“Schlaeps” wrote: What are you thinking of in terms of time limits?

The time limits of submitted films would vary a bit from challenge to challenge, but generally in the range for 20 seconds to 2 minutes. Some themes — such as having the camera moving during an entire shot — might be limited to under 30 seconds while others would be longer (a dance challenge might extend to over two minutes).

I am generally opposed to arbitrary rules which don’t really serve the goal of the contests, but in this series time constraints might encourage getting brickfilmers to think more in terms of the process of filmmaking and less about the final result. In a way, these challenges are more like “homework assignments” than contests. The effort will be to provide some direction to the growth of brickfilmers’ skills and to inspire experimentation.

Regarding the judging for these Challenges:

I would propose that judging be performed by Patrons. Since the challenges will be fairly frequent, it is important to make judging as painless as possible. It is probably satisfactory to just let the patrons choose their “favorite” film — suggesting some criteria (such as how well the theme was addressed) but leaving it up to them to decide the priorities. I don’t want to have to do a lot of math.

If it is possible for Schlaeps to code up a “judging page” similar to the way voting was handled in the last election, that would be ideal. Barring that, a poll could be set up in the Patrons forum which would provide (I believe) up to ten choices. A way would be needed to narrow down the field to ten nominees; but that could be handled either by the Ministers and staff, or by members of the Contests usergroup. A judging page has the benefit of not only permitting an unlimited number of entries, but would also be able to hide the totals from the voters until the votes are tallied.

Any other ideas?

PS: Thanks for renaming this forum, Schlaeps.

*Double post*

I made a basic draft which will need more details, if anyone would post some things I’m missing, it would be great, thank you.

The Brickfilms Challenge Series, by saulgoode

Hello felow brickfilmers.

Us of the Contests usergroup are proud to announce “The Brickfilms Challenge Series”.

This is a contest similar to the Mini-Contest in the Contests Discussions forum.
This Contest is a series of Contests that will be held every month or two with a goal of stimulating and inspire brickfillming.
The contests are intended to be fun while promoting innovation and challenging creativity. There will be a single prize offered of rather nominal value — the prize is not the goal of these contests.

Each entry will require as followed as followed:

• Each entry you submit must be posted in this thread.[/*]
• Each entry you submit cannot be over three minutes in length. There is no minimum length.[/*]
• Each entry you submit must be entirely made in stop-motion animation(cgi animation may be allowed.)[/*]
• Each entry will have to fit its “theme” which will be announced when each contest is over.[/*]

The first theme of the challenge will be “Ministry of Silly Walk-Cycles”.
The goal will to be to make a film showing a minifig walking in “silly” ways that cannot be over the maximum time-limit.

The prizes will be announced in the future.

Please post anything that shouldn’t or should be added that I haven’t mentioned, remember that this is just a rough draft.

-StevieCollins

Ah, i understand a bit more now. Now i see why it will have to be patrons who judge it. Thank you.

-StevieCollins

Though I was not around Brickfilms when the Chicken Dance was held, I have read about it on EZBoards and viewed the submissions that were still available. I think that little things such as the CD contest and the 3-Sisters awards greatly contributed to the vitality that early Brickfilms experienced.

“Stefan” wrote: I’m not sure if once every two months isn’t too much though. 3 months maybe?

I admit to being a little disingenuous with the periodicity. I fully expect it to be quite flexible and to result in somewhere around four to six contests per year. Specifying “bi-monthly” provides more justification for terming the challenges as a “series”, however, the challenges will generally be scheduled so as to not interfere with other activities.

It is also my intent that about a third of the challenges target only the newer/younger members of the community. These particular challenges might be scheduled coincident with other contests but should not have a negative impact on them.

In short, the “bi-monthly” is rather meaningless. Scheduling will be based upon the other contest activities and how much of a burden handling the judging these challenges proves to be.