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Delayed Animazement Result Posting
2005-06-03 09:57:56
Given I don't think I can use HTML here and I don't get a preview option, I'm just going to list the winners. There's a thread under Contests on the forum that provides links to the individual pages if you are interested in that.
Slayers Feel-Good Video of the Year - Kimberly Poulter's "Final Beginning" to Slayers
Best Video Featuring a Tortilla / Best Use of a Tortilla (depending on when you asked me and how awake I was at the time): Jason Schaefer's "Little Tortilla Boy" to Great Teacher Onizuka
Honorable Mention: Jeremy Soria's "Die Another Day" to Spriggan
Third Place: Catherine Bieter's "Gravity of Love" to Loveless
Second Place and Fan Favorite: Chris Meyer's "Final Fantasy XI: Matrix Style" done to Final Fantasy XI footage
First Place (Grand Prize): Sylvester Ng's "Love Love Azumanga" done to Azumanga Daioh
I had a full listing of AMVs prepared for the Animazement Forum, but as if on cue EZboard decided to make all of the posts go away. I'll try to work something out for here if we don't get them back soon.
All in all the contest was a success. I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with next year as I've seen a lot of potential. I'll also try to get us a panel or two for next year's con. -
Day One: Complete Casualties? Few
2005-05-28 02:18:20
Well, first showing went fairly well. Audio was bleh at times, as was brightness, but both were sorted out fairly quickly and won't be issues anymore now that we've destroyed the causes.
Now is where you destroy me if you feel the need to do so. I tried to get as many amvs in as possible, but unfortunately they give me a 1:45 limit and I was practically sitting on it today. I had to pull a few videos at the last minute, though I assure you all pulled videos were shown to the judges (who have already made decisions about the winning videos with this in mind). I am at this very moment getting together the videos that had errors during the contest and trying to get them functional. If I am successful, I'll shift them into the lineup for Saturday and Sunday somehow. i can't make any promises given it's 2:10 and I kinda have to be back and running stuff in under eight hours (and no, I'm not actually at the hotel for the weekend given most of my AV stuff isn't portable). We'll see what happens.
If anyone wants to kick me for shattering their AMV dreams, hug me for hiding behind the screen at Anime Hell and running the volume, or in general just say hello, please track me down at some point over the weekend. The thing I've enjoyed most about this contest was undoubtedly getting to meet so many people through e-mail with similar interests and a unique dedication to their hobby. I want to start putting names with faces, so please just walk up to me or something and introduce yourself. I'll be wearing the safety orange staff shirt on Saturday, though I should stand out as probably one of the only people lugging a laptop around at all times. -
Last Minute Doom
2005-05-27 00:54:34
As is usual for me, something has occured within 48 hours of a convention that mucks things up. For reasons unknown to me my dvd burner has decided that some music videos shouldn't have music and acted on this decision. I'm having trouble convincing it to burn a few of the AMVs for tomorrow (I guess tonight at this point) 's contest. I'm afraid I'll end up running it off of my laptop (and run the risk of lag) if I can't get this resolved before I go to sleep tonight. Let's see how well I work under pressure, ne?
Anywho, crazyness aside I've enjoyed getting this stuff together. Be sure to drop by the AMV contest and later Anime Hell. You'll enjoy the contest because we've got a good one this year and you'll enjoy Hell because like any car wreck you just can't help but stare in amazement. I'll be hanging out at Anime Hell with the Phil, so drop by if you've sent in an AMV and want to smack me for what I've done to the poor thing depending on how tomorrow's contest goes.
Oi, back to working dvd magic. -
One step closer
2005-05-23 10:25:31
Okay, after a fun filled busy weekend of AZ staff meeting and ripping dvds from mail-in entries I can safely say that I'm almost done. All that's left is for me to rip the footage from the VHS entries (of which there are few, thankfully) and I'll have the general format of the contest done. It will not run for the full two hours as we have to leave a buffer space for set up, take down, and seating, though I did pass the 90 minute marker prior to the mail entries. I imagine it'll be at 100 minutes when all is said and done, which seems like a good length to me.
Should I invent a few hours between now and Thursday, I'll throw together some sort of splash sequence to start the thing off. Nothing too fancy due to the time constraints, but I want people to know which convention they're at should they need to write us a check for our marvelous marvelous staff. I also can't help but want to make something after looking over all of these great amvs for the last month, so we'll see what happens.
We've gotten a few requests for AMV DVD sales. Hate to burst a few bubbles, but that's a legal category we don't want to mess with. AMVs are of questionable legality to begin with (apparently one applicant's website was shut down by the RIAA for their choice in musical use; you should recognize their video immediately) and we're already crazy busy trying to compile the cosplay dvd as fast as possible, so it just isn't feasible. Anyone interested in obtaining AMVs may feel free to search for them here on AnimeMusicVideos.org and I will be linking all winning entries here, on the AMV.org board. If anyone is deadly interested in a video that doesn't win and wants information, they can feel free to e-mail me though I probably won't give out any personal information on whoever they're trying to find. If the info is in the video's title slide I'll give it to you; otherwise no go as more than a few entries come from people under the age of 16 and releasing any information on them is ten kinds of illegal.
Isn't the legal game fun?
Anyone with questions about the contest can feel free to IM me, though I'm fairly serious when I say I'm not taking any late entries at this point OR AT THE CONVENTION ITSELF! The contest is getting a degree of pre-screening for the judges so any entries given to me at the last minute won't be considered eligible for any prizes. Likewise the AZ equipment is fairly sentient and often unhappy, so giving me a VHS tape, DVD, or VCD is not exactly going to go over well given they won't have been tested. Finally we're big on pre screening this year to make sure we don't have any nasty content issues and if you give it to me at the convention I seriously doubt I will have time to screen it for content before the contest, so please save me the awkward situation of saying "No, I can't show your video" and just try to get your entries in for next year. There are a number of conventions still to go this year who would love to have your entries; Animazement merely is full and running on too tight a schedule at this point to make unnecessary changes and risk DISRUPTING THE BALANCE OF TIME-SPACE! If you're trying to replace an existing entry with a higher quality version (say replacing a VHS entry with the original digital through the FTP server or you've got over your video and gotten rid of subtitles, the DivX logo, etc.) then IM me directly (Kurai Seraphim on aim) and we'll negotiate from there. One video for another of the same duration shouldn't be too big of an issue, though if I have to do any more conversion than I have time for you're out of luck.
Anyway, I've got the VHS to rip and hopefully some nifty footage to throw together on my own, so I should get to that. -
Phase 1: Complete!
2005-05-20 10:07:27
Rock on, I've finished the screening process. That just leaves the compiling of the contest process and the creation of slides and whatnot so that people will actually know it's a contest. Of course this means it's finally time for me to go out and buy a dvd burner and VHS capture card...
Wow, I put those off for a long time considering the amv thing. Go me.
The biggest surprise of this contest for me is probably the amount of fansub footage going into the videos. I always knew it existed, but the amount of videos with subtitles that I've received is astounding. A lot of legitimately good videos are marred by the presence of text and this saddens me, as it lowers the overall quality of both their video and the competition as a whole. I think I know why the projector is always off when they show amvs at AZ... people send in so many things with hard subtitles that you have to get them off of the screen if you'll have any chance at making some of them presentable.
Oh well, that's the con for you. For most people I've requested they submit another video or version of the existing video sans subs. I usually point them at the No Sub guide here on the org and give them a few days to work things out if at all possible.
Another big surprise is the lack of familiar names among the entries. Most of the "big" people (ie former winners) aren't present among the entries and I can't help but wonder if the delay in updating the AZ site has something to do with it. I'm all for novice videos getting a shot at prizes, but things just feel a little different without all of the crazy complex videos sneaking in. Kinda makes me wish I could have submitted something myself...
Oh yeah, now I'm at the judge choosing phase. I already have a few but I'd like to get some people with AMV experience on the panel too. The problem I'm running into is that most of the AMV people at the convention have entries in the contest... If anyone with a few years of AMV experience and maybe an award or two is interested in judging at the Animazement 2005 contest, please contact me at amv@animazement.org any time within the next week. Obviously you can't judge if you have an entry into the contest. Anyone who judges will get a nifty front seat during the contest and excused from the horrors of standing in line if I have any say in the matter (and I'm pretty sure I do).
Okay, thats enough jibba jabba for right now.
JOURNAL: Kurai Seraphim (William Bloodworth)
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