Otakon AMV contest- next year

Superios · Post by **Superios** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 8:14 pm

due to the number of submissions, I will have a problem next year with getting everything done.

I have thought of three solutions...all of which I hate, but in varying degrees.

And, in no paticular order, they are...

Cancel the prescreenings...
Pro, gives me time to go over the vids on my own time, which by that point, w/o screenings I would have plenty of
Con, it's what makes this contest so good

I hate this one the most and will try to avoid it at all costs

retract the deadline
Explaination...I announce the contest in, say, December and make the submission deadline in April...as an example
Pro, Gives Patrick and myself a better timeline with room for mistakes to be made and fixed
Con, just a bloody pain on the amv creators with all the time they would need to spend making their vids and their personal lives

I hate this one...but not by much....I see it as just annoying

Cap the number of submissions.
I.e. "After 180 videos, I will refuse any more"
Pro, again...more time for me and Patrick
Con, this is just bad from the get go. I think the amv contest would be abolished if I did that

I hate this almost as much as I hate the first idea....you get the idea

I'm looking for some feedback on this thread...If you can think of another alternative, speak up. You'll be doing a service to the contest and your fellow creators

Geoff

genestarwind21122 · Post by **genestarwind21122** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 9:57 pm

I don't think you should get rid of the prescreenings because that what makes Otakon so great. I had some people come up to me at Katsucon and said I got screwed out of the contest because the judges didn't like my vid. But the crowd loved it. Two having a cap wouldn't be fair. The best thing I can think of is have a sooner deadline and that will give you more time for next year. This year well it still looks possible but just keep in mind all of this for 2005. Because without prescreenings Otakon wouldn't have the best of the best. And that's one of many reasons we're #1.

Org Profile · Post by **Vlad G Pohnert** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 1:42 am

Maybe it's time to start getting more people involved in the contest to handle all the video entires....

Vlad

VegettoEX · Post by **VegettoEX** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 1:45 am

Vlad G Pohnert wrote:Maybe it's time to start getting more people involved in the contest to handle all the video entires....

Agreed...

TaranT · Post by **TaranT** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 4:35 am

Money is the usual solution to these types of rationing problems:

a. Charge an entry fee - I believe Nan Desu Kan does this.

b. Require entrants to purchase a convention ticket (e.g. JACON). Whether they actually attend is up to them, but their names need to be on the prereg list by some fixed date.

Another solution is an entry window. For example, videos will only be accepted between April 1 and May 1.

If you can't find extra help (which comes with its own problems), then something drastic will have to be done regardless of the blowback. Even capping the number of entries is better than having the whole event fall apart, or you in the ER, or out of a job, etc. I mean, it's just a video contest.

BTW, this topic was discussed here in the forums a couple of years ago. People knew the day was coming for the largest contests. Even AWA has had to bend under the weight.

genestarwind21122 · Post by **genestarwind21122** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 9:52 am

TaranT wrote:Money is the usual solution to these types of rationing problems:

a. Charge an entry fee - I believe Nan Desu Kan does this.

b. Require entrants to purchase a convention ticket (e.g. JACON). Whether they actually attend is up to them, but their names need to be on the prereg list by some fixed date.

Another solution is an entry window. For example, videos will only be accepted between April 1 and May 1.

If you can't find extra help (which comes with its own problems), then something drastic will have to be done regardless of the blowback. Even capping the number of entries is better than having the whole event fall apart, or you in the ER, or out of a job, etc. I mean, it's just a video contest.

BTW, this topic was discussed here in the forums a couple of years ago. People knew the day was coming for the largest contests. Even AWA has had to bend under the weight.

I think that a is just plain out a) bad idea. Then b) wouldn't be fair for creators that couldn't make it to the con because they didn't have the time to take off. Or other stuff might be going on. So why possibly take away some of the good amvs from the contest.

However I do like idea of an entry window. So that way you don't have amv's coming in at random. They come in almost all at once so that way you don't have to worry about last minute entries.

aluminumstudios · Post by **aluminumstudios** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 11:24 am

I think capping the contest or canceling the pre-screenings would be really horrible things to have to do. As pointed out the pre-screenings are what makes teh contest the best of the best and capping it could damage it's quality because it would cause more of a rush and frenzy to get videos done and in than an earlier deadline.

Many AMV creators know when the cons are and can keep track of deadlines and plan their time. I know many people who don't start until the last minute too ... so I don't see an earlier deadline as being that bad of a thing.

Another potential compromise to deal with this is start pre-screenings before the deadline. I'm sure you recieve enough submissions early enough to start pre-screenings before the deadline. It won't be quite balanced because not each pre-screening group will have the opportunity to see the exact same videos or whatever, but it will still get a similar range of public opinion on which are the best videos for the actual contest.

Pre-screenings should definitly be supervised in some fashion, so if you need help perhaps you could ask AMV creators who are invovled with anime clubs and have been invovled with Otakon to hold small pre-screenings at their club and send them a tape or two to screen (with the understanding that the AMV creator you ask would act as a supervisor at that prescreening to make sure it's all handled fairly and properly in your abscence.)

dwchang · Post by **dwchang** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 5:38 pm

I am with Vlad and Vegettoex in that maybe you should get more people helping you. I mean Otakon *is* one of the biggest amv contests in the nation and it's not "wrong" to say you need help or whatever.

As for the deadline thing, I personally would dislike that, but majority rules. The main reason for me (and a few others) is that Anime Central and Fanime are both semi-large cons and fall a few weeks prior (or during) the current deadline. If you were to move it, it'd be pretty difficult for those submitting to fanime/acen to make unique entries for Otakon.

Now this of course isn't a "OMG THE WORLD IS ENDING" situation since I could easily just submit my ACen entry, but I guess I'd just rather make something special and unique for Otakon every year.

At the same time, to be honest, I imagine *at most* maybe 20 submitters would be affect by this (~10%), so not really worth pining over.

In any case, I'd much rather have a larger staff than moving a date. I mean with a deadline in late May, that gives you ~2.5 months and with a sufficiently large staff, you should be able to do fine

.

Fungie½ · Post by **Fungie½** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 6:44 pm

First of all, I just want to point out that "getting a larger staff" is not one of the three things listed in his post. Perhaps an e-mail would've been more suited for that. We have to remember that he is running the contest, not us, but I'm sure he's open to suggestions.

Hmmm... I'd say do the deadline. Cancelling the pre-screenings would be a bad idea, having only 1 person judge all of the videos would be a bit uncool. Also capping the submissions would be a bad idea, because then you'd be missing out on a lot of good entries. Cutting back the deadline would be a smart move, especially if you announce it earlier.

dokool · Post by **dokool** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 7:09 pm

A good start would be a stricter pre-prescreening process. Each prescreening tape we watched had a couple vids that got disqualified for whatever reason (Subs, dubs, bad language, etc), and it would have saved everyone time if they weren't put on the tapes to begin with...

-DOKool