Cover Site Battle Royal: Year 2

[bpmford]

I fully agree with NR and what you did as a judge, it's great to see how much effort you put into your decision!

[JollyRoger]

Wow! Vincent - Thanks for that run-thru on your judging. Very nice - and with ideas I would implement were I ever to judge again.

I also tried several ways to try and give each cover the same amount of attention.

First I simply divided the covers per film. Then I began going over each entry looking at the general layout and appealness, was it fitting for the movie, was the images well chosen, image handling, typography; font choices/layout/sizes; how was any blending of images done? Technical level of ornaments, image frames and so on and so forth. I also nitpicked the legal text, checking every entry for spelling mistakes.

When done, with pages of notes on each entry I tried to rank them. That proved too hard. Then I tried dividing them into groups; Top, Middle, Bottom. That way I didn't have to rank each entry at first, I could losely get an overview of the entire field.

Now I had another problem - I had three groups of 3 sub-groups - one for each of the films. How was I to decide which were the better cover? In the end I found myself forced to look at the technical design level, and then try and merge the three subgroups. I have no idea how long this process took, but I had to sleep on it. First thing next morning I ran thru the covers again, adjusting any sub-group placements from the night before I felt was wrong. Trying then to give the two lower groups equal attention I tried to settle the lowest rankings first, leaving me with only my top contenders (plus a few 'extras' the top choices in subgroup Two that could've taken one of the lower places in my top group).

The last group, the top choices was a laugh. All splendid covers that deserved to win. In the end I had three entries which I believed to be worthy winners - then sorted rank #3, leaving me with two. Both excellent covers, that just happened to be for two different movies. I laughed. This was impossible! In the end I had to go with my gut. I chose the cover which made the biggest impact on me personally.

I dunno if this was a read worth, but they were some of the thoughts I had while judging this year.

Oh, and just to mention it. I didn't take part in the guessing of who's whose also because I had tried very hard to clear that from my head while judging, and didn't want it to have any influence on my judging.

Also - After submitting my scores - I really just wanted the comp over with as quickly as possible because I didn't want to find any errors in my judging.

[VincentLupo]

Yep, JR you went through a lot of the same feelings I did. Thanks for sharing.

[Nightrider]

Thanks for the share JR, also a great read and insight. You guys did a great job, and I hope you all feel proud of what you did and how you did it, could not be fairer or more thorough and unbiased.

Geez I thought it was tough trying to make the damn thing!

Great job guys and many thanks, not only on the judging and your commitment and professional approach but also for sharing with us the process.
Cheers.