OTAKON: BASIC AMV Rules for 2007

[hackerzc]

-NO NON-AMVs:
No Parodies, Commercials, etc.

This one is worrisome for me, if for no other reasons than the definitions of "Parody" and "Commercial," and especially "etc." (;-)) are quite slippery. Both my own video (All New For '72, Hoshizora Productions) and suberunker's "The Wedding Rings" were finalists at Otakon 2006 and were well-received there (Runners-Up in each of the two respective categories), but these same videos were disqualified from participation in AnimeExpo's 2006 contest under a similar rule. Both of us have, as a result, elected to no longer submit any videos to future AX competitions.
I feel this sort of total ban is a damper on creator creativity. If you feel that parodies present "unfair" competition to other videos, then might I
suggest breaking them into a separate category?

The "No Non-AMV's" rule has existed for years. By no parody or commercials we mean no anime fan parodies in the contest and no fake ads that run in the same line as fan parodies. "Ect" includes live action videos (excluding sentai for example), AMV's to predominantly US or other western animation, and various other things that ARE NOT ANIME.
That being said, past contest coordinators have been very lax on this rule, evident by the allowance of "All New for '72", and a few past entries. It was felt that these videos were not blatantly attempting to be fan parody or commercial. To contest staff it was simply a comedy video trying to imitate the style of a BMW ad, instead of an actual advertisement parodied in anime. "The Wedding Rings" skated on the line between AMV and parody, but the AMV side won out. "Lifestyles of the Animated and Fabulous" also was on the line... and in fact crossed the line in the commercial/parody department but was obviously an AMV Hell style video and was allowed.

The point of such a rule is so that we don't step on the toes of anime fan parodies too much. Nowadays it's becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate the two in respect to short works. There is a VERY strong belief in the fan parody community that the creation of fan parodies should NOT be a contest. The rules are there to try and place some sort of boundary (however naive that may be) between the two, even if it's difficult to interpret some times or the decisions of the coordinators seem wrong to some.

You can argue the wording and details of the rules, but in the end they are guidelines, not laws. Some items are upheld more strictly than other (and those usually have to do with issues related to law and legality), but a good deal is left open for interpretation by the coordinators. Some flexibility needs to be there, other wise the rules would end up being 10 or more pages long and 1/3 - 1/2 the entries would be automatically DQ'd for not following those rules.

Otakon's time frame has always been late April - mid May. That's the way they have to do it if they are going to keep the pre-screenings.

Start working on your videos now if you haven't already. The deadline sneaks up on you. I know that because I barely finished my video in time for the contest last year.

This is also the reason why advanced warning has been given with these "basic rules". The deadline date is even being moved back further than previous years to spite the con being a few weeks earlier.
Also, I want it to be know that once the actual date (actual DD/MM/YYYY date) is set, there WILL NOT BE AN EXTENSION FOR ANY REASON!
I don't care if the sky opens up and god chooses you to personally lead his army against hell, a giant robot has been sent into the past to destroy your computer, or your house is floating down main street because the polar caps have melted. If something like that happens and you are worried about getting your video to Otakon, than you REALLY need to reevaluate your priorities.

...I'd GLADLY give up prescreenings for a deadline in July.

Making it you, and like 3 other people.
Seriously though that would make things a LOT easier, and I'd be for it. But too many people prefer the prescreenings, not just because they go to it, but because of the benefit it provides.
DW, if you can show enough evidence that people want the prescreenings gone..... then we'll try it.

[Scintilla]

To be honest, I feel audience only picking of the best of show has no merit and says nothing that it truly was the best video... The is the one thing I do agree with Otakon's contest in the past, as it never had a best of show category (audience voted)..

You forgot Otakon 2004.

[hackerzc]

To be honest, I feel audience only picking of the best of show has no merit and says nothing that it truly was the best video... The is the one thing I do agree with Otakon's contest in the past, as it never had a best of show category (audience voted)..

You forgot Otakon 2004.

That was really just Geoff's "this is my favorite video" award. We still do kind of the same thing, but it's considered a coordinators award and is actually agreed upon by all the contest staff. We pretty much reserve the right to give it to ANY video we get, even if it's not a contest finalist.

[Scintilla]

To be honest, I feel audience only picking of the best of show has no merit and says nothing that it truly was the best video... The is the one thing I do agree with Otakon's contest in the past, as it never had a best of show category (audience voted)..

You forgot Otakon 2004.

That was really just Geoff's "this is my favorite video" award. We still do kind of the same thing, but it's considered a coordinators award and is actually agreed upon by all the contest staff. We pretty much reserve the right to give it to ANY video we get, even if it's not a contest finalist.

No, no, I'm talking about how each ballot that year had a space for the voter to put down the number of the video s/he wanted to vote for Best of Show. IIRC, "AMV Hell" won.

[hackerzc]

To be honest, I feel audience only picking of the best of show has no merit and says nothing that it truly was the best video... The is the one thing I do agree with Otakon's contest in the past, as it never had a best of show category (audience voted)..

You forgot Otakon 2004.

That was really just Geoff's "this is my favorite video" award. We still do kind of the same thing, but it's considered a coordinators award and is actually agreed upon by all the contest staff. We pretty much reserve the right to give it to ANY video we get, even if it's not a contest finalist.

No, no, I'm talking about how each ballot that year had a space for the voter to put down the number of the video s/he wanted to vote for Best of Show. IIRC, "AMV Hell" won.

AH... I can't even remember some things that far back. I mean I remember the "problems" from that year... but the rest is a blur ^_^. Must... supress... memorys...

My fondest Otakon AMV memory.... sharing a fejita orgy with a Marine at the AMV dinner.... oohrah!

[dwchang]

...I'd GLADLY give up prescreenings for a deadline in July.

Making it you, and like 3 other people.
Seriously though that would make things a LOT easier, and I'd be for it. But too many people prefer the prescreenings, not just because they go to it, but because of the benefit it provides.
DW, if you can show enough evidence that people want the prescreenings gone..... then we'll try it.

I'm not so sure about that.

IF a competent prejudging staff or panel were selected, I think most of us would be perfectly fine with not doing prescreenings. I'll be frank in that it's actually quite painful after the first two hours, but knowing that someone has to do it, so I (and others who care for the contest) do it. I don't know anyone who *enjoys* watching 6 - 8 hours of AMVs all in a row (and let's be frank, the majority being less than spectacular), but we want a good contest and so we do it.

I personally like Vlad's way of prescreening and judging b/c it has a far more limited pool of QUALIFIED judges and seems to produce a high quality contest and agreeable results. Then again, he does his awards and whatnot totally different and this isn't the same con.

[hackerzc]

...I'd GLADLY give up prescreenings for a deadline in July.

Making it you, and like 3 other people.
Seriously though that would make things a LOT easier, and I'd be for it. But too many people prefer the prescreenings, not just because they go to it, but because of the benefit it provides.
DW, if you can show enough evidence that people want the prescreenings gone..... then we'll try it.

I'm not so sure about that.

IF a competent prejudging staff or panel were selected, I think most of us would be perfectly fine with not doing prescreenings. I'll be frank in that it's actually quite painful after the first two hours, but knowing that someone has to do it, so I (and others who care for the contest) do it. I don't know anyone who *enjoys* watching 6 - 8 hours of AMVs all in a row (and let's be frank, the majority being less than spectacular), but we want a good contest and so we do it.

I personally like Vlad's way of prescreening and judging b/c it has a far more limited pool of QUALIFIED judges and seems to produce a high quality contest and agreeable results. Then again, he does his awards and whatnot totally different and this isn't the same con.

Well start a petition (no seriously) and get some signatures and submit it to us. I have no problem with doing it like that (at least trying it for 1 year), but before we commit to that we want to know that enough people are interested in doing it that way. By all means feel free to start a topic on it here or on the Otakon BBS, and I would recommend asking on the OtakonAMV mailing list as well.
The prescreenings were started as a way to make everything fan friendly and as fair as possible for everyone. But if the same people who we were doing that for in the first place say "hey we don't need prescreenings anymore, we trust your judgment" by all means we can do that was well.

Like I said, it would make things easier and allow the deadline dates to be moved back... at least 3 weeks I would think.

[BasharOfTheAges]

Do any other cons actually do open prescreenings? Where did this idea come from? Just curious is all... from what I can tell, most cons that actually do prescreenings do so by a pannel.

[Scintilla]

I don't know anyone who *enjoys* watching 6 - 8 hours of AMVs all in a row (and let's be frank, the majority being less than spectacular)...

Umm... *raises hand*

[hackerzc]

Do any other cons actually do open prescreenings? Where did this idea come from? Just curious is all... from what I can tell, most cons that actually do prescreenings do so by a pannel.

Matt Pyson started them a number of years ago. The first one I ever went too was in 2002, but I think he was doing it since 2001... maybe 2000.
The idea was to have as broad a range of viewers as possible review all the videos and ferret out the best ones for use int he contest. And since it wasn't just Matt picking who was int he contest (a method used for some time) no one could complain how it was unfair and the coordinator was being bias. The idea was then refined over time to what it is.
They didn't start out open either... it was on invite (creators, and hosting anime clubs only). But over time shifted to a more open nature.
The idea is great in my opinion, but when Matt started it the contest was much smaller, and less time and work was required to do it. To spite the contest having gone down in # of entries since 2004 (mainly because of no FTP) the contest remains very large compared to others. Some contest may have more entries.... but Otakon only allows one per person (Others allow 2 or more).
Perhaps the luxury of prescreenings has become outdated. All I ever hear out of anyone anymore is "more time" and "better reviewers". You might not actually use those words but the meaning is clear.
Before we can do that though we need to see evidence that enough people want things changed.
I'd especially like to hear from those that actually attend the prescreenings.