DragonCon 2006 AMV Contest

[Nimthiriel]

http://www.dragonconamv.com

The rules have been revised and they are so pretty now. If you have any suggestions please PM me.

Thanks

[dokool]

1. This looks a lot better than the first itineration, although I assume you're still trying to get the fee removed?

2. You should be aware that #4 and #6 may end up contradicting each other - uncompressed AVIs are *very* large, so I can see somebody with a long video having to do .rar archives and split it onto a couple DVDs (something you might want to include instructions for in the rules)

3. You're assuming far more entries to the contest than you should expect, and also making assumptions that could be wrong about the # of videos in each category you recieve (and you totally left out Romance, it appears). I think you'll be lucky to fill 2 hours with submissions, much less 2.5.

On a similar note, 2.5 is a <i>long</i> contest - you should think about trimming off that half-hour, the 2-hour mark is when audiences start to get restless. Most 2-hour contests have around 30 videos, but YMMV.


All in all, though, leaps and bounds of improvement.

[Nimthiriel]

We are still working on the fee but I can't make any promises. I don't know if you know it or not but there is actually a whole topic dedicated to the 5 cons that actually charge.

I did not know that. Director put in rule 4 based on everyone suggestions but I put in number 6. I'll ask him about that. That may very well need to be changed in that case though.

Oh the lineup is an example but if you think it looks better to put romance in the example I can do so. Perhaps I should have separated the example from the rest of the paragraph.

Concerning time limit. I suppose in this first year it is better to overestimate than to underestimate. Don't you agree?

Thanks for the compliment.

[Nimthiriel]

I received a good question via PM and I wanted to post the reply:

The director will not budge on the bumper. Sorry.

Each category has 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes. I'll re-read the rules to see if I can word it more clearly. There is also an audience choice for each category.

Once those are chosen we will do a "Best of Show" award to give to the best amv of the contest. In the event you have an amv that doesn't fit into one of the 4 categories well, you can submit it directly into this category.

That may be a mistake but we didn't want to exclude any amv just because someone has a video that is more eclectic.

[dokool]

Concerning time limit. I suppose in this first year it is better to overestimate than to underestimate. Don't you agree?

No - "oh shit, we have a 2.5 hour timeslot and we only got enough entries for one hour" is a bigger problem then "we have more entries than we can fit - I guess we'll just have to cut more videos."

There's a difference between what to plan for (A), what to expect (B), and what you actually recieve (C). In a perfect world, A =>C=>B, but the people who are doing scheduling might get upset if you send word that the AMV contest is only going to be half as long as they planned for...

[Nimthiriel]

Okay. I'll mention this to Doc.

Oh, btw the way Doc recognized that a lot of the people giving me advice are locals. Have you guys considered signing up to be judges? You are probably going to be at DragonCon anyway and this will give you a chance to say "I told you so" to my face. I'll probably be hiding otherwise.

[Nimthiriel]

Regarding the 2 1/2 hour time slot. The rooms are scheduled out in time slots of that length. We are going under the assumption that at 1/2 hour will be people coming and going.

I have changed the compression.

Thanks

[Nimthiriel]

I would like to gauge the interest in the contest. Does anyone have any questions?

Thanks,

Nim

[Viberaphon]

I just hope it goes well. I always like to stop by during my downtime and watch some vids.

[jbone]

We are still working on the fee but I can't make any promises.

Speak to the con's lawyer(s) regarding the entry fee. Charging people to submit works derived from copyrighted materials is really dark-gray area, since people typically don't get the copyright holders' permission before creating the videos.

You could be legally shooting yourselves in the foot by charging entrants to pay to send in illegally-distributed videos.

And it'd be a pity if media companies were to learn that you're charging people to submit aforementioned media companies' copyrighted material when said aforementioned media companies played no part in the display of materials or in the collection of money in the form of royalties...