Comments on: Thoughts on Festivals http://www.lagspike.com/2009/10/thoughts-on-festivals/ Lagspike Films Sun, 04 Jul 2010 11:20:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Kate http://www.lagspike.com/2009/10/thoughts-on-festivals/comment-page-1/#comment-803 Kate Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:05:21 +0000 http://www.lagspike.com/?p=363#comment-803 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. 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.

]]> By: Ricky Grove http://www.lagspike.com/2009/10/thoughts-on-festivals/comment-page-1/#comment-802 Ricky Grove Sun, 25 Oct 2009 04:35:14 +0000 http://www.lagspike.com/?p=363#comment-802 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. 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.

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