integrate the secret source with your video.
3) Competitors will be given three (3) hours to edit their video. In the unlikely event of a technical malfunction, the downed editor's clock halts until they are able to resume editing.
4) Competitors may edit until the last second, at which time nothing may be added, moved, or removed. The final projects shall then be output to a file for playback.
5) Editors must provide their own audio track. It is recommended that editors bring multiple songs of different genres (you never know what that secret source might be). Anything goes, but nothing obscene or excessively vulgar.

There will be judgement!
A judging panel of select veteran AMV creators and past contestants shall score the videos using the following 50-point criteria:

Use of secret ingredient: 15 points
Use of theme: 15 points
Technical merit: 10 points
Artistic merit: 10 points

Last year's panel of chef judges plus last year's victor are invited to return again to judge this year. With that privilege also comes the responsibility of defending their seat on the panel. Hence, this year's challenger shall choose which of the chef judges they will compete against.

There will be competition!
Castor Troy is this year's challenger! At the event he will choose which of our chef judges he shall challenge.

There will be equipment (that doesn't suck)!
Editors will be provided the usage of a preconfigured workstation to edit on. Each editor's workstation is identical. Equipment details will be forthcoming, but at minimum it will be an Intel i7 or better, and shall be equipped with the full Adobe CS5 Production Suite. Footage will be provided in both MPG2 and DV format.

There will be entertainment!
We're gonna show some weird little videos called AMVs. Maybe you've heard of them?

There will be audience participation!
Are you an encyclopedia of anime? Can you name a show just by looking at a couple frames of footage? Are you willing to make a fool of yourself in front of an audience of your peers just for the promise of delicious cake?

There will be prizes!
Oh yes, there will be prizes. No, they will not be delicious and moist. Well... maybe one of them will.

There will be silly disclaimers!
The coordinators will not be responsible for any tooth decay or diabetic comas resulting from participation in this event.

There will be questions!
So ask them here. This post will be updated with further information as it comes.

[Radical_Yue]

There will be entertainment!
We're gonna show some weird little videos called AMVs. Maybe you've heard of them?

Are they just going to be videos from the people attending/hosting the event?

[Castor Troy]

Gonna pm you and Brad for a spot on the judging panel.

[The Wired Knight]

Well I've seen two of those shows. Though doesn't it seem odd to include render time in the 3 hours? Since it's on systems we are not familiar with we don't know how long it will take the system to render at all so it's hard to budget time for it. Also the countodwn to the finish suddenly seems less dramatic since it's just two people sitting there waiting on renders.

[Castor Troy]

There will be entertainment!
We're gonna show some weird little videos called AMVs. Maybe you've heard of them?

Are they just going to be videos from the people attending/hosting the event?

Bring some good stuff, especially for the audience participation.

[XStylus]

Well I've seen two of those shows. Though doesn't it seem odd to include render time in the 3 hours? Since it's on systems we are not familiar with we don't know how long it will take the system to render at all so it's hard to budget time for it. Also the countodwn to the finish suddenly seems less dramatic since it's just two people sitting there waiting on renders.

Hmm. Not a bad point. If it's an issue, we can revise it. For the record though, other competitions give two hours. We give three.

What I want to avoid is a lengthy render wait after the clock has stopped. However, the machines we're getting this year should be high enough spec that it shouldn't be a huge issue either way.

[Pwolf]

3) Your video must be "served" (that means finished and rendered) on or before the three hour clock elapses.

You make the contestants render out their own videos? That's both mean and un-uniform.

[XStylus]

3) Your video must be "served" (that means finished and rendered) on or before the three hour clock elapses.

You make the contestants render out their own videos? That's both mean and un-uniform.

That rule is now gone. There should be enough time to render out videos at the finish, and as Sean said, it amps the sprint-to-the-finish drama.

[Pwolf]

Also wanted to add that 3 hours is a long time to watch people edit. Thats usual how long an AMV contest runs for. Yes, you'll be playing videos and games and such, but 3 hours sounds too long considering both my competitor and myself finished our videos with 20min to spare during Iron Editor at Sakuracon. Thats not to say editors wouldn't be spending the whole 3 hours editing. However, IC/IEs are just short enough you can't do anything too complex or effectsy but just long enough at 2 hours to make the editor sweat. i think 3 hours is just too much time. It still too short to do anything too complex but too long in that I believe most editors will complete their videos at or around the 2 hour mark leaving you with all that extra time for the audience to be bored.

I'm curious to see how it turns out though (for both the editors and the audience). Maybe 3 hours is a good amount of time.

[Rider4Z]

Also wanted to add that 3 hours is a long time to watch people edit. Thats usual how long an AMV contest runs for. Yes, you'll be playing videos and games and such, but 3 hours sounds too long considering both my competitor and myself finished our videos with 20min to spare during Iron Editor at Sakuracon. Thats not to say editors wouldn't be spending the whole 3 hours editing. However, IC/IEs are just short enough you can't do anything too complex or effectsy but just long enough at 2 hours to make the editor sweat. i think 3 hours is just too much time. It still too short to do anything too complex but too long in that I believe most editors will complete their videos at or around the 2 hour mark leaving you with all that extra time for the audience to be bored.

I'm curious to see how it turns out though (for both the editors and the audience). Maybe 3 hours is a good amount of time.

it was 3 hours last year. the time went by really fast actually. and the room was continuously full so not a problem imo.