Lost Video Island

The Last Soul · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 6:28 am Post subject: My Rejected Video

I was hoping I wasn't going to have to start a thread in this section, but unfortunately, my very first video "Oh, Pretty Woman" received a rejection letter. I'm not gonna lie, it's a disappointment. A huge disappointment. Especially since I had been receiving positive feedback from people about it. I like it fine, but I guess it just wasn't good enough for some of the judges. Which is what I'd like to know. What went wrong? What got it rejected? I hope it wasn't the size. I realize I'm not suppose to send a file larger than 10.0 MB but mine was only 10.8 MB and I know there are videos hosted on the site that are around that as well. If I had made it any smaller it would have made it too blurry. Way too blurry. But I have a feeling it was more than just the file size. So what did I do wrong? I suppose if I have to I can make some changes, but I wouldn't get to until another two weeks so I'd rather not. And I'm doubting the changes would help anyway.
_________________
Lost - the show that got me hooked on creamy peanut butter.

Jack/Kate/Charlie/Claire Fan

*~The Last Soul~*

Hobbes · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 6:53 am Post subject:

Sighhhhhhh.... Well it's not always a cookie-cutter decision of what went wrong or what went right... a lot of vids that are rejected now can do so even if they are done perfectly well as far as the mechanics of the videos. Usually what gives them that extra push into the site is either great work with neat effects, or an original idea or way of going at a song, even a very subtle one.
Coincidentally, this was one of those videos. It was done great as far as the mechanics, which I must tip my hat off to you for, Last Soul, because that is hard to do. But that said, it had little originality to back it up, and the idea of the unfocused look at both Jack/Kate and Charlie/Claire made it a little worse, because now it no longr fits in the shipper sections, but the "other" section, which is mostly reserved for the really original, or very cool montage-like vids.
You did nothing wrong with this video. It just kinda hit the limit. It's like how there are different scholarships available to get into university, and the Soccer scholarships just filled up

That, and that file size was indeed an issue. I know how blurry it can get, trust me. I'm not happy with any of my videos on this site because of it, they're nearly ruined by the blurryness. But you either have to live with it and leave it smaller, which we will try to overlook, or you can host it on another server and send it in as big as you want. I think there are some trial places that will host something like 20MB... and then if you pay a little bit extra, like $5 a month, you can get a LOT of space for your videos. This is much appreciated by us, btw, because it also saves bandwidth

(and in case anyone was wondering why we still judge those videos that are hosted somewhere else, it is because we still want to be fair with the other videos, and only accept the level that we would from any regular sent-in vid. Or at least that's what I choose to believe

)

I think there was some other issue about the Video frame size, which you can read about in the vidding help forum... but I wouldn't know about that... talk to Laura or Jake about it, they seemed to think that was an issue

The Last Soul · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:15 am Post subject:

I guess I can understand the file size issue, I don't know about the frame size. What went wrong there? But the whole thing about it not having originality to back it up, I don't understand that. How can a shipper video be original? They're all focusing on the same thing: a relationship between two characters. If anything should make it original it should be the fact that it focuses on both Jack/Kate and Charlie/Claire. No one else has done that. And why can't it fit in the shipper sections? Why does it have to go in 'other'? It can't go in Kate's section and Claire's section? I'm sorry if I'm being rude. I really don't want to be. I'm just really disappointed that's all. I don't want to be all bitter or anything, but you say it's bad because it's an unfocused look at Jack/Kate and Charlie/Claire. Well since when is 'unfocused' all that bad? I mean, there are tons of videos on LVI that make absolutely no sense and have weird song choices. Some I consider a complete waste of space (Sorry! I'm so sorry!

) But I suppose you have made your decision. Thank you for your time.
_________________
Lost - the show that got me hooked on creamy peanut butter.

Jack/Kate/Charlie/Claire Fan

*~The Last Soul~*

The Last Soul · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:20 am Post subject:

Oh yeah, I forgot to thank you for the nice things you said about my video. I do appreciate that. So thanks. I'm glad you guys at least sort of liked it.
_________________
Lost - the show that got me hooked on creamy peanut butter.

Jack/Kate/Charlie/Claire Fan

*~The Last Soul~*

Hobbes · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:35 am Post subject:

You're absolutely right. How can a shipper be original? Well many times they aren't. And some of those strange ones even I don't always agree should be on the site, but the thing is, the vids on the site are here to stay, through and beyond whatever lost becomes. Shipper videos will come and shipper videos will go, and these come and go nearly once every day, sometimes making it on the site, sometimes not. But the thing is we will never have enough space to accomodate them all. The best we can do is choose those that really stick out from the pack, and hope that we don't hurt too many people in the process.
What we can do is encourage you to post your video in here with a YouSendIt link, which is originally what this forum section was intended for. It allows those that don't make it on permanently to still be able to show off their video to the masses, and prove to us judges why we're evil, stupid, crazy people

Not every video can be liked, but the very original ones are remembered. Ohhhh they're remembered all right

And in the future, I would prefer if vids already on the site don't get mentioned, or atl east not by name (yes, I know you didn't, but just for the future) when asking these sorts of things. Chock them up as either being loyal followers with fairly good videos, back in 1.0, or the judged ones that we've let through since 2.0 came out. If you look and wonder why the shippers sections have trickled down nowadays (though we still let in the odd great one) it's because of this system. So try not to look at those first ones that came on before 2.0 and wonder- "how could those get in while mine didn't?" at least know we're crazy judges from those we let in since then

lol

The Last Soul · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:52 am Post subject:

I have a question though. People who give you links to their videos that are already hosted on another website dont use your bandwidth right? If I found a way to host my video on another site would you consider posting it here on LVI? Or is it just too crappy of a video to belong here?

(Sorry about referring to other people's videos. I'm still in the somewhat bitter, disappointed, sick to my stomach phase.)
_________________
Lost - the show that got me hooked on creamy peanut butter.

Jack/Kate/Charlie/Claire Fan

*~The Last Soul~*

JakeNRoland · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:56 am Post subject:

Last Soul:

I feel the pain, I do. A video I worked hard on didn't pass either and I host them on my own site. LOL.

Like Hobbes said, just because we chose to not host a video, that does not an anyway mean it has "less" quality.

This site is under serious problems with bandwidth issues. And that said, we just have to be extremely selective about what is hosted. We don't like that part. We'd very much like to host all the videos that have been made well. Yours is one of those videos that was made well, but just didn't pass the vote.

And don't take offense thinking we didn't like it or it wasn't good enough. We're just five people with opinions and we can have different tastes than others. We've seen MANY videos that don't make it onto this website that get AMAZING praise over at Lost-Forums. So just because the five us (and it only take three of the five) have a certain opinion, it may still be a great video.

And now, FOR THE CRITICAL PART OF MY POST (if you're interested, if not, simply stop reading): I repeat all of the good things I've said thus far and the good things Hobbes mentioned. You did a good job. The reason the video didn't quite work for me are as follows...

I didn't understand why the video for Pretty Woman would focus on the two characters you chose. To me, it would be for all four ladies, or focused on just one. That's just one thing....

The size was a bit of a teeter in the negative direction. There are some videos that are larger here, most of them are from before the big change that happened on this site. And finally....

The frame size that your video and other's pic is big. I'll explain this more in the other post, but basically it's how big your video looks when it's played. You might notice some videos (by appearance) are bigger than others. If you watch one of mine compared to yours, my screen size is much smaller. Here's why that's a problem: Since we have a 10MB limit on videos, if you take a video like your which is 640pixels wide and 480pixels high and try and compress it below 10MB you get a pixelated picture, or a fuzzy image. This is very distracting as you watch a video. This can be fixed by exporting your video to a smaller frame size, before I recommended no bigger than 480 by i think 360. I myself have gone down 360 by 240. Because the video frame is smaller, your file size will be smaller, allowing your video to be more clear. I don't know if that makes any sense.

Anyhow, this is a very long explanation and it's late and I'm tired. I hope you don't take this too hard. Your video is good. Keep up the good work.
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No, I'm Laura's twin. And Hobbes is my Jedi Padawan. The force is strong in that one. You guys rock!!

Hobbes · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 8:03 am Post subject:

and post it on here. It doesn't have permanent residence, but damn it all if it doesn't deserve to be seen by everyone for a little while at least.

Hobbes · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 8:18 am Post subject:

as for your hosting question. That same thought once came to me, but I think I've learned to just go with it. I worte this back up there in one of my posts. I think that's the first time I've mentioned that factor on this site as of yet, but it should have been said a while ago.

The Last Soul · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 8:38 am Post subject:

The reason I didn't make my video focusing on all four of the Lost ladies is simple: I don't like Sun and Shannon that much. Sun's okay, but I don't really care for Shannon. She's kind of a b*tch, therefore I don't find her personality, or her, all that attractive. I love Kate and Claire. I wanted to do a video about them and their guys because they are my favorite characters. Is that such a bad thing? I don't want to be forced to make a video about characters I don't even like that much just because everyone else wants me to.

I didn't realize the frame size was a big issue because you can just change it to whatever size you want if you go to View: Zoom in Windows Media Player. I did wonder how I made a fixed frame size. I can't do anything about it now though cause I'm back at my mom's and Windows Movie Maker doesn't work over here. You see, I spent three weeks dreaming up my video in my mind because I didn't have access to WMM at my house. I spent this past Friday evening and the majority of Saturday working on my video at my dad's house. If you ever saw my earliest posts, you'd know I have MAJOR computer problems at my house. Not only is the computer here about 100 times slower than the computer at my dad's, but the D drive doesn't work and we frequently have to restore it. Luckily, I saved my video to a disk before I left my dad's.

So you see, getting to make a video isn't very easy for me. I've been wanting to make one for about three years now, and "Oh, Pretty Woman" was the very first video I ever made. I can't help but be proud of it.
_________________
Lost - the show that got me hooked on creamy peanut butter.

Jack/Kate/Charlie/Claire Fan

*~The Last Soul~*

Hobbes · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 8:43 am Post subject:

>.< and you should be. I won't repeat what I've spent the last hour writing over and over again, but I hope you're reading them

it's not permanent stay. It's good. It's damn good for a first timer. We just don't want, and can't have it directly on the site, because we get vids very much like this all the time, and if we started letting this in, it'd open the floodgates. That does not mean any one of them is bad, there's just a LOT of them, okay?!

The Last Soul · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 8:45 am Post subject:

Let me just make sure we're on the same page here. My video can't (as in cannot) go on the site even if I host it myself and don't use up your bandwidth?
_________________
Lost - the show that got me hooked on creamy peanut butter.

Jack/Kate/Charlie/Claire Fan

*~The Last Soul~*

The Last Soul · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 8:48 am Post subject:

Can I at least provide a link to it in this forum? That is, if I can host it on my own site.
_________________
Lost - the show that got me hooked on creamy peanut butter.

Jack/Kate/Charlie/Claire Fan

*~The Last Soul~*

Hobbes · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 8:57 am Post subject:

Let me just talk, outside of my judging status, or any way affiliated way with LVI for a second.

well that'd be pretty damn unfair for the other 40 who send these in, yeah. That, and it would clutter up the site with a bunch of sappy vids that nobody really wants to see, especially when they can't distinguish between them in any way. If I could put a guage next to every vid labeling it on a scale of 1-5, then I might actually like that idea, because it would save a lot of people trouble.
Every vid will get praise from people. You can post a picture of Charlie dancing on Lost-media.com as a music video and people will rave about it. But that doesn't mean that they actually enjoy it. They may have actually stopped watching it in agony half way through because the couldn't stand the video, yet they will still compliment it in order to get the returned favor later.
Your video did not make it on. Live with it. There are a lot of people who don't, and many of them are deserving. Don't take it as a personal insult or an insult to your video, because it's not. When you send in an application to Harvard and get rejected, does that mean that you're some no-good bum? hell no. Now I'd just like to ask that this thread stops, because this is getting a little too far. If you'd like, I can bring this into a site-wide vote, but I'd like to save any possible public-embarassment if I can...

LAURA4LAD · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 8:59 am Post subject: