"Make the Cut" Judging ... THOUSANDS of submissions ... how?

[d0g0]

I submitted my entry last night after days and nights of heavy work. Fingers crossed.

I asked Jason Levine on Twitter (@Beatlejase) how many entries had been submitted ... and at 2PM ET Saturday he said:

"Don't have exact number, but at last check it was in the thousands!

I find this a bit overwhelming. How exactly are the judges going to watch 100 or more hours of the same song over and over? The rules say "All submitted Entries will be judged by a panel of expert judges (“Judges”) selected by Sponsor in its sole discretion" ... and the blog says "evaluated by a panel of luminary judges, who will select one ultimate winner to receive the $25,000 Grand Prize. Judges include members of the band, Academy Award winner Angus Wall, who edited films like Fight Club and Vinnie Hobbs, a music video editor who works with Kendrick Lamar and Kanye."

Does this mean that the 'expert judges' are going to watch ALL thousands of entries? All together? Or will they divide them up?

"Thousands" x 3.5 minutes = Hundreds of hours — and they're supposed to be put up the final 25 in a week!

Or is Adobe going to divide them up amongst a group of 'reviewers' who will mark each one as Yes/No/Maybe before passing them on to the judges?

Also, in this (quite interesting) YouTube video​​ where Jason chats with the video's director for 2 hours, Jason promised that they would watch every single entry.

My fear is that my entry will get completely lost in the pile, as it gets fast forwarded by some bleary-eyed intern at Adobe who's been sitting there for 20 hours straight watching the same 3.5 minutes of the same song hundreds of time.

I also find it odd that the email address for MakeTheCutSupport​​ is a Gmail address (though they responded to my questions very quickly) and not an Adobe email ... almost like they had to whip it up last minute and were overwhelmed with the response...

[excited_Genie16B8]

Good questions, but...this is largely a user forum.  Staff don't see and respond to every post.

[d0g0]

Where would you suggest I ask?

I know there are at least some staffers here...

[excited_Genie16B8]

You might very well get an answer here.  I'm only suggesting you not expect one.

[briceh33643903]

My guess: they are only looking at visual enhancements or unique visual treatment of the footage. They will scrub through each video file and stop if and when they see something they haven't seen before. Your first ten seconds are very important. They have to reduce each video to the time it takes to identify uniquely creative frames before they watch the cut in it's entirety.

[Judge Wolf]

Hmm. You may be right; that makes sense for reducing the time. BUT it does not really fit the profile of the contest, I think. Isn't the focus more on editing, than visual treatment? For that you can't really scrub. Someone might do a great edit with no effects or color correction ... just good cutting. Which is impossible to see without watching from beginning to end. Rhythm, "story", etc. (Which is also why it's so hard to make an editor's 'reel' -- especially for anything long-form...)

Also, the 'first 10 seconds' of the song is very limited, subdued, there's nothing but some drums. Most of the first 10 seconds I've seen (on Youtube) are pretty lame ... they don't get interesting til later.

I think it would be a disservice to the work done if the actually used your approach...

I'm also wondering about the 'people's choice' thing where people will 'vote' on the top 25. Doesn't there need to be a mechanism where you have to actually watch all 25 before casting a vote? And watch at least x seconds? Otherwise it will just be a social media popularity contest. S/he with the most followers wins...

[briceh33643903]

They reduce the thousands of numbers down to 25. Their host of judges are only watching the same 25 that social media is watching. The people's choice is based on that selection of 25 that are posted on the Youtube page. It becomes a popularity contest only after through the initial round of review.

That's why you have to come out of the gate guns blazing. Every person is using exactly the same footage, so you need to stand apart pretty strongly. It's on editing contest, but not in the film school "in the blink of eye" sense. They want to see how much you can push the software to truly create something unique, not if you clapped your hands because there edits were seamless.

They aren't watching all 2.5 minutes. The volume of submission necessitates that you have a mechanism in place for quickly weeding out the sub-par, standard, and uninspired. It's not about cutting. Watch the BTS videos and listen to the Adobe reps. They want to see their software pushed to the creative edge.

[Judge Wolf]

That makes more sense ... coming at it from the Adobe side. I guess I was more looking at it from the Imagine Dragons side ... as in, what's the best video for us.

But since Adobe is the main agent here, I suppose you're right, they want to show what their apps can do.

(The only BTS I watched was the 2 hour discussion with Matt Eastin.)

[Judge Wolf]

P.S. I also think this whole contest is a great way to show people what the hell an editor does ... since most people think we just cut out the bad parts...

It's a nice big "let's see what 10,000 people do with the same exact footage..."

[briceh33643903]

It's about craft, but not just cutting. It's about reinterpretation and imagination. That becomes quickly apparent once you watch the videos produced to accompany the contest.

[briceh33643903]

One clarification - once they've identified visuals that are unique then they will pay attention to the editing. It has to work first on that inspired creative and original level before it works on the expected "cutting" level.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi d0g0,

This is not really a technical question. I'll move this post into the Video Lounge.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Kevin-Monahan · Accepted solution]

Hi d0g0,

No one here can really answer those questions. I advise you to email the contest's support team here: adobemakethecut@gmail.com

Thanks,
Kevin