Kumoricon 2006 AMV Contest rules, TEMPORARY Page is UP!!!

[Geirr]

OK gang, HERE we go AGAIN!

http://www.ados.net/~guy1656/KumoriCon/K2006-AMV.htm

Please note that my ISP changed from ".com" to "net" for e-mail responses.

Logging in is really a pain for me, so I will be scanning the comments remotely from time to ime, but I will be posting a WHOLE LOT LESS. But I'm still here and still greatly enthusiastic about running next year's AMV Contest and Show, too! (And I have already collected several FUN works for the Show!)

Feel free to e-mail me any time, just remember it's  "net"  now instead of ".com."

Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha, HEY!

- G

[Eternal Yamcha]

I am going to e-mail you the questions I have in this post, but I also want to make them public, just in case someone else has the same questions. I know that this is only a beta form of the AMV rules page, but I would REALLY like to get some things clarified, unless you don't know them.

1. Is the AMV contest staff restricted? I am planning on being apart of staff this year (whether I will be one, or not, has yet to be determined) and would like to know that, if I am staff, that I still will be able to submit AMVs for the contest... Assuming I have mine ready by then.

2. Also, I need something clarified. Under section E (Number of Entries per Contestant) rule d, it says that only ONE AMV of ANY series will be chosen for each category. Does that mean, for example (in my case) that I want to submit an Neon Genesis Evangelion AMV under the drama/romance category and that there is an Neon Genesis Evangelion video that was already chosen for the category, that my entry will not be put in? I really hope not...

I think that's it for now, I'll probably send the email later today or something. Thanks in advance!

[Geirr]

1. Is the AMV contest staff restricted?

I am going to the meeting today, and I will put that question to a vote.
At the very least, I will exclude MYSELF and also exclude the judges' panel from submitting.

(BTW - I am looking for new judges - folks can contact me off-list: guy1656 [at] ados [dot] net)

2. Also, I need something clarified. Under section E - Does that mean, for example  that I want to submit an Neon Genesis Evangelion AMV under the drama/romance category and that there is an Neon Genesis Evangelion video that was already chosen for the category, that my entry will not be put in? I really hope not ...

No, what it means is THIS: As an example, let's say Drama/Romance  receives NINE entries, and the judges want to select the top FIVE. (We won't worry about how the max. number of entries per category is determined here; this is just an EXAMPLE.)

Of the nine, let's say you are a prodigious AMV producer and  you submitted THREE - two are Eva and the other uses 'Speed Grapher.' Let's also say that one other contestant submits a Drama/Romance work set to 'Eva.'

The judges will pick THE BEST ONE of those three 'Eva' Drama/Romance works to run. If your 'Speed Grapher' work is also very good, then they could pick that and you would have TWO submissions running in Drama/Romance. (Whoo-hoo!) But there would be only ONE 'Eva' vid in any one category.

An exception is 'Various' or crossover works; if one of those has Knives playing Texas Hold-em against Spike, Gendo, Negotiator Yugo, and Kalinin ,then that work will -NOT- punch out Trigun, Bebop, Eva, Yugo, and FMP for the REST of that category.

What I don't get is your phrase 'already chosen for the category.' All submissions are reviewed as a single screening event, so no one entry can be "ahead" of any other entry. I also randomize the order of showing the entries within each category for the pre-screening..

How the judges might pick one 'Eva' vid over another is entirely their deal. In the past, they tend to first assess technical factos such as clear audio/video, compression size appropriate to bitrate, consistent frame sizes (as in, not bouncing from 16:9 to 4:3 and back) and they have seen hundreds if not 100's of AMVs, so they tend to like works with at aleast a little SOMETHING that makes it stand out. However you pull that off.

- GOOD LUCK!

[Eternal Yamcha]

Well, unfortunately I couldn't make it to the staff meeting today due to previously made priorities. So what's the word about the AMV contest being staff restricted or not?

What I don't get is your phrase 'already chosen for the category.' All submissions are reviewed as a single screening event, so no one entry can be "ahead" of any other entry. I also randomize the order of showing the entries within each category for the pre-screening..

I had no idea what I was thinking. I didn't understand what the whole situation was when it came to choosing AMVs to air in the contest. Thanks for informing me.

And curse me and my whole "I only know ONE Anime series enough to make AMVs too" philosophy. I knew it would've backstabbed me one day.

[Geirr]

So what's the word about the AMV contest being staff restricted or not?

Their last known comments:
1. It's proper for the coordinator (that's me) and the judges' panel to disclude my/their own works.
2. Staff in other positions UNRELATED to AMV events or programming should be OK to submit, ESPECIALLY because all but one winner are chosen by THE GANG.

What looks bad is in a lottery type event, if the organizers participate and soemof them win, the audience starts grumbling about 'a fix,'  or 'hanging chads,' etc. But if it's the audience who chooses what they like, they might not be so put off to find out that the work THEY LIKED BEST was created by a staff member.

That still leaves the one sticky spot - the Judges' Choice. Technically it might be questionable if the Judges pick a staff-created entry. (Example of typical whiny-whine: "THEY only chose it because of they LIKE the person who made it; MINE got passed over even though it is a superiour work... Ha-rumpf!")

Anyways, exec/staff are still depating on [2] and when -I- hear a final word one way or another I'll let you know. If they don't make a decision known to me, I'd be inclined to let ANYONE except [1] participate, and just watch how the crowd picks what they like...

Lastly I -still- don't like logging in in order to post, so I am doing so A LOT less actively.

- G

[Hige]

Man that sucks for me  My AMV song runs for 5:45 Seconds and I'm only entering one. . .Ahhh man the AMV  is to long!!!!!!

[Krillin The Villin]

:shock: that sucks.... no anime polka 2005 then, runs 5:05.

interesting rules though, got everything to a T so there isnt any Drama from th spectators and/or contestants.

ive judged like 5 tournys... but there was always some problem.

Anyways Noob here, saw my name was on here from a search so i thought id join fer fun

[ambergen87]

@Krillin The Villin

I love Anime polka 2005! Keep up the good work.

I have ton of ideas in my head. Got to go work. Hopefully they will be good. I've never done one before.

[Sinaj]

Regarding the Japanese catagory, I have a question that's been bugging me...

Does the song have to be a japanese artist singing in japanese, or can it be a japanese artist making an attempt at singing in english, or mixing english and japanese singing in the same song?

[Geirr]

Regarding the Japanese catagory, I have a question that's been bugging me...

{grumble, grumble mandatory logins, grumble, grumble...}

Does the song have to be a japanese artist singing in japanese, or can it be a japanese artist making an attempt at singing in english, or mixing english and japanese singing in the same song?

Let's look at the definition:

2. JAPANESE MUSIC:
The style of this AMV is unrestricted except that the music source must fit any of these conditions:
a. It is composed by a Japanese person or group,
b. It is played by a Japanese band, or
c. The music is generally recognized as a traditional Japanese melody.

What you are suggesting seems to fit squarely in definition 'b' above, so you're OK. Another example of 'b' similar to what you're describing would be Puffy Ami Yumi singing the opening theme to 'Teen Titans.'** They are a Japanese band singing English, but with a charming Japanese accent. (Ka-wa-iiii!)

If you REALLY want to split hairs on this definition, then as it is written (and we have a few days left for comment period / discussion) then director Yo Yo Ma conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra iplayting the Faure Requiem* does NOT count, but if he conducts the Sapporo Symphony in the same piece it WOULD count (they would count as a Japanese band.) If Zubin Mehta conducts the Cleveland Symphiny in a medley on 'Sakura, Sakura,' then that too would count as 'c.'

Did this help?

Next:

that sucks.... no anime polka 2005 then, runs 5:05

May I suggest an audio editor program? I am working on a spoof piece to 'The Jetsons" original OP, and I trimmed it down from 2:06 or so to just about 1 minute even. Look for sections where "the music comes around again," so to speak, and often you can surgically slice out verse #3 or #4, or the drum solo in the middle, the instrumental bridge section, etc.

* Gawd, what a haunting piece, and DEFINITELY a smackdown when compared to Verdi. (IMHO; YMMV.)

**NOTE: 'Teen Titans' as a video source does NOT count as Anime.

- G

[Sinaj]

Me again! ^.^

2. JAPANESE MUSIC:
The style of this AMV is unrestricted except that the music source must fit any of these conditions:
a. It is composed by a Japanese person or group,
b. It is played by a Japanese band, or
c. The music is generally recognized as a traditional Japanese melody.

So a colaboration (sp?) between japanese artists and european artist wouldn't count even if the song is 90% sung in Japanese?

[Geirr]

Me again! ^.^

2. JAPANESE MUSIC:
The style of this AMV is unrestricted except that the music source must fit any of these conditions:
a. It is composed by a Japanese person or group,
b. It is played by a Japanese band, or
c. The music is generally recognized as a traditional Japanese melody.

So a collaboration between japanese artists and european artist wouldn't count even if the song is 90% sung in Japanese?

(Exhaspirated sigh. ^.^ ) I have written a category definition, and at the time we were discussing this, people seemed interested in taking a shot at it. I think it's a unique category for an AMV contest, and most of all, I hope that the works which come in entertain the audience. Unfortunately I am imperfect and the definition boundary in this case is diffuse. It is like the fractal Mandelbrot set:
http://www.ados.net/~guy1656/KumoriCon/mandelbrot.jpg
The fun thing about fractals is the more you zoom in, the more complicated the boundary gets.

There are levels below splitting hairs which get into splitting alpha-keratin proteins in hair, then splitting ionic and covalent bonds in specific organic functional groups in the protein, and eventually trying to discuss spins and quanta of quarks. We really don't need to go there.

At this point, with the contest already launched, it is like being in an exam, and an exam candidate has a question. The proctor comes over, but in order to be fair ot all the other candidates, the exam experience must be as uniform as possible. So unless there is a glaring error in the way the question is written, the proctor is usually instructed to say little more than "Use your best judgement."

The judges will make their best and impartial decisions about what -DOES- or -DOES NOT- work for a category called "Japanese Music." I have offered them (and the creator candidates) the three guidelines above. Beyond that, the fairest advice I can give is "Use your best judgement."

I might offer the following hint though: Look at the fractal picture as an example, then think of two sets of music, some which -IS- and other music which -IS NOT- Japanese in your mind. Then try to pick something FAR AWAY from that diffuse, complicated boundary.

- G

(Now back to MY AMV project!)

[the_wind_the_sea]

Does anyone know where I can get a converter so I can change my AMVs from WMV and RM format to MPEG or AVI?

[Pie Row Maniac]

http://www.ados.net/~guy1656/KumoriCon/K2006-AMV.htm

LEARN HOW TO USE CSS, YOU BUM

Beware the bold new times roman

[Geirr]

LEARN HOW TO USE CSS, YOU BUM
Beware the bold new times roman

OK, so I went HERE to learn about style sheets:

http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_intro.asp

and they write: "As the two major browsers - Netscape and Internet Explorer - continued to add new HTML tags and attributes (like the <font> tag and the color attribute) to the original HTML specification, it became more and more difficult to create Web sites where the content of HTML documents was clearly separated from the document's presentation layout.

To solve this problem, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) - the non profit, standard setting consortium, responsible for standardizing HTML - created STYLES in addition to HTML 4.0."

Three comments:

1) "To solve this problem... [of separating the content of HTML documents from the document's presentation layout]" and so my first question is: for a one-page document with no frames or Java or other extraneous crud, WHY is that a problem?

2) HTML 4.0 ?!??! Who needs it? My darling wife taught me to write HTML in Notepad, and that's good enough for me. Thanks for pointing out CSS to me, but I prefer K-I-SS, and see elegance in getting things done with the smallest possible file sizes and as few extraneous bells or whistles as possible.

3) Apollo rockets went to the moon and back on 6K of memory, loaded with about 4K of programming. This includes real-time controllers for 7.5 million lbf** of thrust from those Saturn engines. That was heck of a lot of kerosene.

( 'lbf' is pounds of FORCE, so you can distinguish it from 'lbm' for pounds MASS.)

Anyways - thanks again for the tip. I switched it to sans-serif for you (courier looked terrible,) and I've also added the link to the submission form. Watch for the new subject thread.

- G

[Pie Row Maniac]

Page looks cleaner. Good job Guy.

In all honesty, I said that as a half-joke

[Geirr]

Does anyone know where I can get a converter so I can change my AMVs from WMV and RM format to MPEG or AVI?

This took a little poking & prodding, but there is an accomplished AMV maker on[ amv].org who offered to help. (I asked permission to post his e-mail here.)

It's mexicanjunion  -- @ -- hotmail.com  (remove the spaces)

He also has a website:   http://www.randomdestination.com

- G

[Pie Row Maniac]

Does anyone know where I can get a converter so I can change my AMVs from WMV and RM format to MPEG or AVI?

This took a little poking & prodding, but there is an accomplished AMV maker on[ amv].org who offered to help. (I asked permission to post his e-mail here.)

It's mexicanjunion  -- @ -- hotmail.com  (remove the spaces)

He also has a website:   http://www.randomdestination.com

- G

I think you mean mexicanjunior