Author Topic: The SLANTS want to run an AMV contest? COOL!  (Read 2980 times)

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Offline Prinz Eugen

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The SLANTS want to run an AMV contest? COOL!
« on: January 13, 2008, 05:01:09 pm »
Someone told me that the Slants want to run an AMV contest!

As the AMV Contest Coordinator (for the Con,) I want to do everything I can to let that happen. I don't know if I can assist them in running their contest (such as receiving their entries, or defining their categories and rules) but I'd be glad to offer any advice or answer questions from whoever is working on their project.

At the last con, they played songs, then had an autograph / meet-the-band session right before the AMV Pre-show, and I thought that worked really great. If scheduling permits this again, perhaps they could run their AMV contest, then do the meet/autograph/greet thing in a 'down-time' before the pre-show. This down time while the room gets converted allows their contest crew to determine their winner, it's also a nice time to pick up trash, and it was also a temporary big, empty space where small groups of friends could just sit down and relax a bit. I would love to see that happen again.

What do you all think?

Also, I would be happy to run any AMV submitted to their contest as an entry to the con contest as well, even if it ends up getting shown twice within a span of a few hours - once for the band's contest and again for the con contest - so I would welcome anyone submitting to the Slants to feel free to submit to the regular con AMV contest as well, and I will pass these on to the Judges' Panel... Oh, yeah please -DO- meet the deadline, which is FRIDAY 25-Jul-08.

Other comments?
« Last Edit: January 13, 2008, 07:41:59 pm by Prinz Eugen »

Offline Simon Young

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Re: The SLANTS want to run an AMV contest? COOL!
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2008, 08:45:50 am »
Thanks for the help!

I wasn't sure where to post it since it wasn't an official Kumoricon contest, so I just put the notice on the Fan Creations area.

Some help in clarifying the rules would be great, since I am not that familiar with AMV's myself. And working together at Kumoricon if we are there this year would be a great idea, make a nice transition!

Also, I'm in touch with some of our Sponsors - we might be having a major anime distributer join in endorsing the contest as judges and supplying some great prizes! But that's kind of hush-hush right now...

Offline Prinz Eugen

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Re: The SLANTS want to run an AMV contest? COOL!
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2008, 09:11:01 pm »
Quote from: Simon Young
Thanks for the help!
Looking forward to a good show from your end as well!!!

Quote from: Simon Young
Some help in clarifying the rules would be great, since I am not that familiar with AMV's myself.
Although my way certainly isn't the only way to go, feel free to visit the Kumoricon AMV Contest rule site and rip off whatever specifications about quality, content, video length, DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS* and whatever you think will work for you. Then tweak things to fit THE SLANTS.

*this could be weeks ahead of the event, or hours before the show...

First OBVIOUS change: For mail-in entries you probably want to send the videos to some OTHER address which is -NOT- ME at 33470 Chinook Plaza... Also you might want to PM me your contest coordinator's e-mail address (whoever that person is) so in case I get e-mail questions or submissions for the SLANTS contest I can forward those people on to the right place.

Other suggestions:
1. Since you will already be running one constraint in your contest (entries must use SLANTS music, right?) I don't think you need to run categories, because that constraint *IS* the category. Just my suggestion.

2. You may want to create a SLANTS AMV Contest opener video.

3. Time Estimates: Take your maximum time length, multiply it by the number of submissions you will allow in the contest, then add about 20%. Or, do this backwards: Pick a total duration for the event, take 80% of that, divide by the max. duration allowed for one AMV, and THAT limits the number of entries to be shown in the event.

4. If you're running several prizes, tell people what the prize categories ARE: Each prize definition should provide some sort of goals about how an AMV should be made so it satisfies the prize criterion. That way the contestants will know how to tweak their AMVs to distinguish themselves from the field in order to shoot for one particular prize if they want.

5. Decide how you will choose the winners. Audience Vote? (if so, by ballot or by cheery volume?) Band's Favorite? Some other Judging panel?  A mix? (i.e, Audience vote counts as one point per ballot, a band member's vote counts as 20 point? 10pts? 50pts? Does the drummer get more or fewer points per vote than lead guitar?) Whatever YOU want!!!!

6. If the audience is to be polled (by ballot, show-of-hands vote, or cheery volume, or whatever) then you should think about some way for them to quickly review ALL the entries. Short 'best of' clips seem to work OK. Projecting an array of still frame captures might also work, if you have an entertainer or em-cee on the stage pointing to the stills with a laser pointer, maybe?

7. If you get more entries than you have time for, so that you have to thin the herd, do you notify the people who placed into the contest? What about the people who were cut? Do you announce a playlist in advance?

8 Here's another possibility: You could do the whole thing on-line, with a download site for qualified entries, and some sort of voting scheme. (What do you do if somebody with nothing but TIME and BANDWIDTH d/ls his favorite choice 372 times so he gets to vote 372 times on the site?) Then show the winners of the on-line poll at the band's show! If you had 8 entries and three prizes, you could show them in reverse order of votes, which would mean the runner-ups get shown first, and then your announcer can say "NOW - Here is the THIRD PLACE"
<yaaaayyyyy>
 "Here is the SECOND PLACE"
<YYYAAAAAYYYYYYY>
"And Now, for FIRST PLACE!!!"
(Thunderous cheers)

Anyways these are just some ideas off the top of my head - take them if you need them...

Quote from: Simon Young
And working together at Kumoricon if we are there this year would be a great idea, make a nice transition!
I really like the idea of the band finishing up the music set, then leading into projecting the SLANT-AMV contest (or online winners) on the screen, and then moving into meet-and-greet as a cool-down event, especially if band-owned A/V equipment has to be changed over to Kumoricon equipment, sound guys re-calibrated, etc.

INSERT STUPID JOKE HERE:
Q:  How many roadies does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: "Two. - Two, two. - Check. - One. Two. Check..."

You guys need to alert Programming that you will need extra time length added to your slot so you can include your AMVs. If I'm following on after you, then *I* need to alert Programming so they don't accidentally make YOUR time extension shave into MY 3-hour time slot.  o_o,

Again, [1] BEST of LUCK, [2] HAVE FUN!!! and [3] People who submit to the SLANTS are certainly welcome to submit to the Regular Kumoricon Contest as long as they meet the regular Kumoricon rules and deadline.

Offline Simon Young

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Re: The SLANTS want to run an AMV contest? COOL!
« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2008, 10:40:39 am »
Thanks for the tips!

I'm not sure how all of this is going to work out yet, especially with the status of us being there in the air at the moment. We're hoping to have the AMV/OMV contest conclude before then, since its for our DVD documentary that is being released this summer, but perhaps we can either issue out another contest with prizes, show the winners, or do something else to combine it with the Kumoricon contest. We might be able to involve some of our sponsors as well, such as AnimeIgo or Red Bull and get some extra prizes for the contestants.

If we do end up performing, we'll probably play later in the evening so I'm not sure about the logistics of having the AMV type activities afterwards; however, we could always do a Q&A or meet & greet panel directly beforehand. I suppose those details will be worked out in the next couple of months!

Offline Prinz Eugen

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Re: The SLANTS want to run an AMV contest? COOL!
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2008, 09:09:05 pm »
AMVs are also an 'evening' event - I don't really like to start earlier than 6PM. Certainly Programming will have final say on all this but, would you guys be OK with me running 6pm-9pm for the AMV contest and show, THEN you guys blast from 9:15 till whenever, I strike camp quickly and move to a smaller room, most likely to fire up the Mature Content AMV show and other selections and re-runs till the very wee hours. Just as long as I don't get a dolt who slots me for something LAME like the morning, or 2pm-5pm, or the worst: 4pm-7pm while half the audience starves for dinner, then I get eighty people over the rest of the con telling me they missed the Contest & Show....

Or we can play different evenings.

By the way, at Orycon this past November I showed EIGHT HOURS of AMVs - we ran till 4:30 AM! YEAH ! ! !

If you select a single winner AMV, and it's in .avi, .mov  or .mpg format (not a .wmv) then I wouldn't mind running it in the AMV Contest pre-show and announce that it is the SLANTS contest winner. Feel free to provide me with the winner's name and other details about the winner that he or she may want me to announce about your winning entry.

On the other hand, there's nothing stopping the AMV editor from entering the same work in the Kumoricon Contest, and if the entry gets selected by the Kumoricon judges' panel then it will run in one of the Kumoricon categories on its own merit - and in that case I'd prefer to keep quiet about it having already won your contest, so as not to perturb the other entries in that category. After the contest ballots have been collected though, I'd then feel more comfortable announcing that "[insert AMV Title here]" happens to be the winner of *your* contest ON TOP of whatever prizes it wins on its own in the Kumoricon contest. Wheeee! MORE Prizes!

Lastly, if I get a BUNCH of Slants AMVs as exhibition entries for the main AMV SHOW (a separate event from the contest) then they will get evaluated and prioritized just like the other candidates for the show - and there's no particular guarantee that all or even any one of them would make the cut - that depends on the how well they place within the rest of the collection queue. FWIW, right now there are already 18 candidates for the AMV show.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2008, 09:38:32 pm by Prinz Eugen »