Should we talk about the films?

I think I just saw a top contender... and I'm dying to know what the hell is up with it... it's got every element plus 100% of the production qualities are perfect... and I'm jealous of the perfect dialog that sounds like it MUST be ADR but everybody did as good a job as professional actors.

Now I'm bummed. This was the moment I was anticipating... Now I gotta' keep watching to see if anything else can touch it. Fudge.
 
TheYankee said:
I agree with Barry in that if we had 79 threads there would be 76 dead threads and three with active discussions.

I think the most balanced system would mostly likely be an alpha split, but instead of Alpha in the first post just list the 10 films that will be discussed in that thread. It is kind of like an individual discussion but still gets that personalized attention. This way you have eight threads going on (fits on one page) and still is managable and readable.

One thread would be a nightmare. Having 10 per thread, well that makes it doable, plus anyone can take an hour out of there day, grind through 10 films and actively partake in the discussion in that thread. Would be fun.
Click to expand...

best idea so far, as far as managability (if that isn't a real word, well...it is now!).
we like it. :laugh:
 
Ok, I'm making an executive decision. No solution is ideal, but I have to go with something that's workable. We'll have ONE main thread for comments since it will allow people to post their comments in one easy block. Plus, we've had insanely long threads before and they actually work pretty well.

In addition, filmmakers or viewers are free to create ONE specific thread per film to explore that film in depth. BUT everyone should post all their reviews in the main thread. If there is an existing thread for a film and you create a second--I will not be happy. Baal has spoken.
 
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How to conduct a fair voting system across 80 submissions?

Man, that's a tough one. Triggerstreet really struggled with this problem, and eventually evolved a complex system of checks and balances to fairly weigh entries as they were shown.

We aren't anywhere near that scale, although I'm sure Barry and Jarred feel like we're there already.

First of all, who woulda thunk that we'd actually get 79 entries for this festival?! That's a maximum of a little over 6.5 hours of viewing time, if you assume each clip takes 5 minutes to view. Plus, there's the overhead of working your way through the download process for each film. This is a not insignificant commitment for voting.

Then there's the delivery of these. We're looking at about 2.3 gigabytes of data for all these submissions. Again, not something you want to tackle if you've got dialup access. So if 100 people want to see these clips, and download them ONCE, we are staring down the barrel of 230 gigabytes of bandwidth consumed on a server. Since most of us seem to find the sweetspot between monthly cost and expected bandwidth consuption to be 50-60 gigs, extraordinary measures have to be taken to host these submissions, as we've just learned.

Then it comes down to the dynamics of voting. I think all of us really want a meritocracy: that is, the 'best' film wins. Best is subjective, but I think we as a community can gravitate towards what is a 'good' clip and what isn't without a lot of argument about it.

What I see many of you DON'T want is a situation where some personality sways everyone to vote highly for a particular entry, merely because they are pursuasive.

So, how to arbitrate a fair voting system? The short answer is that it would take some programming. Jarred and Barry have done a great job in a very short period of time in trying to anticipate how to best feed videos ina fashion which is fair and expeditious. Too bad that Murphy owns these kinds of situations!

I think that if we're willing to plan ahead and get some programming done, here's how we should run similar polls in the future:

1) Judges must have a minimum number of posts, thus showing that they contribute at least minimally

2) The weight of your vote is proportional to how many of the total number of submissions you vote for; in other words, if you view 90% of the submissions, your vote should only carry 90% of its weight as compared to someone who viewed all the entries.

3) Maybe you download all submissions in a single file, and work through a form that records your vote for each entry, ONCE. Comments, which will not be seen by anyone else, can be submitted at the time you vote for that entry.

4) Collective voting results will not be available until the end of voting.

5) Judges may edit their previous votes, based on some entry that totally sets a new high or low bar. Thus, voting is inherently a comparative process.

We can set these kinds of controls up, but we need to plan ahead. If we go with a SciFi theme, I'd imagine we'd have strong particpation again. Which is a Good Thing. That was the plan all along! This is our own Sundance Festival, without the suckiness that Sundance has become.
 
I agree with all that. If you can set voting up like that there would be no question that it's fair.

I still think that in most of these contests there will be a small handful of entries where it's obvious to everybody (but the self-dillusional) who did the best job*.

*see my previous post.
 
Speedbump, that was a pretty good post. Personally I am under the opinion that regardless of popularity the best film will win. I think as a community that is supportive rather than cut throat of one another there will not be a steamrolling of one film over another and people will honestly vote for the best films and rank them accordingly.

For myself, and I am speaking only for me personally here, I am more interested in the comments section of this process. I think we all have areas that we recognize that would have made our films better, and if suggestions are brought up in a constructive manner then everyone, regardless of whether you win a prize, will take away something in becoming a better filmmaker.
 
Well said. Ultimately, the most important part of DVXFest is making a film and giving and receiving critiques. It's about getting excited about filmmaking and making it happen and getting other filmmakers excited about the process. This is a festival, so it's about getting your work out there for others to watch.
 
These contests are a self-inflicted crash course in how to organize and produce a film... and during the process our desire to master new challenges (and impress our peers) only makes us better prepared for the next contest as well as any other video project we choose to take on.

I imagine that after somebody competes in a few of these contests they would be so far ahead (in skill) of where they would have been... that it's worth the cost of production for that alone.

The worst (or best) part is that once you see your effort in context with other (and presumably some better) films you will raise your personal standards and push yourself that much farther next time.

How many people know some filmmaker locally that thinks they're on the verge of going Hollywood... just because they stay focused on a tiny little circle of people who take turns praising each other? (Do we have a raised hand smiley?)

These contests are so great because it's a civilized way to take a realistic look at your own abilities and what your strengths and weaknesses are.

Okay... now that THAT is outta' my system... I want to re-throw down the guantlet for sci-fi...
 
Very well said, Matt.

I think people are afraid to start discussing films, though. lol That thread has been up for like an hour and no one has touched it.

I'm thinking of just giving my reviews in a big long list

Maybe one of us could come up with like a "form" that we could fill out for each film.

Production quality, sound qual, lighting, cinematography... etc, Our favorite things about the film, Critiques, How we can improve... I dunno. Just a thought to keep it a bit more organized, and more fulfilling for the filmmaker.

It's better than just saying "It was good. I liked it a lot"

I can't afford to start writing reviews tonight, but tomorrow evening when I have some time, I'll go down the list of my notebook and write reviews. Hopefully others will do the same.
 
Yes, I've got a big list of thoughts going, and I'm not going to post them until they're a bit more organized and helpful.

And thanks for creating those threads!!! I promise I'll be posting in all or most of them.
 
Jeez... how can you guys have seen that many films already? I thought I had really fast internet but between downloading and normal life I've only been able to take in around 20 entries so far.

I don't think I'll be ready to comment for a week.

EDIT: Ahh, I see... here's the tip kids... stay up way too late and skip work tomorrow... the movies download fast as heck in the middle of the night... wait a minute... that's taking my focus off zombie movies... hmm. It may still take a week afterall.:undecided
 
i know i just posted the link but heres a post im posting in a few places to get the word out.


Hey everyone, I started a subforum section for individual movie comment and discussion, Please go there and Start your own movies thread,

Enter Only the Title in the Title part, and then whatever you want in the first post like your bio or logline or whatever.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V3/forumdisplay.php?f=64
 
If you want a better quicktime player (7 is kinda crappy) try VLC (VideoLAN). It's free and it plays mp4 h.263 with no issues. Plus, you won't have to buy a new QT key right away, just to play some damn movies without that annoying register banner.
 
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