COL2007 - it's here!

i concur with bovy

I thought better vids on this COL, I will post full feedback after watch last four vids.

I preffer double staff and poi + human muvements. So some of my feedbacks are affected by this. This year there are a lot of vides vit fire hoop. But best for me is Khan with contacts and non fire hoop.Few contact videos - I MCP-M.3.2 are very similar and both very good - but without nice areas ;/ Few nice technical videos without fire. A lot of nontechnical videos made by good editor.
Only one back yard video this year / i am not counting holiday videos :o) / - COL going better and better each year.

Flow Garden - very very nice - We have an discussion about man movements / lot of mans couldn`t move smooth and nice with their bodies - but this guy is

perfect/. Best HulaHoop on this COL - very flow.

Zaobab - Perfect. Original toys and lot of good technical thinks.Best original vid.

Fire dance with the light - I dont like this combination of Japanese drums , Aphro dance and disco overal. But some effect are nice and techcical good.

Noel-ski,G.Maldonado and Dave - Some nice contact staff routines. Good think is shicks + staff.

Fire-sisters - One of the worst video from fire sisters, looks like from their begiinings. If not it look like no progress from last year. I Like last

year Uv video from fire sisters and it was my favourite to win last COL .. this is very poor.

infinitos - :o)

Michael Kevin - Some nice technical ideas. But nothing special.

Sandstone Shadow - nice area and start of this vid. I like this style

Flaming passion - Good joke, first video on COL with screenplay :oDD but its everything.

Ring of Fire - Nice girl with small outfit .. she is very good but, nothing special.

Poi story - Very funny video. Very short fire routine , but perfect technique. Good job Nick and Yuta. I Like this vid.

Nosh - I looks like some srange theatre :o) Look like Blair Witch :o) there is no technical thinks.

MCP - First part is filmed from long distance, so its not visible too much. Good contact technics .. amazing full fire staff.. very nice contact video.

Burning Match - I dont know why, But don`t like this vid.

Rossi Street - bad bad - one of back yard videos - sometimes it looks that this vid have bad aspect ratio.

Paulino - Very very naci location .. I wanna be there . Very good technique.

Ebb and Flow - good location and technique. But very static without movement.

Asaf and Elhanan - poor , I wants anly liitle synchronization , and better location and could be very nice. It look like parts of our routine from past - nice to see more people doing contact poi routines.

Fire goove - Nice people and nice vid. There is little technical thinks and a lot of good camera shots and editor job. Looks like music clip for some susician :o)

Short fusion - good acrobatics job. I little another / more acrobatic and dancing / style than standard twirlinkg. I like it.

Astro on fire - I dont like his style when falling down as an drunken.

M.3.2. - Nice contact playing - good presentation of experience not only edited video , I dont like selected filming areas.

Nox Incendio - Very fast edited video - too fast to see any bigger technical experience.I don`t found there any technical stuff except nunchaku. Good editors job.

Poism - Nice led Fingers - I have seen some their another vids and they are very good dancers. But this viid is not too good of theis another.. But show a good technique.

Elias - Better and better , than yast year.Original with using led staffs. i dont like his costume. But double staff technique is perfect and using a lot of onovations against last year. I Like this vid.

Ninaruna - Another vid with screen play :o) I think last year they was better vid.

Blazing phoenix - I looks like good choreography, but with a lot of mistakes. I dont like this "very fast" twirling style.

Tulic - 1 and 2 staffs better then poi , but I don`t like his movement.

Deamtime Circus - Kitties :o) Another fire hoop on this COL, this year there is a lot of hoops.I dont like this vid.

Cool - you make Meg look friendly

Massive congrats to Dai and Sandy... and the third placed person who I don't know yet

Wow. Voting came through really quickly this year!

I have a few comments to make on this, but will wait until I have time to write a big post.

One thing though...

Meg, tis personal preference, but I thought your video was great, I loved the flow of it and it was a pity it wasn't placed...

Hugs and grins to all the entrants... good work, and thanks for your time and energy



xx

Okay I never post...so congrats to the winners and all the submissions! I feel honored to be on a video with so many talented people.

Dai won!!! yah!!!!

Sandy took second!!!

WTF is up with the third place decision? I guess as a group they looked the best but besides that the video was very...unsatisfying.

IMHO Fire groove had more skill, flashy-ness than that video by far.

Maybe it was the props they used?

So a if I got ten of my close buddies together we dressed up like "pirate gypsy's" and jammed. We could have placed.

No disrespect to Machinea Candeo but that was so......
dang, won't say it...

George & Glumon, thanks for the compliments on my vid.

I was happy just to be included on the dvd, it's been a goal of mine ever since I started with all this spinny stuff.

But you ain't seen nothin' yet -- wait 'til next year.

so; i made a big pile of notes, but can't find them, so it'll have to be from memory:

first things first:

overall it was much, much better. COL keeps on improving, and if it keeps going, then in a few years... wow.

still a lot of 'not reading the guidelines' unfortunately - using light, good focusing and tripods should be enforced with tazers. other minuses for me included 'feeling that you need to use the full three minutes' (i think props were given to someone before for not using it all, which i fully agree with), 'not thinking about the editing' - using one shot for too long, using an inferior shot to another one in the video, etcetc, 'forgetting to think about what you are wearing' (lots of just clothes... fine, but not very aesthetically pleasing for what is after all a video competition)...not really planning a set (noel et al: might be iconic to you, but for the rest of us it's a toilet... and i still have your poi, by the way, AND your travellers cheques....) and a few more things that would be apparent if i had my piece of paper in front of me

a huge and diverse mix of videos (which was great as it is a video contest, not a spinning one), including promo style, show shoots, tech spinning, comedy, just spins i won't dwell on which ones i didn't like so much but if anyone wants some serious feedback (i made two pages of notes in the end, with quite a bit on each video) PM me - i decided it'd be fun to actually watch it like a contest, and so was looking for:

set
shooting
editing
movement
skills
interpretation
costume
prop interestingness
originality
rewatchability

with bonus points for 'ooooh' factor (edit: and minus points for 'eeeuurrgh' - leaning back to back buzzsaws, amongst other things, will never make me a happy bunny)

my top 5:

5= meg (mcp) and Sandy (M.3.2)
both flled with wonderfully technical spinning in tasty urban locations. nice body movements as well, but lacked the spark to get into the top 3

4 bender (sandstone)
lovely location, nice skills and dance, and best use of fans i've seen for ages. poor video quality and slightly dodgy shooting meant it stayed 4.

3 - Burning Match
started slow, but drew me in with the sound effects. ended up being a wonderfully funnt martial arts spoof with great acro and nice skills. darkness and some slowness meant it couldn't get higher than 3.

2 - Poi Story
beautiful idea, well crafted, fantastic skills, celebrity geeks.... but not enough spinning. if only....

1 - Dai (zaobab)
lovely location, gorgeous props, beautiful spinning, lots of personality and thought into the video. came second in the preliminary watching (to poi story) but was an obvious choice at the end of a rewatch.

So there you have it... much happier with COL this year than last (no disrespect to last years winners, who were all awesome, just meaning the overall video), but i still think a better set of criteria given out to contestants would mean a higher standard of video

as i said before, any feedback will be freely given if requested

here's to dai and to COL 2008 (which i may, or may not enter.... )



Rob

Yeah...our entry was a real after thought...we didn't even see the edit until we found out we were on the comp.

random jamming in our entry, next year will be more serious I promise!

I'd post more reviews of other entries but cosmic dave took off with our copy... grrr....

Rob your right though Imakokode is always telling me to get a costume, and that I look so "unprofessional" and he's right....I guess I haven't yet gotten to that point yet.

With the porta-potty at least its not me in that shot =)

Yeah I ran out of Olive's in a rush,

left a ton of crap, well at least not my wallet this time.

Took a really cute picture I have some where of you and sebastian looking all peaceful sleeping....did you see all the uber fotos?

Andy Haus is here in the states now! When are you coming? Firedrums? Eh?

I have to say this publically because I have been asked several times privately how I graded movement (not moves as in weave, bfly, etc but body movements)

Did you move?
Did you move with purpose or just seem to flail about?
Was movement relevent to prop/style?
Was movement fluid and eloquent within the style?
And holy hell, did the move look natural and not like you were counting a blocking pattern?...also with this, did it look natural on your body?
When you started a movement with your body, did you actually finish it or hurry through and move on to the next without a full completion? (this is a HUGE pet peeve of mine)


Pointing toes, and full extensions, etc. I didn't split hairs on because I know that there are many, MANY forms where you do not do these things. In lyrical and modern the most difficult and highly prized leg extensions are those with flexed feet. African uses them, as does Bolly and so many others. I know that not all cartwheels are gymnastic based and do not require full extension of the leg. In fact, when I took Capoeira maestro hammered into us to not fully extend or point because you have to land to be low, extensions impede that. I also know this from a bit of martial arts. It also depends on video style they were trying to achieve. Upon further (personal) viewing I can tell some of the influences, and some I could have commented more in depth on (for gods sake, if you don't know the proper way to do a snake arm, don't do it please!) but it was not part of my grading process.


Bluecat,
"still a lot of 'not reading the guidelines' unfortunately - using light, good focusing and tripods should be enforced with tazers."
I love you!

For spinny buzzsaw, did you take the time to concider if it was a performance vid or not tho? While it might make us ushy over it, it is something audiences EAT up.

As for the 3 minute. I thought about this. I can't blame anyone for doing it. You want to provide as much as you can to (hopefully) make it on the video. BUT, could this not also be a production critique on that the personages editting the thing together do not need to use all three minutes of every video selected? Just a thought.

Wow, finally got my Dvd today (yes, I know, I'm a bit behind the times), and I have to say, I can't believe how much the standard has improved!

In fact, its almost unrecognisable now. I detect a very pixie-like theme running through the few clips I've seen so far.

I'm very impressed, looking forwards to watching the rest of it.

(Only disadvantage is, that my hopes - if I had any - of ever being able to enter this are fast disappearing!)

Pricklyleaf, 8 years ago, i was a juggler convinced that i would never be decent at twirling and didn't dare try. your feelings about submitting a COL entry made me think about that

if you really dig something you do, it really shows.
just ignore all the holy hell naysayers and do it because you love it. can't lose, ey?

Just got it this morning and I really tried to watch all of the entries but you know....

Some nice videos for sure. But to release my personal turmoil about fire arts in general here goes...

There was only one person on the dvd that I enjoyed watching "move". And that was Short Fusion. While the spinning wasn't that great, he clearly has some education in acrobatics and he was clean in his movement and dance. I just wish there would've been more of him doing that style. I think we need to set the standards a bit higher than a guy being able to hold his balance or a girl shaking it.

Having seen the Poism show live I have to say that it's still one of my favorite fire shows ever. And they can move and dance and their technique is ofcourse amazing and Asuka is beyond words. I'm not sure if it shows on this edited short version that well.

Best staffing was clearly MCP and M32. And I did enjoy the Zaobab in Africa video a lot. Japan really got some original styles and ATTITUDE, which most of the vids lacked.

I'm not saying I want to see only professional performers or high technical level. I can enjoy the spinning for fun videos. But atleast this time too many didn't seem to have much fun.

And I'm sad to say that the only time I went OMG!! (in a positive way) was seeing the fire fingers girl from the Nox Incendio video.

The negative OMGods would go to male hoops, bad make up and bad music. For starters.

I can say however good job everyone and congratulations for making it on the video. This is an important compilation and I did enjoy watching it. But once was enough.

just wanted to say thanks to pele, josh, rob and meg for your tips and criticism, we're planning on using your tips soon as we're currently working on improving our routine.
I'm thinking our next entry will be more of a promo-style video rather than a filmed routine. it would hopefully have a 3rd member and our group will have a name.

Ok one question. Is it ok to put the videos that were on the COL dvd online now? I got a lot of trouble from putting the full version of my vid online that was cut down on one of the previous COLs. So I deleted it from my website and then in the following competitions I made exclusive videos just for COL and Home of Poi to use believing you guys want the full rights to these videos and it would damage your income if I'd put my COL videos online. Till this day a lot of people haven't seen the classic Soy on Everything part 1 from RHD that was on COL 2004. And now I've seen a few videos from this and last years competitions online and on YouTube. So.... what's up?!?!

The rules haven't changed at all from before - we still don't want people to post their COL videos on the internet.

This is because we believe it would affect the sales of the COL DVD, and since we have invested considerably in attracting the entries, then I think it's fair for us to have some concerns about this.
At the same time, we do not own the copyright on the entries so the owners of the videos CAN use them for other purposes - we would just hope they choose not to make them available for free and thereby jeopardize future COL competitions. It is probably fair for a few people to post their videos 6-12 months after that years COL is released, but to have them up now is not in the spirit of the community. Also of course, if a lot of people posted their videos then this might also have a negative impact on sales.

The COL DVD principal purpose is as stated - to share our love of the arts and to encourage growth in these arts through providing a medium for inspiring others. HoP invests several thousands of dollars each year in this purpose in COL prize money and costs. If it weren't for the prizemoney it is doubtful that COL would be what it is now, and if it weren't for the DVD sales, it is doubtful we could provide prizemoney. So I think it's fair to say that if something negatively affects the DVD sales then future COL DVD's would be in jeopardy.

We therefore hope that the few people who have already posted their COL2007 entries on the internet would re-think this.
At the same time, we also realise that for many people they desire the exposure that posting their video might provide. AND we know that in some cases the COL video is a reduced version of the entry that people want to share - (perfect example is Nick & Yuta's Poi Story "full length version") so we need to work out how we can achieve both these ends.

We want to sell lots of COL DVD's, so that we can provide prizes that attract great entries, so we can continue to inspire people to the arts. AND we want to allow people to see the alternate versions of the entries that couldn't fit the requirements, and allow exposure to the artists to help spread the love of the arts as well.

Let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions about this topic as it is something we need to consider all possible sides of. At the end of the day COL will be what the Community decides it is and the HoP business situation allows.

Thank you for the reply. I have to think about what I'll do with the 2004 video from RHD. I would love more people to see it but I also like the idea of exclusive compilations of videos found nowhere else.

as many people as possible need to see antti's twirling.
would an acceptable compromise be to allow him to release an incomplete, lo-fi quality snippet that includes mention of a full length, phat quality version on the COL DVD?

that would simultaneously increase exposure of nekobasu-san and nurture more interest on the COL series.

teasers can be for great justice!

Bender, that's a fine idea, but the 2004 video can be posted as is if desired since it is now 2007.

Another option could be a DVD made up of "advanced" COL clips???