pouët.net

Bitfilm Festival 2008

category: general [glöplog]
Before your the knee-jerk reaction, I'd like to ask for a bit of time to explain my sudden change in stance about things. (IOW, tl;dr shall follow)

I've been known as a vocal critic of Bitfilm in the last few years, and I've listed many reasons on why the organizing for the festival was way too disrespecting towards the scene over the course of three years, and I admit I have warned people collectively to be aware of the possible consequences of entering the festival. I admit to all of those.

Still, this year I'd like to ask for the opposite - please consider entering your demos to this years Bitfilm, because things have changed a bit.

A few weeks ago I've received a request from sTEELER to get in contact with some of the Bitfilm organizers, because there was apparently a massive change in the management, and they've trying to make up for their past blunders. After a few emails, they offered me the role of part of the organizing team, being responsible for the demo/realtime category, which I accepted in the hopes of having someone "in", who can at least take responsibility for something if it happens to break.

What this exactly means is that this year will be probably the first year where a demoscener is actually having a say in things. While I can't personally guarantee that things will be 100% perfect this time, so far I've been assured that extra care will be taken to avoid the fiascos that stuck out like a sore thumb in recent years. While this might sound like an excuse, all I know is that I've been given an opportunity to have a watchful eye over those things, the chance to kick and scream if something is not done right. (In other words, responsibility is now partly mine and entering Bitfilm can simply decide on your trust in me - which is not a good start, but oh well.)

The deadline for entries is the 1st of March, 2008. (Two weeks in other words.) The actual festival shall be opened in Stuttgart, in combination with the International Animation Festival and fmx/08, and the closing event shall be in Hamburg in July. The prize is 1500 Euros and a Bitfilm-robot statuette. (Cute, actually.)

On a personal note, I'd like to point out the immense potential of film festivals like this; it's a different kind of exposure than the scene, and it can be really fruitful, if you grab on to the right opportunities.

If there are any questions, feel free to ask.
added on the 2008-02-16 14:06:17 by Gargaj Gargaj
im having similar position role in an animation festival in portugal (gargaj: animatu, where chaos theory was submitted last year), which sucks since i cant enter demos i did into the competition. i should really start bugging other people to submit entries in a near future. its nice way to expose demoscene area to the digital art curious.
added on the 2008-02-16 14:10:41 by psenough psenough
well, you can enter bitfilm then! :D
added on the 2008-02-16 14:11:31 by Gargaj Gargaj
why bother, debris and lifeforce will get all the attention anyways
added on the 2008-02-16 14:21:13 by psenough psenough
have to talk with visu and elfh see if they're interested
added on the 2008-02-16 14:22:19 by psenough psenough
Quote:
If there are any questions, feel free to ask.

Is it possible to submit a musicdisk? :D
added on the 2008-02-16 14:27:32 by xernobyl xernobyl
Gargaj: You are such a drama queen...
added on the 2008-02-16 14:46:50 by Zplex Zplex
like you wouldn't believe ;)
added on the 2008-02-16 14:51:33 by Gargaj Gargaj
to ps: what's the deadline of animatu?
added on the 2008-02-16 14:55:09 by xernobyl xernobyl
xernobyl: somewhere near summer, event is only in october, thats why i havent started announcing it yet, but i will once im done with this gig and a couple chapters from the thesis
added on the 2008-02-16 15:14:59 by psenough psenough
that very nice http://www.ageia.com/flash/heavyrain.swf

do you know where to find the exe ?
added on the 2008-02-16 15:27:44 by med med
Med, it's running on a PS3, so there is no exe. There's a really nice 1920x1080 movie around tho where you can clearly see all the rendering artifacts and the utterly wrong lighting model :)
added on the 2008-02-16 15:28:44 by kb_ kb_
ok it's from a game, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_Rain

thanx kb
added on the 2008-02-16 15:31:26 by med med
oh the violins for the drama :D
added on the 2008-02-16 15:44:43 by psenough psenough
The more realistic it looks, the faker it looks to your brain. It starts looking scary...
added on the 2008-02-17 01:55:57 by xernobyl xernobyl
xernobyl, do your research and don't forget the obligatory Wikipedia link, kthxbye :)

Back to topic: If you're hesitating to submit your stuff because Gargaj is a few hundred miles too far away from the Bitfilm core team for you, you can be sure they'll get some well-deserved fuckings from a Hamburg inhabitant in case they screw up. :)
added on the 2008-02-17 05:30:12 by kb_ kb_
didn't know you were THAT desperate...
added on the 2008-02-17 06:38:37 by ryg ryg
Actually, kb has a point. There IS something wrong with that girl : the face is utterly still, the mouth, my god, the mouth is... weird. It's all very disturbing. Plus all the typical motion capture flaws (monolithic shoulders, harms hanging under gravity like there's no muscular feedback, very awkward gait, and straight spine).
Aside from that, the scene works very well as a story, is fun, and since the human mind can get used to anything (even, thank God, to awkward-looking girls) that's probably why public welcomed the performance.
added on the 2008-02-17 10:55:00 by TomS4wy3R TomS4wy3R
That girl in "heavy rain" looks like blade runner's Rachel, isn't it?
added on the 2008-02-17 11:55:27 by soolta soolta
thanks god someone (kb) has mentioned it. The girl from heavy rain has an extremely primitive lighting model but no PS3 fanboy seems to see that. If they've spent so many cash/time on that motion capture hardware/software they could spent some more on a 3D scanner to do some face stuff similar to what nVidia has shown.

As for the bitfilm:

Oh no Gargaj is in the org team - he won't let us in :P
added on the 2008-02-17 13:13:58 by bonzaj bonzaj
now we all know that chaos theory will win.
</sarcasm>
added on the 2008-02-17 13:33:57 by rmeht rmeht
Quote:
I'd like to ask for a bit of time to explain my sudden change in stance about things

Quote:
they offered me the role of part of the organizing team, being responsible for the demo/realtime category, which I accepted

best regards, reed's summary services inc.
added on the 2008-02-17 14:49:00 by reed reed
That's a valuable service you're providing there reed
kb: thanks. I didn't know what that was called.
added on the 2008-02-17 16:06:24 by xernobyl xernobyl

login