How do you judge contest credibility?

[l33tmeatwad]

When it comes to credibility, the first thing I think of is the age and size of the convention. After that it comes down to reputation. I think for most people Otakon would be considered a bigger deal AMV wise than AX (despite AX being larger) because of the contest's reputation. After that I think the key thing is the category selection, usually those that have fewer categories, you know they get less submissions (excluding AX and Sakura-con, who still avoid splitting drama and romance). Lastly it's the award they give out. Conventions who hand out trophies tend to appear more "legit" than those that just hand you "bragging rights" on a win.

When it comes to me personally sending, since my first convention was Katsucon, I send there because of it being my first. Anime Boston I send to because it's a larger convention and respectable (IMO). Animazement I send to because I attend that convention every year. Any others I have sent to it is either because they had a "late night" contests (non-hentai), or I have sent to some smaller cons that were frantically begging for submissions near the deadline.

Now I also have a few comments on contests in general. When it comes to communication, some of them are a bit lacking, or the submission process isn't ironed out. When it comes to "acceptable content," EVERYONE throws up the PG-13, yet NO ONE sticks by it. Perhaps I just push the line a little bit, but I have gotten comments from some judges about my videos containing unacceptable content in the video, yet there is typically FAR WORSE content in actual PG-13 movies.

EDIT: Corrected typo...

[Pwolf]

Since contest are so vastly different, I like to look at the coordinators. If they are clear on their rules, no matter what they are, and are willing to listen to their participants while also remaining unbais, then they have my respect (even if they show bias, they should have the balls to admit it). Above all, i want to participate in a contest and feel proud to participate. Technical specs, the rules themselves, forms, awards, and even presentation are minor in my eyes after that because those things can be changed easily.

[BasharOfTheAges]

When it comes to "acceptable content," EVERYONE throws up the PG-13, yet NO ONE sticks by it. Perhaps I just push the line a little bit, but I have gotten comments for some judges about my videos containing unacceptable content in the video, yet there is typically FAR WORSE content in actual PG-13 movies.

This is an important one. Know what PG13 means before you set it as your standard. It allows for conditional use of foul language, non-sexual nudity, somewhat bloody violence, etc. There are lines you have to cross to hit an R rating, and they're much more difficult to do with animated footage than with live action.

[Shin-AMV]

And contests that never post results. I have several on my list where I have never found out what happened, get no replies.

Lol. This. There are a few contests I will skip next year because they have never posted or emailed the results anywhere. One emailed me back 3 months after the contest to respond to an email I sent a week after it had finished asking about the results only to be told that "We lost the piece of paper that we jotted down the winners on." It told me that they didn't take the contest seriously at all so I won't take them seriously next year. I managed to find one of the winners on youtube for it, but I still have no idea the results of the other categories.

Other than that, I try to check to see if the contest has a decent set of rules that make them seem like they know what they are doing and the size of the convention and other things like that. If they do things like give confirmation emails, post lists of finalists before the contest, give out physical awards, have fairly respectable attendance numbers, and announce winners somewhere online than those all give it more credibility.

[Seijin_Dinger]

When it comes to "acceptable content," EVERYONE throws up the PG-13, yet NO ONE sticks by it. Perhaps I just push the line a little bit, but I have gotten comments for some judges about my videos containing unacceptable content in the video, yet there is typically FAR WORSE content in actual PG-13 movies.

This is an important one. Know what PG13 means before you set it as your standard. It allows for conditional use of foul language, non-sexual nudity, somewhat bloody violence, etc. There are lines you have to cross to hit an R rating, and they're much more difficult to do with animated footage than with live action.

Also some of the language constraints in PG-13 does add up
one example is PG-13 allows for the use of the word fuck, once. Say you get 2 or 3 excellent videos that say fuck, and by how you make cuts all 3 would make the contest, how fair is it to at that point only choose one of those videos. Same goes with violence, you can only show so much up to a point and while the video itself may be PG-13, combined with the other videos as a whole in the contest you may push past the line into R.


For me, I look at how clearly the rules are stated, and if the rules have any form of checks and balances to hold the processing side of the contest accountable as well as the entrant side.

Also a familiarity with the entrants. Over the years getting to know the people who enter the contest instead of remaining cold to everyone

[l33tmeatwad]

When it comes to "acceptable content," EVERYONE throws up the PG-13, yet NO ONE sticks by it. Perhaps I just push the line a little bit, but I have gotten comments for some judges about my videos containing unacceptable content in the video, yet there is typically FAR WORSE content in actual PG-13 movies.

This is an important one. Know what PG13 means before you set it as your standard. It allows for conditional use of foul language, non-sexual nudity, somewhat bloody violence, etc. There are lines you have to cross to hit an R rating, and they're much more difficult to do with animated footage than with live action.

Also some of the language constraints in PG-13 does add up
one example is PG-13 allows for the use of the word fuck, once. Say you get 2 or 3 excellent videos that say fuck, and by how you make cuts all 3 would make the contest, how fair is it to at that point only choose one of those videos. Same goes with violence, you can only show so much up to a point and while the video itself may be PG-13, combined with the other videos as a whole in the contest you may push past the line into R.

This is very true, however the rules on most contests state to "keep it PG-13" implying that a particular individual needs to do that. Perhaps there needs to be a standard developed or a better way of limiting it so the overall competition can stay at PG-13. Just some thoughts, I don't have a solution to the problem myself, but it can lead to confusion. This way of looking at it gives the contestant no real way of actually knowing what kind of content they should leave out of their videos.

[Seijin_Dinger]

perhaps stating that the contest as a whole needs to fall within pg-13, then its not stating each video can push it to limits, but outlining that all the finalists combined remain within that guideline

[Amo-Chan]

As far as PG-13 goes, I know that maybe some people are pretty vague as to what actually constitutes that rating. If I've made a PG-13 video I always send a message to the coordinator saying something like "my video has the 'f' word in it, used once in a non-sexual manner, which qualifies as PG-13. Will this be a problem or should I send you an edited version?"
All but once, I've been asked to send the bleeped version. I honestly think contests anymore should just go out and say they only want a G or PG sort of video, because I think that's what they really want.

[Seijin_Dinger]

Amo-Chan: the PG-13 also does allow for a higher degree of violence etc to be displayed

[l33tmeatwad]

From what I've gathered, most contests want PG-13 level violence, with close to radio edit style audio and PG level of sexual content.