Apple's Insomnia Contest

MikeQuill said:
"Also there's a short out there with real footage from the inside of a helicopter, but I can't find it."

LOL
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That sounded weird. I heard about the short through someone else. We're talking about original footage, so if it fits into a narrative some of us are fricked.
 
yeah, clicking on links with the condition=X at the end of the URL submits a vote automatically. Apple really didn't put ANY thought into this... I don't even care about the competition anymore. It's just FUBAR...
 
SeanEmer said:
yeah, clicking on links with the condition=X at the end of the URL submits a vote automatically. Apple really didn't put ANY thought into this... I don't even care about the competition anymore. It's just FUBAR...
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My E-mail to the Insomnia Contact (whoever this is). It will probably go ignored, but I think many of you would agree with the letter.

Hello,

I am a concerned participant of the Insomnia Film Festival. I had the opportunity to talk with 20 friends (I had to take numbers given the following) at a birthday party and 19 out of 20 of them were not able to vote on my short, regardless of whether or not they had an Apple ID to begin with.

In addition to this, apparently a condition=X (where x equals a number) add-on to an http:// address automatically votes for a movie, which I understand to be an exploit.

I'm suggesting you scrap the current system, e-mail participants, take a month to rethink how these movies are viewed, and relaunch the website, for I'm sure all of us who poured their time and talent into this competition would gladly wait a month for a fair competition, which will not be decided by Facebook or Myspace presence.

I know that you've received many e-mails on this already, but you should heed the criticism of participants for two reasons. First, this website doesn't exude the quality of work that we expect from Apple. Second, this fiasco will affect the future success of the Insomnia Film Festival.

Clearly, Apple underestimated web traffic, and even the number of entries, although they knew several thousand teams were competing. Apple has admitted mistakes in the past, and that is why we trust the company. If this "competition" continues as is, without Apple admitting their faults, I speak for myself when I say the consumer trust is gone and cannot be replaced (considering the amount of work and time put into this festival), but rest assured, I'm not alone in saying that.

Please forward to the appropriate party, if necessary, but do not let this e-mail slip through the cracks, because I believe the company underestimates the amount of dissatisfaction growing in filmmaking communities, and in turn, this generates negative publicity.

Thank you for your time,
x______
 
Very thorough and well worded. I've emailed Apple as well, but I just don't know if this problem will be remedied. =(
 
Karl151k said:
Very thorough and well worded. I've emailed Apple as well, but I just don't know if this problem will be remedied. =(
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Adding condition=X (where x equals a number) to an address does not
register a vote for a movie. It is used in the internal mechanism of
the site to signal certain changes in display. The process of
actually recording the vote requires the submission of the form from
the site and several checks made for legitimacy to the votes.

Awesome. We have an answer on that one. I'm working with them to see if they can provide troubleshooting advice on logging in and registering.
 
Well that's good to know! Great letter, btw... I'm going to send a similar one. Hopefully if enough of us complain they'll do something about it.
 
Sbryan,
You're actually talking with apple? Maybe you can give me some tips on how to contact them.
I've e-mailed them several times with a legitimate concern: they haven't even POSTED my video, despite sending me an email saying they have. I think it would increase my chance of winning to actually have my video in the gallery...
yeah this is ridiculous, and I wouldn't even really care if I didn't believe our team produced a pretty good contender and there's close to $20k worth of prize ready to be awarded.
 
timmorgan said:
Sbryan,
You're actually talking with apple? Maybe you can give me some tips on how to contact them.
I've e-mailed them several times with a legitimate concern: they haven't even POSTED my video, despite sending me an email saying they have. I think it would increase my chance of winning to actually have my video in the gallery...
yeah this is ridiculous, and I wouldn't even really care if I didn't believe our team produced a pretty good contender and there's close to $20k worth of prize ready to be awarded.
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All,

insomniafilm@apple.com is the inbox for the festival. The first e-mail, which I posted, was responded to in under ten minutes(!), which means that either I talked the right language or they have moved support staff to cover the Festival. Either way, it's a good thing.

Tim, have you shared a link to your video yet? Send me a youtube or an FTP link. I'll watch it and campaign for your cause. You submitted it on time and followed their compression guidelines and it still wasn't posted? Is anyone else in the same boat?

We have enough members... If we all help out we could probably get the videos posted.

EDIT: The indentity of the person who responded was not revealed, so if you were able to phone them, you wouldn't know who to talk to.

I'll make a few calls and let you know if I can reach the support staff.
 
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Thanks for you hard work sbryan.
I'll try sending apple another email.
Here is the youtube link to my video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Llx8CRgMdb8
Yeah i followed all the guidelines and it mysteriously cannot be found. I've seen at least one other person on this thread that "is in the same boat" (I used that exact phrase when responding to his post)
Thanks again!
 
Tim,

I believe your best shot will be to work through Apple's Corporate Directory accesible using 1-408-974-2042 Option 0. You'll speak to an operator. First, ask for support on the Insomnia Film Festival. I'm guessing they can't help you there.

Then ask for assistance on their website, I'm sure they have IT support professionals within the company directory.

Hope that helps.
 
Oh no... dude I've been looking for your video on the site... I really liked "Repeat Off."
We need to get that up there somehow, I think it's a beautiful film!
 
Well I talked to Apple, and they pretty much said, "File a complaint in feedback, and we'll try and see what we can do, but its out of control."
So thats how it sits.
 
Tim, I would love to see a hi-res version of Repeat Off...
Do you have web hosting?
If not, PM me and I'll give you my info so you can FTP it to me and I'll host a Hi-res .MOV file for you, if you want.
 
Well, fellow participants, still no luck getting my video to show up in the gallery, despite numerous phone calls and emails. It looks like our entry is lost in the database somewhere.
 
that sucks tim. is there any reason you can think of why your film didnt make it up, like it being submitted late, apple thinking you cheated or somthing like that?

Mike
 
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