Make The Cut Still Uploading and it's Past Midnight

[joshuavaliant]

Hi All!

So after a week of nonstop editing, I finally finished my edit for Make The Cut, and I was beyond excited to submit it. Now after almost an hour past submitting it, the upload still has the spinning uploading icon, and it's past midnight, which was the deadline for submission.  I'm very worried, as not only do I not want my days of work to go to waste, but I was really looking forward to seeing how my edit stacked up against everyone else's.

If I submitted before midnight, will it still go through? And if not, is there a secondary way I can get this to who it needs to go to?

Thanks,

Josh Miller

[jerwinvillanueva]

I'm experiencing the same thing, in fact it's still spinning right now. I can't turn off my PC hoping that this will finish anytime soon.

[joshuavaliant]

That's exactly where I'm at. It's already been almost 12 hours so there's no way it's actually still uploading (my internet isnt thaaat bad). I'm guessing once it passed midnight they cut off uploads. I'm going to call on Monday and see if there's still a way I can get this to them.

Where there's a will there's a way!

[eftychiak35773716]

Please, if you can, let us know what they say. I am sure someone will reply here soon, but if you find out beforehand please let us know what we can do!

[joshuavaliant]

If I get an official response I'll definitely let everyone here know. In the meantime if anyone still has the uploading screen active, I suggest screenshotting it for proof of upload.

[eftychiak35773716]

Hi, I had the exact same issue... I uploaded the video and after about an hour the icon was still spinning.. I read some comments here that it might need to refresh and resubmit or try a different browser or pc, but it was about 5mins before the deadline so I was afraid to close the tab in case it was still uploading, since there was no way of knowning the progress of the upload... I left the pc on to keep uploading and went to bed. In the morning the pc had gone to sleep mode and when I turned it back on the page had refreshed on the make the cut home page, where it said the submission deadline had ended. I am not sure whether it uploaded or not, and if not it means that the upload had frozen, but I had no way of knowing that at the time... I hope, like Josh Miller said above that there is a secondary way to send this, because it would be a shame, since from what I can gather this was probably due to the fact that the upload was frozen and we had no way of knowing that!

[kirkr63579225]

I had the same issue.. i clicked upload and then nothing.. no video is uploading, no nothing. I did not know what was going on.  I spent so much time on this, I hope they some how allow those who could not submit due to these issues, submit. 

[MakeTheCutSupport · Accepted solution]

Hi, We are reviewing challenges for a small group of users in uploading by the deadline and will respond to those who have already emailed us in the next 24-48 hours. Stay tuned!

[joshuavaliant]

This is awesome news!!! Thank you so much AdobeMakeTheCut, it's made my day so much better with a sprinkling of hope! And thanks everyone who posted on here with similar concerns, hopefully we will have an answer for you soon!

[jaronn90689307]

Hey y'all,

Good News!

There's hope to those who emailed adobemakethecut@gmail.com in the next 24 hours or 48 hours!

Grateful that they're looking into this matter as I emailed em straight away with the screenshoot proof of me still uploading as well as my final footage edit video when I couldn't upload. 😕

Hope they accept all peeps whom are having problems uploading it.

Let's all just update each other again! Cheers!

Anyway, MakeTheCutSupport has replied this post; Can't upload video to Make The Cut (just scroll all the way down) or through this screenshot.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi JoshuaValient,

I hope that you can get your issue resolved.

I think that there was a big lesson learned here for everyone, as well. In the future, I advise you not to wait until the last moment to turn in work that happens to be on a deadline.

As an editor with 30 years experience, a little trick I play on myself is to set a realistic "personal" deadline well in advance of the actual deadline (perhaps the day before). This allows you to have a version ready to go well before the clock strikes midnight and can avoid the stress you likely felt as you watched a the uploading icon spin and spin.

As a person who was pretty bad with deadlines for far too long, this little trick allowed me to hit every deadline for animation projects I did on two features at Pixar.

Hope that helps you next time.

Good luck,

Kevin

[joshuavaliant]

Hi Kevin,

I couldn't agree with you more, and your words echo that of my college video production professor who taught me much of what I know. I absolutely accept my share of the blame for the predicament I'm in. I should have cut off my editing hours prior to when I did.

If nothing else, this will serve as a good reminder for the future. Even if Adobe decides not to accept my edit, it was great experience, and I've never been more proud of a video I've worked on.

-Josh

[Kevin-Monahan]

Great Josh. Congrats on the edit.

Your prof is a wise man. I can't tell you how heartbreaking it is to have your work be rejected because of time constraints. That's the nature of our business, though, unfortunately. Typically, you only learn this lesson once, when you get fired from a gig for reasons along these lines. It's happened to me and it wasn't even my fault. Some overnight renders failed, so the job went over the deadline. That was the last time I worked for that production house. Ouch.

Kevin

[Kevin-Monahan]

Moving to the Video Lounge.

Thanks,
Kevin

[briceh33643903]

Kevin, you seem like a really stand-up guy with a wealth of experience, but as of right now, at this very moment, all we've heard from Adobe in regards to this issue is moral narratives. Yours.

It's been 48 hours and this an issue that Adobe doesn't have to address. It will go away with time - that's guaranteed. But what I am seeing is that Adobe has many young users, potentially first time users, who took the edit on, spent the time, and were rebuffed at the last moment by an unwieldy website. That's not a reflection on Adobe's software, of which I've been a long time paying customer. Adobe could lose brand loyalty based on just this one instance of being unresponsive to a select few users who through no fault of their own are feeling dissapointed and frustrated right now. I have years of creative capital invested in Adobe file formats and for 15 years now, Adobe has always been on point with customer service for me.

This contest was created to celebrate 25 years of delivering exceptional, reliable products to the pro-video marketplace. Let's not let the failure of a website, because really that's what is at fault here, be the kick-off of Celebrating 25 years of making the cut.

These editors delivered. They accessed the website before the deadline, as shown by the upload screen grabs. They all made the reasonable assumption that they had both the bandwidth and the internet speed to deliver their edits.

The website, bearing Adobe's name, did not. Let's move forward with a celebration that can be enjoyed by all.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Brice,

Adobe could lose brand loyalty based on just this one instance of being unresponsive to a select few users who through no fault of their own are feeling dissapointed and frustrated right now.

I think you and others may be confusing my professional advice as an editor with that of an Adobe Contest supervisor. I am sorry for that confusion.

The "Make the Cut" gmail address is all I was furnished with as far as support regarding uploading content from Adobe marketing. I have no control over the specifics of the contest which is largely handled by agencies and departments which are out of control from traditional support—that's my realm.

Thanks for understanding.

Kevin

[JohnBond85]

Hi Kevin-Monahan,

I wanted to ask you directly because your a labeled as staff for Adobe, and although I appreciate the response from MakeTheCutSupport it's a gmail account.

I understand your position with Adobe, your career experience, and work ethics when working in a production house.

I didn't miss the deadline set by Adobe, I was on time and made with an upload friendly 30mb file. It was the Adobe site that had the issue.  I didn't have a rendering issue that made me go past the midnight deadline, I was in and my file was playing in the upload browser on time. 

The thing that's frustrating about this website issue Adobe had is that many users were affected the whole day not just 11:59 pm. Almost a thousand people have viewed the threads containing people talking about the Adobe site submission error as of today.

I can't speak for everyone but a lot of Adobe's user base is not just professional editors that do this as their job.  A lot of us have day jobs and moonlight any time we get to advancing our craft and learning more despite day jobs, families, hectic schedules etc...

I don't work as an editor by trade, I'd like to someday.  That's why this contest was particularly exciting.

When you work full time, but still sacrifice time away from family and friends to advance your editing in hopes of gaining some recognition.  A chance to showcase your works to other creatives for constructive criticism would be great.

I found out about the contest a week before the deadline.  That's a heck of a deadline to give myself and say you know what I can do it. I haven't cut with Adobe Premiere since version 6.  I knew I could do it though cause of the other great software by Adobe I've been using for close to two decades.  So I took the challenge, I had only a Photography plan with Photoshop.  I used a 5 day trial, because I was already an Adobe CC member.  When that expired I upgraded to a whole new plan to have access to Adobe Premiere which frankly is pricier to for me to have currently. That was a gamble on my part and after spending countless days editing with Adobe Premiere CC I can't even open Final Cut Pro X back up, let alone Avid.

I didn't give myself the challenge of making a 60 sec. edit, even being rusty I had 60+ seconds cut before my free trial finished.  I had a vision for a story and narrative I wanted to see to the end. 

My only wish is that I found out about the contest sooner, but as far as meeting expectations I did everything the Official Rules laid out. Honestly a testament to the work environment Adobe created with Premiere.

When that time came and went by, still today I have the site up with my submission arrow spinning, I emailed Adobe or rather the gmail account for support.  So I truly hope you guys have some sort of fix for Creative Cloud members.

You're the only credentialed representative from Adobe to speak on the matter.  It would be greatly appreciated if you could see what solution was given since we are already passing the 48hrs.

Any info would be greatly appreciated, thank you very much.

Long time Adobe family member,

-John Zebrowski

[phloysy]

I would like to second John, I believe he has raised some valid points.

I understand that the decision to not accept projects of those who underwent uploading issues wasn't made negligently, and I do understand the legal obligations Adobe must upkeep to maintain a fair contest.

We are seeking the same thing, that being a fair contest.

The deciding factor between those who were affected and those who were not affected by the faulty uploading process was entirely arbitrary, thus leading to an unfair acceptance rate.

I find it inappropriate to exclude certain adobe user's who are NOT asking to enter late- but who have suffered errors totally outside of their control.

There are hundreds of contestants whose work will be disregarded due to an error on behalf of the "Make The Cut" uploading process, which had the site been operating properly, would otherwise be totally valid submissions. The issue isn't a late submission, the issue is a malfunction on the receiving end of the upload.

The affected community is not asking for Adobe to re-open submission. We're are seeking equal opportunity.

The bottom line remains, had the site been functioning properly, we would not have been excluded, and if not for any legal obligation, why not show respect for Adobe consumers in honoring their efforts by taking responsibility for having a system that was dysfunctional and taking  recourse by supplying a truly equal opportunity. As of now, hundreds of entrants were randomly denied eligibility, which I can't see how this isn't something Adobe wouldn't WANT to reconcile.

Thank you for reading, I suspect I am not the only one who feels genuinely disserviced, it would be a true indication of that which the values Adobe was founded in if only the choice to support us was made.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Phloysy,

I find it inappropriate to exclude certain adobe user's who are NOT asking to enter late- but who have suffered errors totally outside of their control.

Did you contact the support email adobemakethecut@gmail.com? If not, please do so. I have no control over the process and that is your only option for support on this matter at this time. If you do not receive a response in 72 hours or so, please send me a PM.

Thanks,
Kevin

[phloysy]

Thanks for your reply Kevin.

I wanted to share my edit with this group:

https://www.youtube.com/edit?video_id=bkJratPOHOk&video_referrer=watch

[Heleb]

As with the above comments, I am absolutely devastated at Adobe’s answer. They started to get my hopes up with that two day delay. I had my video on the website half an hour before the deadline, and it still didn’t finish, my internet is very fast so I know this wasn’t the cause. I emailed them 15 minutes before it was up to ask if there was anything they could do to help, to which I didn’t get a response. You’d have thought having a full team on hand at the time of submission would have been pretty crucial.

I worked insanely hard on my edit, made myself ill as I would get in from work after spending all day staring at a screen, to continue to edit all evening. On the final day of submission, I was awake and working non stop for 22 hours. My video was completed 5 hours before the deadline, but I was getting a random export error (to do with the GPU and Lumetri colour panel which seems to be a known problem with no solution that worked for me - I am a video editor by day and have never encountered this problem before). To my relief, I managed to export with half an hour to spare after 4 and a half painful, sleepy hours.

I know there were an awful lot of entries and the chances of mine getting through were so slim, but it’s just so demoralising to get this far. Particularly as a loyal customer of Adobe, I work with the software every day.  It seems completely unfair that some people were posting on twitter 2 minutes before the deadline to say they had just submitted, yet a handful of people, through no fault of there own, were unable to.

There was nothing in the rules to warn people that uploads may fail, or take that long, some people have said they were trying for hours which is completely unfair.

They aren’t going to change their minds now, it took 2 days to make this decision. Here’s my entry if you’re interested (they have encouraged us to share them now):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxHnNp8g-i8&t=7s

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Helib,

some people were posting on twitter 2 minutes before the deadline to say they had just submitted, yet a handful of people, through no fault of there own, were unable to.

Please contact the contest support email: adobemakethecut@gmail.com to resolve your issue. Sorry, I have very little control in resolving this issue.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi JohnBond,

The thing that's frustrating about this website issue Adobe had is that many users were affected the whole day not just 11:59 pm. Almost a thousand people have viewed the threads containing people talking about the Adobe site submission error as of today.

Did you contact the "Make the Cut" contest support email? It's adobemakethecut@gmail.com. That's the only support for the contest I have access to and what I suggest users having trouble with the contest should do.

When that time came and went by, still today I have the site up with my submission arrow spinning, I emailed Adobe or rather the gmail account for support. 

Sorry, the gmail address is the only one I have. It's not a traditional support issue and the contest creators have a totally different process set up for folks like you. If you still have not heard back in 72 hours from the gmail address, please let me know and I'll try and assist in any way I can.

Thanks,
Kevin

[JohnBond85]

This is the only answer I'm receiving and it's not even coming from an official Adobe channel.  So the whole 24-48hr deal is up and the created gmail account informed me they are not accepting late entries basically, even though I wasn't late avoiding accountability for an error on their side.  Or at least that's what I'm being told.

Email Recieved: adobemakethecut@gmail.com

"Hi John,Thank you for your follow up note. On behalf of Adobe we would like to express a sincere thank you for your participation in the Make the Cut editing contest. We hope that you enjoyed working with the exclusive footage from Imagine Dragons’ Believer video.  We know that you devoted considerable time to creating an amazing cut. Unfortunately, we are not legally able to accept late entries to be judged as part of the competition, but we DO want to see your cut.   

We are always inspired by the unique ways that our community is using Premiere Pro and if you’re willing, we invite you to share your file with us over email.  While it cannot be formally submitted as part of the contest nor eligible for prizing, we would love to have our team of video experts take a look at your work.  If you haven't already, please share a link to your video file prior to April 14.

In addition, we encourage you to share your cut with your community and include it in your personal portfolio, including posting to Behance.

Thanks again for taking this journey with us and Imagine Dragons.

Sincerely,

The Make the Cut Team"

To which I replied:

"I know this looks like an angry email based on my lengthy response, but I ensure it's not.  I had some points and questions I was curious about. Maybe some grief too 😃  I at least highlighted some portions for skimming.

There's no really good way to display emotion through an email, especially when I'm probably noted for being annoying about this issue I'm sure.  I genuinely love Adobe products and am annoyed however how this was handled. I get it trust me I do, that you guys have to do damage control for the minority of people that entered the contest on the 8th and had an issue.To say you can't legally accept late entries? Despite being a problem from the Adobe page? That my entry was on time... Again why not just state that right off the bat instead of the 24-48hr thing going forward. I don't know what method results in less complaints, but at least it'd help the forum moderators out.  Steering people away from the main site to a Gmail account probably cuts the flaming on forums in half."Hi, We are reviewing challenges for a small group of users in uploading by the deadline and will respond to those who have already emailed us in the next 24-48 hours. Stay tuned!" Stay tuned for what? I know why, but you said you legally can't accept late entries now so obviously this was going to be the response the whole time. Just say that. I appreciate the the offer to send the footage, but lets be honest what for? No one that receives it is going to look at it and if someone did, I'd get a keep up the good work and thank you for continuing to be a Creative Cloud customer.

1. I'd upload my stuff to YouTube now I guess,  unlike all the people that disqualified themselves by uploading to YouTube first before the deadline, but I can't I don't own any of the music or footage. 
2. Does that also pertain to Behance? Am I allowed to upload stuff from this contest legally for no monetary gain despite not owning it?

I have no hate for Adobe, I truly mean I love your guys software even if this is a throwaway email to a gmail account that will cease to exist in 24hrs.

I was prepared to send various methods to provide proof that my entry would not be classified as "Legally Late."  My video submission had 2 flickering problems that presented during rendering but not prior during scrubbing and playbacks.  I was just going to send it as is cause it was minor but annoying and allowed me to submit on time until the site didn't submit my form.

If you guys love Adobe software as much as I do, could you at least do me a solid and teach me some resolve to why flickering clips sometime show their ugly head after render and not before.

I read a little online that mentioned it about a certain effects placed on other video improperly or along those lines can do it. I found a way to work that particular one deleting clips affected and re-applying to timeline.  Then it happened to me on another clip that consisted of  2 nested clips fused rotate both with key frames together.

Any tips to avoid flickering clips before render basically?

Well thank you for not keeping me in suspense at least any further.  I wish you guys the best of luck with the contest despite. I'll keep on editing.

Truth be told I had a blast cutting this footage for what its worth, so thank you for tthe opportunity.  Still annoyed I have to explain that to people who watch me fall off the Earth to edit this footage forfeiting eating and sleeping.  Woe is me, have a good night guys and gals.

Take care,

-John Zebrowski"

[jerwinvillanueva]

I receive same exact email, it's heartbreaking I thought we have a chance after they respond about the 24-48hour thing. Our efforts turned into waste,  I'm still hoping that they'll reconsider ,since they are also at fault for having a unresponsive site. Also, we don't have any clue if our uploaf is progressing, no upload percentage or something.