Judging

A forum for sharing views on the art of film, video and AV sequence making as well as on competitions, judging and festivals.
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col lamb
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Location: Preston, Lancashire

Judging

Post by col lamb »

A few months ago I posted the following in the results 2013 thread.
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Its now October and the new Club season is in full swing.

As I wanted to have the club members try something different and rather than just sit and watch one movie after another I suggested that we have a critique evening looking at BIAFF movies, scoring them, analyzing them and considering what we could individually learn from the viewings that we could put to good effect in improving our own movies. So during the summer I downloaded a number of movies that were shown at the BIAFF 2013 event and we have so far made an evening and a half looking through the movies and discussing the merits of them. The movies downloaded were 2, 3, 4 stars and quite a few of the diamonds.

Using Tom Hardwicks very good article in FVM on what makes good movie as a guide, all the members read the article before starting to watch the movies.

After watching each of the movies the club members then gave each movie their own star rating and then the actual BIAFF rating was revealed and discussion continued.

In nearly every case the club members scored the movies lower that the BIAFF award.

Exceptions being, The Egg which club members scored higher and Mindbreak which should have been the best in the show as club members thought that it was far superior to Present From The Past.

One movie did create quite a lot of discussion in that it was acknowledged as taking a lot of work to video and edit but at 5* it was rated two stars higher than deserved, in fact all but two of the audience were asking for it to be terminated early, I'll not state the movie concerned, that is for you folks to look at them and come to your own conclusions.

So overall it is proving to be a very good exercise within the club and one that I am hoping will get our members making better movies and even entering them into BIAFF.
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We will no doubt repeat the evening next Sept/Oct using the 2014 movies.

Next time I'd like to get as close to the BIAFF criteria as possible.

So what is the judging criteria this year?

What are the sample movies used?

As a side issue how are the BIAFF judges selected?
Col Lamb
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fraught
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Re: Judging

Post by fraught »

I think the judging criteria should be published for all entrants to see, so that they know what is looked for in a 1, 2, 3, etc Star Awarded film. Seems only fair.

As for the sample movies, i think that would be unfair to reveal. If you had a film awarded a 1 star, and then found out it was being used as an example... you might be a little angry about it.

As for how the Judges are selected, i couldn't tell you. I'm sure the Competition Officer could answer this?
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col lamb
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Re: Judging

Post by col lamb »

A month later results are out and na-dah, nothing, zilch, zero.

Where is the judging criteria?
Col Lamb
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Dave Watterson
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Re: Judging

Post by Dave Watterson »

I have often written about this - and last night posted in another thread about judges. But here goes:
  • BIAFF judging requires at least 18 people. They work in groups of three which change every 90 minutes or so. (Except for the final jury who only see films sent up to them from the other panels. They remain consistent for the whole judging weekend.)

    They need to include people from most of the IAC regions, since so far as possible people do not judge work from their own region.

    They have to be willing to give up a long weekend, Friday evening to Sunday late afternoon, to watch films and then to write crits over the next ten days or so.

    They have to be willing to pay their own travel costs to wherever the judging takes place. In recent years that has been in the North East of England. Meals and overnight accommodation are paid for by BIAFF - but people who cannot get home on Sunday evening have to pay for the overnight on Sunday.

    Above all they have to be people considered reliable judges by the Competition Officer or those in the Council and the Regions whose advice he seeks.

    That means having the ability to assess films, and to express their views well on paper.

    It means not being prejudiced on any grounds ... no matter the film subject or source. Films may turn up on all sorts of themes which some people simply cannot view dispassionately: rape, violence, cruelty to animals and so on.
That gives some background.

I do not know who the judges were this year apart from Mike Shaw and Geoff Harmer who have written elsewhere on the forum. The full list will be in the BIAFF brochure. Only David Newman, the Competition Officer, knows exactly why each person was chosen.

The choice of "standard setting" films is also made by him. As Geoff has said it might be cruel to identify them. By the way the judges do not always agree with the ratings the Competition Officer thinks they should get! If they disagree: the judges rule.

BUT ABOVE ALL ... ALL JUDGING IS MORE ART THAN SCIENCE ... IT IS IMPRECISE

I have mentioned elsewhere that some films which earned Gold Medals and special awards at UNICA (the world film festival) did not rate so highly at BIAFF. Any one film may get a range of ratings in different contests, partly depending on what else is taking part and partly on the judges concerned.

Rather than worry too much about the detail and mechanics of judging, let's enjoy the movies, form our own opinions of their quality and rejoice that there is such a festival left in Britain.
Mike Shaw

Re: Judging

Post by Mike Shaw »

The criteria for each star rating is well defined - you'll find a précis of that on the website along with the films awarded each rating.

As Dave says (somewhere), when judging, one has to completely forget one's own preferences, likes, opinions, and use the criteria laid down. I may loathe films about steam trains say, but it wouldn't stop me giving one a 5 star rating if it ticked all the boxes.

These ratings are really only a guide for our personal satisfaction and ego. Our egos are easily punctured.

The best judges are an audience - I always think an audience's reaction is a good guide to its 'rating'. If one of my movies gets just a smattering of polite applause, then whatever the judges may say, it's a dud in my book, and needs more work.
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