LIVE BLOGGING from the AMV JUDGES PANEL

[Prinz Eugen]

OK it all starts tomorrow, but I am warming up the thread now.
The e-mail submission deadline closed on Wednesday afternoon
and the in-hand postal deadline closes tonight. I will check the box
tonight and ONE LAST TIME for stragglers tomorrow mid-morning,
(in case the people who run the rented mailbox didn't put up Friday's
mail - that would NOT be the fault of someone who mailed on time
and I should have had it on time. UPDATE BELOW)


Other preparations are in play - marinating a 5lbm pork tenderloin
and a bunch of chicken.

Stick around! I will have final stats on entries up late tonight, and
tomorrow I will be updating just about hourly with judges comments
and events.

- G

[Prinz Eugen]

Called the rented mailbox place;
there are NO mail-in packages
for me and nothing marked
"Kumoricon" today, so we are
DONE as of NOW.

I am getting excited and I hope
you are too! There are many
strong entries this year for the
judges to review, and it should
be a fun panel event tomorrow.

:-D

[Prinz Eugen]

We exceeded last year's Tally: 130 entries!

Here is the breakdown:
Entries in [brackets]

No Category   35min 54 sec [10]
Intensity           1hr 48min 42sec [35]
Instrumental   1hr 5min 17sec [18]
Retro              27min 45sec [9]
Random      42min 44sec [20]
NWtAiA      48min 21sec [16]
Trailers           25min 43sec [12]
Effects      36min 16sec [10]

Total time: 6hrs 26min 42sec [130]
9.23GB total file size!


States: CA, CO, HI, MD, MI, MN, NJ, NY, OR, SC, UT, VA, WA [13]

Countries:
ARGENTINA, ARMENIA, AUSTRALIA, BULGARIA, CANADA (Nouvelle France and
English-occupied zones), ENGLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, HONDURAS, HUNGARY,
ITALY, LATVIA, MOROCCO, PORTUGAL, ROMANIA, RUSSIA, TATARSTAN,
UKRAINE & YUGRA [19]

Yeee-Haw!!

Next will be the list of animes used ...

[Prinz Eugen]

Testing, testing, Is this thing on?

Anyways here are 117 animes received, not counting any AMV which used more than (4) anime series.
(There are a number of those, usually Intensity and Effects.)


1001 Nights (Yoshitaka Amano)              Amazing Nuts                      Animatrix
Another                                     Aoi Tamago (Pale Cocoon)            Asobi ni Iku Yo
Azumanga Daioh                                     Baccano!                      Baka to Test to Shoukanju
Bakemonogatari                                     Beelzebub                        Black Cat
Black Rock Shooter                                  Bleach                         Bounen no Xam'D
Busou Renkin                                       Byousoku 5cm                    Candy Candy
Casshern: Sins                                     Chaos:Head                       Clannad
Code Geass                                        Cowboy Bebop                    Cutey Honey
Dai Mahou Touge                           Deadman Wonderland                 Death Note
Detroit Metal City                                  D.Gray man                       Dog Days
Dragon Ball Z                                         Durarara!!                      Eden of the East
Ergo Proxy                                          Eureka Seven                      Fairy Tail
Fate / Zero                              Fate / Unlimited Blade Works           Final Fantasy
Full Metal Alchemist                               Ga-Rei Zero                  Genius Party Beyond
Genius Party Dimension Bomb               Ghost in the Shell              Gin-iro Nokami no Agito
Gosick                                                 Grenadier                          Guilty Crown
Gundamkikoushi genma                 Hakuoki Shinsengumi Kitan         Hakuoki Hekketsu Roku
Hamtaro                                     Highschool of the Dead            Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
Innocent Venus                                   Jigoku Shoujo                           K-on!
Kamisama no Memochou                             Kanon                          Kara no Kyoukai
Kakumei Shoujo Utena                          Kawa no Hikari                      Kikoushi Enma                    
Kikumana                                          Kodomo no Jikan                      Kurohitsuji
Macross                                             Macross Plus                      Mahou no Chocolat
Mahou Sensei Negima                              Mariaholic                    Meitantei Loki Ragnarok
Mirai Nikki                                              Mushishi                               Naruto
Natsume Youjinchou              Nausicaa in the Valley of the Winds             Negima!?
Neon Genesis Evangelion                     NHK ni Youkoso                           Nichijou
Nisemonogatari                                      Noisy Birth                          Ookami (game)
Ouran Highschool Host Club                      One Piece              Ookamisan to Shichinin no Nakamatachi
Ore no Imouto wa Konnani Kawai wake janai                                 Project BLUE - Chikyuu S.O.S.
Princess Tutu                            Puella Magi Madoka Magika                     R-15
Ranma 1/2                                              Saikano                                 Saki
Saki - Side A                                    Samurai Champloo                   Shakugan no Shana
Shikabane Hime                          Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu                  Sankarea
Sket Dance                                       Sora no Manimani                         Soul Eater
Starship Operators                                 Steins;Gate                       Sword of the Stranger
Tasogare Otome x Amnesia               Tekkenkinkreet (game)             To Aru Majutsu no Index
Toku wo Kakeru Shoujo                             Toradora                                 Trigun
Wolfs Rain                                  The World God Only Knows                    Yu-Gi-Oh
Yumekui Mary


And there you go.
By averages, (130 AMVs, 117 anime series) almost EVERY submission uses a unique anime!
I LOVE the diversity!

[Prinz Eugen]

We have a little less than SIX and a HALF hours before the judges convene.
If I started RIGHT NOW, I could re-watch all the AMVs once again, and I
would finish up right in time for the judges at noon.

Begin coded message: "Sydney, you are good to go. Over."

[Sui Fong]

I was totally just talking to my sister about this subject (as an amv editor waiting for the judging to be done). I was telling her how I hope one of my amvs makes it into the show this year, and my little sister said one of the most profound things to me so I thought I'd share with all the other people trolling this thread. She told me, "I make art in the hopes that just one person likes it. So even if only one judge likes your amv, I would say you've accomplished the mission." (paraphrasing a bit, the conversation went on for over an hour)
So I hope you all have fun watching the amvs!!    Cause I know we had fun making them.

[Prinz Eugen]

Thank you so much, and I wish you good luck as well.
The index cards are all written out and ready.

Unless editors put their names or studio names as part of a filename
or in a intro, out-tro or other bumper in the video, the judges are 'blinded'
as to who made what entries or where they are from.

Brad DeMoss, an AMV editor from way back, put it this way: You really make AMVs for yourself.
It works out that way for me, too. I make the ones I like because I'm interested in placing visuals from
a certain series into a context of my choosing. Sometimes almost no one else sees what I see - like
the time I sent out a Warsaw Uprising (1944) themed AMV using Pumpkin Scissors. No contest picked it
up as far as I could tell. But I enjoyed making it and watching it.

See you at the editors' dinner also, I hope.

And thanks for chiming in - I was hoping this wasn't going to be a one-way broadcast...

STATUS: Shop (out building) is clean - I shot 5 bats that had moved in since last week.
Floor is mopped, tables are being set - and I am not bringing out and hooking up electronics and the sound system.

T MINUS ONE HOUR ...

[murder_of_raven]

And thanks for chiming in - I was hoping this wasn't going to be a one-way broadcast...

I'm tuning in too, just fyi.

[Prinz Eugen]

I'm tuning in too, just fyi.

HEY - great to hear from you again too!

Brisket and pork tenderloin,
and ear corn and sweet potatoes are in the smoker.

I have written up a set of summaries for the judges to look over,
plus printed copies of the technical formats and the category definitions.
I'll share some snippets of that, plus some of their initial comments
in the next check-in.

First off we have a LOT of angsty DRAMA type entries, which is not really
a category in this year's contest. So those have to be culled out as a first
pass. Usually, Angst-Emo-MVs give you the FULL LOAD, full duration of the
dreary song. 4min, 4min 30 sec, etc... so the judges are permitted to speed
up the player to 1.5x or 2x after about the first 3rd of the way in, to see
if things pick up later. There is one entry that drags a bit in the beginning,
but then really gets going nicely at about about the 48-second mark. and
I noted that on the card so they will give it a chance to hit that blast-off point.

Many 'Intensity' AMVs that end up not making it are ones
which actually look pretty good while played at 1.5 to 2x...

Meanwhile, we have a 2010 blush white Cotes de Provence to serve them...

[Prinz Eugen]

ONE of the 'No category' AMVs has been transferred to 'Intensity.'

They have done a first pass through all but about 10 of the 'Intensity' AMVs.
This was a brutal cullling, as I suspected.

a: "THIS video is why there is no Drama category..."
b: "Where is it going?"
a: "...AWAY."

Judges were VERY divided over a Kate Perry song, but the thumbs-up prevailed for now.

One of the judges brought an Amarone... (wow)

One SILLY Final Fantasy project has gotten transferred to the Random Amusement category.

More details in an hour or so...

[Sui Fong]

haha, yeah, some drama amvs can be really bad (i've made a few myself). but u know, at the time they seem EPIC, then when you look back at it a few years later you're like "wait? i paired WHO together??".... or maybe that's just me.

[Prinz Eugen]

They are into the RETRO category now.

Instrumental had one hilarious WALTZ which was transferred to Random Amusement.

But there is a really STRANGE one waiting for them there too, from Montreal Quebec.
C'est Bon les Patates

Meanwhile, in Retro I have TROLOLOLO'ed the judges *and* Rick-rolled them!!!
(Of course, thanks and credit go to the AMV makers who create these wonderful gems...)

[Prinz Eugen]

Meanwhile, in Retro I have TROLOLOLO'ed the judges *and* Rick-rolled them!!!

Looks like they are keeping BOTH of these!

Judge: "OMG, next year people will be like: Sh*t it's the AMV Contest! CLEAR THE MAIN EVENTS HALL!
EVERYBODY RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!"


Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!

Also one judge happens to have been a Sakuracon AMV judge, he says that he's seen only 3 AMVs so far which were also submitted to Sakuracon. I think that's really cool in that we are really a distinct and different type of contest than Sakuracon.
Certainly, best wishes to Vlad and Tom up there though;
we are just heading on a truly different tack...

[Prinz Eugen]

They are almost finished with this category.
Our entries from the Federated States of the former Soviet Union are
withstanding the competition!!!

Hooray for the Motherland!!



God Save the Tsar!

[Sui Fong]

Other peoples family members have now left my place so now I have time to troll this again glad u guys r enjoying!

[Prinz Eugen]

Still working at it.
They are no cutting 'Effects' - the last category.

They have haded me two stacks of index cards as rejects and some of them are ones I really liked...

...dammit...

[Sui Fong]

If we all had the same taste life would b dull and boring.

[superjaz]

Yes thank you for all the hard work!

Brisket and pork tenderloin,
and ear corn and sweet potatoes are in the smoker.

nice!  Once during a flood we were leaving a flooding apartment and we were waiting in the car for my Dad and he came out, he had to get the turkey he had put in the smoker the night before.  Nothing say "hey can I crash at your place?" like a smoked turkey.

Chris is down for the editor's dinner, even if he had not gotten much amv work done and missed this year but there is always next year.

[Prinz Eugen]

We finished up.

The judges winnowed everythign down to 5 or 6 entries per category,
and the duration of the contest is 112 min.

A little long but it'll be a great show.

More information tomorrow...

Goodnight.

[Prinz Eugen]

Duration stats by category:

Intensity 16min 12sec
Instrumental 16min 24sec
Retro 18min 43sec
Random Amusement 13min 04
NWtAiA* 19min 37sec
Trailers 11min 27sec
Effects 15min 55sec

*Not What the Anime is About

This bunch of judges have left it to *ME* to order the entries
in each category, and so I am about 1/3 through this task.

I am tending to open with ones which seem to show the best examples of the category, then if there are any unusual or slightly comedic twists on  the definition, I put those closer to the end of the category, so we go out with a surprise!


READER POLL:
https://www.kumoricon.org/forums/index.php?topic=17107.0

When do you think that the list of AMVs which made it into the contest should be made public?

- G

[Prinz Eugen]

Got 6 out of the 7 categories ordered, and I also finished the 'Random Amusement' category intro.
(Anyone want to take a stabge at making the TRAILER category opener? See this thread:
https://www.kumoricon.org/forums/index.php?topic=16972.0)

Effects has only 5 entries in it.
Our total contest has 41 AMVs.
That's a little less than 1/3 of the total entries received.

I'll have some stats up about the number of local entries (OR / WA, and roughly 200 mile radius from PDX)
and this week I will be making the 10-second review clips for each category.

[Prinz Eugen]

I wasn't as chatty this year because we had a large
crew of judges and so (I am not a professional
short-order cook) I had lots of "orders" to cook
and check in on. Add a couple of spills and mishaps,
and I was a lot less able to comment on specific
AMV happenings.

Although I won't yet release the playlist until the con
(or possibly earlier depending on the poll results) I can
drop a few fun HINTS  - like this:

There are TWO waltz projects! One is an Austrian (J. Strauss Jr)
and the other is Russian (Tchaikovsky) and they are in the
SAME category - so we may have Cold War showdown:
NATO vs Warsaw Pact?!?

I will drop a few more hints on this thread, watch the "Now or Later poll,"
and then start a new thread discussing contest preparations...
 

[Prinz Eugen]

OK, based on poll results elsewhere, I have sent private notifications to all AMV editors whose works have been accepted into the contest.

Two editors who submitted FOUR works heach have had THREE of their AMVs selected! (Wow!!)

CONGRATUALTIONS to all!

Administrators may now lock this thread.

Thank you and see you at the contest!