Judgement Day

Some really stupid comments in our Tag-Board make me wanna scream today, but also convince me, that we should give you an insight in our judging process. Okay, I also believe, that persons so kindergarten don’t read this kind of stuff and therefore it's a total waste of my time, absolutely subjective and written not in a reasonable mood. But, maybe some curious people wanna know more about the subject and hell, why not?

First of all, we download all the submissions during the month and try it again and again, if the download doesn't work the first time. When we close the submissions normally there are between forty and fifty files in one nice corner of our PCs, with a total runtime of around 200 minutes that's somewhere around three hours, if you see the videos one time.

Okay, what do we do now? Yeah, right, we make our selections, independently from each other; make notes on a nice old-fashion-style sheet of paper without the categories only the vid-title and what catches us. That happens when your video is lucky. If not there's nothing, then here's the end of the line for your precious file together with almost half of the other submissions. Like, we always said and say now again, these videos are not bad or awful; there is a whole bunch of videos with the afterglow, nice, okay, what's next? These videos just don't get our attention, there wasn't something special about them, that gets to us and when you see Spike and Buffy for the three hundredth time holding hands in "Afterlife" this scene wouldn't catch your attention either. The same way Willow’s pentagram on the forehead wouldn't freak you out. Or Xander’s rainy walk or Spike’s sunburn or Angel’s revenge trip or Buffy’s final swan dive. You get the idea, don't you?

These scenes maybe nice instrumental and fit to the lyrics or the beat, but that's all and at the same moment that's enough for the normal audience to enjoy a video about their favorite pairing. Or see what a vidder did with their favorite song. But, we're not so normal at the same point we are, honest question to yourself, how many times do you give feedback to a video? Once a week, twice? Optimistic prognosis from me? *nods* Yeah, I know… Been there, done that!

So we're get separately back to our nice sheet of paper! Watch these videos several times, stick them into our categories and scribble more notes, then we got a deadline and the ring of the telephone is the final stage, Stuttgart and Berlin are connected. The usually conversation on the pure judging subject is a discussion of about half an hour as we work the categories down. Best Video is always first and always the video which stays most unforgettable in our memories, is most outstanding and just the one that blows our minds. Normally this subject is the one easiest decided, something like "***** ****", "Yeah, ***** **** me too." Some talk why and we move to the next category.

Generally 90% of the videos in this final discussions are the same, picked by three (at the start four) girls separately and independently, here we chose the awards and here we mostly argue only by our personal preferences. Song choice, scene choice, technique stuff (Big time!). After an half hour debate we got our awards done, almost, then the Berlin - Berlin connection has to play the same game, again. And then the Berlin - Stuttgart once again. In the end we got one dozen awards to go public.

So Cassi grabs the screen caps, Trisha works her PS-Magic and I try to be understandable in a foreign language, my teachers always knew, I'm good at translating it to German, but a plague in grammar. At the end of the month you see the results online and you can bounce and bitch, it doesn't change a single step of the process.

So what can you do, so that not always the same vidders gets an award? Be better than them, but keep in mind that these vidders also look with a squint back at their first videos and these re-mastered versions floating around on the net, only prove that there's always something to improve, even when it is on your own idea. Hell, I can stand the sight of my first videos without a moan and I remember to well, how proud I was, when I first saw them, back then a long time ago…

Or how Trisha had put it, "Oh, I downloaded a old video from you today, I think, it's one of your firsts. I love you even more." Astarte: "Yeah, why?" Trish: "Because it was bad. I mean really, really bad. But it only proves that everyone could be a goddess, with some work, really hard work… I still can't believe you did this! You actually played these scene almost a minute and there this thing with the transitions - or the lack of it!" Astarte: "Love you too, but fuck off… Now!" I still have a sense of protection for these vids and so I understand that you have it, too. That doesn't mean I think that my vids are worth an award back then.

Or that you have a right to bitch about winners, maybe you should put the energy into your next video and blow our minds away… Wouldn't that be poetic justice? Or construct your own award site on which you never ever could possible win, but also you could reward the videos you like best, when you're such an expert on the vidding-topic.

Anyway, have fun… It's all about entertaining!