Introducing our judge for UWOL #6...
 

Our judge for UWOL #6 is multiple award-winning, warm, funny, generous, and remarkably talented...

The judge for UWOL #6 is...

you. Yes, you.

This round, we are trying something a little different, with the players judging the outcome. You will pick you top three films and rank them accordingly. Award 3 points to your winner, 2 to second place, and 1 to third place. Most total points wins.

But that is not all. I want you to write up your comments on your top 3 selections, just as we expect our judges to produce thoughtful commentary. I will publish some of the most interesting commentary, from a range of judges, anonymously, so that we get high-level feedback, not just a winner announcement. As an added feature and incentive, I will throw a free t-shirt to the player-judge who offers the most useful feedback. My hope is to publish a range of comments. The best thing about UWOL is the feedback, and the goal is to get the best possible feedback from you, our esteemed judges.....

This will have the added benefit of re-aligning our contest's values. I have received a lot of feedback that our mission is unclear. This also is your opportunity to help me to re-evaluate and re-align it.

I will only vote in the event of a tie. You will choose the best film.

Meryem, you are something... ...first you force us to be out in totally darkness and then we are going to judge this ourself!!! ;-)

But I see your point, I think this could be a learning process for us too. To be in the judge boot will be a real challenge.
How will you do the voting, in public or by personal email? I think the latter will be the best. Players can then vote for their favorites without exposing their opinion to the public.

This gonna be a real challenge too...

Meryem you're just full of surprises! This could be an excellent idea though.

Gordon Hoffman

Films will go up Monday the 19th (anywhere in the world)...you will have until Sunday the 25th to send me your picks with your comments at: uwol@comcast.net

I'll sift through the comments and post a selection of them, along with the winner by Tuesday the 27th (Colorado time and date). The "best commentary" t-shirt winner will also be announced at that time. I hope to publish a range of comments, and these will all be published anonymously....

Still a work-in-progress on my end!

Meryem, do you mean you will post the comments and the winner by Tuesday the 27th, since we have until the 25th to send them to you?

Anyway, it's an interesting concept for the judging this round. (Isn't this the way the dvchallenge has been judged all the time?)

whoopsy, thanks trond. yes, typo corrected. winner and comments announced on the 27th...

and yes, the DV Challenge is judged this way all of the time. we are going to try it, this once, and see how it goes and see if we like it. and more importantly, we'll see if it alleviates the confusion about what constitutes the judges' criteria for selecting the winner. we will see if there is a collective consciousness or collective consensus about what makes an excellent UWOL film.

Yes, that will be interesting. Hopefully everyone who signed up will take part of the judging.
If this becomes a success, maybe we should have the judging this way once in a while in the future, and an external judge most of the time?

WOW I'm in the jury :)
 

Way to go, Meryem.
This will force us to think otherwise about our films and I think that's a good thing.
Just two question though; feedback treads as usual, or just the top 3 from the jury?
I found a way of pointsetting films on a Danish web site, would it be of interess I posted you this (first I have to translate it to English) as a guideline for us to use judging eachother films?
It tells how to split the judging/pointsetting into; topic/theme, editing, sound etc.

The last question is out of experience from being part of a jury judging youngsters perferming different skills from stage like; piano, rock band, flute, singing, painting, acting, etc. It's very difficult without a kind of precept/template.

I guess we all have to sharpen our pencil this time when we're wathcing/judging the "nightmovies ".

Good luck to all of you.

Geir Inge

In my opinion we need the regular feedback threads, and not only the top 3.
Giving feedback to everyone who complete is a big part of what makes the uwol challenge as fun and interesting as it is today. And it will encourage people to improve their skills based on the feedback we receive, and all of us can learn something new from the feedback..


Geir Inge,
Can you provide a link to the Danish site?

Great idea Meryem....It will be good to see the results and what people make of them, I just hope at the moment I can be part of it.

yes, yes absolutely feedback threads as usual...that's the most important part, hearing from each other and honing our craft based on watching and commenting on each others' films.

geir, i will be sending around an e-mail which will have essentially the same instructions that i have sent the outside judges, with only a few modifications to fit this situation. so yes, you will be receiving something resembling a "template"--but if you have another outside source which lists their judging criteria, maybe you could link it here...it might give us something worth talking about and give me some new ideas.

also, i am going to add another twist. just because it is fun. anyone who signed up for the contest, either shark tanker or finisher, is eligible to comment and win the t-shirt. ONLY FINISHERS ACTUALLY GET TO VOTE FOR THE WINNER, however. but if you want to participate in the commentary and want to put together thoughtful comments and e-mail them in, you can still win the shirt. the idea is not to win prizes, though that is fun, the idea is to help each other learn, and we can all learn from each others' insights. as mentioned previously, all comments will be published anonymously. but more participation is better.

Fun idea! Now this IS a challenge all the way around!

Cat