Judging

The Panel of Judges

The judging panel will consist of Eventide and a handful of his friends and associates numbering somewhere around five to ten. The majority of the panel will be non-brickfilmers, though a few will have some stop motion experience. The judges will be instructed to focus on the storytelling skill of the film. The instructions that will be given to the judges follow:

As a judge, you are asked to view each contest entry and then rank each film, best film first, according to your own opinions and the judging criteria detailed below. The judging criteria are meant to be a general guide to sorting your opinions and not a rigid algorithm to follow. You may enjoy a particular film for reasons you can't quite put into words. This is ok; rank it above the others.

Film is a medium for telling stories. A story may entertain, spark the imagination, or pass on wisdom. Every element of a film should serve to advance the story. Keep this in mind when judging the films; the quality of the story and the filmmaker's skill in telling the story should be your primary element of judgement.

Secondary considerations include the technical skill of animation, cinematography, sound, and music. Stop motion animation is produced by stringing togther thousands of photographs of still figures moved in small increments; note the quality of the illusion of motion, the smoothness or jerkiness. The choice of camera angles, lighting, and positions of objects relative to the camera, the cinematography, should support the story aesthetically. Dialogue and various sound effects should serve to draw the viewer into the story; keep in mind that some amount of static and poping may be difficult to eliminate on a small budget. Music sets the tone of scene and should also add to the story being told. Be lenient with music; composing one's own music is encouraged but recognized as difficult compared to borrowing commercially available music which some films may opt to do. Consider the choice of music and the tone it sets rather than the skill of the musician and quality of recording.

Ballot Tallying

Ballots will be tallied using the Ranked Pairs method. To prepare your ballot, list the films in order with the best film coming first. Ties are allowed; simply list each tied film at the same level, but make an effort to avoid ties, particulary among your top choices. Films omitted from the ballot will be taken as tied for the last position. An example ballot is shown. Film Green is this judge's winner, and films Red and Orange are ranked equally.

1. Film Green
2. Film Blue
3. Film Red, Film Orange
4. Film Yellow

The Ranked Pairs method will be used to tally the ballots. In summary, Ranked Pairs looks at each pair of films A and B, noting on each ballot which was ranked higher. If more ballots ranked A above B than ranked B above A, then A is considered to be preferable to B. Each pair is examined thusly until a logical chain is formed such as A over B, B over C, and C over D, with A then being declared the winner.

Contradictions are possible: a majority of ballots may simultaneously rank A over B, B over C, but C over A. In the case of such a contradiction, the stronger preference is taken; if a large majority prefers A over B and B over C, thus indirectly preferring A over C, while a small majority directly prefers C over A, the strong A over B and B over C preferences will not be broken by the weak C over A contradiction.

A film that is preferred to all others with no contradictions is known as the Condorcet winner, and Ranked Pairs is a Condorcet method for tallying votes. See condorcet.org/rp for a thorough explanation.

A tie for a prize position in the final tally will be broken by the ranking's on my own ballot. Note that this does not mean my top ranked film would then win, merely my preference between those films tied for first.

Results will be announced as soon as their decision is available.