How We Judge Machinima Submitted to the Expo

In fulfilling a promise made on Kate Fosk’s blog several months ago, we are posting our process for judging machinima submitted to the Expo.

All film submitted to the Expo are first listed in a submissions list where the initial screening committee (composed of myself, Phil Rice and Damien Valentine) chooses a film to post on in our private forum created for just this purpose. The person who initially posts on the film provides a link for viewing and then comments on the film, recommending either that the film be approved for screening, passed on to our jury, put aside for further consideration or put aside as not suitable for screening at the Expo. As you can see, the three person screening committee will assure that a 2-1 vote will decide the status of a particular film.

There is often debate on the merits of a particular film and at times votes are changed because of the debate. Some films are obviously too poorly made to recommend that they be screened, but EVERY film is watched by all three of us. Other films need to be thought about a bit, and we put these aside to consider later. There are also those films (very few) which because of superior artistry and technical skill are passed on to our five person jury to be considered for jury prizes.

So, how do we judge films that are screened or passed on to the jury? Basically, it comes down to personal taste. If you put three different people in our places the list of screeners and jury films would be different (not by much, IMO). It’s a subjective process, BUT informed by experience and common sense rules in filmmaking. For example, if a film has a great idea for a story, but the recording of the actors is so bad that it distracts you from the story, we most likely will pass on the film. However, there are several films we’ve approved for screening that have flaws, but the overall effect of the film is so interesting we think it should be seen. And, yes, this is a judgement call.

In general, there are three things we look for in machinima submitted to us;

1. Is the film technically sound?

-This means that the story makes sense, the editing furthers the story and that there are no major tech problems like bad recordings, low fps, too dark lighting, and bad acting (to name a few)

2. Does the film show originality?

-The Expo looks for originality in selecting our films. What this means is that if the film is a familiar re-hash of something we’ve seen before, it will probably have a harder time getting selected.
We want the films we select to be unique and unusual, so that the people who come to the Expo to see our screening selections will see something new and imaginative.

3. Does the film show talent?

-In a similar vein to originality, talent is a factor we use in making our selections. Talent is hard to define, but you know it when you see it. It’s that special ability by someone to tell a story or
create images that are so compelling and unique, you can’t take your eyes of of them. This is probably the most subject part of the judging process, but we feel we have spent a lot of time
debating the merits of talent in each of these films and that our decisions are good ones.

Finally, at the end of the selection process, we go through the list of films one last time to be sure we haven’t left a film out or including something that really doesn’t merit screening. And since we had 153 films submitted, you can imagine the amount of time it takes to do everything I’ve mentioned here. And at every stage of our judging we always kept an open mind. In fact, there were films added right up to the last second before we announced the screening list.

As far as the films submitted to the jury, we don’t have any say in what they decide. We wanted to find an odd-numbered group of skilled artists (we picked five for our jury) with some members of the group having little or no experience in machinima, but a lot in film (mostly live action). This meant that the judging would not have a machinima bias and would be judged based on being a superior “film” and not just machinima. We feel this is essential in coming up with good judging since none of us favor the popular vote method and all of it’s corruptions.

Once we submit our short list of jury films, and these are films that are of the highest quality both technically and artistically, we give the jury a period of time to weight the merits of each film and then vote. We tally the votes and select the film with the most votes as a Grand Prize winner and the next four films in order of votes are awarded a jury prize. We had several tie breakers last year that the jury had to vote on and considering the quality of this years jury submissions we’ll probably have tie breakers this year. The judges also vote for the Asian film entry.

Let me be clear that we do not discuss the entries with the judges, nor to we contact them about their votes other than to collate them. They are free to make their own decisions apart from anything the screening committee has commented on. No judge has access to the private forum the screening committee uses to comment on films chosen to screen at the Expo.

The process of judging films submitted to us is one we take very seriously. More than any other aspect of the Expo, selecting the films to screen and the jury films is our top priority. Because in the end, panels and discussions are interesting, but it’s the films that we are all most excited about. If one person comes to the Expo, watches our screening reel or jury reel and is inspired to go out and create their own film, then all of our efforts will have been worth it.