The Unofficial "Suggestions to make DVXuser fests bigger and better" thread.

Ben Sliker

Ben Sliker

Pain In The Ass 2.0
The Unofficial "Suggestions to make DVXuser fests bigger and better" thread.

Ok, We all love our DVXuser fests, and I think the mods have done a good job of gradually growing the fests in popularity. Here's a chance to sound off on what you think would be a good idea to make them bigger, better, more prestigious, etc. But let me say right now ... THIS IS NOT A PLACE TO DISCUSS THE VOTING SYSTEM. ALL POSTS ABOUT THE VOTING SYSTEM WILL (HOPEFULLY) BE DELETED BY A MODERATOR.


Here's a few thoughts I've gathered -

1. Outside promotion - I feel the DVXuser fests still live in kind of a "bubble" on the internet, i think outside promotion by the individual filmmakers is needed to make this thing blow up.

2. Annual Physical Screening, a "Best of" show - Take the top 3 films from the past 3-4 fests and have a big screening in LA like we did for timefest. PLAN/SCHEDULE FAR AHEAD - so that people not close to LA have a better chance of making it. Also, vote/choose one of those films to receive 1 big prize that's not related to specific fest - DVXuser's Best Film of 2008. Also make sure to have this fest registered or whatever so participating filmmakers can get on IMDB and the like.

3. Faster/More Efficient way of viewing the films and in higher resolution. I'm talking streaming here probably. Or even use the embed video tool. Have your film embedded in your thread for people to watch and then they can immediately comment. (If quality is an issue here, also offer the connoisseurs a high quality download version) Also easier for an outsider to come in and participate if they don't have to download 50+ films at 50 MB a piece. I think this is a huge bottleneck to the advancement of the fests.


Let me know what you think!
 
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I agree with all of these points.

Especially a way of FASTER STREAMING VIEWING. Something like Vimeo for example; full screen, wonderful resolution and instantly viewable. Forget about Downloading. That is archaic and time consuming.

I also think Outside Promotion would help not only the filmmakers, but the site itself. I still don't think previewing the films is a good thing, but maybe being allowed to have a :30 TRAILER and then pointing it too DVXUSER

These could be on the filmmakers MySpace and Facebook pages for example.

VIMEO has the capability of having Channels Password protected by the way.
 
I don't think allowing trailers is a good idea - it will only encourage inexperienced filmmakers to waste their time on trailers instead of focusing on the final short. Plus, if thread pimping is a debated issue, imagine what trailers would do!

I do think streaming would improve the fest. Vimeo is definitely a great example. But downloading is still an acceptable method, in my opinion. I do have one complaint: currently we have an option of downloading individual files or downloading a zip with several of them - with a warning that some of the entries may have been updated and the zipped files may not reflect the updates. This is a really bad idea - I've never downloaded the zipped files because I want to make sure I view the latest and greatest! Zipped files is definitely the way to go, but the mods need to make sure they contain the most up to date version of each film.
 
I created a DVXUSER Twilightfest channel on Vimeo before the fest even started. I was told not to post my film until after the fest was over. If anyone wants to post their film that didn't make the final seven, go for it. It would be cool to have the films easily accessible through Vimeo. I second the streaming idea for the next fest. When I didn't have a film in the other fests, I was usually too lazy to download and view all the movies. If they were all streamed, I'd have watched them all.

Here's the page:

http://www.vimeo.com/channel22202
 
1. I´m happy with the download situtaion. I watch many film 3-4 times, jump back and forth or look 10 times the same 20 seconds. It´s faster and easyer if the file is on your local drive.
Most straming applications don´t like that stuff. Size is O.K., full HD download as an option.

2. Outside promotion and permission to show trailers would be great.

3. Physical screening of the top 10 also.

4. IMDB!

5. I may get some flak for that, but I would prefer only 1 fest a year.
For some of us it would be much easyer to collect budget, help, time and forces for one project.

my ct2 Frank
 
I definitely like the idea of outside promotion and also streaming instead of download.

I think trailers would hurt the overall festival though. I think that's been discussed a lot before so I'll just say that I still don't think trailers would be a good thing.
 
No promises.

Think of this as a Red announcement*
*expect it to change you won't be disappointed.

But we are looking into a system that would allow every film to be embedded in it's own thread.
So you could view and comment all in the thread.

But there are technical, time, and logistical issues to overcome. So we may hit a brick wall and it may not be next fest or the next one after that or the next one. But we'd like to do it.

Issues include managing the upload process - having it be open to the filmmakers, but once they've uploaded they shouldn't be able to swap their files out etc. So it has to be a drop box situation.

It will have to be partnered with someone like Vimeo, or Motion Box, because no way Larry or anyone else here is flash encodiing every entry. We did this once. For Zombie fest. No mas.
 
I deffinately like the idea of some sort of streaming. I also think it would be great to have an annual best of festival somewhere. Mix it up L.A, N.Y.C maybe even Vancouver? Toronto?
 
I think if we're asking for all of these improvements, we need to get ready for something like an entry fee. I'm not sure how much it all costs, but I imagine an "annual best of festival" is expensive. I'd be down with a small entry fee in order to have some of these improvements we're discussing.
 
now that would be totally awesome to have streaming video in the thread. I have to agree with the trailer comment though, that it might not necessarily be the best idea, but romote the festival outside the site would be a great thing.

The quality of films here has definitely improved to the point where the fests need to be recognized. An IMDB credit would cetainly rock. I did notice that withoutabox.com links to several festivals, some of them free, so why not DVXUSer?
 
Users created a Cinevate Brevis group on vimeo.com. It would be cool to have an official DVXUser page there too. Even if it's only for the festivals. That's another great way to promote the festivals.
 
I recently discovered the process behind judging the top films for the semi-finals, and it seems like it is a flawed design that allows experienced users and popular posters to easily get their film viewed and rated, while newcomers have a harder time. I believe the process is based on a point system that combines view count and rating. This means a high rated film can easily be kicked out of a top spot by a movie with hundreds more views.

I can agree that Promotion and Public Relations are a major part of the film-making process, but I feel an online competition such as DVX should give a more equal opportunity to both newcomers and experienced users.
 
Just curious. I agree with a lot of the suggestions here, and have seen the fests get better and better.

But is there an overall plan in place for the what the fests will become? Meaning, does someone have a vision of what they will be a year from now, 5 years from now?
 
David j. Dodd said:
I recently discovered the process behind judging the top films for the semi-finals, and it seems like it is a flawed design that allows experienced users and popular posters to easily get their film viewed and rated, while newcomers have a harder time. I believe the process is based on a point system that combines view count and rating. This means a high rated film can easily be kicked out of a top spot by a movie with hundreds more views.

I can agree that Promotion and Public Relations are a major part of the film-making process, but I feel an online competition such as DVX should give a more equal opportunity to both newcomers and experienced users.
Click to expand...

Many newcomers have gotten very highly rated. Look at LoveFest. In horrorFest 2006, it was my first entry and scored 2nd. In TimeFest, Survival made the second cut, and they were new to the fests.
 
David j. Dodd said:
I recently discovered the process behind judging the top films for the semi-finals, and it seems like it is a flawed design that allows experienced users and popular posters to easily get their film viewed and rated, while newcomers have a harder time. I believe the process is based on a point system that combines view count and rating. This means a high rated film can easily be kicked out of a top spot by a movie with hundreds more views.

I can agree that Promotion and Public Relations are a major part of the film-making process, but I feel an online competition such as DVX should give a more equal opportunity to both newcomers and experienced users.
Click to expand...

The thread "rating" has nothing to do with anything, in fact, it's kind of a joke. In the past, some users have requested low ratings, just for fun.

Film threads are listed in the order of newest post. (you can even re-order them if you want to) Yes, if you post more, your film will be at the top of the list more often. It is up to the filmmaker to offer a consistent string of interesting content for their film to keep people tuned in.

Moderators give both new and experienced filmmakers the exact same chance for promotion, a thread in "coming attractions" section. It's up to the filmmaker to promote from there (including comment in OTHER people's threads). Don't want to seem harsh, but please ASK in the future about something you may see as a discrepancy instead of framing it as something you've discovered that was somehow missed by the hundreds of other users involved in the fests.


Let's keep this discussion on track PLEASE. I second Mark's question, is there like a "5 year plan" for DVXuser fests?
 
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Mark Harris said:
Many newcomers have gotten very highly rated. Look at LoveFest. In horrorFest 2006, it was my first entry and scored 2nd. In TimeFest, Survival made the second cut, and they were new to the fests.
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It may have been your first entry, but you had been apart of the forum since 2004. Since previous fests, DVX has also grown in popularity, meaning more submissions and more viewers. The average viewer will not watch and rate every single submission, instead they will pick the moderators and popular posters. I do agree with the top films, but you can not say that the process does not need to be improved.
 
Responded in yellow below.

Ben Sliker said:
Here's a few thoughts I've gathered -

1. Outside promotion - I feel the DVXuser fests still live in kind of a "bubble" on the internet, i think outside promotion by the individual filmmakers is needed to make this thing blow up.

Absolutely! They could boost the voting requirement to 100 posts if they are worried about people signing up just to load the vote for certain users.

2. Annual Physical Screening, a "Best of" show - Take the top 3 films from the past 3-4 fests and have a big screening in LA like we did for timefest. PLAN/SCHEDULE FAR AHEAD - so that people not close to LA have a better chance of making it. Also, vote/choose one of those films to receive 1 big prize that's not related to specific fest - DVXuser's Best Film of 2008. Also make sure to have this fest registered or whatever so participating filmmakers can get on IMDB and the like.

Cool idea.

3. Faster/More Efficient way of viewing the films and in higher resolution. I'm talking streaming here probably. Or even use the embed video tool. Have your film embedded in your thread for people to watch and then they can immediately comment. (If quality is an issue here, also offer the connoisseurs a high quality download version) Also easier for an outsider to come in and participate if they don't have to download 50+ films at 50 MB a piece. I think this is a huge bottleneck to the advancement of the fests.

Streaming is definitely the way to go! Especially with free HQ sites like Vimeo.


Let me know what you think!
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Great ideas all around. DVXuser seems to be improving things every Fest.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a few of these suggestions fall into place down the road.
:thumbup:

Mike
 
Ben Sliker said:
The thread "rating" has nothing to do with anything, in fact, it's kind of a joke. In the past, some users have requested low ratings, just for fun.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Dead Week had the highest views and posts with a great rating of 4.08 stars over 13 votes. They unfortunately didn't even make the finals.

Thread views and ratings mean nothing.

Mike
 
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