The Otakon 2009 thread

[OtakuForLife]

I plan on submitting... but what is the question.. I'll get back you on that

[VicBond007]

The rules are done and approved. Nothing was changed content-wise, only some of the wording was altered for clarity. Expect to see them online in a few days. Keep 'em coming!

[RolltheStampede]

Okay, so say we send in one video now, but then in May it wins something at, say, AnimeCentral... can we send in another video to replace it?

Also, can you please add this contest to the contests list?

This question is to piggy back off of Scintilla, If you send in a video then in the meantime it wins somewhere else and is then disqualified will it still be shown?
I would understand it not being able to win something but i would think if it makes the cut it would still be shown.

[VicBond007]

This question is to piggy back off of Scintilla, If you send in a video then in the meantime it wins somewhere else and is then disqualified will it still be shown?
I would understand it not being able to win something but i would think if it makes the cut it would still be shown.

It will still be shown in overflow, regardless of whether it makes the cut (even though the cut is technically determined well after the deadline...) If we allowed it as a non-competing entry in the final contest, then it's entirely possible that an entire category could be filled with non-competes except for 1 or 2 videos, meaning that awards would end up getting defaulted instead of determined by vote. If that happened, I'd never hear the end of it, lol. That, and it keeps overflow awesome.

[Scintilla]

It will still be shown in overflow, regardless of whether it makes the cut (even though the cut is technically determined well after the deadline...) If we allowed it as a non-competing entry in the final contest, then it's entirely possible that an entire category could be filled with non-competes except for 1 or 2 videos, meaning that awards would end up getting defaulted instead of determined by vote. If that happened, I'd never hear the end of it, lol. That, and it keeps overflow awesome.

Oh yeah, here's a question about overflow: is there any way to keep people from wondering why certain awesome videos didn't make finals (if it's because they had already won somewhere else)? I remember a lot of people wondering about that last year -- if not here, then on their Livejournals and whatnot.

[BasharOfTheAges]

Such a rule puts a lot of extra responsibility on your shoulders to scour the results of every con between now and then to check for winners and update your finals disc after voting. Seems like an awful lot of effort to essentially deprive your audience of good vids for the sake of some sort of fairness ideal.

[VicBond007]

It's a ton of work! I think last year what we did was use the .org to make a list of every con that took place before the deadline, and then looked at every results list. We do require a "completed on" date and we try our best to verify that's correct so that we can narrow our scope of cons to look at.

The idea isn't to deny people of good videos. Anyone who's seen my contest at AUSA knows that I don't have a no-trolling rule there, so this isn't my standard operating procedure for running contests. The difference is basically that the Otakon AMV contest is huge. Sure the numbers/support has sagged over the past few years but I think that 2008 proved that Otakon still "has it". By eliminating trolled videos, I make the contest more fair to the creator who's contributing CONTENT to Otakon FOR FREE =D Otakon gets enough AMVs that we can afford to drop some to give all of the other deserving submitters a fair shot at winning, while keeping the quality of the contest screening very high. Smaller cons can't get away with that because they have a smaller pool of AMVs to pick from, and therefore would end up pushing much worse videos into the competition. A no trolling policy also keeps things fresh. People end up creating really good videos FOR Otakon, because they know that if they win somewhere else, they lose their shot at a huge screening. Besides, after Otakon, you can send your video wherever you want, and not just for the rest of 2009!

Think of how many cons that you attended in 2007-2008 that showed the SAME DEATH NOTE VIDEO. You all know which one I'm talking about. Now talk to me about depriving the audience, especially after everyone's seen it...at least once! You could argue that maybe a "maximum award limit" could be considered, but then you run into issues where a video might take an award at 2 cons where it was screened to 200 people, and another video wins best of show at ACen where it's been seen by 6 or 7 thousand people. Which video do you cut? The one with less exposure and more awards? I'd just as soon cut them all. Takes all of the arguing out of "weighting" other AMV contests.

Scintilla: I could go through the title slates and add a line saying "DQed for winning at _______". I'd have to do it by hand, but I could still do it. Issue there is whether it will actually have an effect. Reading is hard y'know.

[Pwolf]

Stuff was written here :O

Then you have the idiots (like myself) who don't enter other contests and wait for you to get the rules out so he can enter Otakon just to find out that he can't cause the video it too long -_- Hopefully I'll have another one in time.

[VicBond007]

Then you have the idiots (like myself) who don't enter other contests and wait for you to get the rules out so he can enter Otakon just to find out that he can't cause the video it too long -_- Hopefully I'll have another one in time.

7:30 is no longer a music video. That's a whole concert.

[Pwolf]

Then you have the idiots (like myself) who don't enter other contests and wait for you to get the rules out so he can enter Otakon just to find out that he can't cause the video it too long -_- Hopefully I'll have another one in time.

7:30 is no longer a music video. That's a whole concert.

lol, it's true. if only i could get the two artists to perform at a con while the video is playing in the background... i think i would die happy x_x

Pwolf