Welcome to the official Watson for Minister of Film Contests thread. Here you will find information on my ideas and campaign, and have a chance to express your thoughts.

What I want to do

• Restrict my efforts to key biannual contests, focusing on making them successful[/*]
• Dramatically decrease the number of contests which are official.[/*]
• Work to restore prestige, glory, and significance to official brickfilms contests, thus reviving interest and boosting quality.[/*]

Discussion
I believe that over the last year, there have been so many contests, that the significance of any one contest has been diluted. This includes our major contest for the year. I’m not against the creation of private contests, which is really out of my jurisdiction (I can’t tell you whether or not you can hold your own contest), I’m against the number of official contests that have been created.

Richard Frost has certainly done a wonderful job in creating these contests – that’s not the problem. It’s merely an issue of flooding the market. If we want to have a large, community-encompassing, prestigious competition (as we always used to have) we need to once again create a certain degree of scarcity on our contests. If contests are scarce, the value placed on any one contest increases dramatically. That, in turn, ramps up competition for the contest, which brings with it increased quality and effort.

Furthermore, as quality and effort increases, and as more importance is place on any one contest, the prestige of that contest also increases. This creates a circular relationship which, over time, ought to improve the overall effectiveness of competition on brickfilms.

What is the purpose of contests, anyways? There are a variety of benefits. Offering a prize and prestige creates motivation which otherwise might not exist. It pushes people to really put in their best efforts. Year after year, we’ve seen our contests push the boundaries of our hobby, which is what has made them so successful. Should they become watered down, this benefit will be severely diminished. It is this effect which I seek to squelch.

Please share your thoughts and concerns with any aspect of my campaign or potential ministry here in this thread. I will attempt to address them expeditiously.

Watson