Forum Archive Home -> Short Film Competition 2005 -> Announcement of Prizes
Announcement of Prizes | ||||||||||||
| vitualis posted 2006 Jan 28 05:08 | ||||||||||||
| Firstly, thanks to all the entrants into the first VideoHelp.com Short Film Competition. It has been hard work on our side getting this competition off the ground, but it pales into insignificance compared to the obvious planning, effort and thought that has gone into the excellent short film submissions.
Secondly, thanks go to all the other moderators who have helped me design and run this competition and spent time discussing and judging each short film. Third, a general thanks to all the members of VideoHelp.com for taking an active interest, downloading the short films and rating them in the "Member's Choice Award". Last but not least, thanks of course goes to Baldrick. Now, the prizes! The Cunning Plan http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=290057 First place and winner of "The Baldrick" (prize $200) Best Cinematography (prize $100) Best Screenplay / Acting (prize $100) Best Technical production (prize $100) Winner of the Member's Choice Award (prize $200) Total prize money: $700 Undoubtedly the best short film of the competition, the favourite of the VideoHelp members, and my personal favourite. Congratulations to Kristy Linderholm. Paul's Reverie http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=290065 Second Place Winner (prize $200) A favourite amongst several of the other judges, congratulations to Thomas Shaddox for an excellent short film. Wasp http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=290068 Third Place Winner (prize $200) Best Soundtrack (prize $100) Total prize money: $300 A truly remarkable short film from a self described amateur. Superb combination of "live action" and animation and with the stunning use of surround sound effects, wins the "best soundtrack" award. Congratulations to Bo Johansen. Good Day http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=290060 Fourth Place Winner (prize $200) A unique and artistic film, quite different from many of the other entries. Congratulations Mani Ghodratnama for producing an excellent short film. Baldrick - City of Tomorrow and The Baldrick http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=290056 http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=290066 Equal Fifth Place Winners (prize $100 each) Excellent efforts and perhaps under-appreciated, these two films were particularly well received by the judges for keeping well to the theme word. Congratulations to Onnie Granados and Eric Thomasma! There you have it! The winning films of the VideoHelp.com Short Film Competition 2005. If we could, we would give everyone a prize, however, it is a competition after all. All prize winners should contact me by e-mail (my e-mail address was in your application package) if you want to receive your prize. Monetary prizes are sent through PayPal only. Thus you will need to either provide me with the e-mail address you use for PayPal (or if you don't already have an account), just an e-mail account you are willing to use with PayPal. The prize money has been generously been provided by Baldrick, VideoHelp.com administrator. Best regards. | ||||||||||||
| MackemX posted 2006 Jan 28 05:33 | ||||||||||||
| well done all, not just those who entered but those who organised it and voted 8)
and I'm pleased that Cunning Plan won as it was my favourite, well done Kristy :D 8) :punk: can't wait for next years 'Baldrick' awards ;) | ||||||||||||
| sanjayk posted 2006 Jan 28 06:20 | ||||||||||||
| :thumbs_up: :salut: to all winners ! Its time to celebrate :band: | ||||||||||||
| mattso posted 2006 Jan 28 06:26 | ||||||||||||
| Just curious, 3rd place winner gets a bigger prize than 2nd place winner?
Anyway, good effort all-round, I must say. I hope this competition carries on every year? | ||||||||||||
| vitualis posted 2006 Jan 28 08:49 | ||||||||||||
| The top 5 ranked clips all received the same (size) prize... Being best in a category would win an additional prize.
Regards. | ||||||||||||
| greymalkin posted 2006 Jan 28 09:56 | ||||||||||||
| 700 bucks!
way to go! | ||||||||||||
| gadgetguy posted 2006 Jan 28 11:03 | ||||||||||||
| I'd like to thank the academy...
Seriously, thanks to everyone involved in the preparation and execution of the Short Film Competition 2005, especially Vitualis, Offline and Baldrick. It was a fun and worthwhile experience. | ||||||||||||
| DereX888 posted 2006 Jan 28 11:58 | ||||||||||||
| although my personal ranking probably would be different - it is not my money thats being awarded to winners, so:
:thumbs_up: :thumbs_up: I believe this was one of the most interesting and independent initiatives I have seen. Thank you for organizing it and hail to the chief - The Baldrick :D Also I'd like to give my personal thanks to all of the contestants for their effort. I also have some extra award. Me and two 10-year old little guys were dying laughing after seeing "Mr.Slug vs Mr.Salt" piece. They were extremely disappointed that their favorite didnt qualify in the top 5, thus I suggested they shoul give their own award if they really like it so much. After short consideration 1 little guy decided he give it one of his Bionicles (a toy), while the other guy was too selfish to give anything hehe. Nevertheless - here it is: 
KIDS CHOICE AWARD in the amount of $9.99 (equivalent of 1 Bionicle toy) goes to M. Cleveland for "Mr. Slug VS Mr. Salt" :D Please PM me with your paypal-registered email address to receive the award. Also: May I suggest the theme/subject for the next competition: "The Bald Rick" ? ;) | ||||||||||||
| lordsmurf posted 2006 Jan 28 12:17 | ||||||||||||
Somebody should throw a dictionary against a wall, and the first page that comes out has the word. Toss the page in the air, and it picks it's own side. Finally, flip a coin that lands on the page. The word it covers most is the theme word. Better yet, have some really rteally young kid open up the dictionary and point to any word. | ||||||||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Jan 28 13:26 | ||||||||||||
I'll second that!!! :) :) :) And to get some money as a bonus, is just frosting on the cake!!! :) I hope there's a Short Film Festival 2006! And if there's enough interest, it might be nice to open it up a little and have separate areas for amateur and professional entries ... :whistle: .... :roll: ... | ||||||||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Jan 28 13:38 | ||||||||||||
Author, author!!! :) Perhaps Kristy will take some time from his or her busy schedule to share a little bit about themselves and the making of this movie? :) | ||||||||||||
| daamon posted 2006 Jan 28 15:31 | ||||||||||||
| Good evening ladies and gentlemen. And "Congratulations" go to...
Drumroll... ...Each and every contestant, irrespective of prize money awarded or not - every entry has clearly appealled to someone. The planning, effort, time, weed and beer that was put into these projects is admirable. ...The admin team for their time and effort in getting this off the ground: Vitualis, offline and Baldrick. But also the supporting mods who were in the wings playing an equally vital role. ...The voters, for taking the time to download the clips, figure out how to get the codecs installed to watch them and for actually watching most, if not all, of them. All in all - I'd say the "Short Film Competition 2005" was an inaugral success!!! When can we look forward to the announcement of "Short Film Competition 2006"? Preferably sooner rather than later - that'll give everyone more time to ponder, prepare, shoot, edit and submit in time for a December deadline. I've certainly been inspired by these entries and, with more time, will most likely submit. | ||||||||||||
| lumis posted 2006 Jan 28 15:57 | ||||||||||||
| okay.. now that the competition is over i've got a few things i'd like to get off my chest.
1) why did the prize monies suddenly change? the baldrick went from $500 to $200 the "best" awards went from $200 to $100 link to current page; http://shortfilm.videohelp.com/2005/09/awards-and-judging.html link to google's cache; http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:kPJyzDqBKFYJ:shortfilm.video ... k&cd=1 2) i believe kristy's entry should have been disqualified, or atleast questioned.. although undoubetly the best film (hell, it's even my favorite).. it appears that kristy is a professional, or at worst semi-professional.. hell, her name is listed at imdb.. ozzymango brought this up in her entry thread, which raises some very interesting questions.. and hopefully he can get some type of interview to have those questions answered.. 3) most of the entries (including my own, but especially "inside divx"), had nothing to do with baldrick, even a mild reference.. and should have been disqualified.. although the field would have significantly shrunk.. 4) i'm glad a few people liked my entry.. most people seemed to despise it though.. but i did the best at being the worst, so i guess that counts for something :P and a special thanks to DereX888 & his kids for their award. :lol: | ||||||||||||
| DereX888 posted 2006 Jan 28 16:22 | ||||||||||||
| Well, I thought I saw different amounts before too...
yet it ain't my money, so I have no comments on that. Lets all be happy there were *any* awards, since its not like Baldrick had to do it, right? :) But I agree with your #2. Perhaps next time the entry rules will be more strict and no professionals allowed? @lumis: theyre NOT MY kids, although one of them is my bro ;) I prefer not to have any children until I'm at least 50... or better yet: never ;) | ||||||||||||
| vitualis posted 2006 Jan 28 17:57 | ||||||||||||
We didn't have as much total prize money as I originally thought. :-(
I did not disallow professional or semi-professional applicants. I'm still not entirely sure that I should. It appears at least that Kristy's entry at least is a personal effort rather than a project that is part of a studio. If Steven Spielberg decides to put in an entry the next time round and it was something that he made with his own two hands rather than through the resources of his studio, should it be disqualified? Tough question. This time around though, I had not thought about the possibility when I was designing the comp.
Some of the references were vague. We decided not to be strict with the theme word in this comp though "brownie points" were given to those entries that used the theme word well. It is likely that we will use a less difficult theme word next time, and yes, probably disqualify films that do not include the theme.
I have my personal favourites but I think that all the entrants should be applauded for at least putting in the effort. ;-) Regards. | ||||||||||||
| jimmalenko posted 2006 Jan 28 18:10 | ||||||||||||
How's about something like a minimum post count of 100 posts or something ? At least that might weed out a few blow-ins. JMHO but I'd like to see an active contributor get rewarded and not just someone who can register specifically and solely for the purposes of the film competition. | ||||||||||||
| gadgetguy posted 2006 Jan 28 18:10 | ||||||||||||
| I want a clarification on the whole "Theme" thing, because I read it to mean that the theme of the movie was to be "Baldrick", but it was pretty clear that most people felt that you only had to reference "Baldrick" somewhere in the film. Will you be disqualifying films that only reference the theme word, but don't really have it as the theme of the film? Or will that still be acceptable?
Edit: Just saw Jimmy's suggestion. I think that's an excellent idea. | ||||||||||||
| Baddox posted 2006 Jan 28 18:49 | ||||||||||||
| How many of the films had original soundtracks? I think that's what the category should have been. | ||||||||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Jan 28 19:23 | ||||||||||||
I know it's quibbling, but are we talking Best Music (on the soundtrack) or Best Sound Design (combined use of various sound sources on the soundtrack, including music)? I'm assuming you mean Best Original Music. Is that correct? I love Bo's music soundtrack, but it is worth pointing out that the sound design and editing, including music, on "Paul's Reverie" is worth a special noting for it's complexity and quality beyond "just having cool original music." :-) But being none of the sub-categories were open for viewer voting, I guess it's up to the judges to decide what they want to use for qualification purposes. Anyway, anybody know if the music from The Cunning Plan was original to the film (written for the movie) or not? It sorta sounds familiar but I really like it and wonder if it was written for the movie, is it from a recording, or is it a recorded-for-the-movie-arrangement-of-an-existing-tune? :) EDIT: I also very much enjoyed the sound design/editing on "Good Day," as well as the musical choices, but because the musical inclusions weren't composed for the movie but from other sources, I gave the nod to "Paul's Reverie." :) | ||||||||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Jan 28 22:32 | ||||||||||||
First, thanks to you and all for even having this short film competition, and rewarding prizes. :) Being this was the first time out, despite the snafus I certainly had a good time and would definitely be interested in entering a film in any future contest. So, in that spirit -- and acknowledging that so far I've seen no actual postings from any of the judges or sponsors asking for feedback about the contest itself, only about the contest entries -- I'll offer a few obviously unsolicited comments :) : In regards to the monetary prizes, I can certainly understand how financing can fall through. But in future cases, should this occur, could a timely and not-unobvious notice be posted somewhere updating both entrants and viewers as to such a change as soon as it happens? While this didn't and wouldn't affect my entry in any way (changes in prize amounts), that does seem a fairly large change in the contest and all effort should be made to notify entrants accordingly when there are big changes.
I also have no issues with professional entrants; in fact, I think it would be way-cool if some pro or top-notch amateur is a member of this list and wants to enter. :) My concern with "professional" entrants is only along the lines of having them declare their status at the time of entry, and that I think it would encourage wider participation of both pros and amateurs if there were separate categories for both. How one would define a "pro" is certainly something you'd have to work out, for your own purposes.
I think the answer to that question is very much worthy of further consideration, and depends to a great extent on the goal or goals of the contest and the judges in the first place. And I'm not sure I understand the motivation behind this contest, if indeed there is one. Is the goal to show the best films of a certain length, period? Then one just allows all levels of entry, with no differentiation between any levels of expertise. Is the goal to show both good movies and encourage participation of the most videohelp.com members? Then one may want to allow and encourage entry by anyone and everyone, and have a separate "award" or even category for contributions by members. And of course one would have to decide what it is to be a "member." Is the goal perhaps an experiment to see what kinds of "promotions" videohelp.com might offer to encourage more members, more advertising, etc.? Is their hope that these contest entries might be used for specific promotional purposes already in development?
Did "brownie points" have any impact on the actual real-world points awarded to any film? I'm not trying to pry and I mean no disrespect, I'm just genuinely curious as to whether there were any general or specific hopes and interests on the part of the sponsors and judges as to what you wanted to accomplish here. I know when I submitted my movie, I had two goals: 1) Get noticed, and make people laugh. 2) Maybe make a few $$$. Being as I accomplished both goals, I am 100% satisfied with my own goals in this contest. :) I'd just love to know if we're helping to satisfy your goals out there!!! :) | ||||||||||||
| Baddox posted 2006 Jan 28 23:55 | ||||||||||||
Yes, I mean Best Original Music, or Best Original Score it could be called.
If either of these or any other films used other people's/groups' recordings or recorded-for-the-movie-arrangements-of-existing-tunes without permission they were in violation of copyright laws (assuming this contest adheres to USA or similar copyright laws), and could/should be prosecuted, or at the very least, disqualified from the contest. Recognizable tunes or lyrics are copyrighted as much as the studio recordings themselves. On another note, I empathize with ozymango regarding the balance of motivations between fun, getting noticed, and rewards. While I did indeed do this film mostly for fun (it's not like I saw the contest was opened, and thus went out and bought a camera with no prior liking to cinematography just to make a few hundred bucks), I did agree to follow all the contest rules with the hope of the promised possibility of rewards. If I made this film purely for fun, I wouldn't have stayed up late most days the last week before the deadline--I would have taken as long as I wanted to to finish it. I'm sure most of those who entered films would agree with me. Let me say that I am in no way sour about the changes in the rewards--money is better than not one bit of money, but it could be argued that since I and the other filmmakers followed the rules of the contest (all the while having fun, but still having to rush myself and stress myself out as the deadline approached), we should expect the other parts of the contest announcements to be followed. Honestly, the 2 week delay in the results made me more antsy than the prize change. I repeat that I am in no way sour--this was their first contest and my first contest entry, so it can be expected that both sides wouldn't have everything go their way. :-) | ||||||||||||
| vitualis posted 2006 Jan 29 02:36 | ||||||||||||
| Thanks for the comments!
1. Regarding professional / semi-professional entries I do not think that the competition should be restricted to "long time" VideoHelp.com members. Simply, it will be too restricted a competition. I am of two minds about "professionals" entering the comp. Although I can see that it may not necessarily be "fair" for amateurs / enthusiasts entering the competition, it also raises the quality the competition. Just because someone has a degree of technical competence does not mean that they will produce a good short film. Similarly, as shown by the short film by Bo, being a complete newbie does not mean an excellent film cannot be produced. The problem with "making another category", is that it is yet another criteria to judge AND it raises the problem if we don't get enough entries for that category. My personal opinion is that all clips should be judged equally. I agree with the comments above that for the next comp, we need more disclosure on the background of the entrants. 2. Regarding the theme word "Baldrick" I have posted this a number of times. "Baldrick" needed only to have been referenced in the short film. How important or unimportant it is to the short film is up to the author. However, "clever" uses of the theme word were viewed favourably, though not specifically scored for. "The Cunning Plan" fitted well with the theme with the multi-level use of "Baldrick" (the character named "Baldric" who was "helped people" like our own Baldrick, the use of the photo of Baldrick from Blackadder, and the use of the term "cunning plan", again a reference to Baldrick from the series). 3. Regarding "soundtracks" Firstly, let me remind everyone that how the judges made their decisions were our perogative. I used the term "soundtrack" in a generic "use of audio" sense. That is, sound effects, music, etc. Some of the other judges may have taken it differently. I "could" have broken the category into more defined "music", "sound effects", "sound production" domains but I simply decided not to. Remeber, I'm doing this in my limited free time, not as a job. ;-) As per the competition guidelines, existing copyright laws cannot be broken. As far as I know, none of the accepted entries did for video or audio content. No complaints from members of the public were raised in the 14 days of public viewing. It's a little bit late now for speculation. 4. Regarding changes in the competition timing and awards @ ozymango: fair enough. ;-) However, as per the contest conditions, I/we maintained the right to change the competition at any time. Actually, for a while in early December, I thought about cancelling the whole thing since at that stage we had only a handful of entries. Remember that we have real lives and real jobs too! ;-) I was horrendously busy over the Christmas and New Year period and the film comp simply was not a high enough priority for me to pay much attention to it. It was only a few days before the "announcement deadline" that I actually had enough time to download all the film clips and start judging the clips. offline was a great help during this period. Obviously, as I had not arranged for clips for public download, the annoucement of the "member's choice award" was going to be inevitably delayed. I made an "executive" decision to also delay the judging results so to not influence the public scores to the short films. As for the cash award, blame Baldrick. :lol: Actually, since he footing the bill for the prizes and provided the bandwidth and webhost, you probably shouldn't unless you want a banning... ;-) 5. Regarding promotions Actually, the only film I considered to be close to disqualification was the "Behind Divx" entry as it was getting somewhat close to a commercial promotion. I think that it would lessen the competition if we allowed adverts, even subtle ones, as entries in the competition. 6. Regarding "brownie points" I wondered if that turn of phrase would come to bite me on the arse... ;-) No, as part of the judging criteria, there was no specific rating system for "Baldrick-ness". However, how the top films were selected were on a criteria I dubbed "overall impression" -- my logic being, that a film may be fantastic in one or two disciplines but still "suck" overall. Alternatively, a crappy soundtrack with crappy acting may not preclude a short film from actually being really good. Those films that used the theme word well would have made a better impression on the judges, and presumably, have scored better in the "overall impression" criteria. 7. Regarding my "goals" It is probably not well known to the current VideoHelp.com membership, but I / the mods tried to organise a film comp about 2 years ago. That sort of fizzled as we had issues uploads, bandwidth and eventually, lack of interest. A lot of the material (e.g., terms and conditions, judging criteria, etc.) used in the comp were actually recycled from the previous comp. This time around, I decided to be a little bit more proactive... and it mostly worked. Snafus I blame on myself for not allocating enough time to run the comp. My goals were to be able to see something unexpected. To see creativity in action. And to participate in something completely outside my career discipline. The varied short films submitted, more than met my expectations (you can see what I consider to be my favourites in my blog). Thank you all for your valued comments. I do intend to run another competition later in the year. Regards. | ||||||||||||
| offline posted 2006 Jan 29 03:25 | ||||||||||||
| You should know that vitualis single handedly resurrected, designed the framework, and ran every aspect of this years competition. He managed this despite, at the end, being exhausted after working a 10 consecutive day week. My role was very minor. The five Judges spent a minimum of 3 hours each just viewing the entries before even entering their raw results, and this was despite two of them being sick and two being particularly busy at that time.
In the end it was worth the effort. Despite the less than expected number of submissions, the quality and entertainment value of those we got was beyond outstanding. Thank you film makers and thank you to those that voted. Also thanks to Baldrick who made this event possible. | ||||||||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Jan 29 12:15 | ||||||||||||
Vitualis (Michael); Thank you very, very much for putting on the contest and for your comments/responses above. :) I am glad to know that you also enjoyed it enough to even think about doing it again! :lol: Of course I speak only for myself here, but I certainly didn't know you tried to do this before, and I certainly would have had a completely different approach to this contest had I known some of the background you presented here. And not in a bad way! In a good way! I will humbly submit, along those lines, that many other people (both contest entrants and the viewing public) might also share some of my increased positive appreciation if we'd known, at the start, some of your hopes, issues, and concerns. I'm fairly certain that more people will enter the next contest simply because they now have some idea what kinds of movies people made; I loved hearing from all the movie makers about how their stuff came to be! And I will humbly submit that many people will surprise you with talent, support, and generosity -- if you let them. :) Thanks again! P.S. Also and I'm not trying to be a smartass here, please don't forget that some of the contest entrants also have real lives and real jobs! In my younger years, my family (mostly father) used to put on local bicycle races, criteriums and road races ... we ended up with amateur entrants ... and more than a few ABLA (later USCF) cyclists participating ... and all sorts of hitches ... :D ... Anyway, I'll seriously be glad to help participate behind-the-scenes in a future contest, if you'd like! :) For no charge! Within limits! :lol: | ||||||||||||
| DereX888 posted 2006 Jan 29 12:18 | ||||||||||||
| :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy
:notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy  :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy
:notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy | ||||||||||||
| Baddox posted 2006 Jan 30 11:59 | ||||||||||||
I think some people would be surprised how many of us who entered the competition were "complete newbies". Others who entered should speak for themselves, but I for one found out about this competition in mid-November, after owning a camcorder for only 5 months. Neither I nor the other guy who helped me with this entry had ANY experience with any aspect of film making (with the exception of prior musical experience, although still only moderate experience with recording). In fact, I bought my camera only to record humorous impromptu antics among friends and various events, and was only inspired to try making an actual film by seeing this competition. So, yeah, I could definitely be considered a "complete newbie," but I didn't feel it necessary or proper to openly announce that during the judging and voting period of the competition. While quite applaudable, Bo's operational knowledge of the software and effects methods he used doesn't lead me to believe he's a complete newbie, unless you mean a complete newbie to film competitions, in which case, I'd bet many of the entries would be considered complete newbness. | ||||||||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Jan 30 12:17 | ||||||||||||
Probably the single biggest reason that I entered this contest was a chance to be part of something special -- a bunch of people who wanted to see what they could do, with what they had. And the thing I have enjoyed most is getting to know something about the other entrants, and how they made their movies. Thanks for sharing, Baddox! :) EDIT: And while I applaud your modesty in that you didn't feel it "necessary or proper" to announce your amateur status during the competition :) , I personally feel it's relevant in consideration of your film as evidence of a much greater talent. :) | ||||||||||||
| Gobs posted 2006 Jan 30 14:14 | ||||||||||||
I wrote in the application form that I've never made a shortfilm before. Which I hasn't. I didn't know that the application form would be posted on the forum. It was not a diabolic scheme to make everyone like my movie. I was just excited that I had a reason to make a shortfilm. I'm sorry you are so mad at me. I really liked your movie :) , and it did get a better place than mine. Bo | ||||||||||||
| gadgetguy posted 2006 Jan 30 14:37 | ||||||||||||
I just wanted it clarified so I know whether to start working on my entry for Short Film Competition 2006 or wait until it's announced. :) | ||||||||||||
| Baddox posted 2006 Jan 30 14:48 | ||||||||||||
| Oh no, I'm far from mad at you. There's nothing wrong with saying that in the application, assuming that the application comments wouldn't be made public. I wasn't directing any disgruntlement toward you--it's just a bit discouraging for admins to say things to the extent of: "Everyone did a great job, take Bo's submission for example, it placed in the top 3 even though he was a complete newbie" when I myself was also a complete newbie. The level of experience really isn't relative. What would be relative would be if someone had the support and budget of a studio. And while it technically wouldn't be against the rules, it would really bug me if a seasoned professional film maker submitted a film and took home all the prize money that he/she doesn't even remotely need. To use a previous example, if Spielberg spent 10,000 dollars for an entry to this competition just to secure a couple hundred dollars of prize money, it would in fact tick me off quite a bit, having worked undoubtedly harder than Spielberg, but to no avail.
I don't know exactly what the gracious hosts of this competition intended the entries to be, but I got the impression that they were looking for very low- or no-budget films that were good because of creativity and resolve instead of experience and technical prowess. Phrases such as "pickup up your miniDV camcorder" lead me to arrive at these conclusions. That being said, no entry looked to me to be backed by a large budget or studio or anything of the sort, and I think the competition was a success--I hope the hosts believe so as well. Please, no hard feelings Gobs, none were intended. | ||||||||||||
| vitualis posted 2006 Jan 30 14:55 | ||||||||||||
From my point of view, Bo is pretty much a "completely newbie" to making a filmed production. In his own words, he had never done so before and had only recently purchased a camera. Frankly, I don't know what you are getting at. You did well in the competition. :| Regards. | ||||||||||||
| Gobs posted 2006 Jan 30 15:01 | ||||||||||||
I can see what you mean. Admins should have kept a lower profile. Maybe next time they could post the films without any info until the voting has ended. Bo | ||||||||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Jan 30 15:10 | ||||||||||||
I agree. If the goal is to just pick your favorite movie period (for audience members), and not be concerned as to whether the film was made by a pro, amateur, or whatever, no other concerns, then just post the films with no comments either by the contributors or the judges. Then have at it! :) EDIT: This isn't to say that I think there was anything wrong with how things happened this time at all, just that there might be stuff we learn along the way that could be useful in future contests. Just learning as we go, that sorta thing. :) And then after the vote we would take off the blindfolds and see who submitted what. | ||||||||||||
| Cobra posted 2006 Jan 30 16:42 | ||||||||||||
| Sounds cool. I'm sure that any suggestions anyone has can be worked into the next competition. :) | ||||||||||||
| vitualis posted 2006 Jan 30 17:01 | ||||||||||||
| Sorry, but I somewhat disagree. I believe that the entrants have a right to post along with their film some background on the film as well. This gives more context to each film and makes it more interesting. Now if the entrant decides not to submit additional information, that is up to them, but I fail to see why others should be penalised. I do not see any benefit in blinding. If you don't want to get a complex about other contestants' backgrounds, then don't read!
Furthermore, let me remind you that the "Member's Choice Award" is only one of many. The whole point of this award was so that the public could debate and discuss each film and be acclaimed under public scrutiny. There is absolutely no point for the "Member's Choice Award" if people can't talk about the films, and yes, during the voting period. The other prizes that were awarded by the judges are judged according to set criteria. The "additional" information does not really come much into play. Regards. | ||||||||||||
| gadgetguy posted 2006 Jan 30 17:24 | ||||||||||||
I agree, but it wasn't clear that the entrance statements were going to be part of the post when the films were revealed. | ||||||||||||
| DereX888 posted 2006 Jan 30 17:42 | ||||||||||||
| ok guys, quit arguing :)
next competition will be described much better... I dont know who is that psycho-slug-killa M. Cleveland (is that you lumis?) but he should contact me if he wants to receive his Kids Choice Award... I know its nothing, but hey - its always a beer, or a lapdance in Niagara Falls, or ... ;) Perhaps vitualis or someone from mods could send him a message? thx | ||||||||||||
| gadgetguy posted 2006 Jan 30 17:48 | ||||||||||||
I think we're keeping to this spirit :wink:
| ||||||||||||
| Gobs posted 2006 Jan 30 18:18 | ||||||||||||
Yes it's lumis. Have you tried PM'ing him? | ||||||||||||
| Gobs posted 2006 Jan 30 18:23 | ||||||||||||
Good point. You're of course right. :) | ||||||||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Jan 30 19:28 | ||||||||||||
I sorta agree with you on this but at the same time, after reading much of your commentary I am becoming more progressivly unclear as to what kind of "contest" you're really hoping to run, here. :| When you (personal you, vitualis) first posted the links to the various movies, you also and specifically wrote the following, in regards to why you didn't also post the judges responses at that time:
Then, a bit later, on the page for responses to "The Cunning Plan," you (personal you, vitualis) wrote:
No harm, no foul, but I must admit it does leave me a bit perplexed -- you seem to be saying that you think some things might influence one award ... but then post anyway ... not that I think any of this actually did influence the public vote, but the accumulated "feeling" I'm getting from all of this is that: From both your posts and the posts of others (behind the scenes) this wasn't really the Videohelp Short Film Contest. This was the Michael Tam Film Contest. Which is fine! I don't mind at all, thanks for doing this! :) You rightfully have the power to change the rules of the contest at any time, and specifically noted that you had a whole bunch of other stuff going on during this time that made this contest less of a priority than it might be to other people. Again, all fine. But -- and this is definitely just me and I mean no offense -- I'm getting the feeling that you are somewhat "glossing over" some of the responses here that are not aimed at you and not personal, because those responses are not the same as your own. And in doing so, you miss out on some things that could actually make this contest better and easier to run, in the future, and encourage much more participation. But that could just be me. Anyway, whatever you decide to do with the contest in the future is of course up to you, and I shall be interested in participating (either as an entrant or simply an observer) in future contests, and look forward to them and appreciate your hard work. :) | ||||||||||||
| vitualis posted 2006 Feb 01 01:56 | ||||||||||||
| Hmm...
I did not want to bias the Member's Choice Awards from an "official" sense. That is, so that people aren't voting with the knowledge that "this" film has already won the official awards. However, I felt that the judges and myself could comment in the Member's Choice Awards from a personal point of view simply as we too are members of Videohelp.com. Similarly so for the actual authors of the films. Just as I expressed my personal preference, many people expressed their particularly choices for other short films in the contest. Let's be blunt -- the Member's Choice Awards could really only be completely "fair" if there is public voting for 14 days with no release of the tally until the end and no public discussion until the end of the voting period. This, however, is also entirely boring. The Member's Choice Award exists to make the competition fun and to help engage members into the competition who did not put in a submission. It is won on no other grounds than what most people like. It is unlikely I will change how the "Member's Choice Awards" will be run in the future (except for trying to keep it on schedule). Although I probably did do most of the work in the competition, it was still run from the point of view as a part of VideoHelp.com. I am one of several moderators of this site. Different aspects of the competition were debated fairly extensively in the mod-only forum. I was only one of several judges, and of course, the hosting and prizes were supplied by VideoHelp.com (via Baldrick who is of course the admin). I've taken many of the comments on board for the next competition, and my aim for the comp is still for it to be open. I think that it is fairly clear that if it were targeted mainly at VideoHelp.com members, the participation will be rather small. I still believe that the competition should be mainly targeted at amateur film makers, but I think I may have a somewhat different opinion of what an "amateur" film maker is compared to others on this forum. Moreover, it is easy to say that some things could make the contest "better and easier to run" when you didn't actually run it! Any suggestion that involves me doing MORE work, may well make it better, but would be extremely unlikely to make it any easier. Now, comments about the structure and organisation of the comp from the "user end" are very useful for me at designing a better comp and some of your comments, ozymango, have been particularly helpful. However, when members start complaining after the 14 days of public viewing and after the allocation of prizes of apparent inequity, it does rub me up the wrong way. Regards. | ||||||||||||
| Shadowmistress posted 2006 Feb 01 03:25 | ||||||||||||
| Hmmmm.... I think I smell sour grapes around here somewhere.
If people keep nitpicking at this contest thing it might come completely unravelled. So what if Speilberg graces us with an original masterpiece of his and scoops the pot out from under us? Personally, I'd like to see that happen cause I know the entry would probably be more entertaining to watch compared to the others. I mean, it's not like he'd come in and announce who he is and expect his fame to hand him the win. So what if he has experience? A good film is a good film. We're here to see creative, interesting, art. If The Blair Witch Project can do it, so can you. This contest was a competition, not a "show us your best home movie" exhibition. The best film won because it was the best, simply that and nothing more. It has the majority of votes in the polls to prove it was the best if you happen to question that decision. Vitualis, dude, thanks for putting on the comp and I never would have guessed this was mostly a one man show. (No disrespect to the other mods who participated.) It was a great idea, and I think you did pretty good for a first time run. I know you're only human and I can be forgiving of accidental oversights. I probably won't enter next year either..... but I'll gladly sit back and watch you guys compete to entertain me. :D I most likely won't care who's a pro and who's an amateur just like this year, and I'll watch them all and vote for the film I liked most. | ||||||||||||
| mattso posted 2006 Feb 01 03:34 | ||||||||||||
You think so? Personally I'd rather watch "Mrs Slug & Mr Salt" on an endless loop for the rest of my days than ANY of Spielberk's stupid lame "family values" crap movies. I hate that guy severely. (No dig at you, Shadowmistress! :P ) | ||||||||||||
| Shadowmistress posted 2006 Feb 01 03:41 | ||||||||||||
| That's actually my point. :) When you take his fame away, he gets judged by the same standards of creativity as everyone else. In that way, the playing field is leveled.
I'm not saying I like or dislike any of his stuff either, what I'm saying is that I'd be more favourable towards a good idea/ script/ presentation rather than technical effects or professional looking editing. So he better be coming up with something really good to show us IMO, same as everyone else. | ||||||||||||
| mattso posted 2006 Feb 01 03:47 | ||||||||||||
| Actually, I do agree with you. There shouldn't be any restrictions on entrants. For one thing, how do the mods hope to gauge an "amateur" from a "pro" or "semi-pro"?? One entry may be someone's 1st ever film, the next entry might be the person's 1000th (eg been making films as a "hobby" since a kid) etc...
Impossible to abjudicate! But... shit I hate Spielberg. :P (Glad to hear he's retiring!). | ||||||||||||
| DereX888 posted 2006 Feb 01 07:06 | ||||||||||||
| I agree on Spielberg, IMO he suck badly. But you gotta admit - he is still the best one from The Jewish Trio that is worshipped by modern Hollywood.
Anyway - how about forcing contestant to submit *anonymous* entries? That would be the fairiest way to run any competition and no one would ever complaint if any professional like Spielberg joined us (anyway - you wish he did ;) and I know, there will be "Directed by Spielberg" in the end credits, but one of the contest rules might be requirement of "no credits included"? its just a matter of organizing it right) Just my 0.02 | ||||||||||||
| gadgetguy posted 2006 Feb 01 08:05 | ||||||||||||
| Your opinions of Spielberg are off topic. Think of it as "insert your favorite director here".
I asked early on in the competition if there would be any different consideration for "professional" work and was told no. I can tell you for sure that there are no sour grapes from ozymango or myself, but as participants who enjoyed entering the contest and had fun with it, we see some areas that might have made it easier to understand or run a little smoother. Our intention is to try and make it more attractive to potential future participants, it is NOT to say "you did this wrong" or "you really screwed up this". We all recognise that this was a first endeavor, and that there will be some bumps that no-one could have anticipated or planned for. From that regard it ran almost perfect. Vitualis, Some of our ideas may not make sense, or you don't think are good ideas. Don't use them, we'll get over it. We're not trying to make it harder for you, on the contrary, we want it to be easier, so you'll be more inclined to hold more contests. I know most people don't watch end credits, (my local cinema turns on the lights and asks if you're OK if they find you watching the credits), but it is the only way to properly thank the people involved in making a production. I would hate to see a rule that removed them. | ||||||||||||
| DereX888 posted 2006 Feb 01 10:30 | ||||||||||||
It is off-topic only because he didn't enter the contest (thus its his fault ;) ) For the contest submission I see no problem with having credits removed. There won't be any fair competition if Joe Schmoe will compete with i.e. Spielberg while evryone would know "this is Spielberg's piece, whoa...' I hope you catch the drift what Im talking about, since it is very normal human reaction to 'treat' a Big Guy differently than Joe Nobody - even if the person wants to be very fair; it is simply impossible, it *will* happen on a subconcius level. IMO it is very important. Anyway, 2 weeks later (or whenever contest ends) all 'edited' contest submissions without end credits could be replaced with their 'full' version with all the credits and personal infos on the server and be available for downloads as it is now, so again - I dont think its any problem. Anonymous submissions are actually the best 'fair & square' protection for all contestants. | ||||||||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Feb 01 11:03 | ||||||||||||
| Obviously, you ask five people for their opinions and you get seven opinions. :D
I like all the "banter" just because ... well, I love hearing how other people look at stuff! :) We don't have to all agree, in fact I think it would be boring if we all agreed on everything (which is why we had a really amazing cross-section of movies -- did you notice how differently each person approached their contest entry? At the same time, ultimately whoever puts on this contest has to make some tough, hard choices and somebody's not gonna like something, no matter what. So I can see all the points. And of course it's easy to have a perspective on something when you're not the one who's gonna have to suffer if things don't work out! :D All that being said, and no offense to those who did not participate this time and won't participate next time (except to watch) -- I definitely give more "weight" to the viewpoints of those who have something to lose here. Those who "pay the price" of either working behind the scenes to put on this contest, or who submit movies to be viewed and critiqued by other people. That takes effort, time, and, frankly, guts. So next time, I'm really looking forward to see a whole bunch more entries! :) EDIT: I think "Schindler's List," "Jaws," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," and "Saving Private Ryan" are among the best American movies ever made! :D | ||||||||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Feb 01 11:40 | ||||||||||||
Actually this kind of stuff is relatively easy. For instance, one can have a disclaimer that anybody who gets paid for their work in the creation of a motion picture, is a "pro." I'm not saying that has to be the definition, but that's a fairly easily workable one. In such a context, it could mean that people who've been paid professionally for work behind a camera (e.g. wedding videographers, educational film makers, whatever) would not be eligible. Again, I'm not saying that should be the criteria, just that there are reasonable stanadards -- objective legal standards -- that can be used. But yeah, it would first mean having to decide what standards to use. For short films, that may or may not be problematic. But one could look at other film "contests" to see if there might be something there that could be used as a guide. This is not a suggestion on how to do things!!! This is just showing some ideas about how people have defined "pro" in the past, and how that may or may not be useful in this context. I can't enter writing competitions that say "no professional writers" simply because I sold a short story (for $$$) to a national magazine, and ipso facto I'm instantly a "professional writer." :) But that's a pretty specific and easy to figure out example. But, one way to make things easier is to put up rules that are pretty easy to give a "pass/fail" option to right off the bat: 1) If a contest requires a certain word, shot, image, theme, whatever, and that word, shot, image, theme is not clear in context, and the rules spell that out, then bang zoom, the entry immediately is DQ'd, no offense. 2) If copyright issues are a concern, it can be noted that all submissions must either be original in script, film, and music, or a valid evidence of rights approval must be included at the time of submission. If not, DQ'd. 3) The film cannot contain certain language, images, etc. that are considered violent, racist, pornographic, etc. within X limits, and the judges reserve final say on what is considered "acceptable." If your film is DQ'd for violation of such rules, you will receive an explanation of the reason or reasons the rule was considered violated. Again, these are samples, not suggestions on how a contest can have rules (including rules about "pros" that are both clear and relatively easy to enforce. It can also help take an issues of "personal hurt" out of things by making it a bit clinical, which, admittedly, isn't always such a great feeling either but most people can deal with "we had X specific reasons why we decided this or this" without getting too upset. :) I suppose I may take contest "rules" more seriously (and somewhat more dryly) than a lot of other people, simply because I've had to work behind the scenes in several contests in my life (sometimes voluntarily, sometimes heavily coerced! :P ), and you're gonna get pounded by somebody who's not happy no matter what you do, so after a while you get pretty good at making a bunch of really specific rules so you can keep all the but most pissed-off people from going balistic on you. :D | ||||||||||||
| Supreme2k posted 2006 Feb 01 11:53 | ||||||||||||
Impossible. The judges and yourself are not merely members at that point (or probably any other). While you may think that you're "just being a member", others may see your comments as pre-determined bias. Just like an off-duty police officer in full uniform can yell "Stop!" to someone, and they'll take it more seriously (even though he's just a "regular citizen" at that point). While you guys (mods) are on this board, you're always wearing your uniform. I don't buy the whole Speilberg anonimity thing either. Besides the experience, he has a truckload of resources that the average contestant doesn't have. Most were using their hand-cams and a couple of off-the-shelf (or free) programs to make their films. Speilberg and other pros have much better resources, even when done "on their own". Lastly, "A good film is a good film" just does not fly here. You could say the same thing about anything if that were the case (to use a sickening example, say a Grammy-winning artist went on American Idol). That is just another variable to add into the judgement. If an adult reads a book, no one applauds them, but if an infant reads a book, people take notice. With the films, someone may say "that's a GREAT film, for an amateur!". Would they say the same thing if they knew that the person had 30 years experience and it cost them 2 million to make? (and yes, I understand that no one here had that budget :P ) | ||||||||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Feb 01 11:56 | ||||||||||||
Thanks for your insightful and expansive post. :) Hey, that reminds me of something that did sorta depress me a little bit -- there were a heck of a lot of people (over 400?) who answered the poll about "are you gonna vote in the member's choice awards?" who answered "What contest?" And while some of those votes may have been tongue in cheek, I did notice that the proportion of responses to that effect stayed pretty constant over time. That is, with 100 votes in, 75% said "What contest?" And with over 400 votes in, 75% said, "What contest?" :| Now, while I suppose the contest notes weren't displayed in bold type on every page, but heck, they were on the first page, there was a separate, easy to find forum set up just for the contest -- I'm not sure what, if anything, can be done, to get your average voting person more interested, but I wish there was something we could do to stir up more interest. Was it the timing? From a personal point of view, anything that occurs towards the end of the calendar year (late November and December) just also happens to happen at the time of year I'm most busy with other stuff. I'm really into Christmas, so that's a big deal. :) So maybe that impacted the schedule? But even then, once people answered the poll, there were more than a few days to check out some of the entries. And the most popular film only got 41 or 42 viewers' votes, if I remember correctly. Out of how many members? Geez, that just bums me out. :| Anyway, I don't know if it's that people weren't that interested in general ... did our movies suck that bad ... :D ... was everybody else overwhelmed with other stuff ... or maybe it's just first-time blues, we had a slow start but next year we might have 200 entries. And vitualis' hair will turn gray overnight! :D | ||||||||||||
| Supreme2k posted 2006 Feb 01 11:59 | ||||||||||||
Which is why I felt I could (should) not enter. | ||||||||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Feb 01 12:54 | ||||||||||||
Yeah, this is one of those "appearance of impropriety" things that makes for a bunch of sticky wickets. :| That is, and not just talking about mods posting, or even about this particular contest, anytime there is even the appearance of some sort of advantage towards one person or another ... that can lead to problems. Like in pretty much any contest by any company (like the Pillsbury Bake-Off) they always have a disclaimer along the lines of -- "Employees of Pillsbury or their family members are not eligible for this competition." It's one of those "maybe not fair to possible particular entrants because they have absolutely no real-world connection with the judges, but fair in that otherwise there could be an appearnance of bias." Yeah, it's legal crap, but I can see why it's a good idea to cover your ... rear, like that. :) So it's a "better safe than sorry" thing. Also this is more of a tossing out of ideas thing, not "we should run the contest this way" thing, I'm just thinking out loud. :) And Supreme2K, I'll assume that from your post you work or have worked in the video/film industry in some capacity that gave you pause about entering this contest. And thanks for your consideration! :) | ||||||||||||
| ROF posted 2006 Feb 01 13:39 | ||||||||||||
| Judges in my opinion should not express any opinion one way or another in a member's choice award. They should be silent during this time and only after the member's choice is awarded should they be allowed to express their opinions.
As a judge you are supposed to be impartial and not attempt to influence the member's choice in any way. By just giving an opinion about a certain project you are causing an influence because of your official capacity. I agree with the analogy of other contests where employees or their families are not eligible to enter or win prizes. That rule should be observed for all contests. By simply stating you throw your support to one video over another before a final decision is made based on the members choice you have added an undue influence upon the contest. Whether it effects the outcome is irrelevant. Judges and employees of those running a contest should not offer any opinions or commentary before the contest is completed and prizes(awards) have been given. Of course, that's just my opinion. | ||||||||||||
| dipstick posted 2006 Feb 01 15:54 | ||||||||||||
| I want to thank vitualis and all the Mods for putting on this great contest. I also want to thank Baldrick for his generousity.
I feel the contest was fine the way it was. I seriously doubt a real Pro would waste their time entering this simple contest, unless they were doing it with their son/daughter as a learning experience. Personally, I wouldn't mind if some of the Mods entered as well. I was pleasently surprized by the quality of the entrants. I'm looking forward to the next contest. I wonder if I can get my dog into Acting School. :D | ||||||||||||
| cooljoe666 posted 2006 Feb 05 15:14 | ||||||||||||
| Well, all and good but WASp won the contest. The other flick was done by a pro, as indicated all over the net, and noone knew about it. I call it a foul. You can go many places on the net and see movies done by pros but they shouldn't be here. Spielberg has been doing this stuff for many years and I am sure anything he makes would probably win first place. This takes the fun out of it. :evil: | ||||||||||||
| DereX888 posted 2006 Feb 05 19:40 | ||||||||||||
| when it comes to famous and (or) rich people - its always like this.
Imagine: Had Spielberg joined - people would complaint "what the hell is he looking for here, didnt he got enough oscars?!" If he wouldn't join - people would say "he thinks he's better than us, thats why he reject us!" SO lets just forget about it, contest rules didnt forbid anyone listed on IMDB from entering, so how in the hell it is unfair? So what no one knew (or knew it, doesn't matter) that someone is a 'pro', I don't recall it being named "Amateur Short Film Comp. 2005"... | ||||||||||||
| vitualis posted 2006 Feb 05 19:43 | ||||||||||||
| cooljoe666, Kristy was not a professional film maker. She works as a film editor in real life, but the two are not the same.
In any case, the comp did not exclude "pros". If you don't like this, then don't compete. Oh wait, you didn't. ;-) Regards. | ||||||||||||
| Supreme2k posted 2006 Feb 05 20:12 | ||||||||||||
In all honesty, he is better than ever single last one of us (in that respect).
Yet, a pro won. That may discourage the amateurs in future competitions.
That's pretty much splitting hairs. Those IMDB credits don't exactly spell amateur. I have tons more productions under my belt, yet none are up there. If you will check out the now infamous "edit" thread, you will see just how much an editor is regarded as film maker.
cooljoe666's complaint (?) was very moderately and calmly put. Should this forum only be for those who like everything and/or can participate, or is it for discussion and getting help (even if you can't exactly give it)? | ||||||||||||
| vitualis posted 2006 Feb 06 00:39 | ||||||||||||
| Perhaps you should go back to Kristy's thread and read what she wrote. She has never made a short film before. Yes, she is less "amateur" than others in this competition but I still consider her an amateur. In any case, this comp was not limited to an amateur entries only.
This thread is for the announcement of prizes. Useful tips for improving the competiton are welcome. Armchair critique on who should or shouldn't have won is NOT helpful. I think that it is enough that people declare their "status" at the beginning of the competition. If you think that you can make the next competition better by suggesting some sort of entry criteria, then please, dazzle me. Just saying "no pros" is not particularly helpful and I think that has been well established. If you don't like the fact that the competition is not restricted to amateurs, then please give me a good reason why I should restrict it to amateurs and HOW. No one has given me persuasive enough arguments yet. Regards. | ||||||||||||
| DereX888 posted 2006 Feb 06 16:56 | ||||||||||||
| I think most of complaints here are unreasonable or just for the sake of complaining.
Although Supreme2k have very valid point about discoraging amateurs when 'pros' are allowed and a pro won, but again - this competition was open to both amateurs and pros, obviously I didn't expect 'mr.slug' to win (even though I thought it was funniest from all) and neither its author (me thinks). Lastly - how do you select people to qualify? I.e. my name is on IMDB, but I have never made my own film; I am 'professional' (working in a related industry) yet again - I never made own movie. Because my name is on imdb I should be forbidden from entering the contest? Its nonsense. vitualis, let this thread be what it is about - announcement of the winners, just lock the thread. | ||||||||||||
| vitualis posted 2006 Feb 06 18:03 | ||||||||||||
| Please post suggestions to improve the competition here: http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=287033
Regards. | ||||||||||||
| Shadowmistress posted 2006 Feb 08 23:56 | ||||||||||||
So? I swear while watching some of those clips I was thinking that I've just wasted minutes from my life that I will never get back. If they're going to enter crap, let them not bother entering at all then. I'm tired of sugar-coating my responses. The other films just weren't that great and they deserved the rank they got. The members choice poll supports this point. Everyone is being so kind and courteous and lenient to the contest entrants because they're assuming they're amateurs. Why? When did that get written in stone? Videohelp is one of the premier sites on the web when it comes to video and tons of people come here all the time without never needing to register. It would be logical to conclude that *some* of it's members or lurkers would be semi-professionals or work somewhat relating to this field if they have an interest in video. I mean, it's not just a hobby for everyone you know. So why on earth would you cry "foul" when the typical videohelp reader enters and wins? If you have a problem with the winner not having any posts here, then look at it this way: at least they weren't a "regular" and there is no possibility of favoritism having been exercised due to reputation. If you have a problem with the winner having expertise in the field as an advantage over the other entrants: after seeing wasp and the special effects your average "amateur" can pull off, I don't see anything in the winner's clip that anyone else couldn't have accomplished. So what is it then? You want to keep the contest in the videohelp "family"? Lurkers outnumber the members so how can you justify who to exclude? The clip was the best and it deserved to win. Enough. Drop it already. | ||||||||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Feb 09 00:17 | ||||||||||||
I'm sorry you felt that way. To be perfectly honest, there was not one film entered in this competetion that I did not enjoy in one way or another. Now, some posters to this forum, on the other hand ... :wink: ...
Really? When did you start sugar-coating your responses? :P
Says you. Don't know you mean by "weren't that great." I found them all interesting, and several were rated rather highly. Seriously. Though the total vote count (40-ish) compared to what I assume is a large number of visitors to this site, seems a bit low, for my taste. Now, to be fair, "Mr. Slug VS. Mr. Salt" was a bit on the squeamish side, but still ... :) ...
No, not all of us are. Sorry if our liking some of the other films offends your sense of taste and discretion.
I thought it was a very good short film, but personally, I liked "Wasp" more. And it was also rated pretty highly. No biggie. As far as I know, all the people who actually entered the contest or ran the contest are cool with that. And as far as I know, everybody behind the scenes wants to do it again, and everybody who made a movie this time -- and even many who didn't -- plan on entering the contest next time.
With all due respect, if you're neither entering this contest or behind the scenes, why should anybody care what you think? Is it that you need to have the last word? :) | ||||||||||||
| Supreme2k posted 2006 Feb 09 08:51 | ||||||||||||
| As ozymango has replied to your post (attacking mine) already, SM, I won't.
I probably wouldn't have anyway. I did drop it a few days ago. Besides, we all know that you rant simply because you have some grudge against certain members, whether you're sincere about your post or not. | ||||||||||||
| Cobra posted 2006 Feb 09 16:40 | ||||||||||||
| Could we please keep this to the announcement of winners and the suggestions for future competitions, please? There's no need to argue about it. If there's anything really important, and you feel that a point must be made, PM a mod of your choice and let them know. I would ensure that any suggestions made by PMs to me would be brought to the attention of all the other moderators in private.
Aside from anything else, think how the winners feel reading this thread. They won it fair and square, regardless of who they were. In short, chill out! No need to argue. :) | ||||||||||||
| gadgetguy posted 2006 Feb 09 17:02 | ||||||||||||
| With all due respect Cobra, Vitualis has requested that discussion of improvements to the comp should be in this thread. (See his post above) | ||||||||||||
| offline posted 2006 Feb 09 20:36 | ||||||||||||
| Speak only for yourself please Shadow Mistress!
The top five would seamlessly fit into most short film festivals on the planet. In fact I'd urge them to submit their works. Clearly they were wasted on some here :roll: | ||||||||||||
| Supreme2k posted 2006 Feb 09 21:27 | ||||||||||||
Exactly. While I don't agree with the order of the winners, I thought that they were all excellent. I don't know if I could have been a judge though, since there were more films that deserved prizes than there were prizes :lol: I thought that every single entry was well worth my time and showed tons of talent. :thumbs_up: | ||||||||||||
| offline posted 2006 Feb 09 22:48 | ||||||||||||
| The judges votes varied significantly. Some films were hot on the tail of others in the final tally. I don't think the results reflected the personal favorites of any one Judge. In fact when I processed the numbers I was a little disapointed.
But like Mats said at the time, a vote is a vote. The popular favorite at my place (as I show these films off) is The Baldrick closely followed by Wasp. Air Baldrick is popular too. The kids love "the bitch" Norton salt girl and the adults chuckle at The City of Tomorrow. | ||||||||||||
| DereX888 posted 2006 Feb 09 23:01 | ||||||||||||
| I like all entries, including probably the worst home-made video that has ever been presented in any competitions, yet with such a funny hangover narration ;)
As it starts to become discussion about individual tastes and preferences, I suggest to move part of this discussion to that other thread... | ||||||||||||
| gadgetguy posted 2006 Feb 10 08:21 | ||||||||||||
WooHoo!!! :woot: :lol: | ||||||||||||
| Cobra posted 2006 Feb 10 15:04 | ||||||||||||
You're spot-on - I should have been more clear on that. If there's a point that you would prefer to make privately, I am more than happy to take it up for anyone. :) (thanks, gadgetguy! I see now how poor my choice of words were! :lol: ) | ||||||||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Feb 10 16:19 | ||||||||||||
Ahem ... as somebody or other once said: WooHoo!!! :woot: :lol: :D And just wait 'til you see what we come up with for this year's contest!!! |
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