Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

:hscratch: Ash, we've already covered this, it is clearly explained in the first post.

And not that it matters, but it's not unique to this Challenge. Short films of varying lengths exist in great numbers for all genres.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

So Michael Eisner, the former CEO of Disney, would get on the board of a company that pirates movies? Not only that but Time Warner, Jonathan Dolgen (former chairman of Viacom Entertainment Group), Intel, and Goldman Sachs would be major investors of a company that did this?

Not only that but Apple would allow them to sell their app to view illegally uploaded movies when they won't sell other apps for silly reasons?

Microsoft allows them to install their crappy toolbar into your browser unless you uncheck the box, so they're aware of the company.

Not only that but the MPAA or anyone else hasn't bothered to go after them in the 5 years they've been operating just seems odd to me, considering very public places like that get into trouble in much less time.

But I'll admit I could be wrong and I'd rather not fight about it. That's just some of the research I did before touching the site since I wasn't sure if I'd get infected from it. I've just been watching some old hosted horror movies on it :)

edit: Talked to a guy at work that knows more about it than me. Illegally uploaded stuff gets shut down fairly quick but they have their contracted movies too. That Batman one's been up for almost a week, so I'm not sure of that one.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

And in post #11:

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

Take a look at my list and how I'm doing it. Near the bottom you'll see my Temp part with a running count. When I hit 90 minutes, I'll join them together for an entry. You can see what I did for my first entry on August 1st.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

I was just going to use 5 minutes as an average. Some are shorter, some are longer, so roughly 18-20 shorts.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

That only works if you don't really separate the entries by dates. If I watched something, I prefer to have it on my list on the day I viewed it.

Personally, I'm not really a fan of how my list looks, but I put my entries individually in an excel database and the vbulletin formatting is done in other cells, so I'm keeping it that way unless I get a bit more motivated. It became too cumbersome to figure out how many things went into one entry, so I assigned a fraction to each viewing.

My own personal guidline is that I fit everything into 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, or 1 increments.

If something is less than 5 minutes, I don't know what I would do
If something is 5-~10 minutes I count it as 1/16
If something is 10-~17 minutes, I count it as 1/8
If something is 18-~20 minutes, I guess I would count it as 3/16ths, I haven't ran into that yet
If something is 20-30 minutes, I count it as 1/4
I haven't ran into anything from 30-40 minutes yet
If something is 40-50 minutes, I would count that as 1/2
Between 50 minutes and a movie I haven't ran into yet, so I'm not sure what I would do.

Yes, I know the above isn't necessarily mathmatically consistent, but I kind of use the guideline of how it was originally aired as the guideline. I.e. (2) ATHF episodes are aired in half an hour so those should be 1/8th. The Bananaman shorts are what forced me into the above considerations. I am trying to use my best judgment and I'm trying to avoid things like 3/16ths or 5/16ths or funny stuff like that.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

I'm sorry, but it's not clear to me, which is why I feel compelled to bring it up again. When three WB cartoons = 21 min. and 4 cartoons = 28 min., there needs to be a decision made as to how many count towards an item. "23 min." doesn't work here. Are three WB cartoons 1/4 of an entry or are four WB cartoons 1/4 of an entry? That's not an unreasonable question to ask. And no decision seems to have been made. Everyone seems to be making their own rule here. This isn't rocket science, it's simple math. Why can't we have a set rule over how many short cartoons = one entry? I'm not asking too much here.

Granted, I seem to be the only one bothered by this, so I'll just have to make my own rule for this as well. :hairpull:

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

I think it depends how granular you want to get. The engineer in me says that we could just pro-rate every viewing to 90 minutes. So a 23 minute show would be 23/90 (and then what about seconds??? ;)). However, that is a bit overboard, and I think that is why people are being a bit generic in their answers. I prefer my way, but my way isn't very clear-cut, so other people probably won't do it that way. I don't think I will run into some of the odd times you are having, so my way will work for me. For me, if it is 23 minutes or 28 minutes, I would count that as 1/4.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

Veoh is the exact same thing as Youtube. Illegal stuff gets put up all the time, and sometimes it stays there for years. It's pretty much up to the copyright holders to ask for them to be removed.

I just watched Batman: Under the Red Hood on it. I own the DVD, but it was just simpler to stream it rather than search for my copy. Great film!

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

Exactly. Sort of. It's impossible to have absolutely precise to the second rules. The variety of lengths to shorts is immense. You could spend 5 minutes on Google and find 100 animation shorts; one of 1 minute, one of 2 minutes, one of 3 minutes, ..., and one of 100 minutes. And probably one of every seconds variable as well!

Just use your own judgment but keep to the basic simple guidelines in the first post:

~ 30 minutes = 1/4 entry
~ 60 minutes = 1/2 entry
~ 120 minutes = 1 entry

As discussed, films have a "counting advantage" over shorts/shows since one film counts as one entry, even if it's only 45 minutes long.

Everyone is going to count slightly differently, and organize their list slightly differently. I prefer to keep my items in chronological order as I watch them, and separate entries for everything, even shorts. Most others group them, and save items until they equal one entry. Just come up with your own way Ash, as long as it's close enough to the 22/30 minutes per 1/4 entry guideline no one is going to care. I'm sure there will be some things that I'll "over-count" and some things I'll "under-count" if I keep watching lots of shorts and variable length shows, but I'm not going to worry about it.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

I round up at 30. I figure it averages out in the end.

Ash, if you're watching stuff with commercials, it should fall into the 30/60/90 minute category in the rules pretty easily. If you're watching stuff without commercials, and they're not films, then you just get as close as you can to .25/.5/.75 of an entry as you can and group them that way, or just keep track of the times until you hit around 90 minutes.

I do the latter on shorts, some do the former. Whatever works best for you.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

I just add them until the total is over 90 minutes and then make them one entry on the day I finish that total up.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

Puppet shows? That's the one category I'm having trouble with. All I can think of are Muppets stuff and all those old adventure/sci-fi marionette shows like "Captain Scarlett" and "Thunderbirds." I doubt that I have any of this stuff in my collection, not even a Muppets movie or even an old "Beany and Cecil" episode.

What else qualifies in this category that I'm not thinking of?

Thanks.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

We've been talking a lot about Greg the Bunny. Then there's Alf of course.

Film wise there is Magic.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

Puppets Who Kill
http://www.hulu.com/puppet-master
http://www.hulu.com/puppet-master-ii

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

As far as the checklist is concerned, I've been doing two episodes of a show to complete an entry that doesn't specify a time requirement (because I'm usually watching at least two in one sitting), but for the stuff where it says watch something by a particular animator or from a particular decade, if I just watch one short is that enough to satisfy the requirement to check it off on my list?

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

I'm pretty sure that MP said everything has to be film length (or show combination of 120 minutes) unless it specifically says "length doesn't matter".

I have a question about MST3K. I like to watch at least 3 of them per month, and would like to find some that would qualify for this challenge. I know that they haven't riffed any pure animation films, but many of their sci-fi films have a fair amount of effect work, or monster suits, and/or model work. Plus, you have the fact the whole show framework could sort of qualify I guess. Any suggestions or rulings?

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

Would the remake of clash of the titans qualify? A good ammount of it is cgi, I watched it on the 1st of the month but I wasn't sure if I should add it or not.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

What about Labyrinth or Dark Crystal?


Personally, I have no problem with counting if others agree. I mean the show revolves around the puppets and the main character. And it should be the length of a movie.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

I'd say definitely.
Oh yeah, good puppet movie choices! I'm sure there are many many more.
Thanks! I figure I'll pick sci-fi films with effect work (like Laserblast or Godzilla films), and the combination of that and the show framework should be close enough.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

There's also Farscape that would satisfy the puppet requirement.

---

For the "made by" part of the checklist, what is the actual requirement? Animator, Writer, Director, or Producer? So for a movie like "Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm," which was written by Paul Dini along with several other people, would it satisfy his entry?

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

"Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" better qualify because that's the only Paul Dini credit I have in my collection.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

If I watch one Tex Avery short and one Disney short from the 1920s, I'm checking off "Tex Avery" and the "1920s" on my checklist. I can't imagine Mr. Peepers meant you had to watch 12-15 Avery shorts or the same number of Disney "Alice" shorts to qualify. We'd be here forever!

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

Never mind. I found a used DVD of THE MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN at Book Off last night.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

Good catch Ash! I'm sure MP meant to put "length doesn't matter" on those early decades, or all of them. Full length features barely exist for some of them in any genre, let alone animation.
Just to answer you specifically here. Yes, it is simple math, but it's also very well answered. Three 7 minute cartoons do not equal a 1/4 entry. You have multiple options. Watch four of them for a 1/4 entry; add a 2+ minute short to the three to get up to a 1/4 entry; or watch enough 7 minute shorts to get up to a 1/2 or full entry. There is a set rule, a decison has been made.
Just to make sure you know, but every item on the checklist can be found in free legal online forms too, no need to buy DVDs just for the checklist.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

Started to lean towards making it be a full length to make something count but then changed it to one thing, which could be a short. There was at least one of the checklist items that made it seem impractical to force something full length. Off the top of my head, I was thinking it was the early decades since I think it'd be nearly impossible to find 90 minutes worth of animation from the 1900s.

As long as the film would count, with or without MST3K, you're fine.

The only shorts checklist item with a time requirement is the theatrical one, which is something like 90 minutes of Tom & Jerry and other similar things. You can mix and match, they don't all have to be from the same series.

That works.

Before anyone asks, in the checklist for the most and least favorite genre, take that to mean another genre, in addition to the Animation genre of the thing you're watching. If you have an animated musical and hate musicals, that would count for least favorite.

If you don't have another genre that you hate in your collection, just go with the least liked.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

Don't worry, that's the only item I bought for this challenge (it was $7) and my daughter is eager to borrow it when I'm done, so it's for a good cause. Everything else I need is already in my tape/DVD collection.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

I started watched Popeye the Sailor: Vol. 1 (1933-1938) last night and boy oh boy does this bring back a ton of memories. I used to wake up early before school and watch Popeye every day. I think it was on USA.

It's so cool that there are commentaries (by a wide range of different people) on most of these shorts. It's been a lot of fun so far and I've only watched four of them. It will be great to see some of the shorts that, I gather, were not shown on television for one reason or another and I probably have never seen.

Does anyone know if there are more volumes being released? I'm not sure how many original shorts there were and if the 3 volumes released are all of them or not.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

I know that under 90+ minutes of shorts it says "Tex Avery, Looney Tunes," but I'm guessing we can watch any short? I don't have any of the prolific animated shorts on DVD yet and don't really feel like watching 90+ minutes on my computer screen, so I just watched all of the Pixar Shorts and the new Jonah Hex Short, which totals over 90 minutes.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

Correct

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

Two questions:

1) If you watch a cartoon over a second time to listen to the audio commentary, can you count it twice?

2) If a particular cartoon appears on two separate compilations and you watch it both times, can you count it in the running time for both compilations or only one?

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

I wasn't a Popeye fan as a kid, but imagine I'd appreciate them more now. I have those first three collections, and should pop at least one of them in for this Challenge. I might even have to count it on my checklist as the item loathed, unless I can find some Mighty Mouse to watch.
Yes to the first. In fact, if it had 5 different commentaries and you watched each one and once "plain", you could count it 6 times!

No to the second, only once if it's the same cartoon.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

I can easily count Olive Oil as a hated character.

The two episodes of Popeye I liked the best were the Ali Baba one, that was on the first volume and another one that also had live action stuff where a kid was getting picked on and then ate a can of spinach at the end.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

Really? Can you elaborate on your hatred for her? I confess; I'm completely fascinated to hear of this!

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

Can someone give me some examples of what they might watch for an "Unrated" cartoon.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

I always hated her too. So whiny and indecisive.
Most cartoons probably qualify. Anything before the MPAA of course, which was when, the 1960s? Any cartoon or film made for TV wouldn't be rated.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

Thanks for the clarification. I wasn't sure if the requirement was more anything that isn't rated or something that was rated, but released on DVD unrated.

And for the record, Olive always annoyed me too.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

What Trevor said plus the fact that there was absolutely no reason to fight over her. I never saw what made them so crazy for her.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

I never really understood why any two people fight "for" a third person. My thing has always been, either you want to be with me or you don't. If so, great; if not, there's the door. And I never understood why Popeye would go into a fight without spinach. But then, I've never been huge on the Popeye world anyway.

Re: August Animation Challenge 2010 - Discussion Thread
 

I'm later getting started than I'd hoped, and this thread is kind of dense by now. I'm starting with G.I. Joe: The M.A.S.S. Device, which cuts together the first five episode mini-series as a singular, 100 minute long story. How do I count this?