The FIRST Oscars

[MysterE]

Hi all,

I was browsing through a number of old Chairman's Award Videos recently and was a bit saddened to realize how much time went into videos that very few people would ever see. While I know that FIRST does not have any official video awards, I though that if people would be interested, we could start an unofficial award through the FIRST community.

I'd think of it like the FIRST Oscars. We could have a few categories, appoint judges, 3-d Print awards. . . we could even host a Hang-Out or something to that extent to present the awards to the winners. If enough people are interested, I will see about organizing it.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

[Carolyn_Grace]

I love this idea!

Categories could be similar to real Oscars. Googling the Oscars given out this year presents a bunch of choices. I copy and pasted the ones I thought might be relevant to CA Videos:

Best Picture
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Best Feature with Animation
Best Live Action Short Film
Best Cinematography
Best Costume Design
Best Film Editing
Best Sound Editing
Best Visual Effects

[James1902]

I think this is a great idea!

Some category ideas:

Best Vlog series
Best Robot Reveal Video
Best Chairman's Video
Best Comedic Video
etc.

[cmrnpizzo14]

I can't judge but I would join a hangout or watch livestream on this!

[MysterE]

I think this is a great idea!

Some category ideas:

Best Vlog series
Best Robot Reveal Video
Best Chairman's Video
Best Comedic Video
etc.

I haven't even thought about including Robot Reveal videos and the like. Well played!

Also - we will need a different name for it than the Oscars for TradeMark issues.

[Hallry]

Best Robot Reveal Video

I think anyone who's been around for at least the past 3 years knows who'd win that...or maybe 'naut'. ;)

Also - we will need a different name for it than the Oscars for TradeMark issues.

Why not...The Woodies! :p

[Libby K]

This is a pretty cool idea! I'd be in to help make this happen in whatever way I can. The FIRST community is an awesome thing - I love seeing creative ideas like this!

[MysterE]

The Woodies. .hmm. . .or the Flower Awards. I can see some interesting 3d designed awards for that.

[protoserge]

I'm sure we're game :cool:

The only question is... can we provide historic content or would it have to be 2014 season for this round?

I think some additional categories could be best:

parody
advertisement
STEM/STEAM educational video
reporting/coverage
"caught on camera" action shot


I'd say that there shouldn't be any restrictions on mentor/student participation, as it is a team effort.

We might be able to make up a 3D printed trophy or some other form. It would be awesome to have some FIRST-backed advertising (FRC blog, newsletters) even if this is not an official award.

[cadandcookies]

Great idea!

I'm relatively confident that I can convince my team to 3D print the awards on our replicator 2 printers, the main question would be getting them to the winners. Webcast for the actual announcement and awards handouts at Champs or IRI?

I'd also be happy to help with or design the trophy-- I recently designed the Stratasys 3D Printing Award for the Minnesota State FTC tournament.

I love the idea, and would like to help out.

[Gutsyten42]

I love this idea. I can't speak for the rest of my team, but I'd love to see this idea come to light.

[MysterE]

Ok -

So I think for the first year, we should limit it to the past two or three years. Basically all videos from 2011-2013. After that, we give awards from the previous calendar year. That way, teams aren't rushing to get everything done. So.. Next year we would take calendar year 2014.

We will need two or three rounds of judging. The first would be general nominations by the FRC public. Second would be a large mixture of mentors, members, and sponsors who would rate each video. The top three to five from each category would then be judged by the final judging panel made up of important FIRSTers, perhaps some media, and whoever else. The awards are kept secret until the telecast. For the first year, we could just mail the trophies, but perhaps next year we could hold an officially unofficial awards ceremony at the Championship.

Thoughts?

[markmcgary]

The Plowies.

[coalhot]

The Plowies.

+1

[MrTechCenter]

Also, for this year anyway, we should have a category for Dean's Homework.

[BigJ]

The Plowies.

I don't think anything else can compare.

The real question is whether the trophy should be pristine Plowie or squished-Plowie

[Alan Anderson]

I immediately thought that "Woodies" was the perfect name. "Plowies" beats it by a mile, though.

The real question is whether the trophy should be pristine Plowie or squished-Plowie

A true Plowie award couldn't be made in a completely rigid shape. It would have to deform when dumped on.

[Conor Ryan]

I'd think of it like the FIRST Oscars. We could have a few categories, appoint judges, 3-d Print awards. . . we could even host a Hang-Out or something to that extent to present the awards to the winners. If enough people are interested, I will see about organizing it.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Now that we have "The Plowies", what would be the best way to facilitate this? I like the idea that we keep it similar to the oscars and do not compeletely make it into a social media award, I do not want to leave the opportunity for somebody (or team) to spam the voting process.

So how do we recreate the "Academy" in the Academy awards? The Academy would also be responsible for establishing who is nominated for which award.

I also would like to propose that the Awards be given out the Wednesday Evening of Championships, with an accompanying webcast. Not too much stuff is scheduled then and since the arena opens at 3pm for robots it leaves some extra time to do this, ideally at a public location.

[rcmolloy]

I think anyone who's been around for at least the past 3 years knows who'd win that...or maybe 'naut'. ;)

We're certainly going to up the ante for 118 this year as far as reveal videos go so you shouldn't play your cards just yet.

[Littleboy]

These peer awards are a great idea. I can see this idea really taking off and expanding as more teams learn about it.

[MooreteP]

How about an award for Creative Mascot?
Best Flag?
Coolest Queuer?
Most effective Emcee?
Most Exciting elimination matches?

[Tetraman]

Remember this blog post?

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/blog-community-awards-the-deans-list-finalist-that-got-away-and-season-over

Frank has already talked about setting up some Community Awards for the upcoming season...which happens to be this one, and the first of those awards was supposed to be for the animation award.

I think that if there could be more topics and more interest for those topics in these Community Awards, then maybe this idea will take off better. With teams getting more creative with their videos, and the interest in this thread already, there is potential to make a good Robot-Related Video and Non-Robot Video Community Award, as well as awards for Chairman's. There are a lot of potential Community Awards waiting to happen, it just needs the right interest shown to get it started. The downside could be the possibility of FIRST adding in some sort of regulation to Videos, such as no music used without proper permission and correct uses of the FIRST logo.

Also, maybe, possibly, the award given to each of the winners of these community awards could officially be named The Plowie, but it may have to go though a number of approvals. haha

[MysterE]

Ok -

Its been a while since we've updated this whole thread. I am still excited about this idea so lets continue:

What we have so far:

Award Name: Plowies

Categories

Best Chairman's Award Video
Best Narration of a Chairman's Video
Best Cinematography of a Chairman's Video
Best Animated Short
Best Robot Reveal Video
Best Build Season Vlog
Best Comedic Short
Best Video by a Rookie Team
Best STEM Video


The Awards Nomination Process:

Initial Nominations: (1 Week)
Teams will be invited to submit videos for consideration within each category. They may only submit videos from their own team and only one nomination will be allowed per team for each category.
Secondary Nominations: (1 Week)
All teams, even those who have not submitted, will be allowed to cast votes for each category. Only one vote for each category from each team will be allowed and teams may not vote for their own videos.

Final Nominations: (1 Week)
The top five videos in each category will move on to the Final Nomination process. A selection of FIRST Alumni, Employees, Mentors, Volunteers and VIPs will be chosen to cast their vote in each respective category. These voters will be kept anonymous and unknown to the FIRST community at large.


Ok - any final suggestions before this starts getting setup? We will decide how to present the awards as we see how well the FIRST Community participates.

[Jessica Boucher]

Oh boy. This is turning out to be too much fun. What can we do to make this happen?

[protoserge]

Can someone explain what a "plowie" is?

[BrendanB]

Oh boy. This is turning out to be too much fun. What can we do to make this happen?

+1

What needs to happen to make this a thing! Let us know!

[BigJ]

Can someone explain what a "plowie" is?

Plowie is the unofficial(?) name of the bulldozer robot that always gets something dropped on it ("uh oh") in the yearly FRC game animation.

[protoserge]

Plowie is the unofficial(?) name of the bulldozer robot that always gets something dropped on it ("uh oh") in the yearly FRC game animation.

Ohhhhh. Poor Plowie.

[MysterE]

Ok -

One of the first things that we need to do is to setup a website. Our team would be willing to pay for the domain as well as the hosting if another team would be willing to actually do the coding.

The page will need to have the following sections:

Front-Page w/info
An Info Page on the Process Details

A Submission Page for Stage 1 (This could be just a database registration at first. Eventually we will want it to support team registration so that each team only gets one submission.)

Voting Subpages for Stage 2 (This should have a sub-page for each category. We would embed each YouTube File submitted in Stage 1. We would also want to have a voting system. This could be as simple as a separate form where teams enter their info and then select by number their chosen video for each category. Ideally, we would want to have a registration system setup so that a team representative could create a team account without having multiple members from the same team registering. They would then login and submit their votes.)

Voting Subpages for Stage 3 (This again will be a selection of subpages with the top 5 videos chosen in stage 2. The registration system will be largely the same except we will only register those that are chosen as official judges.)

Another option to consider is finding a FIRST Sponsor that may wish to attach their name to this. They could perhaps sponsor renting an area at one of the downtown hotels at St. Louis as well as the trophies. It would be "The Plowie Awards sponsored by Such and So" or "The Such and So Plowie Awards."

Once this is done, we are ready to let the voting begin.

Now - if this can't be done, then we simply setup a few Google Spreadsheets and someone will have to volunteer to make sure only one person per team is voting.

So here is our immediate action plan - I need a team to volunteer to act as the Website Coders. We could also use a team that would design a good graphic for the event. Once we have that in place, the coders would have approximately two weeks at most to get the initial voting stages setup so we can get started right around week one of the regionals.

PM me if there are any takers and comment here with any other suggestions.

[Starke]

One of the first things that we need to do is to setup a website. Our team would be willing to pay for the domain as well as the hosting if another team would be willing to actually do the coding.



I love this thread! What a great idea!

FRC Designs (www.frcdesigns.com (http://www.frcdesigns.com)) would be honored to add a section to their website for this purpose! This would keep the costs lower for everyone while still providing a website address. Maybe something like frcdesigns.com/awards? A small monetary contribution would be appreciated to continue to keep the website going.

Thoughts?

[BBray_T1296]

I am currently working on a 3d printable Plowie. I wanted one for myself, and I was going to print it at my University's 3d printer. When I finish the drawing I would be happy to provide the files for it.

[BBray_T1296]

Plowie! (without eyebrows)

*not to scale

Is there anything glaringly wrong with this model? Even if you don't want to use it, I will probably 3d print one for myself.
The wheels even spin!

-Made entirely in Solidworks 2013
-Dimensions are approx 6"L x 4"W x 3"H
-All pieces are single color, to be epoxied together
-Made from blue, white, dark gray and light gray
-I don't know if I quite got the flares on the corners of the plow right, they are hard to perfect

[MelodyPond]

Plowie! (without eyebrows)

*not to scale

Is there anything glaringly wrong with this model? Even if you don't want to use it, I will probably 3d print one for myself.
The wheels even spin!

-Made entirely in Solidworks 2013
-Dimensions are approx 6"L x 4"W x 3"H
-All pieces are single color, to be epoxied together
-Made from blue, white, dark gray and light gray
-I don't know if I quite got the flares on the corners of the plow right, they are hard to perfect

OH MY GOD! This is beautiful! Could I order one off you? Or even just use the files. These would make great birthday presents for brother and dad (Both FIRSTers).

[Lil' Lavery]

Ok -

Its been a while since we've updated this whole thread. I am still excited about this idea so lets continue:

What we have so far:

Award Name: Plowies

Categories

Best Chairman's Award Video
Best Narration of a Chairman's Video
Best Cinematography of a Chairman's Video
Best Animated Short
Best Robot Reveal Video
Best Build Season Vlog
Best Comedic Short
Best Video by a Rookie Team
Best STEM Video


There's already a community animation award. Perhaps you should attempt to integrate, or at least "coopertate," with that one?
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12428

What about team highlight and/or event recap videos? Some teams make highlight reels after they compete to help build hype for the championship (or whatever their next event is).

[MysterE]

Hmm... Best Recap Video sounds good.

[philso]

Could the people who produce the Game Animation Video be convinced to provide the model for Plowie?

[BBray_T1296]

Getting the files from "Havabanana productions" would probably be the best bet.
Also I might be worried about any copyright infringement or some other legal laws that could potentially exist from copying it ourselves

I have very little 3d printing expertise so this is based on what I do know, and think would work. I might try out printing one or part of one just to see how it turns out. There is perhaps some issue of whether or not the wheels can actually be printed given their current architecture and I am concerned with the thickness (or thin-ness) of some regions of the model.

The top of Plowie's back is intentionally significantly thicker so as to allow some type of engraving, either before or after printing.
I am not sure about the "over air" capability of the Makerbot Replicator 2x our school has so I think I will have to divide some of the pieces into two and glue them together, though I hate having seams, to keep cost down (My school charges 35 cents a gram! and this thing is right at the $50 mark for me! [maker bot lists their stock at 1/7 the price, so it would be way cheaper if you had your own printer)

As soon as I have files I am comfortable with I can upload them

[protoserge]

Getting the files from "Havabanana productions" would probably be the best bet.
Also I might be worried about any copyright infringement or some other legal laws that could potentially exist from copying it ourselves

I have very little 3d printing expertise so this is based on what I do know, and think would work. I might try out printing one or part of one just to see how it turns out. There is perhaps some issue of whether or not the wheels can actually be printed given their current architecture and I am concerned with the thickness (or thin-ness) of some regions of the model.

The top of Plowie's back is intentionally significantly thicker so as to allow some type of engraving, either before or after printing.
I am not sure about the "over air" capability of the Makerbot Replicator 2x our school has so I think I will have to divide some of the pieces into two and glue them together, though I hate having seams, to keep cost down (My school charges 35 cents a gram! and this thing is right at the $50 mark for me! [maker bot lists their stock at 1/7 the price, so it would be way cheaper if you had your own printer)

As soon as I have files I am comfortable with I can upload them

I may have my Kossel Pro at some point next month. It's no problem for me to print a few.

[Libby K]

Getting the files from "Havabanana productions" would probably be the best bet.
Also I might be worried about any copyright infringement or some other legal laws that could potentially exist from copying it ourselves

I have very little 3d printing expertise so this is based on what I do know, and think would work. I might try out printing one or part of one just to see how it turns out. There is perhaps some issue of whether or not the wheels can actually be printed given their current architecture and I am concerned with the thickness (or thin-ness) of some regions of the model.

The top of Plowie's back is intentionally significantly thicker so as to allow some type of engraving, either before or after printing.
I am not sure about the "over air" capability of the Makerbot Replicator 2x our school has so I think I will have to divide some of the pieces into two and glue them together, though I hate having seams, to keep cost down (My school charges 35 cents a gram! and this thing is right at the $50 mark for me! [maker bot lists their stock at 1/7 the price, so it would be way cheaper if you had your own printer)

As soon as I have files I am comfortable with I can upload them

You're looking for Dave Lavery. You can reach him here on ChiefDelphi- and just for the record, the little robot's official name is Dozer.

[Qcom]

You're looking for Dave Lavery. You can reach him here on ChiefDelphi- and just for the record, the little robot's official name is Dozer.

But... Plowie!

[Mike Starke]

... the little robot's official name is Dozer.

Definitely.

Let's keep looking for names...

[Hallry]

Let's keep looking for names...

I'll throw this hat back into the ring...

Why not...The Woodies! :p

[Jason Rudolph]

The Woodies already exist. They are given out by MTV to college/indie musicians.