Thank you all for coming, and thank you all for not killing anybody during the fire alarm. I look forward to the many "Ice cold water! And it's only one dollah!" remixes that should hit the 'net in the next few days.
For overflow, if you didn't show up and request your video to be played, chances are very good that it wasn't. I think after we got through all the "requests", we only aired 5 more videos to fill the time. Understandably a lot of creators couldn't make a noon time-slot on Friday. Boo programming! But hey, at least we got something and it was in Video 1 to boot.
I hope you all enjoyed the creator badges. We sure as hell don't enjoy making them but it's the least we can do
We got 2,828 ballots back this year, so you can see why I was a little worried about getting them all counted in time for Iron Editor. Epic props to JP and the rest of the counting crew for typing the skin right off their fingers.
Here are some of the cooler things that people wrote on the backs to keep us amused:
The unofficial list of AMV contest results on page 32 is correct, so I'm just going to link the post:
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/forum/v ... 3#p1337123
I also want to add that "BEST OVERFLOW" was awarded to everyone in Overflow, so fight amongst yourselves as to what you want to do with the trophy. I can hold onto it, chisel it into tiny pieces, mail it to Programming, whatever.
Here's the ballot for those who couldn't be there:
Chris Brown won Iron Editor, so now he has to come back next year and defend his title. I'll give the videos to the creators sometime soon, it'll be up to them to post them. BTW, the secret ingredient was Training with Hinako. Props to Outlawed for bringing it to my attention. I've been sitting on it for two years waiting for the right opportunity
Here's the new artwork that was set up outside of Iron Editor. Rinny did a bang-up job with this one, especially since the new Error-chan was re-drawn like, 20 times
Hopefully we'll see more sexy Iron Editor cosplays now 
Old stuff below this line
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I'll be using this thread for all questions/issues with the Otakon contest this year, for the sake of keeping everything in one place, so check back regularly. If there is a major change, I'll do my best to change the subject title or something.
The rules are finalized and available here:
http://www.otakon.com/events_amv.asp
Those of you who submitted early, your entries will be tested this weekend regardless of whether they came in the mail or through FTP.
Big notes for this year:
1) We have web-based FTP. It is available through your FTP User Control Panel once you log in using the credentials that get e-mailed to you. It will only work on files under 2GB in size. It won't even list files over 2GB in size, so if you're sending something huge, stick with a real FTP client.
2) There is no maximum time limit this year. We tried this at AUSA a few months ago and not only did the long-ass video make the final cut, it won in it's category. We'll see how things work with a larger convention, but I'm not anticipating any real problems.
3) Hungary has been added to the country selection drop-down.
4) Added a line forbidding videos that were in previous Otakon contests from being resubmitted. This only pertains to videos that made the FINAL contest. Videos that were submitted a previous year that only made overflow are welcome to be re-entered.
Enjoy!
THE DEADLINE IS PAST, BUT THE SOUL STILL BURNS
We received 136 "valid" entries this year. A valid entry, is one where we received both the video, AND the form. We received 144 forms total, and despite pestering e-mails and forum posts, 8 videos either never got to me, or never finished uploading (And I don't mean a few seconds on the end. I'm talking 4 seconds worth of video uploaded and then abandoned). Said entry forms were deleted. Also, those of you who sent in a video, won a contest elsewhere, and then sent in a non-winning replacement video, your original entry form was deleted before this final count, so technically more than 136 video were processed
FINAL DQ VIDEO LIST - People who were disqualified for rule violation.
- (animemental1 studios) :: Subtitles.
- Michael Wolfe :: Subtitles, Subtitles everywhere.
- Nima Ghasemi :: Copyrighted logos gone wild.
- Studio Hybrid :: Won everything ever, or at least close to it.
- Dragon/Roy :: Won at AMA.
- GuardianoftheKnight Productions :: Watermarked footage.
- Obscure :: Excessive violence.
- Faith Perez :: Watermarked footage.
- Maj1nVeg3ta :: Watermarked footage.
- Kosmit :: Excessive buttsechs.
Everyone else should have gotten a confirmation e-mail by now. Check your spam folders. In addition to our @otakon.com addresses being managed by gmail servers, the automated e-mails are sent from my own server, so there's a high chance it can be flagged for spam
Video Changelog (AKA: Why don't I get a confirmation e-mail the very minute my entry finished upload?!)
This year I decided to log all of the changes that I made to submissions. This happens before you get the e-mail saying that your entry "tested fine for playback", meaning that in reality, it tested fine for playback AFTER I did stuff to it. I did this because while I rarely post on the .org anymore, I do lurk the contest forums and there are too many contest coordinators who take the "get video, play video, earn badge" approach to contest management. This is why Otakon doesn't get the "my video looked like crap" posts after the con. That, and hopefully this will explain why your 11PM-Sunday-night e-mails of "OMG DID MY VIDEO WORK FINE?!" went un-replied to
Just because I had to fix a video, doesn't REALLY mean it's 100% the creator's fault. A lot of it is just because "that's how things are stored nowadays" and they just need some fixinating to play properly on our setup. Still, to keep things anonymous, I'm only listing the entries that needed work done to them, and I'm listing them by video-ID, which not even the entrant has access to.133 13.46 fps. WHYYYYY. Encoded to 29.97 letterboxed mpeg2.
18 427x320, 35.921 fps. Why. Encoded to 29.97 mpeg2.
84 4:3 video inside of a 16:9 mask? WHAT HAS SCIENCE DONE? Fixed bad crop. Encoded mpeg2.
54 Applied adaptive deinterlace and scaled down from 1440x1080.
116 Converted quicktime to mpeg2.
123 Converted to 16:9 and recompressed mpeg.
134 Converted to 16:9 from bad 1:1 crop. Encoded mpeg2.
93 Converted to 16:9, performed IVTC, recompressed mpeg.
121 converted to 16:9. Shrunk video levels. Deinterlaced to avoid scaling artifacts. Encoded mpeg2.
74 Converted to 29.97 mpeg. 32 fps? WHY?
72 Converted to interlaced mpeg.
112 Converted to mpeg from DV. Shrunk video levels.
107 Converted to mpeg from mp4.
163 Converted to mpeg from mp4.
79 Converted to mpeg.
118 Converted to mpeg2 from mp4.
119 Converted to mpeg2 from mp4.
82 converted to raw avi. Decimated framerate. Shrunk video levels. Encoded mpeg.
34 Corrected aspect ratio. Encoded mpeg2.
41 Cut beginning. Encoded mpeg from avi.
95 Encoded 16x9 mpeg.
137 Encoded 4:3 video from 1:1 mpeg4 (even though it was named "mpeg2").
132 Encoded as 16x9 mpeg2 from mp4.
14 Encoded mpeg from 720x540 source.
57 Encoded mpeg from DV source.
50 Encoded mpeg from mp4.
98 Encoded mpeg from mp4.
102 Encoded mpeg from mp4.
144 Encoded mpeg from mp4.
92 Encoded mpeg from quicktime. Scaled appropriately.
45 encoded mpeg from wmv.
114 Encoded mpeg from wmv.
68 Encoded mpeg.
120 Encoded mpeg2 from avi.
103 Encoded mpeg2 from DV.
147 Encoded mpeg2 from mkv.
167 Encoded mpeg2 from mp4.
139 Encoded mpeg2 from mp4.
153 Encoded mpeg2 from mp4.
165 Encoded mpeg2 from mp4.
111 Encoded mpeg2 from wmv.
140 Encoded mpeg2 from wmv. Expanded video levels.
43 Encoded mpeg2.
20 Expanded video levels. Removed intro. Removed credits.
27 Expanded Y start point to 47 and encoded new mpeg.
31 Fixed aspect ratio. Encoded mew mpeg.
151 Fixed bad crop. Shrunk video levels. Encoded mpeg2 from mp4.
141 Fixed bad crop. Encoded new mpeg2.
157 Fixed bad crop. Re-encoded mpeg2.
142 Letterboxed and created new mpeg2.
149 Multiplexed video from m2v/ac3.
9 No aspect ratio flag. Converted to 16x9 mpg.
87 no audio, email sent. Received corrected version. Subtitles. E-mail sent. Second correction received. Still had subtitles/logos. DQ for subs/logos.
162 Re-encoded as 16:9 mpeg.
99 Re-encoded mpeg with shrunk video levels.
26 Really bad audio. E-mail sent. Updated video received. Created mpeg2.
124 Recompressed for 16:9 aspect (cropped off bad borders). White levels are hot, but black levels are fine (did not change)
130 Recompressed for 4:3 and shrunk video levels.
64 Recompressed mp3 audio as mp2. Flipped field order. Safe zone problem. E-mail sent. Corrected version was even worse. Using the original.
115 Recompressed mpeg with shrunk video levels.
125 Recompressed mpeg with shrunk video levels.
166 Scaled to 16:9. Encoded mpeg2 from .mov.
49 Shrunk color space to proper levels. Encoded mpeg.
128 Shrunk color space, applied IVTC, recompressed mpeg.
53 Shrunk color space. Encoded mpeg.
86 Shrunk level range. Re-encoded mpeg.
77 Shrunk video levels and re-encoded mpeg.
138 Shrunk video levels and re-encoded mpeg2.
148 Shrunk video levels and re-encoded mpeg2.
91 Shrunk video levels. Cropped 16x9 mask off.
71 shrunk video levels. Encoded mpeg.
155 Shrunk video levels. Fixed bad crop. Converted to 16:9. Re-encoded mpeg2.
143 Shrunk video levels. Recompressed mpeg2.
56 shrunk video levels. Some clips are wrong aspect, some are correct. Did not correct aspect. Recompressed with tmpeg (CC was glitching).
150 Shrunk video levels. Fixed bad crop. DQ for logos.
135 Shrunk video levels. Re-encoded mpeg2.
156 Shrunk video levels. Re-encoded mpeg2.
96 subtitles. E-mail sent. Received corrected version. Resized to 16x9.
80 Subtitles. E-mail sent. DQ for subtitles.
52 Subtitles. E-mail sent. Received corrected version.
83 Subtitles. E-mail sent. Received corrected version.
73 Subtitles. E-mail sent. Received corrected version. Flipped field order.
25 Updated song tag.
13 Video was 1:1. Encoded to mpg properly. Fixed levels.
24 Way wrong aspect. Sent e-mail. Received corrected version.
17 Won EVERYTHING.
42 wrong aspect ratio. Bad profile (MP@HL). 976Kb VBV buffer size?! Re-encoded mpeg2 with correct aspect and MP@ML profile.
21 Wrong Aspect. Re-encoded to 16x9.
117 Wrong aspect. Recompressed to 16x9 after cropping 1:1 borders off. Applied IVTC.
12 Wrong aspect. Scaled to 720x540 then cropped to 720x480. Re-encoded mpg.
What's Next?
Next weekend we'll tie a bunch of people to sofas and force them to watch every video in it's entirety. The videos will be rated on a scale from 1-5, videos in the "undecided" category will be categorized, and more videos might be DQ'd if we catch anything. Then we'll play Rock Band and try to forget everything we just went through. The video's average score will be used to help pick out the finalists. After that, I mail a DVD of the potential finalists to our lawyer so that he can look them over and see if there's any good reason that we could get in trouble for showing something. Once I hear back from him, THEN the finalists will be announced.
I'm cool and sent in a video, what do I get?
Everyone who sent in a video and was not disqualified will get 3 "leet seat" badges. These are not Otakon membership badges! They are passes that are reusable all con-long, and allow you to skip the line before the AMV Contest/Iron Editor, and entitle you to the "bitchin' seats". The 3 passes are so that you can take advantage of these passes and still sit with your not-as-cool-as-your friends
The way to get these badges is to find ME at Otakon. The best way to do this is to show up during the "blank schedule time" before an AMV Contest showing. This blank time means "seating" so AMV staffers will be around in full force. You can also show up to an AMV Overflow block and walk up to the front of the room, I'll be there playing the videos. Logistics KNOWS of the badges, but most of them don't know ME, so if they seem confused when you ask for me, just have them point you to an AMV staffer. We'll most likely be seating people at the time. I know this is a pain-in-the-butt way to hand these out, but the info desk has rotating staff, and I think the registration desks use temp workers, so this is the only way to make sure that people are getting what they're supposed to.Iron Freakin' Editor
Who?
Bryce Winant's never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, and never gonna pass up another year at a free badge, so he returns for a 4th year to take on Christopher Brown from Lawrence Studios!
What?
Each contestant will have two hours to create an AMV that doesn't suck and adheres to the theme "Work Hard, Play Harder". All of the animes are sports related, something that we AMV folks know SO much about...
How?
Each contestant will be given 5 anime sources, of which at least three must be used. Each contestant is allowed to cut their audio ahead of time and bring it with them to the event. They may bring multiple tracks if they so desire, as no audio will be provided during the event. In addition, each editor must use at least 1 second of the mandatory secret ingredient. It's a secret because the competitors don't know what it will be until it's showtime!
Sources (at least half were pinched from VegettoEX's stash):
Hajime no Ippo: Champion Road OVA
Battle Athletes Victory: 5-7
Eyeshield 21: 1-6
Princess Nine: 22-26
Basquash!: 1-3
When and Where:
Otakon 2010. I have no clue what room we're in, or when the event is. Most likely Saturday. It tends to run against the cosplay.
Why:
