Katsu Friday AMV Screening Issues

rogueintellectproductions · Post by **rogueintellectproductions** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 4:08 pm

Before I go mental, let me start by saying the Saturday screening rocked, The contest had a lot of really good entries, and the winners were worthy. But seriously, what was up with the Friday screening?!

Some things - the typoes on the ballots, for example - could be attributed to the change in coordinators so close to the convention, and things having to be rushed because of that.

The glitching was super, SUPER annoying, but it was representative of the equipment problems the con had all weekend. Katsu should look at finding another video equipment sponsor, because Onkyo's DVD players couldn't play domestic commercial releases without skipping, let alone a disc full of videos from different sources, with different compressions, etc.
I (almost) give them a pass, since this was out of their direct control.

But playing the contest out of order without making an announcement to the crowd at the start was confusing and having to wait for disc one was a pain. The absolute worst, though, was the engineering crew testing out the lighting system in the background, while the contest was going on. Not only did I find it distracting, I also found it disrespectful to the audience and to the creators.

I've heard Katsucon's AMV reputation is shaky, and I really don't want to see it fall any lower. It pains me when I'm talking to someone about AMVs, and he tells me he didn't bother to go to the Saturday screening because his friends told him how butchered the Friday screening was. It's a shame, too, because he missed a heck of a show.

Chris

Reigna · Post by **Reigna** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 5:03 pm

I only went to the Friday afternoon screening and the videos skipping all the time was seriously ridiculous. I wasn't impressed with the way the contest went at all.

Castor Troy · Post by **Castor Troy** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 5:15 pm

All I know is katsucon is famous for typos on it's ballots.

krzT · Post by **krzT** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 6:45 pm

jasper and I ended up attending last year and we were pretty darn disappointed with the Saturday screening. IIRC, we waited for an hour+ just for the contest screening to get started because of "technical issues," and poor Senta's Naruto video got started and stopped about five times. Of course once the contest was underway it was excellent, but having to wait through all that was quite irksome.

At first we both had wished we had made the contest deadline for this year's contest, since Katsu is one of our local cons, but in the end it was just a relief that we didn't submit anything. Hopefully there'll be improvements for next year's con, but I think people are really starting to lose faith in that idea.

dragonrider622 · Post by **dragonrider622** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 9:06 pm

I must agree...

I went to both showings (arriving a few minutes late to the Saturday one) and I more impressed, by far, by the Saturday one. I can understand, as someone who does audio/visual stuff for AUSA, that problems can happen, and equipment needs to be tested, but the number of negative things that happened during the Friday showing was horrible. I am someone who enjoys AMV's and had a video in the contest, and I seriously thought about leaving a number of times.

I can understand if something goes wrong, but the lack of any real apology, and the fact that they continued testing lights through the entire contest. As someone who had their video skip 4 times Friday, as well as having the lights going on and off, I felt the whole thing was disrespectful. I cannot remember such huge issues in AMV contests for Katsucon in previous years, but this year I was highly disappointed.

Saturday, however, had a much better showing...

Brakus · Post by **Brakus** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 4:25 am

Castor Troy wrote:All I know is katsucon is famous for typos on it's ballots.

Continuing the tradition that started last year: (front and back)

EDIT: Oops, already posted by rogueintellectproductions, so here's a link:
http://www.brakus.net/katsuballot06.jpg

What's weird is that when I saw the ballot, I moaned that I was Entry #23 especially since I had to run/staff one of the Video Rooms during that hour. However, I noticed they started with Entry #21 instead of Entry #1, so I ended up being the third video shown, instead of the twenty-third. I got to see the audience reaction ("smiles, everyone, smiles" all around from what I can see) and still make good time to staff the particular video room.

LunaAislin · Post by **LunaAislin** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 6:27 am

I cannot attest to the incompetence in doing lighting testing during a showing or having ballot typos or showing videos out of order. HOWEVER the fact that Katsucon had a decent contest at all is an act of god and I applaud the corrdinator who was able to pull it directly out of his butt RIGHT before the convention. GOOD JOB!

genestarwind21122 · Post by **genestarwind21122** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 8:04 am

Brakus wrote:
Castor Troy wrote:All I know is katsucon is famous for typos on it's ballots.
Continuing the tradition that started last year: (front and back)

EDIT: Oops, already posted by rogueintellectproductions, so here's a link:
http://www.brakus.net/katsuballot06.jpg

What's weird is that when I saw the ballot, I moaned that I was Entry #23 especially since I had to run/staff one of the Video Rooms during that hour. However, I noticed they started with Entry #21 instead of Entry #1, so I ended up being the third video shown, instead of the twenty-third. I got to see the audience reaction ("smiles, everyone, smiles" all around from what I can see) and still make good time to staff the particular video room.

Tell me about it. My video got played first accidently on Friday and that was a complete shock. It was nice to start a contest for once.

The contest screening was great on Saturday, I don't recall any problems then. Friday had some major problems, but that's because of the dvd players.

Adv1sor · Post by **Adv1sor** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 1:21 pm

genestarwind21122 wrote: Friday had some major problems, but that's because of the dvd players.

Yeah, they really shouldn't let those DVD players play with the stage lights during the showing.

One suggestion for next year? Don't mix the categories. IMHO, it does a real injustice to the drama AMVs when they are sandwiched in between action and comedy.

Saturday's showing did go very well indeed.

Brakus · Post by **Brakus** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:03 pm

Adv1sor wrote:
genestarwind21122 wrote: Friday had some major problems, but that's because of the dvd players.
Yeah, they really shouldn't let those DVD players play with the stage lights during the showing.

Heh. I didn't notice anything after my video was played. Then again, I had to report to one of the video rooms after my video was shown.

One suggestion for next year? Don't mix the categories. IMHO, it does a real injustice to the drama AMVs when they are sandwiched in between action and comedy.

That's what I always suggest... it's just that the drama entries (21) outnumbered the action AND comedy entries combined (14)! If I had my druthers I'd present it the same way, by category.