Machinima for Dummies: Warning - "gotcha" in the Machinima Film Festival submissions process. If you're submitting a series, read this.

Warning - "gotcha" in the Machinima Film Festival submissions process. If you're submitting a series, read this.

Hugh "Nomad" Hancock — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 14:50:00 +0100

The submissions process for this year’s Machinima Film Festival has a small “gotcha” of which everyone submitting should take account.

The MFF2008 organisers have decided that films will not be accepted for entry if any part of that film has been entered for competition at the Festival previously. This effectively bans work like feature-length adaptions of series pieces. The ban applies regardless of how much new material is also in the piece.

The last part is the crucial bit. Even if less than 25% of the material which makes up the film has been in the Festival before, the full film will be (and has been) turned down for entry. So far this year, the BloodSpell feature adaption and the Borg War feature adaption have been affected by this decision.

This has serious implications for Machinima filmakers. If you have any work that you’re contemplating reworking at a later date, you should strongly consider not submitting it to the Machinima Film Festival this year. That applies whether it be a series that you’re intending to turn into a feature film, a short film that will form the basis of a longer work, or merely an unfinished cut that you’re planning to rush in for the deadline.

Otherwise, any later film you complete based on your early work will be inelegible for future Machinima Film Festivals, and you’ll never have the chance for your best work to be recognised.

Oddly, festival organiser Friedrich Kirschner says that “Remixes [of existing work] are fine.”. However, adaptions definitely aren’t. If in doubt, ask before submitting (email festival@machinima.org).

If you’ve already submitted, but want to remove your submission based on this information, we’re not entirely sure how to do that, but we suggest emailing festival@machinima.org .

(Full disclosure - until recently, I was on the board of AMAS, which runs the film festival, and I’m also the director of BloodSpell, one of the films affected by this deicison.)

"Warning - "gotcha" in the Machinima Film Festival submissions process. If you're submitting a series, read this." by Phil Rice

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 22:20:46 +0100

@Johnnie - What Zuckerman did not understand was your post, not the rules. If you look at his initial question, he never intended to re-enter the same material, but future chapters. He’d have been fine. He understood it before he read this.

Addressing the rest via email.

"Warning - "gotcha" in the Machinima Film Festival submissions process. If you're submitting a series, read this." by Hugh "Nomad" Hancock

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:42:27 +0100

I can see how you could misinterpret both statements, Phil, although I don’t accept that yours is likely to be the universal interpretation.

I’ll not be commenting further on this thread. I’ve said everything needful.

"Warning - "gotcha" in the Machinima Film Festival submissions process. If you're submitting a series, read this." by Phil Rice

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:21:24 +0100

@Hugh - There is a chasm of difference between “Oops” and “Gotcha”… between “I made a mistake” and “I’m the victim of a snare”. The original post doesn’t give any indication that you think there’s an error on anyone’s part but AMAS, so sans comment #12, I would never have guessed this was a “learn from our mistakes” lesson.

Gotcha implies a getter.

"Warning - "gotcha" in the Machinima Film Festival submissions process. If you're submitting a series, read this." by Johnnie Ingram

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:21:20 +0100

The intention behind this post was - as the post title indicates - to alert other creators who may be in a similar situation, and to make them aware of the AMAS ruling.

As Zuckerman’s comments clearly demonstrate, not everyone was aware of this policy, and it’s caused some confusion which it’s in the interests of everyone to rectify.

It’s a shame that this post has been so misinterpreted. For the record, I can state with confidence that Hugh’s resignation from AMAS was not motivated by their decision not to allow the BloodSpell feature film as an entrant into this year’s festival. Nor was this post.

Whether the decision of the Academy is a good one or not has no bearing on whether this post should have been made. This blog is intended as a source of news, information and - sometimes - entertainment for machinimators everywhere. As such, we try to post about any issue that we think interesting or relevant (bearing in mind that both Hugh and myself work 9-5 and then some, and this blog is a voluntary commitment for both of us) and we will continue to do so. Hugh and I worked on this post together, and I absolutely support it.

As it happens, I don’t think AMAS’s decision is a good one. Although I can accept many of the points that have been made, and I can even understand the motivation behind it, it just seems inconsistent to me. What classifies the BloodSpell feature film as an “adaptation” rather than a “remix”? Only 18 minutes of the 84-minute feature has previously been entered in the MFF.

I worked hard on BloodSpell and I’m very proud of it. Like Phil, I consider my work on BloodSpell some of the best I’ve ever done, in either film or theatre. I’m disappointed that I’m not allowed to enter this work for a series of awards for which I have so much respect. Having spoken to several members of the BloodSpell team - and there are over a dozen of us that put in significant amounts of work on the feature film - I know I’m not alone.

"Warning - "gotcha" in the Machinima Film Festival submissions process. If you're submitting a series, read this." by Hugh "Nomad" Hancock

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:56:32 +0100

Zuckerman - my understanding is that Phil’s correct. The quantity of new footage isn’t relevant to the ruling, from my understanding. If the new film contains existing footage at all, and can be seen as an extension of the first project, it’s likely to not be allowed to enter. However, Ricky’s right, as we suggested in the article - if in doubt, contact festivals@machinima.org and ask.

Phil - Controversial or not (and correct or not - the policy isn’t without merit) this ruling is something that it’s useful for Machinima creators making series work to be aware of. Hence its posting here.

It would, fairly obviously, have been easier for me not to post this. (Zach, Ricky, Phil, seriously, if I was going to go on the attack you think this is the way I’d do it?) And I knew I was going to get some flack from people misunderstanding my motives. But both Johnnie and I think it’s important, if you’re running a blog like this, to let other people know about the mistakes you’ve made and the cleft sticks you’ve ended up in, so they can avoid them in turn.

As an active machinima creator and community participant, it’s impossible that I would never be affected by issues I comment on. I think it’d be rather irresponsible to simply stop talking about them on that basis.

"Warning - "gotcha" in the Machinima Film Festival submissions process. If you're submitting a series, read this." by Zuckerman

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:25:21 +0100

thanks, zach, ricky, phil. will email MFF pronto.

"Warning - "gotcha" in the Machinima Film Festival submissions process. If you're submitting a series, read this." by Phil Rice

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:01:33 +0100

@Zuckerman - Yes, contact MFF to clarify before entering.

@Zach - Actually, the scenario you describe in comment 8 with chapters 1, 2, and 3… would NOT qualify for re-entry. The key issue is submission of the same thing more than once. If Zuckerman enters chapter 1 this year, then he could enter chapters 2 and 3 in a future MFF (not 1, 2, and 3). Hugh entered episodes 6, 7, and 8 last time; he could enter episodes 10, 11, and 12 this year, but he can’t enter a different edit that includes episodes 6, 7, and 8 again.

I worked on BloodSpell, I wish I could get another crack at a sound award; the stuff I did in the final fifteen minutes of the film remains some of the best sound work I’ve ever done, I think.

But I agree with the rule. It makes sense. And it appears to be consistent with how other film festivals handle this kind of thing.

In fact, I applaud AMAS for avoiding even the appearance of changing the rules to benefit one of their own board members (or former ones), a move which would have obliterated their credibility as an organization in my book. Want to lobby to have the rule changed in the future? By all means, lobby. But their refusing to modify it on the fly for the benefit of a former board member, among a few others we’re not entirely certain feel the same way about it? Smells like integrity to me.

For the record, I’m not convinced the Machinima For Dummies blog was an appropriate place to raise this issue, not in this way. But what’s done is done.

"Warning - "gotcha" in the Machinima Film Festival submissions process. If you're submitting a series, read this." by Ricky Grove

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:51:06 +0100

Why not simply contact the MFF and ask them, Zuckerman? festival@machinima.org

"Warning - "gotcha" in the Machinima Film Festival submissions process. If you're submitting a series, read this." by zachariah

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:17 +0100

no zuckerman. you can still re enter your film later, if it’s SUBSTANTIALLY more footage. if its chapter 1, and you enter say “chapter 1,2, and 3” that should still work. so enter away, and worry not. I think to be in the same situation as hugh, you’d have to enter chapter 1 this year, and then enter it again next year, with maybe a different font on the credits.

"Warning - "gotcha" in the Machinima Film Festival submissions process. If you're submitting a series, read this." by Zuckerman

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 22:23:02 +0100

K. Sorry. Reread. Looks like that’s what that means. Well… shit.

"Warning - "gotcha" in the Machinima Film Festival submissions process. If you're submitting a series, read this." by Zuckerman

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 22:21:30 +0100

Not quite sure I understand. I was intending to enter Chapter 1 of a feature I am working on. Does this mean the following year I can not then enter other chapters of the film?

"Warning - "gotcha" in the Machinima Film Festival submissions process. If you're submitting a series, read this." by Michael K. C

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 21:26:22 +0100

I’m going to enter when I’m done.

"Warning - "gotcha" in the Machinima Film Festival submissions process. If you're submitting a series, read this." by Ricky Grove

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:17:07 +0100

This is a post your shouldn’t have made, Hugh. Airing your dirty laundry about leaving the AMAS just makes you look bad. Knocking Friedrich is even worse.

"Warning - "gotcha" in the Machinima Film Festival submissions process. If you're submitting a series, read this." by Robert Stonemn

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:33:46 +0100

Yawn.

"Warning - "gotcha" in the Machinima Film Festival submissions process. If you're submitting a series, read this." by zachariah

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:54:12 +0100

just drop it, Hugh. nobody cares.

"Warning - "gotcha" in the Machinima Film Festival submissions process. If you're submitting a series, read this." by Leo Lucien-Bay

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:52:26 +0100

I dunno, this rule makes sense to me. Isn’t what you’re asking for, the right to in effect, submit an unfinished film, then submit the final product the next year and have it judged anew? For me it makes sense that if you want to submit parts of a series, you don’t re-tread.

When I worked on ‘Bouncers’ I can’t say I ever expected to do that. I think allowing remixes IS a little strange given this rule, but a remix could potentially be absolutely nothing like it’s original.

Anyway, I’m not sure it’s something “everyone” who’s submitting will need to take into account. Then again I haven’t thought much about this. -Doc