Otakon Winners?!?

Kusoyaro · Post by **Kusoyaro** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 11:16 am

TheLongshot wrote:
Serious/Dramatic: Ves-'ka Gankutsuou by Kusoyaro Productions
Normally, I like Kusoyaro, but this kinda left me cold. I voted for The Other Side.

I agree. I was genuinely shocked to have won. I felt like that was the weakest video I've ever submitted to Otakon.

ReligionX · Post by **ReligionX** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 11:38 am

Bakadeshi wrote:I didn't agree with the choice to include that very first video in the romance category, there were better videos that didn't make it.

It also felt like people where purposely submitting comedy videos to upbeat (*cough* and romance *cough*) to get a better chance of winning, to the point that comedy would have actually been weaker than upbeat if it wasn't for the crapy and I'm available ladies ones.

Hey now. If real romance weren't ever fun, or god forbid funny, by golly it would be boring and down-right awkward. It's not "Sentimental Romance." It's Romantic AMVs or Sentimental AMVs.

And if upbeat videos weren't amusing at times, you'd only have a bunch of Cartoon Heros dancing a Kaliedo Star rendition of Perfect Blue while trailing rainbows or other fruit snacks. After all, we all just want to be Happy Boys and Happy Girls, don't we?

There's nothing wrong with submitting cross-genre videos to the best of my knowledge. I mean, really, just about every video had some degree of cross over.

"Where the Sidewalk Ends" - Romantic Upbeat
"Ves-ka" - Dramatic Action
"Shesshoumaru champloo" - Action Comedic
"Ouran: Love! Angst! Crack" - Romantic Upbeat
"I'm Available, Ladies" - Romantic Dramatic Comedic

Haven't your past few videos really been Dramatic Action, besides your ENOZ video, which I thought was Dramatic Upbeat (what? yes.), yet you marked it as Romantic.

Now, how is that any different than what Captain DWChang or Mr. ForeverZero did?

I've been trying to negotiate, and I've been failing, with AMV Contest persons to change the AMV Categories. Maybe in a few years, there will be some changes. Hmm. Hmmmmm...

By the way, I love AuN Studio AMVs.

Shockgrrl747 · Post by **Shockgrrl747** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 11:44 am

Coordinatior's Choice: Epic Symphony by Astrobright Productions
Can't argue with this one, particularly since it had no chance against Sesshomaru Champloo.

Jason

I was just surprised I got any award at all. XD;

There were so many great amvs, so congratulations to all who entered and/or won! ^^

jasper-isis · Post by **jasper-isis** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 12:21 pm

Kusoyaro wrote:
TheLongshot wrote:
Serious/Dramatic: Ves-'ka Gankutsuou by Kusoyaro Productions
Normally, I like Kusoyaro, but this kinda left me cold. I voted for The Other Side.
I agree. I was genuinely shocked to have won. I felt like that was the weakest video I've ever submitted to Otakon.

I personally liked it a lot, and not only because the source is my favorite anime. I was pleasantly surprised to see it win, mostly because it seemed like you and I had received the most, uh, reserved applause on Friday night.

Ashyukun · Post by **Ashyukun** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 1:01 pm

The problem of videos not being easy to categorize and possibly falling into multiple categories is a perennial problem that every contest faces. Honestly very few videos fall purely into one category and can (as was pointed out with the contest winners) be easily given multiple categorizations. It's therefore up to the editors who submit (and recommend a category) and the contest coordinators (who should have the final say) to determine where a video best fits in normal contests. My personal favorite is of course the AWA Pro format where videos aren't assigned a category up front and it is left up to the judgment of those watching and voting.

Personally, I was pretty satisfied with the categories each of the videos this year was placed in- there were plenty that would have fit in several different categories easily, but I felt they were in the category where they fit best.

Honestly, my only real complaint (other than none of the videos I voted for winning anything- Sorry, DW ;P ) with the contest was something out of the control of those directly involved in the contest and (from talking with friends on the staff) apparently even out of the control of the staff themselves, and that was that at least I thought that in the back half of the extended 'Main Events' room the audio and video setup was really, really bad. The projectors weren't the right distance they should have been from the screens and were also so high up relative to the screens that they had to be keystoned so badly that the several already marginally title-safe videos (including the winning comedy video) were nigh on impossible to follow because of text getting cut off (as well as being squashed due to the keystone). On videos with titles/text I found myself watching the front screens waaaaay far away, since they were rear-project and actually set up properly. And the sound system in the back half of the room was also really bad- with very few exceptions I was straining hard to understand any lyrics on the songs, making it very hard to follow any lyric-matching being done by the editors if I didn't already know the song. Further adding to the problem was the fact that there was such a great distance between the front sound system and the back half of the room that on songs with very distinctive beats (TJ's 'Stir Fry' video demonstrated this most prominently) you got hit with the sound from the front speakers and the ones right in front of you with a very solid separation due to that pesky speed-of-sound thing.

I was at the concert on Sunday, and was actually fairly satisfied with the sound and projection at it- so as odd as it may sound given how much I've pushed for larger venues, I'd say that I think it would have been better (in the absence of the ability to go back to the upstairs ballroom of course, which would be ideal) to either not have the full-length room altogether and just use the 'main events' room, or a) keep the airwall closed and b) improve the projector/sound setup in the back room and effectively 'simulcast' the contest.

dwchang · Post by **dwchang** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 2:01 pm

MousePotato wrote:OMG old school triumpts once again!!!!1

-_-

Bakadeshi wrote:It also felt like people where purposely submitting comedy videos to upbeat (*cough* and romance *cough*) to get a better chance of winning, to the point that comedy would have actually been weaker than upbeat if it wasn't for the crapy and I'm available ladies ones.

Since you're coughing at me, I guess I'll respond

.

My satirical answer would be "I learned my lesson in 2005 that Comedy > Romance...in the Romance category"

My more serious answer would be, I wanted to make something different this year. Everyone was expecting a super sappy video the moment they saw my title card, so since I hadn't edited in two years, I wanted you to see something different. I went with something 'cute' instead of sappy this time. While making it, I only thought two scenes were 'funny' and really just a giggle so the reaction on Friday was a pleasant surprise.

I will however admit that I of course knew that cute/upbeat has a better chance at 'winning,' but that wasn't my only intention or anything like that. I've had this idea for at least three years since Me First and the Gimme Gimmes do AWESOME covers and this of course is a cover of a VERY famous love song (well famous imo). Also I'd like to think a Cute Upbeat Romance still belongs in Romance

.

Deshi, I'll promise you this. In 2008 (if I enter), I'll make something super sappy...just for you. In fact, the homeless at Baltimore helped me choose a song...no seriously

.

ReligionX wrote:Hey now. If real romance weren't ever fun, or god forbid funny, by golly it would be boring and down-right awkward. It's not "Sentimental Romance." It's Romantic AMVs or Sentimental AMVs.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I find purely romantic and serious AMVs to be fun and good too

. In fact, all of my other entries (and wins) at Otakon have been on the more serious and sappy side.

I just wanted to get that out of the way since some of us like 'boring' Romance videos

. At the same time, I agree with your overall sentiment.

Shockgrrl747 wrote:I was just surprised I got any award at all. XD;

There were so many great amvs, so congratulations to all who entered and/or won! ^^

I wasn't surprised. Your video got the best reaction and although it wasn't a traditional crossover video with a ton of masks and whatnot, you had excellent scene selection. For example, you'd have one person swing their sword down and then the other series would block it as if *gasp* it were coming down on them

.

Some would call that lazy (i.e. not masking), but I call it good scene selection. I will however agree there were other good entries in all the categories so winning in any category wasn't exactly easy.

Regardless, congrats. Especially since after talking to you on stage, you seem like a newcomer

.

I do have my own complaints about the actual showing and venue but they are not related to this so...

TheLongshot · Post by **TheLongshot** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 2:15 pm

jasper-isis wrote:I personally liked it a lot, and not only because the source is my favorite anime. I was pleasantly surprised to see it win, mostly because it seemed like you and I had received the most, uh, reserved applause on Friday night.

While Gankutsuou is one of my favorites, I have yet to see a good AMV using it. So far, I've seen two, and I found both somewhat underwhelming.

Ashyukun wrote:My personal favorite is of course the AWA Pro format where videos aren't assigned a category up front and it is left up to the judgment of those watching and voting.

I'd be for that as well, if just it would get rid of the "filler" videos that seem to appear in every contest and get more of the best of what was submitted. Certainly, there were a few WTF moments from the people around me for some videos that didn't quite fit the category they were nominated for.

BTW, I seemed to have a better experience on Saturday morning than some of you on Friday. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be at the con on Friday, so I had to catch the replay, which seemed to go off without a hitch.

Jason

Kusoyaro · Post by **Kusoyaro** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 3:39 pm

jasper-isis wrote:
Kusoyaro wrote:I agree. I was genuinely shocked to have won. I felt like that was the weakest video I've ever submitted to Otakon.
I personally liked it a lot, and not only because the source is my favorite anime. I was pleasantly surprised to see it win, mostly because it seemed like you and I had received the most, uh, reserved applause on Friday night.

Yeah, I was pretty sure my video had received the least applause of any video at that point...which for a contest determined by ballot, wasn't a good sign

Katrina · Post by **Katrina** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 4:37 pm

Bakadeshi wrote:Comedy would have actually been weaker than upbeat if it wasn't for the crapy and I'm available ladies ones.

I don't think that's true at all. Code Monkey was very entertaining to watch. (I have no idea what the anime was, but it fit so perfectly and was well-executed.) I guess I'm biased on Pride vs. The Cows since I made that one, but certainly I don't think it weakened the category.

Also, Sesshomaru Champloo, IMHO was mostly an action video. Yes, it was an amusing premise, but the whole thing was a fight sequence. As I recall, most of the laughter was centered around the beginning and end. I think the action category fit perfectly well.

I've submitted to Upbeat in previous years with an AMV that could've gone to comedy, and I didn't even make it to the finals - the upbeat was highly competitive that year and the comedy was quite weak. So it varies from year to year, I think. It's not always easier to submit a semi-comedy to other categories.

blahcubedbuddy · Post by **blahcubedbuddy** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 5:58 pm

Does anyone know when the Akira "Acrophobia" video will be put up? I freaking loved that one.