Otakon 2003: Sizing up the Competition...

BogoSort · Post by **BogoSort** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 11:38 pm

iserlohn wrote:Those who have attended Otakon prejudging can testify to the fact that a video with cheap mass appeal (ie SoaD and Eva) is more likely to get thrown out than make it to the finals.

Crap! And the entire concept for my submission this year was cheap crappy mass appeal. What the hell was I thinking?

dwchang · Post by **dwchang** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 11:45 pm

BogoSort wrote:
iserlohn wrote:Those who have attended Otakon prejudging can testify to the fact that a video with cheap mass appeal (ie SoaD and Eva) is more likely to get thrown out than make it to the finals.
Crap! And the entire concept for my submission this year was cheap crappy mass appeal. What the hell was I thinking?

Nah I think yours will make it in. You have that Vash dancing scene...those videos get a HUGE uproar...EVERY TIME...I don't get how it doesn't get old no matter how bad the video is.

Either way, I for some odd reason love your video...I laugh every time since well...I know what you were going for (I think)

BogoSort · Post by **BogoSort** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 11:49 pm

dwchang wrote:
BogoSort wrote: Crap! And the entire concept for my submission this year was cheap crappy mass appeal. What the hell was I thinking?
Nah I think yours will make it in. You have that Vash dancing scene...those videos get a HUGE uproar...EVERY TIME...I don't get how it doesn't get old no matter how bad the video is.

Oh yeah. I keep forgetting that part of the concept... Any video with Vash dancing has to kick ass right? And I do have Vash dancing, thus I must do well this year!

Castor Troy · Post by **Castor Troy** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 11:55 pm

I can't tell if I did mass appeal or not...

trythil · Post by **trythil** » Sun Jun 15, 2003 12:14 am

No mass appeal here...I hope

...unless people started liking depressing, sappy stuff all of a sudden...

Ashyukun · Post by **Ashyukun** » Sun Jun 15, 2003 1:41 am

I'd figure yours would make it in as well, Bogo... it's a lot of fun if nothing else. I don't think I have 'mass appeal' going for me either... unless we're referring to quantities of hair

Nappy · Post by **Nappy** » Sun Jun 15, 2003 2:29 am

trythil wrote:No mass appeal here...I hope :P

...unless people started liking depressing, sappy stuff all of a sudden...

how you think sppanda got popular :o

Nappy · Post by **Nappy** » Sun Jun 15, 2003 2:34 am

If you use popular animes you get mass appeal. Esp. the top animes, Eva, Bebop, Trigun, kenshin, mononoke (I'm just reading off the top animes list) If you do it badly you just lose the mass appeal, and get mass hate or indifference :P

Freako · Post by **Freako** » Sun Jun 15, 2003 8:02 am

Just curious if anybody submitted a FLCL video ? besides me.

hackerzc · Post by **hackerzc** » Sun Jun 15, 2003 10:54 am

dwchang wrote:
hackerzc wrote: My goal is to make something people like. I want to create a legacy for myself. Something that people will remember. I want to be able to inspire others the way I was when I saw my first amv's.

The heard of the matter is, I don't really derive any great pleasure from making AMV's. I never really have.
I think these are your problems. If you're not having fun well...I hate to say it, but you're gonna be upset then. If you're out to create a legacy or win...most of the time you're not going to. I've noticed that you have to have fun first and then rest (sometimes) comes naturally. Given not everyone having fun will win or become popular, but...the fact they're having fun seems to translate in their performance...I know that makes no logical sense, but it's how I feel.

I think saying I don't get ANY pleasure out of it is a big of an exageration (I was seriously doubting myself yesterday and it shows in my typing, but I'm feeling a big better now if not still week from yesterday. iserlohn is right. Reviewing DOES take it out of you. Especially 3 tapes worth. Last year the most we did at a time was 2). Back to what I was saying...
I think I was exagerating a bit about not having fun. But I look back at the time it took me to do this last vid, and then think about how it will take just as long if not longer to do the next, I get overwhelmed by the time involved and my brain craps itself.

There are those times when you go insane trying to get something right, and I seem to dwell on those. I keep wondering should I have done this or that differently, or changed that scene there, or made that characters eyes open instead of closed. That kind of thing.

Vlad G Pohnert wrote:Well, if it makes you fell any better, I still consider myself an outsider... Quite frankly I don't really think I'm really that popular....

Vlad

Really? I'm surprised you don't have an enterage(sp?) following you.
I woulden't want one those. Give me a "Legion of terror" over an enterage any day.

iserlohn wrote:The 100% exact final numbers aren't in yet, and I'm going to take the number after DQ, which'll put Hitori in as over...and I'm trying to remember how many we put up for DQ today, I want to say we got one or two definates and another 3 or 4 suggested....can't remember, brain is mush.

Yeah it was something like that. Towards the end everything was basicly starting to blend together. Usually I will support everyone (I believe in an equal chance for everyone. That's why I LOVE blind judging), but towards the end I was just fed up with crap that didn't DO anything. Like those vids that had nothing but fast cuts and stuff. I remember at one point writing the comment "Anime + Music [/=] AMV".
Remembering back to those CG ones, I wish I had made comments about them also. Oh well, I know others reviewing who think as I do, and they WILL say something.

Vlad G Pohnert wrote:Yea, I do like Otakon a lot, but I'm not sure if the present pre-judging system is the best... Unfortunately, there are so many good videos that as very well made but may lack the mass appeal of a popular song done to a popular anime... Personally with such a huge contest, I think it would be time to expand the total amount of winners/categories and maybe introduce some non-audience judged elements to give recognition to the wonderful talent out there that the audience misses...

I do have to agree with you on this. For some reason I lost my confidence in the ability of the reviewers other them myself to properly judge the videos. It just seems like last year everything was more formal as more creators were present and only a few non creator anime club members. This year it was the other way around. Only like 4 creators (that's including myself) were there. There was much heckeling going on. I feel that had the creators of some of the vids been there to hear some of the things said, they would have started to cry or something. While I don't like this at all, I must confess that by the third tape even I was following suit, and I am discusted at myself for doing so.
I remember last year when I made my first video ever. I had decided to use akira because the DVD version had just come out. Anyway, I went to the pre-screening and just before my video was shown I heared the smart remark from one of the reviewers "Oh Great an Akira video.....this gets a -2" out loud for anyone to hear. I saw the person who said this this year but did not bring it up because it would not be right.

As for the catagories, I agree that we need more. Maybe technical awards or something perhaps. The contest is just getting too large for only having 5 people to get any kind of recognition.

Well, I'm on the line with my ISP right now because my cable modem keeps loosing the signal from the line. SO I'm posting before I loose my connection again.