Fractured Axel

I like the idea of a www.AmIhotOrNot for ugly people.

Seriously, any compettion framework will suit some peole more than others. That's no reason not to do it. Even if it only means Ed has loads of material for his site!

One question. How do you stop people using and old routine that they flew brilliantly last year in perfect wind on the now trashed kite? And should competitors get extra markes for flying in unusual/cool locations?

most if not all cameras will show the date/time that the film was shot, if the date isnt within the time frame specified for that round then you could reject it.

i feel that the location isnt what this is about it would be judged on content not style

i like this idea Martin. Most £200+ digital stills cameras will take perfectly acceptable video at 320x240. The only limit on time is the size of your memory card.
Obviously not everyone will have a camera suited to the task, but I suspect they are fairly wide spread.

i feel that the location isnt what this is about it would be judged on content not style

The location comment was a joke, but no marks for (flying) style?

Style as in presentation (of the video) not the style of flight.

Well I am off to Poland. But I would be interested to see what sort of numbers of people can provide 30 sec clips, and how many can manage 60.

Idea is great and i don't see any problem with video equipment. On GWTW in Photo and Video section we can see 1-2 new non-promo video per week so we have enouph people to start (IMHO). Also it's going to be the best kite video source in the Internet and by the way it perfectly sute to Andy Wardley's site with all the tricks (he mensioned it in other topic). It can be freestyle ezone with competition part and list of all tricks with video and all that stuff. And the most improtant thig - it's real fun.

Thanks for the feedback mikelos, it is poeple like yourself that this format is aimed at, i seem to remember that you said you fly alone, so i guess the chance of competing is slim.

Call me Mike %) As for myself i'm not sure that ready to compet - still novic flyer with small pack of tricks. This format can give a chanse to compet more expirinced pilots but it didn't give fidback compare to real competition. So after few rounds you can only improve your camera work and fly style (both a very importand things) but can't help you with technicks (IMHO). But for promote freestyle it's the best way.

We can give feedback on your video, and one of the best things about competitions like the Trick Out is you see someone do something, and you think "Hey I could do that with a bit of practice"... and then next time out, you do it too. That's how it progresses. To some degree that will still be possible with this format.

Hi Mike when i was thinking about this format i tried as much as possible to level the playing field in terms of the video should be a plain video , nothing fancy just a guy flying a kite it is about the quality of the flying not the quality of the camerawork, you could even set up on a tripodthat wat there is no questioning the camera work.

You might want to specify what you wish to see in the video... eg. Just the kite, kite and fixed horizon (tripod job), flyer and kite... etc. I know that's bogging down with details, but it strikes me that it might be important. Better to discuss it before everyone spends time preparing video and emailing etc.

But nobody can sad "let me perosnal show you how to do this" that wat i mean when talk about feedback.

Andy wrote:

You might want to specify what you wish to see in the video... eg. Just the kite, kite and fixed horizon (tripod job), flyer and kite... etc.

AFAIK the only stipulation has been to ensure that the kite is in frame during the shoot. As long as you don't end up with any wierd and whacky 'Top-of-the-Pops' up the nostril camera angles then those judging will have a decent idea as to what the kite's doing during the video.

Martin wrote:

Read it contemplate it make suggestions for ammendments and changes, do you even want such an event

I think it should definately be a rolling event where anyone can register at any time, and upload videos whenever they have one to upload. An open league rather than a closed competition.

Separate classes I'm not sure about. I can see it's a good thing so that the newbies don't get swamped by the old timers. But is it just adding a layer of complexity?

Hmm.... maybe we split the difference and have just two groups: novice and master?

Perhaps the novice could be 30 seconds and the masters 60?

Competitors will be asked to contribute a nominal fee, around £2 (stirling) per comp or £10 per year to cover hosting and bandwidth required to run the format. This may be facilitated by a paypal tipjar or some other means. No pay - No play.

Not sure about that. I suspect you'll spend more time and effort collecting the money to make it worth your while. Hosting and bandwidth is less of a problem. I've got oodles, Ed's got some spare. It would be much easier to find a sponsor (e.g. Flexifoil, Benson, R-Sky, whoever) to lump up 100 quid or so for a banner advert, or something similar, if that's what we need to cover running costs for X months. In the short term, I don't think we need to worry about it.

The video should be one continuous shot lasting 60 seconds. No cuts, transitions, special effects or enhancements should be used. the video must start from a launch and last 60 seconds from that launch in a single take.

We should probably give a time range, say 60 seconds +/- 5 seconds (e.g. 55 - 65 seconds) rather than an exact time. It would be real shame to have to chop out the last 2 seconds of a landing just to make the time slot.

I also think that initially we shouldn't place any other restrictions on the video, such as single frame, no edits, etc. Just to get us off the ground, we should keep things as open as possible, then add more rules later if we need them (say by having the "strict masters class" or whatever)

I know that's in contrast to what I said yesterday, but with hindsight, I definately think we should make it easy at first for anyone to enter, and up the rules and expected quality of flying when popularity demands it.

Also, if a video is heavily editted, then it would be entirely reasonable to give a lower technical score, based on the assumption that they didn't make it in one take. On the other hand, a single take video would score more highly in my book, given that they did it "in one". Forcing a single take movie would be turning it into more of a precision competition that a freestyle one, IMHO. It's relevant to the technical score, but much less so to the artistic one, I think.

Also, speaking from personal experience, of the tens, maybe even hundreds of hours of kite video that I've shot over the last few months, I would be very surprised if I've got any 60 second clips where the kite is in frame all the way through.

Of course, I don't have a cameraman to film me, so I just stick the camera on the ground and fly in front of it. But this means that you either get close up shots with the kite going in and out of frame, or a far away shot with the kite in frame all the time, but so small that you can't see what's going on.

So initially, I would like to see this as open as possible. If we place few restrictions to start then hopefully this will encourage people to give it a go. We can always add a more strict class later on if we want. But if we start out too strict, we might put people off and never get the idea off the ground.

Same goes for starting/ending on the ground. I think they should be able to do whatevever they like. As long as the total time shown of the kite fits within the time limit, then it should be ok.

· The competition will be peer-judged, only those submitting videos will be allowed to vote.

I think we should allow anyone to vote, but weight the value of their vote by a factor based on their current ranking. So if you have submitted several videos, all of which have been ranked highly, then your vote will be more influential (e.g. a 3x multiplier). But if you have never submitted a video, then your score will count for less (e.g. a 1/3 multiplier)


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