OTAKON: BASIC AMV Rules for 2007

[Tsunami Jones]

Let the fans say what wins what and see what we have.

Isn't that how most of the awards are already done at the Otakon contest?

Also, your suggestion of showing "all the accepted AMVs" and having them all up for voting is ridiculous. They have the pre-screenings for a reason.

[dwchang]

The reason people were complaining about AMV-Hell videos in an AMV contest is b/c they're not MUSIC videos. They're just a compilation of a bunch of blips of sound (whether music or not) that is more of a parody than a Comedy AMV. Look at the rules for Otakon's Parody showing and you'll clearly see they belong in there, not the AMV contest.

[Brad]

Are comedy videos allowed in Romance this year?

[Adv1sor]

Also, your suggestion of showing "all the accepted AMVs" and having them all up for voting is ridiculous. They have the pre-screenings for a reason.

Don't be silly. By "accepted AMVs" I mean the ones that make it past the prescreening and into the contest. Doesn't matter. Reading through the posts makes me see why this failed in Boston. Better to leave things as they are.

[JudgeHolden]

Wait ...... Without AMV Hell ripoffs ... there can't be a "comedy" catagory .....

[Vlad G Pohnert]

Audience Voting:
Popularity contest plan and simple.. It has it's place, but I'm not a fan of the audience picking all the winners. Most of the time a comedy will win best of show or a video with a popular song and anime. Worst way to pick categories or even category winners In my opinion.

Winner by Judging:
This option will depend on several factors, like who your judges are and how balanced they are. Generally, if you have judges that are more objective then bias to an anime or song and you have a balance of say creators, AMV knowledgeable individuals/fans, then this method seems to work well. My suggestion is that if you go with a panel of judges, make sure they are handpicked and balanced. HOWEVER it's still no guarantee that the most deserving video may possibly win as that can be subjective.


I find the best overall solution is to have a mix of judging and audience awards. That way good videos that the audience would never vote for have a chance at recognition by the judges, and the audience has their say and feel part of the process... There is a number of cons that do that and it seems to work well.

To be honest, I feel audience only picking of the best of show has no merit and says nothing that it truly was the best video... The is the one thing I do agree with Otakon's contest in the past, as it never had a best of show category (audience voted)..

In terms of categories, it a big problem in general as it's hard to fit in some cases a "square" peg into a round hole as some video don't fit into the traditional category. There have been attempts at fixing this by not having categories or other methods. I myself use a system of floating categories for Anime Evolution where the final set of 6 are determined after all entries are received. Hence if 50% are Drama related, then half the categories might be Drama types (Romance, Sentimental, etc)...

And finally, in terms of AMV hell videos, I suppose it depends on the rules... technically I agree that in most cases, they are not true music video, but each contest rules are different... I think in the end they will run thier course and dissapear from popularity as people get tired of seeing the same old "Jokes" over and over

Vlad

[Therax]

-NO NON-AMVs:
No Parodies, Commercials, etc.

This one is worrisome for me, if for no other reasons than the definitions of "Parody" and "Commercial," and especially "etc." (;-)) are quite slippery. Both my own video (All New For '72, Hoshizora Productions) and suberunker's "The Wedding Rings" were finalists at Otakon 2006 and were well-received there (Runners-Up in each of the two respective categories), but these same videos were disqualified from participation in AnimeExpo's 2006 contest under a similar rule. Both of us have, as a result, elected to no longer submit any videos to future AX competitions.

I feel this sort of total ban is a damper on creator creativity. If you feel that parodies present "unfair" competition to other videos, then might I suggest breaking them into a separate category?

[Kusoyaro]

-CONTEST DEADLINE:
As yet unknown, expect a late May date (subject to change).

So now that this has been stated, even with this rough target, could it be possible that we'll have a year where people won't be whining about the deadline and final exams and stuff come late-April/mid-May?

I doubt it.

[genestarwind21122]

Otakon's time frame has always been late April - mid May. That's the way they have to do it if they are going to keep the pre-screenings.

Start working on your videos now if you haven't already. The deadline sneaks up on you. I know that because I barely finished my video in time for the contest last year.

[dwchang]

-CONTEST DEADLINE:
As yet unknown, expect a late May date (subject to change).

So now that this has been stated, even with this rough target, could it be possible that we'll have a year where people won't be whining about the deadline and final exams and stuff come late-April/mid-May?

I doubt it.

Regardless of when it's announced I think it'll happen anyway b/c the deadline has been ~3 months prior to the con and that seems a bit too much when most contest deadlines are a month prior. I do realize Otakon has a lot more to do with prescreenings and whatnot, but I'd GLADLY give up prescreenings for a deadline in July.