Question: why do we want these ratings? My opinion was to have them for others to judge whether they will download the film or not, but you seem to think about them more as a system for the filmmaker to get feedback.

Question: who is going to rate all 200+ films already in the database?

Question: who is going to rate all new films? Will be a lot of work.

Question: won’t they be biased? If some 11-year-old with a 2-seconds-a-frame film with bad acting called all his friends to vote for it?

Stefan.

Sorry if this is too soon to ask, but are you thinking of some kind of small committee of members that would work in the film directory, rating films, etc? If that’s what you had in mind, you should choose people very wisely.

Cometgreen

Revmen, as part of the Brickfilms weekly (or biweekly, whatever) show, a review section will be included. The review segment of the show will basically be a compilation of all different aspects of film making. An overall rating, out of 10, will be awarded, and other members reviews will be taken into consideration. I have been here for over a year, and have seen many many films. If you don’t mind, I would like to put in for the Film Reviewer position. I have no problems with the people in this community, and am a completly unbiased observer. This of course is your decision, and I respect that. I am just asking that you atleast consider myself while you make your decision. May our leader show us the way through the dark, so that we may see the light.

Respectively yours,

SOTW

Yeah, but unfortunatly I may have been the cause of that post.

Sorry Revmen. Hope that doesnt affect your decision.

Hi Doug!

You made some good points (and thus furthered the discussion…ie… YAY! actual discussion around here again… and about IMPORTANT stuff)

Sorry, but I have to chime in here.

What’s wrong with story and effects?

Just because a movie doesn’t have them and therefor gets a low or non rating, doesn’t make it a bad film. It just doesn’t shine in those areas.
Some people, myself included, might want to search for a film based on whether it has a good storyline or not. And in my book, a film based on a one liner still counts as a story- it’s all in the timing and execution.
Effects goes beyond Alum DV (or whatever it’s called)- it can be as generic as that, as mindblowing as some of the stuff done with Photoshop, or as basic as using cotton balls for smoke and blue bricks for water- but if it’s done right, it still qualifies as GREAT effects and I think deserves to be recognized. Imagine you were rating Rise of the Empire and there was no option for Effects or Story.
I say they serve a purpose and need to be considered.

Very well put. We somehow need to make the categories so they can be counted OR NOT. So if they apply, they count, but if they don’t… well they don’t.

And aren’t Cinematography and Animation basically the same thing?

I don’t think they are at all, in fact it is important to make the distinction as a film with good cinematography could have bad animation and vice/versa:

I see Cinematography as the use of the frame or shot to convey the image, feeling point of view etc. The use of widescreen vs full screen, only left to right pans in a whole film, only stills, close ups or long shots, quick cuts, slow transistions etc etc… that is cinematography. The careful selection and use of the camera to present your motion picture.

Animation is how the bricks are literally animated. Is it smooth? At a high or low framerate? Is it exagerrated, realistic, slow mo? Has the animator managed to animate something really complicated and make it look natural (eg the whole point of the chicken dance comp).

In my film the juggler I tried to animate juggling, not do it with spectacular cinematography…

Quote:
What has to be taken into account is that the moment you introduce specific ratings categories people will (on the whole) make films to maximise their ratings

You say that like it’s a bad thing, Hali
Let’s see- If the last film I made got high ratings in everything but story, wouldn’t that tell me either:
A- I need to work on my storytelling/plot development skills
or
B- It’s simply not my strongsuit and maybe I should continue to focus on those areas in which I excel.
Either way, it’s valuable feedback and I thought that was the whole purpose of a review.

Yes, it does make for extremely valuable feedback, I guess I started to feel jaded about the whole reviewing process when ppl started emailing me about why they got a bad review. It is very hard to explain that in order to get people to improve you can’t always write glowing reviews. Not always. It is exactly why I couldn’t wait to read you reviews, doug.

They always gave me something to work on for my next film.

I’ve got off track… the reason I say it COULD be a problem is that I know that when I have criteria I am being judged by I aim to meet the criteria first. Sometimes (not always) this means that the added extras fall by the wayside.

Essentially, I’m really worried that specific ratings criteria will stifle the originality of many of the films. Simple as that.

Perhaps what is needed is a way to simply not show catagories that don’t apply to a particular film. If no effects were attempted, then theres no need to include Effects when rating it (Either it simply doesn’t show up or is accompanied by an N/A). If, however, they were attempted and done badly, then that’s something that needs to be acknowledged and provided for in terms of feedback.

Theres my opinion, for what it’s worth.

Yep, agree with this too.

Hali[/quote]

I always felt like when one of my films got a ‘worth the download’ on its review from Hali I would have accomplished my goal as a filmmaker…

I would love for a rating like that.

How bout:

Technical(the basics, animation, lighting, stuff like that-done well)
Plot-oriented(duh)
Character driven(having memorable characters)
Audio(though maybe this could go with Technical)
New Films(first films, anything good could perhaps be in another category
as well)

Too be honest, I dont know how well categorizing them like this might work. It would be a major headache classifying some films. Maybe having these classifications with only a select few films representing that trait could be used as a way to show newer filmers good examples of all that stuff. Then for all the films, divide them into categories like : humor, sci-fi, adventure, and so on. (Bear with me on this, I dont know how one would make this thing, im not a computer genius). Then when each film is given an initial review, you could have certain terms applied for good parts (technical, plot, audio, and so on). So then you have a search form that looks like:

Genre:_______________(humor,sci-fi,adventure and so forth)
Description:_____________(technical, audio,plot, and so forth)

Keep in mind the form would have more than that but thats the gist of it. Each film could have more than one “description” so that a search for “humor” with “technical” and “plot” comes up with any film that is meant to be humorous, is well animated and cleanly presented, and has a good story. The genre is of course defined by the filmer(and the film itself really) but the descriptions are determined when the films are reviewed by Hali and the other 5 reviewers(or how ever many you were going to have). you could then add a numerical rating system or leave it as is(so you wont know a bad film unless you read the review and decide if its worth watching as sometimes numbers can be misleading). but you could have a rating scale like:

40%- overall enjoyability(fun to watch)
20%-technical
20%-plot/characters
15%-originality
5%- file size(lol)

Just my thoughts.

How about a “100 views” or sumthin like that. i don’t think identifying the most downloaded is necessary. But hey, gotta do what ya gotta do.