IAC DISCUSSION FORUMS

Mike and Geoff ... do be sure to raise your questions about the gradings at the Friday session ... if you two are both out of step I bet others will be too.

Sounds like Mike and I are closely matched with our test... will have to discuss how close we were! I'm pretty sure all will be fine, there are regulations on what to do if there is a disagreement... although I'm hoping that doesn't happen.

Yes - I am assuming that we both thought the same one was placed too high (???)

I have a bit of a problem at the moment - my IExplorer won't open.

So how are you here, you ask. Fortunately I had Firefox on my machine and I used that. But I have lost 50% of my 6,000,000 bookmarks, and of course, its the 50% I use most. Sod's law.

Nightmare. I shall have to try to figure out FireFox now.

Yes, the 'rules' are pretty well defined, but even so, you'll be surprised at how different some of the assessments can be during a judging session.

I have expected to get a report from Fraught/ Geoff about what happened at the BIAFF judging session. Not of course any specifics, but thoughts and opinions on how the weekend went. But I suppose you are busy working your way through all the judges critiques sheets. I have heard second hand from several past judges as to how it is all done and articles have appeared in past issues of FVM, but as a new judge this year perhaps you can enlighten us? Did you enjoy it, though I suspect it is very hard work and tiring.

All of that Ken!

This was my second year at it, and I have to say it was vastly better than before as far as I am concerned: most importantly, for many of the films - between 1/3 and 1/2 I guess - we had DVDs to take away to refer to while writing the assessments. You have no idea what a difference that makes - it doesn't affect the decisions/ratings/comments at all, but as a reminder, absolutely invaluable. Also, this year I found the notes other judges made to be far more organised and better detailed than before - and that is because of the new assessment notes sheet design, thanks I understand, to Jill Lampert. Well done to Jill for that!

Each judge watches something between 50-60 movies over the weekend, and has to write up about 1/3 of those. Remembering what each individual film was about in detail is helped considerably by having the memory jogging movie to hand!

Now ... I am waiting to see how my own film has done ... you won't believe what a tight lipped bunch of people judges can be!

Hi Ken,

I had a really good time thanks, was good to meet everyone and it was a great experience all round... but as you say, i'm still trying to write up the comments! I don't want to rush them as they are quite important to those that entered, but writing them is currently taking up most of my spare time. So not much time to procrastinate on the web!
I have until this weekend to finish them, so i'm writing a couple up each night. Nearly there! Then i can tell you all about it.

Hi Mike and Fraught. Thank you for your feedback. It will be interesting to hear more about it when the critiques are completed. Perhaps one of you might write a piece for the FVM at some point?

I have tried to do it a variety of ways for different judging sessions. For our own competition which we ran 5 times, I continually referred back to the tapes and discs after the judging when writing up comments because there is so much to take in when watching a film for the first time.
For when I was the guest for the Guersney Lily one, I wrote the comments up while we were still on the Island as there were extra days added on our stay after the judging was finished. For some of the others we had tapes and DVDs here at home for checking and reviewing points again.
The live sessions such as Burnley where you watch...mark/ comment../ then give immediate results to the audience are the really tough ones, very nerve wracking and the film makers are usually there waiting for your comments....

Watching 15 to 30 films at one go is no easy task. So well done and glad that it seems to have gone well. We just need to hear the results now.

Don't hold your breathe for the results!

As Fraught says, judges are supposed to finish their crits and send them in this weekend. Then David Newman (Competition Officer) has to collate them, check that the rating he was given at the weekend agrees with what is on the crits (not always the case if the writer did not keep good notes of what was agreed ... and the decision at the judging session is the one which counts.) He will also try to skim-read the comments just in case something inappropriate has been said ... unlikely, but worth checking.

He will also have been working on the programme plans for BIAFF ever since the judging session. He then has to assemble the crits and post them out. If the film is scheduled for BIAFF he has to include a letter to that effect saying when it will be screened and what provision there is for the film maker to attend.

Bear in mind that he is holding down a responsible full-time job while doing this as well as working for his IAC Region.

Once the majority of entrants have received their crits and in some cases a letter saying that their work will be shown in Bedford ... the list is released for the website and will appear on http://www.theiac.org.uk

I totally agree with Ken's view that the best judging experience is when you have the films at home to watch in comfort and without much pressure. You make a decision based on the initial screening but watch again when writing comments to get the details correct.

The only big plus for "live judging" as happens at many clubs, the Burnley Festival and most festivals in other parts of Europe ... is that when the day is done, so is your work! You do not have to spend a couple of week writing reviews!

Dave Watterson wrote: The only big plus for "live judging" as happens at many clubs, the Burnley Festival and most festivals in other parts of Europe ... is that when the day is done, so is your work! You do not have to spend a couple of week writing reviews!

Not always true: When Fraught was good enough to judge our annual Inter-Club Competition last year, not only did he have to judge on the night but also write up notes afterwards! Despite this he has very generously agreed to judge again for us this year.

And i'm done! Phew!!! That took longer than i thought it would take!

The whole experience has been great and one that i would definitely do again (if asked back!).

I was a first round judge, and the first screening kicked off at 9am on the Saturday. There were 6 screening rooms across the hotel, each having 3 judges and a projectionist. Each session lasts 1 hour 30 mins, within that time we would watch anything between 3 and 7 films. Also, there was a 7 minute break between each film to complete our notes, discuss the film, agree a rating and finally agree who would write the critique up. These moments were often interesting with judges debating why one film should receive a different award to what the other two judges thought. Divided opinion was fortunately rare, and i didn't witness any films move on to a different judging panel. After each 90 minute session, we would break for 30 minutes to stretch our legs and grab a tea/coffee and a biscuit. This repeated itself all through the day and into the evening, with breaks for lunch and dinner. The final session finished at 10pm!
As a first round judge i continued the screenings on the Sunday from 9am until 3pm in the afternoon... where i was then free to go! The final adjudicators had to stay on... no idea what time they finished!

Obviously the fun didn't stop there. For every screening i sat, i would walk away with 1 or 2 critiques to complete. Sometimes i had a DVD to take away (which as Mike said was invaluable!), sometimes i just had to rely on memory and the combined notes from all the judges. I'm not a fast writer, so compiling the Judges Comments has taken me just over a week to complete and send back to David. This was the toughest element of the whole process, i want my comments to be constructive rather than destructive. Hope i've got the balance right.

So as you can see it was a very busy weekend, all superbly organised and run by David Newman and Linda Gough.

TimStannard wrote:Not always true: When Fraught was good enough to judge our annual Inter-Club Competition last year, not only did he have to judge on the night but also write up notes afterwards! Despite this he has very generously agreed to judge again for us this year.

Cheers Tim. I have to say i prefer to give live comments. I like to meet the film makers face to face and openly discuss their project.

My results came in this morning... I had 2 films entered, one result i was very pleased with, the other not quite so.

Having been a judge at the event, i have been scratching my head a little over the result, but i'm not going to moan! I'm on the other side of the fence this year! LOL

Results out

I wonder if we are going to have a lot of unhappy punters again?

A lot of pride got dented last year!

"A lot of pride got dented last year!"

I was astonished and so disappointed last year that my film DAWN only achieved 3 stars, which felt like a real setback after achieving four star awards during the preceding four years. Many people had told me that it was the best film I'd ever made. So much seems to depend on the luck of which judges see the film.

I'm bracing myself for this year's results which presumably will arrive any day now. I submitted three films this year and they are the best I can do. Here's hoping for at least one five-star award! I've always wanted a film shown on the Sunday at BIAFF...

My heart will be beating fast as I open that envelope...

My pride has been dented this year if i'm honest. I thought i put in a really strong film. My short Karen's Room won the Teign Cup last year, as well as winning Best Non-Professional Film at NOFI 2013 in LA in December. I thought i was oncourse for a 5 star or maybe even my first Diamond (wishful thinking!)... I got a 4 Star. I know I should still be happy with that, but I honestly thought i had a cracker on my hands.

I still got a 5 Star though... my feature film Addict got it, so i'm really happy with that. I'm also pleased that the film is going to be shown at BIAFF, which considering it's content is surprising.