Anime Expo AMV Competition Results

[XStylus]

Although thinking 3 hours would be rather boring just to sit down and watch these people talk for 3 hours but it was very entertaining.....A lot of jokes cracked here and there and I must say it was worth all three hours.

I'm glad you enjoyed my panel. It was originally a two hour panel, but I found out that the timeslot afterward was empty, so I asked if I could claim it and was given the okay. It turned out to be a damned good thing too though, because the agenda I had expected would take only two hours ended up taking the full 3 hours! I had expected to use the 3rd hour to show Brad DeMoss' DDR music video project, but unfortunately that wasn't in the cards. Regardless though, the panel went very well and I had a lot of fun, and I intend to do it again next year, and the year after and onward.

Not to be rude to the person who made Cybernetic Eye Candy but that video got on my nerves...

I rather liked it, actually. ^v^ I thought it worked well with the footage, but yeah it did get repetitive.

...Of course, with me being the KING of repetition, that's pretty bad. But still, I enjoyed it, downloaded it, and I play it often.

But one video in my mind stood out the most...."A total waste of 6 minutes and 35 seconds". This video was completely original and I must say I enjoyed it very much...One problem though...It had NO replay value at all....But it was still entertaining the first time....

Yeah, I hadn't thought much about its replay value, but that's quite okay. It's a one-hit-wonder. But one thing I'm VERY proud of is having done something in a way that no-one else has thought of or seen before, and I'm going to strive for that in the future. It's very hard to be original when practically everything has been done many times over, but I still have a few tricks up my sleeve. Finding time to do them is the problem. I still consider myself a rookie though. I may have been in the AMV scene for 4 years, but in those four years I've only found time to complete two videos, and ATW6:35 was by no means an example of my skill. Creativity, yes. Skill, no.

While I don't have link to the video itself posted on a-m-v.org, I did post a little documentary about it. I think you'll find it interesting.

I wasn't expecting the video to get as big of a reaction as it got though.

Spectacular by Jessica Brunelle was awsome video as well....I'm just wondering who she is....I'd like to congradulate her.....

Since it'd be a little difficult for me, the moderator of my own panel, to also be a panelist of my own panel, I'm flipping a coin over the notion of whether to give my panelist position to her or not. But yeah, I wouldn't have felt bad at all if she had won. I feel she would have 'earned' it more than I, but unfortunately it's not through such merit that AX judges videos (but that'll be changing).

Worst part of all...No PRIZES!

That bummed me too. The tech crew wanted to have a DVD-R burner as a prize, but things were too late in the game and that's one thing that fell through the cracks. I dunno... did they even have the director's chair this year?

Speaking of chairs, did Kevin Caldwell ever get his director's chair that he won from AX98 or 99? I think he was there for AX99 so I think he may have gotten it, but I think he wasn't there for AX98 and offered it for auction or something since they wouldn't ship it to him. However... In ConOps I saw the autographed backrest cloth from either AX98's or AX99's chair (with the rest of the chair no-where in sight) and it was in truly sad and disgusting shape. To see it in such shape was, in my opinion, disrepsecting all the GoH's that signed it.

......They didn't even have anyone come up after each video like last year...Although I must admit there was a hot girl as the host for this years AX but it didn't make up for the lack of quality in this contest....This is my second con...and I must say....AX SUCKS.....Atleast this year.....They didn't even know if there were Judges Choice awards and the people running those had to tell them and get up on stage....

There weren't any judges choice awards. At all. There were awards from Otaku Outpost though, one of which I won (cajones).

One good thing did come out of it though....Troy Williams has ran the panel for a few years now....He asked everyone to give them their e-mail addresses so he can contact them...I think he noticed my video or something but he called me up as well so after the contest I gave him my e-mail address.....I just hope he can read my sloppy writing...lol....

Well, now that I know you're on this forum, I don't need to worry about your sloppy writing, now do I? ^v^

Anyway, yes I did indeed notice your video. I was impressed with several technical aspects about it, and for personal reasons I was also impressed with the video's concept as well. Maybe not to others, but to me, your video stood out like a beacon.

What I normally do and had planned to do for future panels was invite the 3 winning AMV creators and 1 wildcard panelist, which was someone who I thought stood out yet didn't win. That wildcard panelist WAS to be you, but AX decided to add a -fourth- category (and to my understanding there will likely be a FIFTH category next year as well) so that blows my wildcard panelist idea out of the water. I REALLY don't want more than 4 panelists, because as you saw at my panel, it's hard enough squeezing time for 4 panelists into 2 hours as it is, and with 3 hours I was at the wire.

So, right now the story is that I have you listed as an alternate. I haven't sent out the official invitations yet, but if any of the 4 winners (assuming Jessica takes my seat) declines to attend my AMV panel, their seat goes to you.

Besides all this I'm going to TRY to get in contact with the coordinators and let them have ME work WITH them for next year to make up for everything

Y'know, with the amount of AMV makers that have offered to help, they could probably fill the tech staff 3 times over.

I was with James and Anneke (not to be confused with Vampire Anneke) during the night of the recompile. The three of us locked ourselves in TechOps and clustered a mess of computers together and recompiled the videos all night. We aimed for an 8:00am showing, we got them on screen at 8:30am, and I was too fuqin' tired to enjoy what I was seeing. I saw them Sunday morning and I enjoyed them a lot more.

Anyway, I put in the word that I'd like to be on the AMV staff as well (a department whose creation is still being discussed, since the AMV dept and Tech dept are still currently ONE department). However, there is a price. You would have to give up making AMVs. Impartiality is THE rule. There was a lot of gray with me simply helping the guys recompile the videos as it was that night, but I didn't handle the comedy category so there really wasn't a big issue. I handled the "FUN" and "Action" categories, and no it's not my fault that one video got played at the wrong time. In any case, if you're serious about it, it's best to wait until around December to start asking. Traditionally, after each AX it's usually VERY taboo for any ANY AX staffer to discuss is ANYTHING even remotely pertaining to Anime Expo until after x-mas.

....What they have done was just not acceptible...A few videos couldn't play do to technical difficulties and a few other stuff....I must say.....This contest was POORLY organized.....But hopefully next year it will be better....If I do get in contact with the coordinators I'm going to request to run it like last year....Have a little something for each contestant...Have them called up and come on stage.....Have prizes for christs sake.....And a bunch of other stuff that they could do to make things better.....

If you do get called in to help (which, to be bluntly honest, is unlikely unless they know you pretty well), you'll do just that - help. Suggestions are good, and they'll be glad to entertain whatever ones you may have whether you're a staffer or not, but don't go in expecting to totally revolutionize the contest by yourself.

All the things you stated are things they wanted to do. The problem is that they totally got caught with their pants down on this, and ended up doing a lot of things at the absolute last nanosecond. This is the first time they ran the contest without Shawn. They now know what NOT to do. I can tell you that the amount of embarasment they feel from this year's contest is IMMENSE, and they indeed have learned much from this. There is not a doubt in my mind that they will have a much better contest next year.

I'm sorry about not remembering the persons name who won the "Fun" category...Anyone who went to the contest and rememebrs please post a reply stating the name...That would be great.....

I believe it was "Shameless Rock Video" by Ian Roberts.

Thank you!

Thank -you-. ^v^

[The Wired Knight]

Now you've done it Troy, you re-opened the can of worms and now this thread is open again. Cures you!!! Damn your ashes!!! j/k

[XStylus]

9. The AX newsletter that went out on Thursday had a blurb about how the AMV creators panel was moved to 7pm on Friday.

I had asked for an extension of the panel to a total of 3 hours, with the panel ending at 7pm. This was granted, however the geniuses at scheduling wrote it up as the panel STARTING at 7pm. Was totally out of my hands, sorry...

8. The rules apparently had no bearing on the finalists. There were overlays, bugs, excessive violence, abuse of unnecessary text etc... I'm so glad I bothered to read the rules let alone follow them.

You noticed that too, huh? Ermac apparently had a few bones to pick with the staff, and Brian (one of the tech staffers) agreed with a lot of his points too. Brian didn't make any attempt to hide the fact that this year sucked raw King Henry VIII dick, and he fully accepted the full blame and responsibility for all that went wrong. There really is no excuse for a lot of bullshit that happened, but I do believe we will not be seeing the same mistakes next year. That's not to say we won't see new mistakes, but we'll deal with those as they come.

7. It took them until May to put up the rules/deadline for the contest. Sorry, not acceptible. We [creators] put enough time and effort into these videos to deserve more than a month and half notice of what is ok and when it has to be postmarked.

(...Michael kinda spoke about this in the mailing list publicly, so I guess I'm clear to tell everyone now. ^^;;; )

The deadline for videos to be submitted to AX2003 will be April.

I was also informed that the rules for next year were already made, but I was told that -before- the night of the contest, so I'm willing to bet those rules are being thrown out the window and TOTALLY rewritten right now. One thing Brian did annouce is: "The applause meter is gone. May it never return." They've given no indication to how they're going to be judging AX2003, but several people on the mailing list (including myself) have given a multitude of suggestions on how to conduct fair judging.

6. There were no quick 5 second reminders compilations of each finalist with the title of the video at the end of the category to help keep voting less confusing -which I think made the whole process a bit less accurate and definitely not fair to the creators or the audience.

As James, Anneke (not to be confused with Vampire Anneke) and I were recompiling videos that night, we did intend to try and make a recap screener. But, we finished recompiling at 8:00am on the dot, and we simply didn't have the time. I did manage to make a rough recap screener for the videos in the FUN category, but that was as far as we got.

5. Any audience voting was done hastily and without much help from the staff so that people could know which videos the wanted to vote for.

Again, the screener would've helped, but there was zero time for that.

4. No prizes

The tech crew originally intended to offer a DVD-R writer as a prize, but that was yet another thing that was "too little, too late". All of the things they intended to do they had zero time to do.

3. Contest was (for all practical purposes) cancelled -not just delayed by 4+ hours, but cancelled!

Rescheduled is probably the most appropriate term.

1. It was scheduled during the only screening of the new Cowboy Bebop movie meaning you had to choose. (I got email from the film coordinator telling me how this wasn't AX's choice and there was nothing they could do. _Whatever_ if it had conflicted with the Masquerade, you can bet someone would have done something.) I never got any replies from the AMV staff on this situation.

Well, I'm not a staffer, but I do have the answer you seek.

Columbia/Tri-Star said "Thou shalt play this film at this specific time, one time only, and at no other time." I kid you not. AX fought tooth and nail to get them to reschedule it, but Columbia has zero experience with conventions, and simply couldn't grasp the concept that an event which conflicts with the showing of CB would be BAD. These are people who bank on the hope that their movies are so good that they'll nudge out other blockbusters. Hence, they pretty much expected that people would gladly choose CB over whatever 'silly' convention event was happening at the same time. Well, had all gone well, the CB room would have probably been half full. But things did not go well, and so the CB room actually had a rather large crowd, so things worked out for -some-. I had forgot that the CB movie was playing at the same time, otherwise I probably would have gone too (and likely would quite a few others). But I think people were too pissed and probably just went to their rooms. Had CB been playing during a slow timeslot, you can bet damned near 1/3rd of the convention would be trying to cram in there.

Bottom line, it was Columbia's fault, and AX tried -very- hard to get another showing, or at the very least another timeslot. They would not budge, and basically said "Our way or the highway".

Here are few things I think someone should have learned from this debacle though:

1)treat creators with respect and decency [they are the ones who make the product that draws the fans, without the videos, and especially without the exceptional videos, you have no event, no matter how special you want to feel with your power trip of being in charge]

They already know this. Brian himself said that he did not feel that the creators and their work were respected in the way they deserved. He gave a VERY heartfelt appology during Con-gripe, and I really and honestly think he's going to work hard if for no other reason than to redeem himself.

2) have backups in case of 'technical difficulties'. I've been to this con 7 years now, every year at least one piece of major equipment has failed every year, plan for it.

The hardcopy backups of the AMVs themselves were left at the office in Anaheim. This was a stupid move indeed, but one which hopefully won't be repeated.

As for backup equipment, none of the equipment used to compile or show AMVs actually broke. It was all a matter of compiling errors because of things that people forgot to check when compiling them.

But it's funny that you mention busted equipment though. Due to the power bullshit that California had been suffering, a lot of AX's primary equipment blew up, and a LARGE portion of the convention was running off of backup equipment. One of the two film projectors AX had was a casualty of this as well, and it was the better of the two projectors which had fried. They were relying on a still-being-refurbished projector for most of the showings. The audio portion of the projector gave out on the last showing (they were surprised the entire projector lasted that long), but interestingly enough the tech-guy there managed to do some quick thinking and got a few audience members to fan-dub the film, and that ended up being probably the best showing of the entire con, so I'm told. They might do it again next year just for a goof.

If its not within the budget then charge more or look for another solution. The fact that the AMV contest, both showings of the Escaflowne film and other films had to be cancelled because of equipment problems is not excusable.

Charge more?! If admission starts costing more than $50, even *I* may bow out, and I've been loyal to AX for years.

As I said, they HAD backup equipment just prior to the con, but it's kinda hard when a large portion of it fries. James luckily found a sale on DVD players at Fry's electronics and snatched a mess of those, so the video rooms had backup equipment in case a DVD player or two screwed up, but that was basically the contingent of their backup supplies. You can thank SoCal Edison and PG&E.

4) maybe if this idea of part-time, unpaid, volunteer staff isn't working you should consider putting some of our money towards hiring professionals to run some events -personally I'd rather pay more and get results than hear about how so-and-so "has a friend on the staff" so they get special treatment....

Special treatment...? Can you name an instance when this has happened? If this is the case, it needs to be brought to someone's attention.

what a disappointment, I'm bummed

I feel your pain, bud. I'm expecting big changes next year too, and I'll be just as disappointed if there aren't.

[XStylus]

So its gonna be held in Anaheim next yeah huh? Umm, now my understanding of is isnt totally complete, but didnt the last time it was held out there on Disney property, the whole place was raided by police and anything even slightly adult related was taken away because someone at Disney found out about one kid jackin a hentai video? I could be wrong about this, its just something I heard mentioned a couple times.

AX2003 will be held at the Anaheim Hilton and Convention center (NOT the Disneyland Hotel), which is the same place it was hosted at for AX98 and AX99, which are the two best years at AX that I had ever attended. Then again, at AX99 the AMV competition was postponed and didn't start until **3:am** because the audio amplifier blew out during masquerade just prior. The year after, they started doing Masq and the AMV competition separately.

[XStylus]

In case you were wondering about the letter that was given to AX attendees, I just finished transcribing the letter and here it is... complete with their grammar errors.

(snip)

Ah. I remember that letter as it was being typed. Michael and the press guys were drafting that up while James and I were chugging down on as much cafenne as we could trying to stay awake to get the videos compiled (James had nothing on me... it was like his 3rd or 4th consecutive day awake. Whoa...).

That letter went through like 4 minor revisions. The letter was actually meant mainly for security staffers since not all of them knew what was up (and likely would be asked repeatedly about what was going on with it), but was written as PC as possible since it was being posted publicly and regular conventioneers would likely be reading it as well.

[XStylus]

Now you've done it Troy, you re-opened the can of worms and now this thread is open again. Cures you!!! Damn your ashes!!! j/k

Uhm... oops? Yeah, I just realized that the most recent post prior to mine was about a WEEK ago. So, uh... uhm... yeah.

[SpPANDA]

O.o

what the hell?

[Castor Troy]

HAVE A HAPPY EXPO!

- 2 girls who I saw while sitting on the stairs of the LBCC