Otakon 2008: All Submissions Received. What now?

[VicBond007]

Hi kids. All of the submissions are finally done encoding and were properly archived. I'm going to go through the submission forms today looking for blantent errors such as mangled fields caused by my database not being able to handle certain characters, but right now everything looks pretty much in order. I won't list every studio that submitted but I will give numbers!

**Big Numbers**
Number of entries PROPERLY received: 135
Number of competing entries: 133 (more may be DQ'd during prescreenings)
Total Running Time Without Title Slates: 7:57:13

**Breakdown by Category** (may be changed during prescreenings)
Drama/Serious: 33
Romance/Sentimental: 32
Action: 23
Upbeat: 12
Comedy: 15
Trailer: 6
No Fracking Clue: 14

Contest finalists will be decided by "somewhat open" prescreening sessions where the attending public will rank each video. I say "somewhat open" because we don't have a public venue to present these video in, so AtomX and Dji have graciously volunteered their own houses as locations to hold these events. I will leave it up to each of them to post in this thread with information concerning their prescreening session.

Thank you all for submitting and making my first year on Otakon staff a monumental one. It please me greatly to see that this year has already seen more entries than in the past 5 years, and it could very well be the second highest number of AMV submissions that Otakon has ever received!

[Scintilla]

Looks like it's shaping up to be a really good one, even-numbered year aside... thanks for keeping us posted!


One of these days I have to stop making dramas and switch back to a category that's not the most packed field at every single contest...

[Parodic Productions]

Shame that there's only about 15 comedies this year. Oh well. Hopefully it'll still be a great competition. I'd like another close one with Doki Doki again.

I guess I wasn't far off with 126.

[Brakus]

How many finalists will there be in each category? I'm probably thinking 6 in each category considering the fewest # of entries in one category is 6....

Unless my entry is moved to a different category, it'll be yet another cross-your-fingers-and-hope-for-the-best year in the category I submitted to. At least this year I actually got serious for once and made a video truly intended to make finals this year at Otakon. I just don't want to set myself up for failure again.... I've lived and learned through so much over the years....

[dwchang]

**Breakdown by Category** (may be changed during prescreenings)

I'm going to take this as saying you're going to actually read our comments about categories and move things around if enough people from prescreenings say otherwise?

That'd be a relief since I had the feeling that didn't happen in previous years given that some of the entries in the finals were blatantly miscategorized and I even recall writing "This should be in upbeat/comedy/action/whatever" at the multiple prescreenings I've been to throughout the years.

I realize most of the times it's unintentional, but if enough people think a video should be in a different category, I think you (as the coordinator) should have the freedom to move things.

But yeah I'm fairly certain I was not the only one who thought my input at prescreenings regarding this was disregarded >_>.

Anyway on to round 2! Good luck to all!

[Ahja Reyn]

Wow...only 15 for Comedy...

If it weren't for that 'no previous awards' rule, I would have submitted a different AMV that would've fit *sighs sadly*

Good luck to all the entrants!!

[Castor Troy]

I'd watch an 8 hour contest.

Edit: Oh, that's without title slates..

[dragonsong12]

**Breakdown by Category** (may be changed during prescreenings)

I'm going to take this as saying you're going to actually read our comments about categories and move things around if enough people from prescreenings say otherwise?

That'd be a relief since I had the feeling that didn't happen in previous years given that some of the entries in the finals were blatantly miscategorized and I even recall writing "This should be in upbeat/comedy/action/whatever" at the multiple prescreenings I've been to throughout the years.

I realize most of the times it's unintentional, but if enough people think a video should be in a different category, I think you (as the coordinator) should have the freedom to move things.

But yeah I'm fairly certain I was not the only one who thought my input at prescreenings regarding this was disregarded >_>.

Anyway on to round 2! Good luck to all!

Oh, I hope so! I had NO idea what category to put my submission in, but I didn't see anything on the form that would let me indicate that (Though your comments suggest it was there and I just missed it - oops!) I've been worrying since I submitted it that I may have put it into the wrong category, so if things seem out of place I do hope you feel you can change them. (Although, I did submit to the category it seemed to fit the most, it doesn't really "feel" like it belongs there...)

And anyway, it's like you said, no fun to go to a con and have the reaction "that vid was really good, but not really drama/action/comedy, so I can't vote for it."

Then again with eight hours of AMV's to go through, you've probably got enough on your plate...(I can decide whether I feel bad for you or I'm jealous...)

[L.Fist]

The anticipation... How do you guys deal with this?

[dwchang]

And anyway, it's like you said, no fun to go to a con and have the reaction "that vid was really good, but not really drama/action/comedy, so I can't vote for it."

Honestly you're quite a bit more thoughtful than most viewers. Most just vote for whatever, regardless of the category. Most *do not* go "oh that video isn't appropriate for the category even though I liked it so I won't vote for it." They just vote for whatever they liked, even if it's not appropriate (i.e. a comedy in drama, upbeat in romance, etc.).

I can't blame them since audiences are fickle, but it's still not appropriate and proper pre-screening can sometimes remedy this.