how do you run an AMV contest

cat_firefly · Post by **cat_firefly** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 3:13 am

So we are in the process of securing the funds for a new convention. If we suceed at getting the money we will want to run an AMV contest but we don't know anything about doing so. We would love some help with what we need to do, things to consider, what's involved, how you find judges, all that kind of stuff. Any info we canget would be helpful.
Thanks.

Infinity Squared · Post by **Infinity Squared** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 4:09 am

All you need is a projector, seats, and computer to run things... basically almost any theatre set up that you would hope was available to you in a convention.

Press play, and presto! AMV competition galore!

Judges... well, you could be fancy and employ whatever criteria you want to judge things by, or just go simple (and equally effective) and judge just on however the judges please... judges could be anyone, including just yourself, although for the sake of "fairness" and seeming like the decisions have merit, a group of judges usually looks better. You could go anywhere from random bystanders, to AMV pros, to the people in your convention committee or a mix of everyone to do the judging... finding them is really up to you whether or not you think they know enough to judge. You could even go so far as hosting the videos online and letting some other judges around here which you think know their stuff to judge the videos that way.

There's also fan voting if you wish. Just give some of the audience voting sheets, and presto, you got yourself a winner (structure it however you please).

There's heaps of AMV Competitions around. There's not one "what to do and what not to do" handbook in running competitions. At the end of the day, if you could actually make your competition unique and not look like anything that's been around for yonks might actually fare better in attracting contestants.

And finally... ADVERTISE! Especially for up and coming competitions, I cannot stress enough that you need to let the outside world know that you're running something.

The Wired Knight · Post by **The Wired Knight** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 4:57 am

Judges are easy to secure, you can just have the contest heads take care of it or you can have staff come in and view there's plenty of ways around that.

Outside of technical issues (prepare for a lot) the thing I'd say to be most careful about is juding. I can't honestly say that there is a perfect judging system but what is best suited depends on the number of entries you get and their dispersment over different styles. So finding something htat is functional for the con given your timeconstraints and resources is probably one of the trickest things.

cat_firefly · Post by **cat_firefly** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 5:59 am

thanks for the info, this gives us a strating point well see how things go from here.

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 9:35 am

I've always been under the impression that most cons (especially small ones) stick to audience judging since it's both a nod to the community aspect of a contest and because it's far less work on the part of the coordination staff (in terms of getting qualified people that wouldn't simply replicate the decisions of the masses anyways).

Infinity Squared · Post by **Infinity Squared** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 8:41 pm

Audience vote don't necessarily equate to less work. In fact, it may prove to be more on-the-day stress. Also, if you were giving out customised prizes/trophies, knowing who won before the event itself would make life so much easier. Now if you had enough contacts with the AMV community, or have access to "experts" in video art creations, it might in the end prove to be an easier affair.

Anyway, you could always employ both or amalgamate them in some way. As I said, it's all up to how fancy you want things to get.

The Wired Knight · Post by **The Wired Knight** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 2:00 am

BasharOfTheAges wrote:I've always been under the impression that most cons (especially small ones) stick to audience judging since it's both a nod to the community aspect of a contest and because it's far less work on the part of the coordination staff (in terms of getting qualified people that wouldn't simply replicate the decisions of the masses anyways).

PRetty much; at yaoicon the only staff judging I do is just for technical awards.

That said, the concern of needing staff is more depending on the number of entries you recieve. Though cons just starting or small cons don't have this problem too much since the number of entries is often low enough that most of the videos can make it in and still fit within the alloted amount of time. Where it does create a discrepency though is the number of videos in each catagory since any variation in the number of entries is glaringly obvious and potentially distorting of the finalists' quality.

Seijin_Dinger · Post by **Seijin_Dinger** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 2:11 pm

only staff judging I do at Sakura-Con is for the Judges and Technical awards, and to rate videos for the cuts needed to hit 2 hours in length for the contest

all other voting is audience and it equates to a LOT more work, It usually takes a team of 7 people about 4 or 5 hours to count all the votes

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 4:38 pm

Maybe I didn't subjugate my clauses correctly - I meant to imply it was easier for a small con to have audience voting than to find and use reputable judges.

MCWagner · Post by **MCWagner** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 7:27 pm

Well, I've handled a few different styles of judging...

Staff judging is best if you want to be sure of a smoothly-run competition. Have an entry deadline a few weeks before the convention and get together with your staff or friends or select AMVers or whatever, figure out the winners, assemble a playlist or DVD with the winners and labels on it. Then at the con just put the disc in and press play.

Audience judging on a large scale has problems of fairness... heaven knows enough rants have started over it. Set some standard way of judging it, and stick with it. Noise meters work for small crowds. Ballots for larger ones. (If you do ballots, get every staffer you can grab together when it's time to count the votes, and divide up the pile a bunch of ways. With 7-9 staffers you can count 1500 ballots in fifteen minutes if you do it right.

Competition categories are tricky when you don't know what volume (for any particular type) to expect. My own way of dealing with it has its own problems, so I'll let others suggest their angles.

Don't attempt competitor-judged contests. They're hell.

Find someone who knows the software, hardware, and codecs backwards and forwards to handle file conversion and entry processing. That alone can be a full time job.