Chief Delphi - Chairman's Videos: At what point do they become part of the judging process?

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Re: Chairman's Videos: At what point do they become part of the judging process?

Here's what the game manual has to say:

Quote:

Originally Posted by 6.4.3.4 Interview Process and DVD Requirement for 2013 Season

All teams submitting for the Chairman’s Award will be interviewed by the Judges at the event. Chairman’s Award interviews are limited to ten minutes total; five minutes for a presentation by the team (which includes set-up) and up to five minutes of question and answer led by the Judges. Not more than three team members (students and/or adult mentors) from each team are allowed to present.

Teams submitting for the Chairman’s Award must provide a DVD to the judges at the start of their Chairman’s Award interview. The content of the video must be in English and should explain what the team has done to earn the Chairman’s Award. The video may be shown to the judges during the team’s 5 minute presentation time or the team can choose to not show the video during the presentation time. Even if the video is NOT shown during the interview, a DVD must still be provided to the Judges in order for the team to be considered for the Chairman’s Award. In addition, the team must provide the equipment for viewing (i.e. laptop/speakers etc.) the video. Teams who do not submit a DVD to the judges will not be considered eligible for the Chairman’s Award and will not be interviewed by the judges. This is applicable at all events including the FIRST Championship.

Note 2: The Chairman’s Award is our highest honor and teams who receive the Chairman’s Award represent the highest standards of FIRST. When the Chairman’s judges have narrowed the selection to two or three teams, these contenders for the Chairman’s Award at all events will have their DVD viewed by the Judge Advisor for appropriate content and to ensure that the above guidelines have been met. Although the Chairman’s judges will not be judging your video as part of your submission, a DVD with inappropriate content will disqualify a team for the award.

So the official line is that you must submit a video to be considered, however the video is not part of the official judging process, but can work against you.

As for the discussion of video quality, it is very possible to make a professional looking video without professional expertise or equipment.

http://youtu.be/qFwz3FZqiuc

Like 341, this video was done completely in house by our students, edited on one of their Macs. The red background you can see is actually our bumper fabric. (My reaction was priceless when I discovered where our "missing" roll of red bumper fabric actually was...)

That being said, this video was truly a labour of love. We wanted to make a video that we'd be proud to show off to the FIRST community if we won the Chairman's Award. The amount of time that was put into this video rivaled the efforts put into Simbot Jordan. Despite the manual telling us the video wasn't being officially judged, we felt that to win the Chairman's Award on the world stage, we needed to have video befitting of that grand platform.

We did not play our video during the interview. However, it was a major part of our Chairman's Action Plan. The essay was for getting factual information out about our team's story. The presentation supplemented the essay's content, emphasizing the areas we felt deserved the most attention. The video was for showing the softer and more human side of our team; what it means to be a Simbot and the emotions we've felt about our journey. You're only allowed 1500 words, 5 minutes of presentation and 3 minutes of video, you need to maximize this time/space by minimizing duplication.

My advice to any team submitting for the Chairman's Award in the future? Start early, devise a strategic plan, brainstorm ideas, search for inspiration, begin production, iterate and improve repeatedly. (If this sounds suspiciously similar to the process for building a robot, it's because it's the same) Win or lose the award, a well done video is a piece of art that will tell your team's story forever. As you can tell from this post, I'm somewhat attached to our team's video...

Re: Chairman's Videos: At what point do they become part of the judging process?

Here is excellent advice from Hollywood director and Executive Advisory Board member of FIRST, Paul Lazarus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OLsjhk-VN8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5o4IMvvDec

Re: Chairman's Videos: At what point do they become part of the judging process?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ebarker (Post 1200983)

Here is excellent advice from Hollywood director and Executive Advisory Board member of FIRST, Paul Lazarus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OLsjhk-VN8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5o4IMvvDec

Great guides, I've certainly watched them many times - a good reminder to have some of the younger members of my team watch them.

Re: Chairman's Videos: At what point do they become part of the judging process?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karthik (Post 1200974)

Here's what the game manual has to say:

So the official line is that you must submit a video to be considered, however the video is not part of the official judging process, but can work against you.

As for the discussion of video quality, it is very possible to make a professional looking video without professional expertise or equipment.

http://youtu.be/qFwz3FZqiuc

Like 341, this video was done completely in house by our students, edited on one of their Macs. The red background you can see is actually our bumper fabric. (My reaction was priceless when I discovered where our "missing" roll of red bumper fabric actually was...)

That being said, this video was truly a labour of love. We wanted to make a video that we'd be proud to show off to the FIRST community if we won the Chairman's Award. The amount of time that was put into this video rivaled the efforts put into Simbot Jordan. Despite the manual telling us the video wasn't being officially judged, we felt that to win the Chairman's Award on the world stage, we needed to have video befitting of that grand platform.

We did not play our video during the interview. However, it was a major part of our Chairman's Action Plan. The essay was for getting factual information out about our team's story. The presentation supplemented the essay's content, emphasizing the areas we felt deserved the most attention. The video was for showing the softer and more human side of our team; what it means to be a Simbot and the emotions we've felt about our journey. You're only allowed 1500 words, 5 minutes of presentation and 3 minutes of video, you need to maximize this time/space by minimizing duplication.

My advice to any team submitting for the Chairman's Award in the future? Start early, devise a strategic plan, brainstorm ideas, search for inspiration, begin production, iterate and improve repeatedly. (If this sounds suspiciously similar to the process for building a robot, it's because it's the same) Win or lose the award, a well done video is a piece of art that will tell your team's story forever. As you can tell from this post, I'm somewhat attached to our team's video...

Karthik,
this brings up some fond memories of recent years for us as well.
The amount of time our students put into the RCA rivaled that of our robot construction annually. From storyboarding to capturing just the right moment of a team's experiences, it was definitely an iterative process the entire year. Our lead person who was also the Allaire Medal recipient that year, literally gave up her life for 3 years in her quest for the CCA.

Even based on your post though, I still think the video counts for something. As I had mentioned several times the last couple of years, teams have to ask certain guiding essential question(s)........Is your video good enough to show on the grand stage and something FIRST would be proud to show the rest of the world?

Well maybe not, since ours was never showed.:]

Re: Chairman's Videos: At what point do they become part of the judging process?

Quote:

Originally Posted by waialua359 (Post 1200989)

Well maybe not, since ours was never showed.:]

hey, I watched it, it was good !

Re: Chairman's Videos: Do they become part of the judging process?

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcarr (Post 1200226)

We all know that many teams pour a great deal of time and effort into producing a stellar Chairman's award video. My question is one that I have been unable to answer: do they become part of the judging process?

Unlike the essay and executive summaries, the video is not submitted online ahead of time via STIMS. It is brought by the students and handed to the judges during the interview.

Do the judges watch all submitted videos as part of the judging process? Do they only watch several after they have pared down the field of contenders? Do they not watch any, leaving them all "unused" with the exception of the winning video that is shown after the awards ceremony? Is there a standard practice that is followed?

If this answer is outlined in the manual or on another thread on CD that I missed, I would be grateful to be pointed in the right direction.

Please note that the answer really has no bearing on how much time or effort one should put into the video; from my perspective, its use a a tool for recruitment, showing to potential sponsors, and increasing community awareness is a much greater and more important goal.

Well, since the original post has now completely changed from what I responded to, I will simply say that I like the Chairman's video because it gives the team a chance to 'show off' a bit when it is shown after they win the award. It really gets the team revved up when they get to have every one see it.