IAC DISCUSSION FORUMS

In an earlier posting Ken Wilson said: "My real worry though is this idea
of judging the whole competition
in ONE single weekend. fatigue is bound to be a factor and how can the judges
be fair and objective if they are exhausted. I know finance is a consideration
with hotel room hire, but I think that this policy should be re-thought before
next time!!"

Nothing has changed in the way the competition was judged which would make
the judges any more or less tired.

The working hours of the judges have not changed.

Going back a few years one group of preliminary judging teams sorted out
the gradings: blue - silver on one weekend. On a later weekend another group
of judging teams went through the silvers and sorted out the golds. Then
on a later weekend the final panel met to view all the golds and award specific
prizes.

This year the preliminary teams did all the grading from blue - gold in one
go. The final panel began their work 2 hours after the others and ended
2 hours after them. That meant that as the prelim teams sifted out golds
they could be passed along to the final panel.

There is a feeling that the rankings were more erratic than usual. Maybe,
it is always difficult to quantify that. If so that is because there were
a number of new judges finding their feet - you always need fresh blood -
and the prelim panels had to consider the whole gamut from blue to gold each
time.

So the single weekend operation was not in itself a problem.

Dave W

"Dave Watterson" <forums@theiac.org.uk> wrote:

"Did you know that in the UK the word "Belgium" was briefly used as an expletive
thanks to a TV-show called "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Zaphod
Beeblebrox, a character in the story, mutters : "It's Belgium, man !"
Yes, Dave, but also "Denmark" is still used as an expletive (or perhaps I
do not understand the word "expletive" very well), and this thanks to Shakespeare's
play "Hamlet", in which a character mutters : "There's something rotten in
the state of Denmark". The British attacked the Europeans already in the
17th century ! Why do they do that ? In 1997 my brand new car with a European
number plate was set on fire in a protected railway car park in the peaceful
Kentish village of Staplehurst, the village where Charles Dickens escaped
from a train accident. My English friend Brian Higbee picked me up and thanks
to his friendliness I still continued loving England. (teasing Willy) To
be honest : I know that you are not against Europe, Dave. On the contrary
! And I also know that you find that we are one family ! And cars may also
be set on fire in Belgium by Belgians ! When I am in England I always read
bad things about Brussels in English newspapers, but that's something else.
That's the game of politics... and yes, perhaps there is something rotten
in the State of Belgium. (serious Willy)
Today I've received the judges' comments. I agree with what your wife Jan,
Richard Curry and Kay Bamford-Burnwell have said about "Faithfully Yours",
the Dickens film : "Some of the sequences were too static. Having to mime
seemed to limit the emotion the actors could convey and made the film drag
..." I must admit ... "Dickens" did not deserve a "gold award". Perhaps
it's also because we could not find a good British actor in Belgium. I could
find some British colleagues in the European school for other roles, but
Dickens ... Imagine that Dickens had to speak Dutch in our film. That would
have been shocking in my opinion. We, Europeans, always have disadvantages
when taking part in British or American Film festivals. We must find good
English native speakers/actors or we must subtitle our films which is very
risky (linguistic misinterpretation !) unless we can find English friends
who are willing to correct our mistakes. Receiving the judges's comments
always gives me a stimulus to take part in BIAFF. For my "Sensual Art" for
instance I received a bronze and I was very happy reading that Richard Curry,
Valrie Ellis and Ron Prime enjoyed my "one minute film". It's interesting/fascinating
to know whether the English can appreciate Belgian humour, because British
humour is something unique !
Best British friends, do not always complain about judging the IAC competition.
There we go again : ... In Belgium judges are asked to watch more than 100
films one after an other in a few days. They only get three minutes to write
something down. They announce their results immediately and that's it. Is
that the reason why some wellknown and charismatic film makers in Belgium
always have good results ? In Belgium bronze = 60-64%, bronze plus = 65-69%,
etc. The film makers do not receive any judges's comments at all... and of
course they get very frustrated by that. IAC-participants are spoilt !(happy/frustrated
Willy)