Cover Site Battle Royal: Year 2

[JollyRoger]

For what's it's worth Andrew - I was a Judge for CoverVizion - and I had your cover as#1 ahead of Brads cover which was a hard #2 to me. The montage and the extra small stills, You know - the small details placed your work in a class of its own IMO. - I'm sorry Ford - Yours was just too pretty and perfect

[Nightrider]

When someone is a perfectionist in anything, near enough in their eyes will never be good enough.
And that's ok, don't compromise.
Just keep doing what you're doing while you are enjoying doing it. We all have hits and misses, in our eyes or others, we're human
I think we all see faults in the things we do, covers in this case, other people see things we don't, or they see another direction they think would be better, etc etc, you know how it works mate.
I think everytime we do a cover, put it out there in a WIP/ITW, whatever, we are exposing ourselves while hoping we remembered to zip our fly.

I also think we all know it's really hard to do a cover for something we're not all that interested in.

I read all the comments on each cover, some of what was said about mine was spot on, some of what was said, I just felt that they missed what I was thinking at the time I was doing it, the technical comments were pretty much all correct. I just failed at getting the message across, I'll try and learn something from it.

Anyway I don't think you're being a sore looser for coming in 2nd, I just think you disappointed yourself but no one else.
Bottom line is you always make this site proud!

[Kernie]

Thanks JR and NR... I appreciate the comments.

Nightrider, I agree about the judges' comments. I felt some of the "room for improvement" comments weren't necessarily technical flaws, but a matter of personal preference. Like you said, I think they didn't "get" what I was going for. I'm glad I'm not the only who felt this way. It's easy to be a critic, it requires nothing but an opinion. I'd love the chance to evaluate some of the judges' designs! Joking aside, I do appreciate that the judges took the time to point out some flaws, it's just hard for me to hear sometimes as I try so very hard to be flawless.

Thanks again, I'm feeling better about things. I'm just taking this loss especially hard for reasons that I can't quite put my finger on.

[bpmford]

I found It to definitely be the case in many of the Room for Improvement comments... I read the comments for all the covers, and many were personal opinions, just as there are on WIPs (good and bad)... Everyone will have things in designs that they would themselves do differently, and there is noting wrong with that.

I got at least one comment on mine that mentioned the color of the banners on my cover. Yes, I could upload seven versions with seven different color banners to make everyone happy, but it wouldn't really matter. If the designer is happy with the choices they made for certain creative elements, than that is what is important.

When recos are technical errors, or errors in cut-outs or image resolution, then there is little to question. But much of everything else comes down to personal taste or sometimes how a particular element fits the movie (but that can even be a personal thing)

The hardest thing about designing customs for comps, is that it is hard to ballance creativity with relevance. Taking no chances and going with the same look as the studio would always get you points on relevance, but will loose on creativity. While designing something that is out of the norm and completely different will get you lots of creativity praise, but may result in more thinking it isn't as relevant to the movie..

[Kernie]

Well said, Ford!

There were some judges who liked the way I presented my title treatment (bloody letters carved into stitched-together pieces of human skin... which in my opinion, is pretty f'n relevant to the plot of the film) and others did not feel it fit the film or that the letters were tough to read. Well, I've never tried, but I'd imagine it's pretty difficult to maintain legible penmanship when carving words into slabs of human flesh, so yeah... the text might be a bit tough to read.

Another judge would have preferred a more natural brick color for my brick wall texture, but I was going for the sickly green/brown color of the bricks in Lecter's glass cell. To use a more natural red/orange brick with white mortar in between wouldn't match the dark and dank atmosphere I was trying to create.

Maybe something to consider for future comps would be an artist's statement. That might defeat the point of letting the design speak for itself, but it gives the designer a chance to defend certain choices that would be misread by the judges.

:doh: :doh: :doh:

[Nightrider]

Thanks kernie, and good comments guys, very constructive and well stated.

In a strange way I actually much more positive now than I did a week or 2 ago, a good open discussion like this feels like good therapy
And I'm not being a wise a$$, I feel like it has helped me, so
cheers, good stuff

[Segunda]

QUOTE (kernie82 @ Apr 15 2012, 05:50 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well said, Ford!

There were some judges who liked the way I presented my title treatment (bloody letters carved into stitched-together pieces of human skin... which in my opinion, is pretty f'n relevant to the plot of the film) and others did not feel it fit the film or that the letters were tough to read. Well, I've never tried, but I'd imagine it's pretty difficult to maintain legible penmanship when carving words into slabs of human flesh, so yeah... the text might be a bit tough to read.

Another judge would have preferred a more natural brick color for my brick wall texture, but I was going for the sickly green/brown color of the bricks in Lecter's glass cell. To use a more natural red/orange brick with white mortar in between wouldn't match the dark and dank atmosphere I was trying to create.

Maybe something to consider for future comps would be an artist's statement. That might defeat the point of letting the design speak for itself, but it gives the designer a chance to defend certain choices that would be misread by the judges.

:doh: :doh: :doh:

That last point is actually a good idea Kernie. A designer can explain his/her choices and fill in that 'unknowing' gap. You depend on how much will & time people invest in their argued opinions and their empathy. It's possible to create a box of scores when you comment as a judge and people have to argue their scores, so all covers get the same input from judges (don't know if that's already the case).
I really understand your workstyle, it is the same over here, but you can be a real pain in the a$$ sometimes for yourself (but that's no problem as long as you like what you are doing).

[VincentLupo]

As a Judge I spent many hours looking at each cover and every detail. I had page after page of notes and I just couldn't make many decisions. How was I to put one error above or below another. It just wasn't working for me. So I tried another approach. I printed every cover. I laid them all out on the floor and started looking at the actual printed quality. What I found was that almost all of the errors I had found in a cover didn't even show up when printed. That did not make it any easier but what I also found was that things I really liked didn't necessarily print well. Primarily small text on the back. So in the end I did exactly what I didn't want to do . I rated the covers based on there overall appearance and print quality. It came down to what I thought would look best on a shelf. I even went as far as to put each cover in a case and looked at them that way. So it was all personal taste. For me that is tough because there is not a single style I like. I looked for sharp clear and correct text. Front to back flow. Image quality, creativity, mood (did the cover make me want to watch the film). What really made this difficult for me was the fact that there were 3 films. It is really hard to compare a cover for any of the three to one of the others. I really had a tough time with that. One thing I have decided after having to go through this. I think that you really have to look at a cover as a whole and not each and every little detail. The Cover with the least errors does not necessarily make it the best. I thought that the creativity and direction that some of the covers showed trumped any errors that were present. Minor things like errors in text can be easily fixed but the overall design is what is important. Just my take and I'm open to any questions or comments anyone has. I would like to see this competition continue for many many years to come. This kind of open debate is exactly what is needed.

[Nightrider]

Vincent, WOW! that is great to read, thank you, also the seriousness and dedication you applied is to be applauded, I believe we all know how true you judges are to the competition and this only re-enforces that.
Your judging style sounds pretty good and sound, as I am sure all were for each judge.
It was very interesting to read your process, thanks for sharing it mate

[VincentLupo]

Thanks NR.