TheAX AMV Contest 2009 Finalists are...

[XStylus]

My opinion has always been that the rules and requirements for a contest are part of the judging. If you don't follow them no matter how slight the error then it means you are not doing quality control or you are showing the contest coordinators a lack of respect.

I agree. There's the argument that less experienced editors deserve their chance as much as possible, which is a noble gesture to be sure, but a foot needs to be put down somewhere in order to force them to learn and grow. Allow bad habits to slide and they'll just be repeated.

I think my biggest concern though with new videos after ACen's entries this year are the number of people mixing 720x480 4:3 and 16:9 footage without doing any frame size conversion.
[snip]
Based on Xstylus comments earlier I wonder if he saw any vids like this during AX judging.

Yeah, there were a couple, though not many, I'm pleased to say.

[Ryvannis]

i did a search couple days ago. very few have theirs up -_-

*i upload as soon as a video is finalized. i feel waiting for a premier at a convention jinxes myself, so i just don't do it. and with a convention like expo, i doubt enough people in the audience would have already seen the videos and end up skewing the results. even if it does... well at least you get air time

me personally, i prefer seeing an amv more than once before i decide which one deserves my vote. reviewability counts for a better video in my opinion. i regretted my choice for favorite comedy in 07 after i watching it the second time. another entry truly had more effort and deserved it more.

How come you took Lord of the Anime out from your sig ?

Hey hey at least i put my description up on the org, and even suppled a nice slew of screenshots.

Ben I demand that you show me your AMV, I showed you mine.

[Rider4Z]

How come you took Lord of the Anime out from your sig ?

d'oh! i've been found out!

actually i took it out because my more recent projects cycled it out. i actually debated putting it back in since it made the finals but whatevah. most people have seen it already anyway

[Melichan923]

I wasn't able to get online that much for the past 6 days or so, so I had a lot to catch up on in this thread. I read all of your replies and I gather that the best solution is to keep .avi files with square pixels. I'll do that from now on and maybe inform the contest coordinator before-hand. Thanks for all your replies. I bookmarked this thread for next year because I have a feeling I will need it. If anybody wants to talk more about it so it's not taking over the thread anymore, feel free to PM me.

[Ryvannis]

Also curious if your going to do some commentary for each AMV Michael, I remember James doing this before (in 06 I believe) and it was pretty cool knowing some background information on the AMV.

[DigitalPanther]

Also curious if your going to do some commentary for each AMV Michael,

During the actual initial showing for audience vote? No, it risks introducing bias however slight.

At the re-screen? Maybe. I dunno. Though there is this one line for one particular video I REALLY want to say... and I might. but it is one that won't introduce bias...though it may start a meme.

I remember James doing this before (in 06 I believe) and it was pretty cool knowing some background information on the AMV.

HMMM what kind of commentary are you referring to. Seriously I don't know or rather don't remember what he used to say. (There is probably very specific reasoning for that but that is neither here nor there.)

Please for to be reminding me.
-Michael

[Castor Troy]

Also curious if your going to do some commentary for each AMV Michael,

During the actual initial showing for audience vote? No, it risks introducing bias however slight.

At the re-screen? Maybe. I dunno. Though there is this one line for one particular video I REALLY want to say... and I might. but it is one that won't introduce bias...though it may start a meme.

I remember James doing this before (in 06 I believe) and it was pretty cool knowing some background information on the AMV.

HMMM what kind of commentary are you referring to. Seriously I don't know or rather don't remember what he used to say. (There is probably very specific reasoning for that but that is neither here nor there.)

Please for to be reminding me.
-Michael

All I remember James saying in 05 or 06 was "Shiny!"

In response to the fancy curtain transition between videos in whatever year it was used.

[Ryvannis]

Also curious if your going to do some commentary for each AMV Michael,

During the actual initial showing for audience vote? No, it risks introducing bias however slight.

At the re-screen? Maybe. I dunno. Though there is this one line for one particular video I REALLY want to say... and I might. but it is one that won't introduce bias...though it may start a meme.

I remember James doing this before (in 06 I believe) and it was pretty cool knowing some background information on the AMV.

HMMM what kind of commentary are you referring to. Seriously I don't know or rather don't remember what he used to say. (There is probably very specific reasoning for that but that is neither here nor there.)

Please for to be reminding me.
-Michael

During the actual showing yes, he gets up on the podium with the mic and gives out some commentary right before the AMV gets played or after, it was sometimes both. All he basically did was talk about how it was judged, how it got into to contest, etc. All I can remember was back in 07 when only AMTV was the only category shown during the actual screening, James said that dwachang's Naruto Fairyland AMV "kept staffers glued to the screen" during staff viewing. However back in 06 but he had something brief to say about every video. None of what he said was bias in anyway, at least from what I thought.
Sorry if I'm not being precise but I was trying to remember how gave out the commentary and I have terrible memory; hopefully you get the idea.
I wish I had a example of some sort during the contest viewing (damn you YT).

[Rider4Z]

i remember in particular one comment he made, it was either 04 or 05 there was a Kimba video in the drama contest. his exact words were "This one surprised me." and played the vid.

Michael, i do have an enthusiastic request that we know the titles of the videos before their played. knowing the title of the video before viewing is very important IMO. it helps the viewer make a deeper connection, (i was really disappointed last year the no one knew the title of One-Eyed Fish until it was over.) and actually i ended up forgetting most of the amvs' titles because of this.

[Stryyder]

I remember last year Michael announced the names before each vid, didn't he?