Actually in my film the ropes on the horse’s head appear to be the shape of an E so I should still be in the contest. Even though I know I won’t win I would still like to know where I came. So please put me and everyone else back.

I didn’t submit an Entrants ballot last year, because I had just joined and didn’t know my butt from my elbow.
So the idea is that every Entrant (person who submitted a film in the contest) submits an Entrants ballot, in which they vote not for themselves, but other people? Also, as I believe The Duke already asked, how many people in a joint entry have to submit an Entrants ballot?

Okay, I’m back now.

Yes, only one ballot is allowed for joint entries.

“Super Cameraman” wrote:

Super Cameraman – missing mod at 2:54

Oh, come on! It’s not even animation! This isn’t fair! This is the second year I’ve been diqualified! Can you still judge it? I just want to see how good it would have been! I mean it’s not like I would win a prize!

Sorry, but thats what the rules say. I can’t let it be judged, because that would throw off the voting. If your film made it onto the top 5, the film that would have been 5th would get bumped off, causing them to lose points and therefore skewing the scores.

“Matt Gillan” wrote: Actually in my film the ropes on the horse’s head appear to be the shape of an E so I should still be in the contest. Even though I know I won’t win I would still like to know where I came. So please put me and everyone else back.

Sorry, but the mod element is still missing for a brief time in the opening scene.

You make good points as always, saulgoode, and I understand them fully although I think there are sound enough reasons behind the rules (a rule saying that mod elements should be there all the time unless you forget to make sure its there is a bit awkward). The only thing I will take issue with is that your complaints are being registered during the judging. There were almost identical mishaps last year; did you make this same complaints then? Perhaps you did, but I would like to see this matter discussed when the contest’s rules are being prepared, not when the contest’s rules are being challenged and it is a potential disruption to judging. WHEN the judging is over, I would encourage discussion of the compression rule, and the possibility of appeals or at least contact between David and entrants before finalising their disqualification.

Unless you would like to stop the judging altogether in order to address the issues, in which case I respect you in your quest but don’t really see it happening.

“saulgoode” wrote: [quote="Dragoon"]There were similar annoyances over disqualifications last year, and like then I have to support following what’s written in the rules. They may seem too strict, and I know how disappointed you are to be disqualified, but one diversion from the rules will lead to others and would not be fair to the other disqualified directors.

I do not support this philosophy. “Fairness” should incorporate the concept of “reasonableness” and a submission’s disqualification should take into consideration the intent of the rules.

The expressed intent of the “mod element” was to address the possibility of entrants including previously shot scenes in their submission, not to validate the animators’ ability to foresee the distortion of their element due to compression or the momentary absence of it during a transition.

The expressed intent of the 3MB/min filesize limit was to supposedly facilitate the judging process, not to test the abilities of the animator in using compression software.

In these cases, being “fair” should take a back seat to being “reasonable”. The current list of disqualified animators expended a great deal effort in participating in this contest and I suspect they (and many others) will be reluctant to take part in future THAC’s if their efforts are to be nullified by an unreasonable rigidity of the contest’s administrators.[/quote]
Yeah, having a mod element disappear for 1 second and having it to 5 megs per minute are horrible reasons to get DQed. But this is David West’s contest, not ours.

My reasoning for posting that anyone who believed they had been unfairly disqualified could talk to me later was more to let people know that I would be gone than to consider appeals. I knew that, as last year, people owuld be dissapointed that their film was disqualified, and would probably want to talk to me about it. It was poor wording on my part, and I apologize for the any controversy it has caused. The same process was used last year, and there didn’t seem to be any problems with it.

Ticket, the high quality version of the film won’t work, and the rules state that the mod element must be discernible as the mod element. If someone was to watch ONLY that scene of the film, they should be able to pick out the E. As it is, they cannot. Only someone who knows that his shirt says “Security” will know that the mod is there, even if they cannot see it.

If there is to be a THAC3, perhaps the rules should be re-examined. Maybe a thread discussing this is in order.

Has the time been decided yet? I have a quick decision to make regarding other plans.

Entrants ballot email sent.