Judging Process

Our goal is not to grant a lot of awards to everyone but rather to support creativity, originality and hard work to driven vidders.

We just want to state that judging will be done on the vidder's input into the video and his capacity to use initial material and take it to another level. The original material may be awesome but it's not what's being judged here.

1. Judging Criteria

Overall, here are the criteria that'll be taken into consideration in the evalutation of the entries :

  • Techniqual Quality (Editing) :
  • Originality of Concept
  • Effects/Cinematography/Visual Appeal : quality in the visual components. How the effects enhance or distract the video...
  • Creativity
  • Emotionnal Resonance
  • Clip selections
  • Story Flow /Execution : Structure, pace, motion
  • Enhancement of Song/Music
  • Entertainement Value
  • Judge's impression (only for judge's choice awards)
We'll try to be as objective as possible and our own taste in music and fandom won't matter in the judging process. Except for the Judge's choice category.

2. Judging Process

Basic Evaluation - First Cuts

I usually download and watch every video as they're submitted. It allows for this part of judging to begin as the round goes on and to get familiar with all the videos of the round. Each video is being evaluated for its own technicalities. If the video match the expected technical standards, I nominate the video in the adapted categories. The others don't make the cut.

What's expected of videos to pass the cut ?

  • Choice of clips isn't arbitrary
  • Basic Editing Desmonstration
  • Coherance between Music and footages used
Mainly, we expect the video to be designed according to a specific insight by the vidder. It doesn't have to be perfect but it has to shows a certain amount of mastering skills in the video making.
Videos with extensive talky faces or extremmely long clips that don't acknowledge the music dynamic will rarely make the cut.

Depending on the level of editing, narrative and criterias listed above, some videos will onoly be nominated into Runner up categories...

General Judging

General Judging begins when the round closes.
The remaining videos are judged against each other in the categories they were nominated into. The categories that'll be awarded for the round are determined at this point depending on the number entries for each categorie. I do not want to grant arbitrary awards for the heck of it and each category will only be awarded if a fair number of videos are to be judged in it.

One category will be judged after another on different criteria depending on its own requirements (see category description). The Best Video award will be given to the video that excels in most vidding criteria listed above.

Additionnal Recognitions

Additionnal awards may be granted on a round to round basis depending on the entries.

Entertainement Fest Award

This award is granted in case of fantastically made vids that simply don't fit the regular round usual criteria. More entertaining than anything else, fun and most of the time lighter than the usual vids. Generally happy, but not necesseraly, those vids's focus is more to please the audience.

Award of Excellence for

It happens that a video excels in a criteria that doesn't fall into the usual categories, may it be in innovation, concept, artist vision or exceptionnal meta subtext etc. In that case, an additionnal award will be granted to the concerned video for its extraordinary achievement in a specific subject.

Honorable Mentions

Videos that didn't win but came close to being Runner Up will be re-evaluated between each other to eventually select a set of deserving "Honorable Mentions". The video elligible for this award, are the ones that came close to being awarded but weren't due to high competition. It can be a video that almost got a runner-up award, or it can be a very well made video that couldn't be awarded because the winning videos were more accomplished. Honorable Mentions are not granted automatically and their number is variable.

Judge Nod

At this point of judging, there's always a bunch of remaining unawarded videos diplaying the same kind of This part of judging "Judge Nod" could also be given to still notable videos (that passed the 1st cut) that couldn't compete with the other entries but still displayed some promissing qualities. This "Nod" would be given an an encouragement for the vidder.

Judge Choice

Finally, one video will be selected on a totally subjective way to fall into the "Judge's Choice" awards.

3. Reviews

We will grant a small review for every award providing a certain insight on why the video won in the specific category and what were the points I really enjoyed or liked. We will NOT send out a review for every video entered in the every round. You can always email us to ask for specific insight or advice on your vid, but we really cannot promise anything detailed, just because of lack of time. But we can try on demand.

I hope this will give you some insight on what's gonna be judged here. If you have any question or concern, please feel free to email me and ask. :)