DVX DVD wins Accolade award

[Barry_Green]

http://www.icexpo.com/dvx100/TrophyWinnersPg.gif

I told you guys I'd enter a bunch of contests and keep you posted as to how it went (can't find the old thread, so I'll start a new one).

I entered five contests, and I've heard back from two so far. We didn't win a Telly award, which is fine and helps reassure the notion that the Telly competition is not a trophy mill (plus, I already have one anyway!) :P

The Accolade awards, however, sent us notice that we won an "Award of Excellence". By certified mail, even. http://www.accoladecompetition.org

Now if I want the statue, I just have to fork over - get this - $175. Not *sure* it's a trophy mill (after all, places like Mandalay Sports, Hallmark, TLC, Target, the US Army and Washington State University entered this competition) but... $175?

Well, the way I see it, if I strike out in all the competitions except this one, then I'd say this one was a trophy mill. If I win all but the Telly, then... well, I don't know what that says. Either it says that they're all trophy mills except the Telly, or it says it's a pretty good DVD (but still not a Telly winner).

I'll keep you posted.

[thisiswells]

hay mens, i gett u fein trowfee, u givd me fitty dolla and u be vary heppy man

[pookie_old]

An award you have to pay for.....?

Never run into that one before.

[Jim Brennan]

You get the Kickassmuthaf*ckindvxuser award for best DVD Barry. What else do you need?


BTW, any of you photoshop geniuses wanna design that award?

[TC]

Maybe you've got enemies on the Telly committee, because it's a kick ass book.

[David Jimerson]

Hey, it's nice to be recognized!

Keep us posted on the others, G-man . . .

[HorseFilms]

Congrats, Barry! Good luck on the others.

[Barry_Green]

Okay, just picked up another one:

http://icexpo.com/dvx100/lgonew.gif

This one is from http://www.VideoAwards.com, called "The Videographer Awards". Whether it's a trophy mill or not -- well... here's what they say:
There were 2,293 entrants. About 14% qualified for the top award, the Award of Excellence (which is what the DVX DVD got). 17% qualified for the next level down, the Award of Distinction. Another 7% got Honorable Mention.

So not everybody won. However, 14+17+4 = 35, so 35% of entrants won something. That seems pretty high.

And they don't just tell everyone that they're top winners, because the names of the Award of Excellence winners are posted on their website, and there sure aren't 2,293 names listed...

Winners and Honorable Mentions get a free certificate (which is better than the Accolades, which didn't give out a free certificate). If you want a trophy you can order one (winners, but not honorable mentions) for $110.

So it seems reasonably legit, as compared to other contests (even the Telly awards make you pay for the statue, and they're definitely fully legit). However, we didn't qualify for the Tellys, yet won the top award at the VideoAwards, so that leads me to think that this particular contest is easier to win at.

For those keeping track, I entered five contests, and have heard back from three. Two wins, one loss, and still waiting to hear from the Aurora and Omni awards. If anyone's interested in any other contests, let me know about 'em and I'll consider entering! :D

[Barry_Green]

Okay, more info: the Omni Awards wrote back, and said that the DVD was judged and received a 7.3. The minimum score to qualify for an award is 7.5. Speaks well of the Omnis, I guess -- they didn't just say "here, you win, go buy a statue".

Also, it appears that VideoAwards.com is either an offshoot of, or successor to, The Communicator Awards -- my certificate came with a return address of "The Communicator Awards" on it. The Communicator website hasn't been updated in a while, so maybe they've just replaced it with the Videographer Awards.

Still no word from the Aurora awards yet...

[Barry_Green]

Okay, heard back from the Aurora awards...

http://icexpo.com/dvx100/aurora.jpg

The DVX DVD was awarded the "Platinum Best Of Show" award. It includes a free certificate, and of course you can buy the statue if you want to ($150 for this one).

So, that's five contests, five results. Three wins, two "losses." What conclusions can we draw? I'm not sure. You'd think if they were all "trophy mills" then the DVD would have won awards from every contest, but it didn't. Obviously the Omni and Telly awards didn't just hand out trophies to everyone. And neither did the others, because they post lists of winners on their site, and you know when you win and when you don't.

Telly, Aurora, and VideoAwards at least give you a free certificate (you don't have to buy anything to claim your "award"). All of them charge for statues (except the Emmy). The Emmy gives you a free certificate for nominations, and a free statue for wins. I don't remember about the Summit or the CINDY, I got those years ago and don't recall whether there were free certificates or not.

I keep getting entry forms in the mail for something called the Davey awards. Looks like an offshoot of the Tellys, but aimed at small companies (with annual billings below certain threshholds). "Davey" is a play off of David vs. Goliath, implying small-billing companies are the "Daveys" of the world. Don't know if that'll catch on or not...

[David Jimerson]

Congrats, Barry! Good work.

[Sumfun]

Telly, Aurora, and VideoAwards at least give you a free certificate (you don't have to buy anything to claim your "award"). All of them charge for statues (except the Emmy). The Emmy gives you a free certificate for nominations, and a free statue for wins.

The Emmys may not charge for the statues, but entrants pay a pretty hefty fee. It's $130 to enter a show in the Suncoast region, and probably similar fees in other regions. This is a regional Emmy, but run by the same people as the national award. They told me that about 20% of the entrants get nominated, and about half of the nominees win.

[Terry_Lasater]

Congratulations, BG! :)

[Barry_Green]

Okay, one more that I forgot about: the Aegis Awards.
http://aegisawards.com/common/2005_TROPHIES_BORDER.jpg

This contest awards "finalist" status to projects that score 80 to 84, and "winner" to those that score over 85; they said we scored a 92, qualifying as a "winner".

Story is pretty much the same as most of the others: a free certificate, and a $145 trophy if you want to order one.

[J.R. Hudson]

You the Masta Blasta Barry Green!

[Jarred Land]

jesus we gotta start giving out DVXuser trophies.. I will be nice and only charge you guys $50 :)

[BLUESPIDER]

Barry Green is my dad! :)

[J.R. Hudson]

I was already thinking DVXFEST Winners should be allowed to have special Laurel Leaves under their Sigs for winning a DVXFEST.

Of course the fact that I have won one is the only reason I care.

[Kirk Gillock]

Congratulations on another one, Barry.

We all know your DVD is worthy of every award under the Sun (maybe even a Noble Prize) but I'm starting to get a little suspicious of these names; The Accolade, The Omni, The Aurora, The Aegis, etc. They all sound like the same operation and the price of the actual award rubs me the wrong way. Sorry, but my Spidey Senses are tingling. Did you pay to apply?

I'm sure you've done your research, but how can you know for sure that these places are legit? Your video deserves REAL respect and REAL recognition. Just looking out for ya.

John - I second that! :) Or maybe just a special title under their screen names "DVXfest Winner". That would be SWEET!!!! It might help get more participation too. A title goes along way.

[Edalgo_Alvarez]

Congrats on the wins Barry, you gonna fork over the cash for those awards or what? I still havent seen your DVD yet, I guess its since I just rent the DVX but once I get my HVX I'm hoping you'll have an HVX DVD, which Im sure will win just as much as the DVX DVD :)

-Edalgo

[Barry_Green]

Sorry, but my Spidey Senses are tingling. Did you pay to apply?

I'm sure you've done your research, but how can you know for sure that these places are legit?
Ah, young Monk, that was actually the whole reason TO apply. This thread was in response to another one:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V3/showthread.php?t=4187&highlight=videoawards

Basically someone wrote in and said "are any of these contests legit? how do we know?"

So I volunteered to be the guinea pig. I tried to enter as many of 'em as I could find (and afford). I did some web surfing and found six contests that all had upcoming deadlines, and entered 'em all. It's not that I care about winning more trophies, I did it to find out how these places work and see what they offer, and to answer the question that was asked in the other thread.

Yes, they all have enry fees -- every one of 'em charges between $40 and $60 to enter. The bigger question was, do they just say "oh, you're fool enough to send us $40 to enter, so maybe you're fool enough to send us $150 -- we'll all tell you 'you're a winner' so we can rob you of more dough." That was kind of what we were exploring by entering all these crazy contests. And that's definitely how a couple of so-called "film festivals" operate -- scam operations through and through that grind you for more and more dough, and they'll accept *anything* as long as you send them the entry fee. Which just seems dishonest. So we wanted to see how the "awards" contests work.

And, like I said a couple of posts above, I'm not sure what conclusions can be drawn. I entered six total, and won four. So obviously my respect level for the two who just said "no" has gone up quite a bit -- the Telly and the Omni awards. As for the rest, all but one said "you win, so claim your free certificate". Which is okay, I guess -- they're not asking for anything more from me. One said "okay, you won, so now send us money for your certificate." That seems bogus.

If I'd won every one of 'em, and they all said "now buy your trophy", then I'd be able to confidently say "yeah, they're rip-off scams". But I don't think that's how it is. They tell you when you don't win, they give you free certificates when you do win (all but one, that is) and the trophy is optional (and QUITE expensive!). And they print the names of the winners on their websites, so you know they don't just tell everyone that they're winners.

Obviously these operations are moneymakers, but I don't think that they're out-and-out scams. I also don't believe any of these awards would carry any weight with one's peers (except the Telly, and they're one of the ones who said "no").

Entry fees are nothing new, I wouldn't look down on any contest for charging an entry fee, 'cause the Emmys charge $130 and the Clios charge $300, and those are two of the most respected contests around. But with those, you don't have to pay for your award when you win, which is a big difference from these other contests. Of course, the other contests say they do it this way to keep costs down (which may be true; their entry fees are 1/4 to 1/5 the bigger contests' fees!)

So I guess the final summary is: these awards are clearly not hard to win, but you do have to show some level of competence before they'll declare you a winner. They may make your company's lobby look more impressive, but they won't carry much weight with your peers. If you think your work's really good, and you can afford the entry fees, and you think having a brass or glass statue would be fun, go ahead and enter. I do think there's a little bit of legitimacy to them, in that they don't just make EVERYONE win. And it doesn't look bad in your marketing to your end customers either, to say that your product won this award and that award and the other award...

But they're not the trophies that will get your peers in the industry to stand up and take notice. For that you need to win the biggies: the Emmy, Tony, Oscar, Bafta, Clio, Grammy, and Golden Globe -- those are some of the biggies. These littler contests aren't, although the Telly seems to be somewhere inbetween.

So it was just for fun, and to see how the contests respond, and to see if any of them are blatant "trophy mills" who'll tell anyone with a checkbook "hey, you're a winner".

[Barry_Green]

you gonna fork over the cash for those awards or what?
Depends on the future that I take my business in. I'm looking to relocate now, and I'm not necessarily really interested in setting up another office with clients walking through the front door, but I'm talking with some potential partners who may want to do exactly that. If we go that direction, I'll probably want as many shiny glass & brass trophies as I can get. But if I keep going the way I'm going, there's not much reason to fork out ... um, what is it, $600? Yeesh.


my HVX I'm hoping you'll have an HVX DVD, which Im sure will win just as much as the DVX DVD
There will definitely be an HVX Book/DVD package! :thumbsup:

[theos]

Congrats Barry! Your the Man!

[ttt]

Congrats Barry!