Otakon and AnimeUSA 2013 GigaThread!

[VicBond007]

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ANIMEUSA AMV CONTEST FINALISTS
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As with Otakon, I am only going to list the studio names of the finalists and not their video titles, so if the creators want to keep it a secret, they can.
Everyone listed has ONE video in the contest except for MyCatHatesYouAMV who managed to qualify both of his entries for the final contest. Don't hate the player. If you're a creator who sent 2 entries and want to know which one qualified, PM me.

Anime Chaos Productions
Armed and out of Medication Productions
BakaOppai
Brakus Media
Camichan19
Centurione
CityLightSumerNights
Davis 51 (Under The Box)
DJ Crocker
Dragon/Roy
drewaconclusion
Druzaik
Hagaren Viper
Hika Yagami
HikariAMV
Kazemon15
Kyssifur
LC_Lapen
Lussuriioso
Machina21
Michael Hudak
MycathatesyouAMV
MycathatesyouAMV
Nekokitkat
nicki_013
One-Winged Angel Productions
Parodic Productions
RAWdangers
Re-Evolution (Cassie)
Rider4Z
Rikognition
Shonen Jidai
Studio Hawk
Tsu

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ANIMEUSA OTA-TROLLS
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If you won a "Best" award at Otakon 2013 and you submitted the same video to AnimeUSA, you will automatically be assigned as a non-finalist to keep the contest somewhat fresh. These entries will probably be played Sunday before the contest encore.

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ANIMEUSA IRON EDITOR
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We need someone to compete against Erika. There's a free attendee badge in it for you. The theme and sources are the same as we used at Otakon 2013, except the secret will be different. If you're interested, PM me.

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OTAKON AMV CONTEST WINNERS
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2nd Place Trailer/Parody:

Best Trailer/Parody:
Video: Dora the Explorer
Anime: various
Song: Dora the Explorer trailer audio
Artist: College Humor
Creator: CorsairAMV

2nd Place Drama/Serious:
Video: Vindicta
Anime: Attack on Titan
Song: Damned
Artist: Superhuman
Creator: E-Designs

Best Drama/Serious:

2nd Place Action:

Best Action:

2nd Place Romance/Sentimental:

Best Romance/Sentimental:
Video: Married Life
Anime: Hotarubi no Mori e
Song: Married Life
Artist: Michael Giacchino
Creator: AngelDragoon

2nd Place Upbeat/Dance:

Best Upbeat/Dance:

2nd Place Comedy:

Best Comedy:

Vic's Pick:
Video: Glam Jam
Anime: Idolm@ster, Love Live School Idol Project
Song: Primadonna Girl
Artist: Marina and the Diamonds
Creator: GuntherAMVs

Best Overflow (Non-Finalist):

Best in Show:

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Iron Editor Otakon 2013
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Omar and myself tamed the mighty wire-demon and Iron Editor somehow ended on time, but the bigger news is that KireBlue defeated his fellow studio-mates and became the new Iron Editor champion! I am sure that this will have no lasting effect on their friendship

Videos will go up once Omar gets back from whereverthebutt he is now. In the meantime, the intro is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seq4-27oiyU

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POST-OTAKON
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Well, another crazy year. 137 videos, 2 packed video rooms, and 2,490 unique ballots counted. It was a hell of a ride, and a very memorable contest. Shout out to my awesome staffers, Amanda Stringer, JP Burke, Joy Wilkinson, and David McKeen. We got our sh*t together, but just barely!

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OTAKON INFO
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Game-time folks! Here's the important stuff!

AMV Contest Times
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Friday 4:30PM - 7:00PM
Saturday 4:00PM-6:30PM
Sunday 9:00AM-11:00AM

All 3 screenings are in Video 1, which is Hall A in the BCC. The Sunday screening is an encore screening and there will be no voting then. The contest runs 2 hours and 2 minutes. The last half-hour on Friday and Saturday is to give the room time to empty out. Please be advised that during the Friday and Saturday screenings we will be packed to capacity. If you don't get in line early enough, you may unfortunately be turned away. Also, since we will be packed like sardines, if you have to leave the room for any reason, you will not be permitted re-entry. There are bathrooms and water fountains inside the theater, so please plan accordingly.

AMV Non-Finalists (Overflow) Times
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Friday 9:00AM-11:00AM
Saturday 9:00AM-10:00AM

We have 5 hours worth of non-finalists but only 3 hours to show them in due to too much awesome being on the schedule this year. The playlist will be arranged differently this year. We took the top 3 hours of non-finalists based on their prescreening score, randomized them, and moved them to the top of the playlist.

IF YOU ARE AT AN OVERFLOW SCREENING AND WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT YOUR VIDEO IS PLAYED, PLEASE COME BEHIND THE CURTAIN AND REQUEST IT! We will bump your video to the top of the playlist if it hasn't already been played, regardless of where it "placed" during pre-screenings. We want to give priority to the creators in attendance, but some people have picked up on this and started indicating on their submission form that they would be at Otakon, when they never showed up. This is the best way that I could come up with to ensure a good show and make sure that everyone gets to see their work.

AMV Creator Badges
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If you entered the Otakon AMV Contest and didn't get disqualified (non-finalists are safe!) then you are eligible for special creator badges. Each creator gets 3 badges for them or their friends, and the badge allows the wearer to skip the line for the AMV Contest and get seated in the good seats. To make sure that you get a seat, please show up no later than 15 minutes before the AMV contest starts, or we will give away what's left of the reserved seats to the public.

AMV Creator Badge Pickup
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You may pick up your creator badges in room 312 in the BCC. There should be a sign outside that says "AMV Ops". The room will be open to the public at the following times:
Friday 11:30AM-2:30PM
Friday 7:00PM-9:00PM
Saturday 10:00AM-noon

There will also be a sign posted outside of Video 1 with this information.

Iron Editor and AMV Awards
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Iron Editor is set to take place from 7:30PM-10:30PM on Saturday in Panel 5. This room is in the Hilton, one of the hotels connected to the BCC. We will play the winners of the AMV contest throughout the duration of Iron Editor and present the winners in attendance with their trophies and swag.

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OTAKON FINALISTS
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I will only be listing the studios that made the finals. If the studio wants to reveal what video they sent in, then they may do so. If they want to keep it a surprise, more power to 'em

AimoAio
alexmichur00
AngelDragoon
Anicsi
BecauseImBored1
Camichan19
Centurione
CityLightSumerNights
CorsairAMV
DJ Crocker
drewaconclusion
E-Designs
GhetAMV
GuntherAMVs
Hagaren Viper
Iron Solari
Kazemon15
KushiiSmiles
Kyssifur
KyuuYuKi
LC_Lapen
Lone Wolves Productions
Lussuriioso
Machina21
MycathatesyouAMV
Nightmistress85
One-Winged Angel Productions
Parodic Productions
PieandBeer
PixelBlended Studios
Re-Evolution (Cassie)
Rider4Z
SelfishPromise
Shin
Studio Hawk
Studios in Technicolor
SVProductions
Syliyn
Xophilarus

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OTAKON PRE-SCREENING TIDBITS
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So we had an Otakon pre-screening. 15 judges. 138 videos. 2 trash bags worth of beer.

2,070 votes later, the finalists are decided. Surprisingly, there were a lot of "trolls", but none of them even qualified for Otakon finals (yet) so no conflicts there.

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OLD/ANIMEUSA NEWS
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Once Otakon is over I will go through the backlog of AnimeUSA-exclusive videos and start sending out confirmations for those.

The AnimeUSA deadline has been pushed back a week and the rules have been updated to reflect this. This is due to the fact that AUSA has yet to publish the rules on their own website and not because of submission numbers. In fact, we're already up from last year! Hooray for competition! I can't move it back any further or else I won't be around during deadline-weekend to answer important questions like "How does I FTP?"

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Hi all.
The Otakon deadline is passed and all entries have been collected. The next step is to decide which videos move on to the final competition. If you have nothing else to do on July 6th, there is limited seating still available for you to help decide the contest finalists!

Otakon pre-screenings are going to start at 11AM Saturday July 6th. If you want to come earlier and stay later, that's fine too since we're making a weekend event out of it, though the actual video-watching will only occur on Saturday. The location is in Sicklerville, NJ. PM me for more details.
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Due to AnimeUSA moving to September, I will be accepting submissions to both Otakon and AnimeUSA simultaneously. This introduces a few new moving parts but also makes a few things easier as well.

The unofficial OFFICIAL rules for both cons are up and viewable at this address:
http://vicbond007.net/2013_rules/

They are also linked to by their respective conventions.

FTP is operational at this time. any downtime will be announced on the rules page.

The submission process now allows you to use 1 form to send your video to two conventions at once, but this comes with extra stipulations so please be sure to read the new rules very carefully.

Submissions ARE OPEN. FTP deadline for Otakon is 1AM EST 6/17. FTP deadline for AnimeUSA is 1AM EST 7/22. Mailing deadlines for each con are the day before the FTP deadline.

[Shinzui IT]

Nice, I'll try to send something

[VicBond007]

Bump for open FTP.

[Kazemon15]

Hmm question, I read through the rules and I vaguely remember last year, it said Anime Expo was not included for the Anti-trolling policy? Does that still stand or if someone wins at Anime Expo, they can no longer compete at Otakon?

Thanks.

[VicBond007]

I don't think that I would have specifically mentioned AX in the rules but might have on the forums.

The trolling rule has no convention exemptions. If the contest screens before the "trolling deadline" then it will count against you. If it screens after said deadline, then the trolling rule does not apply.

We made a special case for Anime Next (and all other cons on the same weekend) because they screened their contests on the weekend of our deadline. This year, for simplicity-sake, we just pushed the trolling deadline up a week. Really just two ways to say the same thing.

Traditionally AX has screened after the trolling deadline so AX winners were always safe to qualify for Otakon finals, but then again, a lot of other cons happen between our deadline and our screening, too. AX is just a higher profile contest so I guess that's why people assume that it got some special rule. It does not.

Hmm question, I read through the rules and I vaguely remember last year, it said Anime Expo was not included for the Anti-trolling policy? Does that still stand or if someone wins at Anime Expo, they can no longer compete at Otakon?

Thanks.

[Scintilla]

Yeah, you're thinking of AnimeNEXT -- I know because I specifically asked Vic for the exemption.
Of course, with the deadline this year being one week later, it would no longer have applied anyway.

[BecauseImBored1]

Got something extremely nostalgic planed for otkaon this year!!

[Parodic Productions]

Yay! Another fun-filled year of AMV's! I've been a little pre-occupied with my short-story writing, but I'll be sure to stick in some time to throw together another great vid this year. Hell, maybe a second for Anime USA! That was a fun one last year.

Question: As far as foul languages go, what is the general policy on the word "ass"? Because, for the vid I want, the phrase "biggest black ass" appears about ten times in the song. But, on the other hand, it's so fast, you can barely hear it. Plus, ass isn't really one of the "Seven Words," and is only generally censored if used in a sexual manner, eg. the infamously hilarious Darkest of Places vid. Whereas, in my song, it's only stated as "biggest black ass," without really any sexual annotations. And, I promise, nothing visually offensive.

So, general consensus: censor or leave it in? Cause, it's possible I can get away with both if necessary.

Otherwise, I'll just go with a disturbing "Hip To Be Square" AMV.

[VicBond007]

Yay! Another fun-filled year of CatCopterPaperEater's! I've been a little pre-occupied with my short-story writing, but I'll be sure to stick in some time to throw together another great vid this year. Hell, maybe a second for Anime USA! That was a fun one last year.

Question: As far as foul languages go, what is the general policy on the word "ass"? Because, for the vid I want, the phrase "biggest black ass" appears about ten times in the song. But, on the other hand, it's so fast, you can barely hear it. Plus, ass isn't really one of the "Seven Words," and is only generally censored if used in a sexual manner, eg. the infamously hilarious Darkest of Places vid. Whereas, in my song, it's only stated as "biggest black ass," without really any sexual annotations. And, I promise, nothing visually offensive.

So, general consensus: censor or leave it in? Cause, it's possible I can get away with both if necessary.

Otherwise, I'll just go with a disturbing "Hip To Be Square" CatCopterPaperEater.

When in doubt, send a censored and uncensored copy. Then I don't have to stick you with a tight correction deadline because Legal thinks we might have a problem. ~I~ don't have a problem with it, but I'm not a very good benchmark.

[BecauseImBored1]

When is the deadline for these contests?