There’s been a lot of talk lately about machinima festivals, so I thought I’d share my opinion.
There’s not a whole lot of recognition out there for machinima, and it’s great that some venues are brave enough to include it. However, any sort of festival should be judged and not based on online votes. This is an opinion I’ve held for many years.
I remember the first contest I entered some years ago (under a different name). A friend and I sat down and wrote a script we were fairly proud of. We weighed the pros and cons of including certain elements, found some people to help with the voice acting, and filmed it. It was a little crude compared to today’s standards, but we were pleased with the way it came out. Everyone liked it and we got a lot of positive comments. Despite our success we lost to a “big name” machinima guy. His film contained no plot, no voice acting, no…anything (this wasn’t just my opinion, all the video comments pointed this out as well). It was obvious we never had a chance as a bunch of nobodies competing against a guy with thousands of fans to tip the online vote in his favor.
Years later and online voting still seems to be the preferred system for festivals. Why? They’re either lazy, out of touch with how the internet works, or hoping to get some free advertising knowing the entrants will spam their link everywhere. It’s a bad system. It turns people nasty and against one another.
There still are some festivals that understand how to run things, which will hopefully influence others to adopt their system. I really admire what the Machinima Expo guys are doing, taking the time to review and judge a HUGE amount of films. Although Second Life is a little too out there for me, I’ll be sure to check out the winners.
As a plea to any festival organizers; please do not use online voting. You will send the wrong message and alienate many people. Recognize those whether they be a veteran or a newbie. Don’t turn it into a popularity contest.
Couldn’t agree with you more. Thanks for saying what I’ve been thinking for many years. Festivals need to have a jury to assure a high quality of winning films. No question in my mind that popular voting is a gimmick that leads to bad, unfair results most of the time. It absolutely becomes a popularity contest instead of a real judging of quality.
At the MachinExpo, we have three people who filter the entries to decide on which films should be screened and which films should be passed on to our 5 person jury. When we selected our jury we deliberately chose at least three people who weren’t involved in machinima at all, but have a strong film background. We are virtually assured, using this jury set up, that the final voting will be based on the quality of the film, since most of the films and filmmakers will be virtually unknown to the jury.
Thanks for your honesty and support.
Events held by the machinexpo crew have been quite conventional and very similar to real life festivals, it is quite possible to bypass the rest of second life if there are elements of that world that make you feel uncomfortable, I hope you will reconsider attending.
I think a variety of jury led competitions are vital to the future quality of machinima. As you mention these take commitment and effort to organise, and like you I am grateful to the mplex crew for their continuing efforts to push the boundaries, and showcase what they consider the most original and well made films out there.
I think it is vital that competitors feel they have a chance, and aren’t going to be ignored in favour of work made on platforms which have such a large and loyal fan base that they will always vote through their own genre, rather than on the basis of story or film quality.