Short Cinematic Contest #1

[Apheraz Lucent]

Glimpse of Life

Contestants are required to create a short cinematic which envelops a sense or meaning of life, whether it will be expressed through emotions, war, tragedy or something else that comes to your mind. The cinematic must have a message that can be felt, a warning or a note. Both realistic and magical themes are allowed.

• No submission may violate any of the site rules.
• If a submission does not follow the map submission rules, the creators will be disqualified.
• All submissions must follow the current theme. If any model does not fit, host of the contest or moderators will tell you as soon as possible as to avoid confusion.
• Your submission must be posted before the deadline.
  • The file in the appropriate format.
• You must show at least one unfinished preview of your submission (WIP), before the deadline, as a proof that it’s yours.
• Judges can't participate in this contest.
  • Any user can apply for being a judge. Host of the contest and Arena Moderators will test a user who isn't known for his/her respect in reviewing this type of maps, and overall, contests, to check his/her capability of doing such a responsible thing.
• Your final submission must be bug free.
• Imports may be used in the map, however they must all be credited. Imports from other games are not allowed.
• Your map must be entirely created by yourself. Voice actors, testers and reviewers, as well as resource creators are free to be (ab)used.
  • Contest specific rules:
  • Cinematic must be shorter than ten minutes, and longer than two.
  • Imports can be used, but only up to 30 MB.
  • Map has to be made in single player.
  • No campaigns are allowed.
  • Final entry and WIPS have to be unprotected.

• First Place: 50 reputation points and your entry on the award icon
  
• Second Place: 35 reputation points and an award icon
  
• Third Place: 20 reputation points and an award icon

• Available slot - ask us if you want to judge.
• Available slot - ask us if you want to judge.
• Available slot - ask us if you want to judge.

Checking Field	Explanation	Scoring
Theme:	Your cinematic has to follow the theme, but both ways (realistic and magical) are allowed for creation. Map should have at least one message which can be seen through the cinematic. Tension, unexpected reversals and story knots can increase your score, as well as Drama and the cinematic that can make you think about it aferwards. Plain and unfinished stories, without any subliminal message(s) will decrease your score. Entries can be ended, or left with an open ending for watcher to complete in his/her mind. Both ways score the same; it's up to execution.	Up to 15 points to score in this section.
Aesthetics:	How the whole cinematic and it's visuals looks like. This includes, but it's not limited to, terrain, doodads and destructible placement and manipulation, fog, lightning, weather effects, cameras and their applicable duties, animations and timing. Using custom resources can increase your score if well and properly used, and decrease it if it lacks a lot, too. If you pick a realistic theme, stick with it to the ending, to avoid negative scoring.	Up to 40 points to score in this section.
Story:	The effective originality, fun-factor and execution are main requirements. These sub-checkers can both increase or decrease your score, based on their execution, proper usage, creativity and originality: Knotted and tangled stories, character development, special effects, animations, etc.	Up to 25 points to score in this section.
Story Message:	Was it good? Was it easily seen? Too easy? Too hard? Did it followed the theme? Was it completely random? Is it linked with the story? Has it made watchers think about it? Is the cinematic worth of being watched again?	Up to 20 points to score in this category.

• 70% of the winner shall be determined by the contest's appointed judges.
• 30% of the winner shall be determined by the results of a public poll.

• The contest shall begin on 15th of December, 2011. and conclude on 15th of January, 2012., 23:59 PM, GMT

 

[Aeroblyctos]

I would join.

 

[Pharaoh_]

This is interesting. Really vague, but I would like to see how people will interpret it into their cinematics.

Final entry and WIPS have to be unprotected.

This doesn't have to be a rule in my opinion. You end up judging the visual part, not imports and/or coding. If a judge will want to confirm the legality of an import, they can ask the contestant himself. Plus, some people do so, to decrease the file size.

The key of this contest is for the contestant to pick a message and present it with a direct or indirect way. However, it comes third in the Scores' list.

Map should have at least one message which can be seen through the cinematic.
Plain and unfinished stories, without any subliminal message(s) will decrease your score.

These should be within the "Story Message" description, otherwise people will be confused, regarding the differences between "Story Message" and "Theme" aspects.

Remember, it's a cinematic contest, it's easy to ask these things from a Short Story Contest and it's hard to request from people to create it in a visual environment considering the lack of models with expressions on their faces. I also don't see why Drama is said to increase the score of somebody. Doesn't this force them to move accordingly, leading to a prefixed atmosphere?

 

[Apheraz Lucent]

Well, I was thinking that, if you have tangled stories, you should untangle then in an interesting way. Drama is one of them. I just copied the rules and tweaked them here and there, so sorry for possible errors I made.

 

[Pharaoh_]

No problem, I didn't accuse you of anything, I love it that you take the time to do it and keep people motivated. :]

But yeah, it definitely needs some tweaking. About the Drama, you could avoid mentioning it in the description, sounds too official and most likely people get easily affected by the rules, especially when they will score more. The rules become too "guiding".

 

[Apheraz Lucent]

Well, I'll wait for some opinions, and then we will see what we can do. We really haven't got this type of contest recently, and I would like to participate in one.

 

[TheWhiteWolf]

Might join, I have a very good idea about what I could make.


Can I play the same music trough the whole cinematic?

Will I lose points for not playing sound when someone talks?

Will I gain points if I do?

Does the map have to be less than 8mb big?

Will I lose points for showing emotions textually?
For instance:

Emma: (crying) Please, don't go! Come back!

 

[Apheraz Lucent]

You can play the same music through the whole cinematic, but just be careful to not make the cinematic too monotone and same. Use faster music to express rage, and slower for tears.

You won't loose points for the lack of voice acting, but it can damage your map in a such way that it can look empty and deaf. Since voice acting counts as a visual, it can increase your score.

You can create a map of any size. None or tons of imports - it's your choice. The way you used them scores.

Your points for showing emotions textually. Some judges can find it hard to be imagined/red, so you can get infracted points in visuals. I recommend voice acting or proper punctuation =)

 

[Aeroblyctos]

I don't recommend voice acting... So far no custom cinematic have done that properly... Shame, really.