King of Prussia Otakon Prescreening: Aftermath.

[dokool]

Just got back from the screening, so without further ado, a breakdown of today's events...

Got to Alan's house at about 11:45 after an hour-long drive that included three stops to get directions and/or turn around to get a turn I missed. When I came downstairs, Vic and Brian were playing DDR. The gang arrived soon after from a grub run, incl. Alan, Ashyukun, and a few others. We watched Strongbad emails until about 12:30 when Matt showed up with the tapes and ballots.

The Good Stuff
Tape 6: It's Tricky (To Make A Music Video) and Hard Knock Anime were next to each other, that made me feel good to finally give 2s. Those are the only ones I can remember specifically...

Tape 7: The goddamned Leaves of Happaness video, at last. And y'know what? I expected more. I dunno. I can't immediately recall any +2s I may have given, but I know I gave at least one.

Tape 5: I didn't get Kai's video until I saw the bumper at the end and realized it was Kai. Tom's video was great as well.


The... Not-So-Good Stuff
I have this proposal: To get a ticket to the AMV contest screening at Otakon, first you must find, thank, buy a drink, and if they'll allow you, hug five different prescreeners. Because god dammit, we deserve some recognition.

I won't name any specific videos (because I've purged most of them from memory), but I will name the guilty anime and thus finger some editors: Evangelion. Kenshin. Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. People, there is MORE OUT THERE! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! I haven't even SEEN Bloodlust and yet I KNOW HOW IT GOES!

To all those who think they can do a video with Final Fantasy or any videogame footage: Don't. There is not enough plot in the FMVs to turn into an AMV. That's what the GAME is for.

If you can't interlace MPEGs correctly, don't submit on VHS. If you can't send in your videos with a modicum of encoding skill, don't submit on VHS. I was so drained that by the middle of Tape 5 I was giving a +1 to some magical-girl AMV that had Snow Fairy Sugar or something in the name, just because at least it was DIFFERENT from everything else we'd seen.

Random quotes that I can still remember:

"Lensflare, +1!" - Vic (the video in question had a lensflare in the front bumper. May have been the most interesting part of it.)

"Oh, wait, it's Kai. Okay. That make sense. Now I get it. I think." - Me after Kai's video.

"+2!" - Various people after playing Vic's Shitstorm of the Century.

"We should get a discount on our prereg for this."
"What? We're war veterans."
"Oh, sure. I may know people who went to Iraq and Vietnam, but I sat through Tape 5." -Me/Vic/Bob


There are more that I can't remember, but I encourage anyone who was there to fill in the gaps. I also encourage Matt to go through our comments, pick out the most witty ones, and post them anonymously without even mentioning which videos they were for.

In any case, hopefully Tapes 1-4 were better, and hopefully the competition will be strong at the 'con. Can't wait to find out if I made it...

-DOKool

[iserlohn]

You guys are wimps - you only sat through three of the tapes. Some of us down in College Park made our way through all seven. It was not pretty yesterday, with most of us having seen so much that it was mind-numbing by the end (and physically draining).

The people I REALLY feel sorry for are Matt (who's had to sit through all these videos at multiple prescreenings) and Quu (who's had to compile everything and then get the weekly glitch reports just to have to watch through again and again to find out what's getting screwed up).

Ugh, just thinking back on everything is making my brain hurt again. Then again, having seen everything now, I don't have to go to the contest, screenings, etc. at the con except to see my own video...yay. On the other hand, I'm scared to go overseas and see contests where fandom's not as developed as it is here...dammit, someone needs to give me money to fly to Connichi!

</rant>

[trythil]

I won't name any specific videos (because I've purged most of them from memory), but I will name the guilty anime and thus finger some editors: Evangelion. Kenshin. Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. People, there is MORE OUT THERE! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! I haven't even SEEN Bloodlust and yet I KNOW HOW IT GOES!

Oh well...if Evangelion vids sucked that badly, then at least I don't have to cosplay as Umi at ACen 2004

[dwchang]

Oh well...if Evangelion vids sucked that badly, then at least I don't have to cosplay as Umi at ACen 2004

Don't speak so soon my young cross-playing editor.

BTW not to be rude, but is it really right for us to already name specific videos (like "Tricky") within a thread already? I think you guys said the pre-judging is done and thus why you guys are discussing it, but just checking since earlier in the month we couldn't.

[dokool]

Can't see a reason why not... there was a ton of debate on the Leaves of Happaness video, so people knew it was entered in Otakon...

-DOKool

[dwchang]

Can't see a reason why not... there was a ton of debate on the Leaves of Happaness video, so people knew it was entered in Otakon...

-DOKool

Alright, just checking Didn't want anyone getting in trouble.

[iserlohn]

Actually...Matt's asked us (at least those of us down south) not to mention specific vids. Trends are fine, but he's of the opinion that some surprises should be left for when the tape's played at-con for the first time.

[Nappy]

that mean no finalist list ;_;

[iserlohn]

that mean no finalist list ;_;

Sort of. Matt will be sending out an email two weeks before the con with a list of the finalists' names. However, the email will not include the video titles or the anime/music pairings. If you've sent your video to other cons, people will know what it is, but if you haven't, it's a surprise!

[Hitori]

I know mine didn't make the cut...