10 Things I Learned Doing THE SEXIEST® Film Awards

Find out what was too VAGUE after the jump.

Okay!!! 

The charity money has been donated. The awards are being engraved and will be passed out by the weekend. So it's a good time for me to look back at the whole show and think about what I did right and what i'd do different.

First, thanks to everyone for all their nice comments on the film awards. And also thanks to everyone for their criticisms too.

It will help us make them better the next time.

This isn't about rehashing any dramas or defending myself from them. I just thought the group would want to know why certain decisions were made. What I think we did well. And what I wish I did better.

That way we can figure out as a group what will work best if we do another show next year.

So read on after the break if you want to 

1. Nobody could have done a better job than Hard Rust. 

Think about it. It's hard to get ANYONE to do ANYTHING in Second Life.

And still the man got us 8...count them...8!!!!....judges who watched over 100 movies and rated 12 categories on time. It's a Second Life miracle.

My only request to him was to please get a VARIERTY of people who WERE well known but WEREN'T in our group (and still understand our work). And as tough as that was to do, he did it.

Also, he and his wife made a huge sacrifice not submitting any entries for themselfs. It was a very noble thing to do. And i don't think enough people appreciate how much they gave up.

This was impossible and thankless. He did the really, really hard job. Maybe that's how he got his name :)

2. It was right to announce the judges this time. But not next time.

Some people thought it was a mistake to announce the judges before the awards. Maybe so.

But since this was the first time we did it, I thought it was important for everybody to see it wasn't just me or Hard judging things. That we really got an impressive group of people.

I think that buys us goodwill for next year. And I think then we can keep their names quiet until the results are in.

3. The categories seemed to be pretty good.

Most people seemed to think those were worthy categories. We can look at adding some. But the problem becomes how many nominees a sim can hold. 5 Nominees times 12 categories can be up to 60 people.

We were going to do some more online ones for fun but that turned into drama. If we add any more entries we’ll have to do more than one awards night (which is an idea Alyssa Drechsler had).

4. Make it more clear who is eligible to submit entries and why you need to submit entries.

This is a great suggestion by Hard Rust. I think it was a little VAGUE who could enter what and who would gets a trophy. 

But we’ll be way more specific about that if there’s a next time.

5. I wish there were no entries that I worked on. But it wasn't practical.

I worked on over 40 movies last year. I wanted to be like Hard Rust and not have anything I worked on be entered. But that kept too many really good people out. There were just way too many movies I was involved in.

I know it would have kept 4 or 5 nominees out. Or just look at Serenity’s film which won several awards. It would have been taken out, just for me having a small role.

That’s why we worked really hard to keep the judging separate. And why ALL the contact with the judges went through Hard Rust until the judging was counted. I didn’t even send them invites until Hard had all the results.

It was a little embarrassing to me that a film I directed, won a few awards, including one of the biggest. But I also know that Madame Aprille is very deserving of any awards she received. She came up with the original story, financed the project, made all the sets and props, cast the film and suggested using lip sync in Second Life for her narration.

I don’t think it would be fair to punish her efforts because of me.

6. We need more time between nominations and the show

There was only a day between getting all the nominations and the day of the show. We needed more time to sort out tickets and shift gears to get things ready.

Also part of the reason we need more time is to check the nominees more carefully, to make sure all the rules were followed.

7. You will never agree with all the judges choices. I know I didn’t.

There’s always controversy when awards shows nominations come out. Or the day after the show. It happens at the Oscars every year. And it happened with our show.

I know some people were upset about some of the choices. But you know what, I disagreed with plenty of them too.

I was pretty shocked when Krystall Pearl wasn’t nominated for Best Actress. She was so deserving of that honor. And I felt Deelite should definitely have been a Best Director nominee. She is such a talent.

In fact, I would have personally picked Deelite’s film, DEATH OF A DEMON over La cagna ricca. I think that film is art. They should use it to teach students at film school!!!!

That movie was the most influential and inspiring to me as a director, this year. Take a look:

               

But you know what…Even though that is my opinion, I still respect that 8 people took the time to look at all the films and give us their time and opinion.

And I respect them for doing that, and respect their opinion.

Speaking of respect…

8. Always Respect the Lag Monster!

If you have a really big group of people, you will crash a sim. So as hard as we tried to limit tickets, we may have to be even tougher next time. I wanted to film the event. But I crashed so many times it was impossible.

Alyssa suggested doing the show in more than one day to reduce lag. That’s one idea we’ll look at for sure.

Overall, we’re going to spend a lot more time working on this problem next time.

9. Explain better why the money went to Naughty Bitch and not Naughty Machinima

Originally, I sent out an announcement saying the money would go BOTH the NB and NM. I had every intention of doing that. But then I realized it was almost impossible.

The problem is that I can’t PROVE when I send money to people out of SL. Also, the owner of NM can be very hard to get hold of.  Which could mean long delays with the groups money.

I thought it would be better to send the groups money quickly to a place I could verify. And someone told me that there have big huge, long controversies with charity shows that couldn’t verify where the money went.

So to hold onto money for weeks or send it in a way I couldn’t prove all seemed to be inviting trouble. It’s a hassle I didn’t want for $23 of real life money. So I hope the group understands why and doesn’t mind being a little flexible about this.

And most importantly, it still went to support a Machinima where we all play films.  Which is the most important thing.

10. People will know what to expect next time. And that’s a good thing.

Nobody new how this would work. Nobody ever submitted an entry before. Nobody new what the trophy looked like. Or what to expect at the awards show. Or if we'd have a nickel to donate when it was all done.

And while there were a few bits of drama, I think people liked the awards. And I think it will be easier to get people to do all those things. And more people will want to participate next year.

I also think that with a little success, we could get some sponsorships and have Ticket Auctions, that could help us raise even more money for our films.

Something to work on next time.

Anyway, those are some of my opinions on the show. Feel free to add your own comments (just remember you can be critical but not mean or personal).