Otakon 2005 Finalists (unofficial)

JMI · Post by **JMI** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 11:53 pm

My only Gripe this year is it is taking so long before an official list is out. I mean come on the contest is what, in 4 days?

Other than that, as long as the math is doen right, what is there to complain?

Castor Troy · Post by **Castor Troy** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 12:02 am

This should be the final list now by the way everyone is acting.

Songbird21 · Post by **Songbird21** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 1:00 am

Scintilla wrote:2) There <i>was</i> no dancing Vash in any of the videos submitted this year.

Dear GOD! It's a miracle! LOL.

dokool wrote:Thank you, I'm here all week. Try the veal!

Thank you, Shrek. Lol.

TaranT · Post by **TaranT** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 2:14 am

The real issue here is the selection process, not the contest list - which is probably fine as it is.

If the pre-screenings are not filtering out the best videos, then why waste the time and energy having them?

OR...if the screenings are only for choosing the likely-to-be-popular works...that's just a fantasy. For two reasons:

(1) not all the screeners are scoring on the basis of popularity, and the
number of them is far smaller than the size of the audience (a sampling problem).

(2) the advertising industry loses billions trying to discover what will
be popular. Why should Otakon's little focus groups be more successful?

The dirty little secret is that the audience - let's say, 98% of them - could not care less about how the videos get selected. Give them two hours worth with a reasonable amount of variety, and that's all you need.

For next time, how about forgetting the screenings, toss the badly produced vids, divide the rest into categories...then start drawing straws (or flipping coins, whatever). The quality of contest entries these days is high enough that even a random selection is going to produce a set that is "good enough".

That's not going to please those who think of a contest as some kind of evolutionary arena, but that's apparently not happening anyway. Not at any contest. Except maybe AWA.

One more: where is aluminumstudios' video in this list? DOA or AWOL? How can you have Otakon without anything by aluminum? Or Vlad for that matter.

dokool · Post by **dokool** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 3:05 am

TaranT wrote:For next time, how about forgetting the screenings, toss the badly produced vids, divide the rest into categories...then start drawing straws (or flipping coins, whatever). The quality of contest entries these days is high enough that even a random selection is going to produce a set that is "good enough".

That's not going to please those who think of a contest as some kind of evolutionary arena, but that's apparently not happening anyway. Not at any contest. Except maybe AWA.

Meh. I think there's a better way to separate the wheat from the chaff than drawing straws...

TaranT wrote:One more: where is aluminumstudios' video in this list? DOA or AWOL? How can you have Otakon without anything by aluminum? Or Vlad for that matter.

I can't speak for Vlad, but I know Will considers himself to be in a state of semi-retirement aside from his VG3 vid - I think he feels like he reached his limit with Silence. I <i>think</i> he submitted a video to Otakon but I'm not positive...

TaranT · Post by **TaranT** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 3:15 am

dokool wrote:Meh. I think there's a better way to separate the wheat from the chaff than drawing straws...

True, and I was only half serious. My point is that the chaff (pixelated renders and tv logos) is easy to eliminate. Which leaves a lot of wheat. Now maybe it's not all Wonder Bread wheat, but for a con audience, any of it will work for the show.

dokool · Post by **dokool** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 3:24 am

TaranT wrote:
dokool wrote:Meh. I think there's a better way to separate the wheat from the chaff than drawing straws...
True, and I was only half serious. My point is that the chaff (pixelated renders and tv logos) is easy to eliminate. Which leaves a lot of wheat. Now maybe it's not all Wonder Bread wheat, but for a con audience, any of it will work for the show.

Not so easily - last year there was an entry w/ DivX logos that managed to make it in.

I still think it's a good idea to *have* prescreenings, but I think that maybe stuff like that and stuff w/ macroblocking should be automatically rejected. I'd feel better about people prescreening entries if they concentrated more on the 50-75 good entries instead of 100-150 overall entries of varying quality.

hackerzc · Post by **hackerzc** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 4:42 am

dwchang wrote:
Also any reason only 5 videos in each category? I seem to recall the previous years having at least 6 per (and some times 7). It's my personal opinions, but there were some GREAT vids that didn't get in and I guess it'd be nice to see a 6th space added (like in the past) and some of them getting in .
[/size]

Actually I just found out that the reason there are not more is because last year we had a problem with running time. Once the slates and category slates and intro were added it easily went way over and programming went nuts.

hackerzc · Post by **hackerzc** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 5:17 am

trythil wrote:As per request:

LOL!!! I mean sorry for DP'ing.... but OMG....... please slit my wrists... awesome!

hackerzc · Post by **hackerzc** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 5:32 am

TaranT wrote:The real issue here is the selection process, not the contest list - which is probably fine as it is.

If the pre-screenings are not filtering out the best videos, then why waste the time and energy having them?

OR...if the screenings are only for choosing the likely-to-be-popular works...that's just a fantasy. For two reasons:

(1) not all the screeners are scoring on the basis of popularity, and the
number of them is far smaller than the size of the audience (a sampling problem).

(2) the advertising industry loses billions trying to discover what will
be popular. Why should Otakon's little focus groups be more successful?

The dirty little secret is that the audience - let's say, 98% of them - could not care less about how the videos get selected. Give them two hours worth with a reasonable amount of variety, and that's all you need.

For next time, how about forgetting the screenings, toss the badly produced vids, divide the rest into categories...then start drawing straws (or flipping coins, whatever). The quality of contest entries these days is high enough that even a random selection is going to produce a set that is "good enough".

That's not going to please those who think of a contest as some kind of evolutionary arena, but that's apparently not happening anyway. Not at any contest. Except maybe AWA.

One more: where is aluminumstudios' video in this list? DOA or AWOL? How can you have Otakon without anything by aluminum? Or Vlad for that matter.

Ok well here is the thing... if everyone is complaining SO much about how the finalists are chosen now (arguing that reviewers "free will" is incorrect), they will certainly complain if there are a group of judges or even worse a single person who decides. I can see the argument already, "what gives these people the right to decide... I don't agree with them blah blah blah" hmmm well lets see.. the fact that they are the friggin JUDGES, DRRRRR!!!!!!

Honestly I just think the people who are complaining simply bitch too damn much... and you can quote me on that! Knowing what I do, I know exactly why things are the way they are and some times I worry about certain things like voting bias from reviewers etc... but you don't see me complaining about it.

And for anyone to come to me with the argument "oh but you don't know what it's like"... BULLSHIT! I submitted this year as well... as an associate I can do that (plus it's tradition for me). I didn't make it either, and you know how easy it would have been to simply change results so I could have!?

See, this is exactly what I mean about the "decline of the AMV community"... everyone so worried about "oh this didn't make it" and "my video deserves better" and "respect my skills you contest running bastard". It's disgusting... seriously. You need to grow up and accept who made the finals, plain and simple..... just like I have to accept that every year for the rest of my life, I have to pay taxes. I sure as hell don't like them, and I don't agree I should have to pay them.... but I voted for my elected officials (in this case the AMV's you voted on)... all I can do now is sit back, hope that guy wins, and then he gives me the tax break I want.

Oh an TaranT... Vlad didn't even submit this year.

BTW, the list IS the final list. It's just that Antonio wanted to post it here with his official "stamp of approval" for everyone. But whatever... we now return you to your regularly scheduled flame war, already in progress.