Quest Fest 2009 - Viewing is now OPEN

[Larry Rutledge]

Welcome to the DVXuser.com Quest Fest 2009
The time has finally come to enjoy the fruits of your labor over the past several months. As always, we have an interesting mix of films for this fest and it's been an interesting time previewing all your work. Regardless of how the voting turns out, we all appreciate the huge amount of work it takes to complete and submit a film -- all of you have our admiration and respect.

HOW TO VIEW
http://www.dvxfest.com/questfest

• Anyone can view the films. You do not need to be a dvxuser member, nor be logged into DVXFest.com to view the films. This obviously makes sense now that we have opened up outside promotion. So, share the link around once the films go live, etc.
  
• If you are eligible to rate the films (a submitting filmmaker, or a dvxuser member with 50 or more posts) then you will need to log on to dvxfest.com using your dvxuser member name and password. If you have never logged in to dvxfest before in this manner, the first time may take several moments to authenticate and verify. However, after this is done, all subsequent log ins will be instantaneous.

VOTING/RATING INFORMATION AND GUIDELINES:

There will be two rounds of voting. We will allow ample time for each round of voting, so please do not panic, and we will notify everyone well enough in advance of the impending deadline to rate the films for each round.

Generally when the ratings begin to trail off in the first round, we will set a date and let everyone know what that deadline is.

After the first round of rating has concluded, we will take a brief recess to tally, and verify the results as well as search for any kind of discrepancies in the ratings.

We will then see where the clear breaking line is for the top films. We will announce the top 7 or 8 or 10 or 12 (whatever that number may be) to the public and will commence a 2nd round of rating. A lot of folks often have questions about this process, and we are happy to try to elaborate further at some other time. Just rest assured, that (while not perfect) the system works very well like this and the 2nd round is a necessity.

The reason why we do not have a set TOP 8 for example is b/c number 9 might only be a few hundredth's of a point behind 8th, and it would hardly seem fair to exclude them. So, we find the place where the break becomes more apparent and the films above that clear break will be the finalist fims.

All votes from the first round are "carried over" to the 2nd round. You do NOT get to re-rate. The purpose of the 2nd round is to equalize the number of votes across the films as much as possible, and to bring in as many new voters as possible. Those eligible voters who may be less active in the fests, but would love to watch 8 or 10 films and would gladly rate each one on a scale of 1 to 10 as they go along.

You MAY change your rating for the films during that round in which the rating was cast. However, once that round ends, your ratings are locked and may not be changed. During the 2nd round you may only rate films that you may not have previously rated.

The system really does work very well on the whole. A lot of thought went into it, and there is more behind the scenes that obviously we keep to ourselves to maintain the integrity of the system. The system is very good at providing more accurate average ratings of the films (and by indirect consequence the final rankings of each film for the competitive aspect of the process). The system also does a very good job at minimizing the impact of any potential shadiness, as well as making it more easily identifiable and dealt with.

We are always trying to improve every aspect of the fests, and we encourage appropriate feedback at the right place and the right time.


TROUBLESHOOTING
I have made significant code changes to the authentication module since the last fest and believe that the issues have been resolved. So you should be able to log into the viewing/rating page using your current dvxuser.com username/password to gain access.

If you have any problems connecting, please PM me (Larry R) and I'll deal with it as quick as I can.


Special Thanks
A special thanks, as always, to our sponsors.


Thanks to our usual gang of mirror providers, we currently have 5 mirrors running with 2 additional coming online shortly. This consistently makes for a smooth download process during the mad rush when the viewing begins.



Next Fest
The next fest will be announced at the end of the 2nd Annual Screening coming up at the end of the month.


As always, if you have any questions, problems, issues, needs ... please feel free to contact one of the mods and we will address it as quickly as possible.

[ramsaur]

Awesome! Can't wait too see all the films! Download first batch now.

[Shawn Philip Nelson]

Tarts Fools and GMen does not work, I downloaded it twice and get this message from QT "The movie could not be opened. An invalid sample description was found in the movie." Also it's an MP4, why isn't it a MOV like everything else?

[Tom Shortridge]

Ahh, now to blow up the server with downloads...

[Tom Shortridge]

P.S. Larry, thanks for your hard work! Only thing, might want to change "Loss Fest" in your first line to "Quest Fest" ;)

[Larry Rutledge]

Tarts Fools and GMen does not work, I downloaded it twice and get this message from QT "The movie could not be opened. An invalid sample description was found in the movie." Also it's an MP4, why isn't it a MOV like everything else?

Checking it again, but it played fine when I checked it earlier today.

Some of the entries are MOV some are MP4, it has to do with the container created by the encoder used. Both are still h.264. Been that way in every fest.

P.S. Larry, thanks for your hard work! Only thing, might want to change "Loss Fest" in your first line to "Quest Fest" ;)

Thanks ... too quick on the Submit button there. Forgot to do one last copy/paste pass.

All fixed now.

[ramsaur]

Tarts Fools and GMen does not work, I downloaded it twice and get this message from QT "The movie could not be opened. An invalid sample description was found in the movie." Also it's an MP4, why isn't it a MOV like everything else?

Try it in VLC

[Derrick_SA]

I hope round 1 lasts till atleast the end of next weekend, it's gonna be a busy week, so not to much time to watch all the entries.

At least it's not 60 movies this time, he he.

Man, this is gonna be great!

- Derrick

[Larry Rutledge]

shawneous - I just pulled it down from two of the mirrors and both played fine in quicktime. Make sure you have the latest version of QT, or as ramsaur suggested use the VLC player

If anyone else has a problem with this film, let me know.

[Derrick_SA]

(Tarts Fools and GMen) Doesn't play in Quicktime on PC, but VLC plays it back fine.

- Derrick