• Location: England (sorry)
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Topic: I wish to register a complaint...

I'm sorry if I appear to be snotty in my creation of an entire thread for this issue, but I cannot find a relevant thread for this to go in. I'm not PMing a moderator as I dont know whom is in charge of this, and the film reveiwers user-name is not given

My film 'Mr Socially Impaired IN 'Yor: The Hunter From the Internet - THE UNFINISHED PROJECT' was rejected on the 14th of February 2011 at 21:27pm GMT. This is what the notification says:

Automatic Text wrote:

Your film was rejected because it was not submitted correctly, it has been moved to the end of the queue, please fix it so we can add it to the directory.

Fair enough. However, I noticed the film reviewers comments after this:

Mr Film Reviewer wrote:

Reviewers comments: Well Max, if you're constantly mentioning throughout the film how terrible it is, I don't see why you expect many other people to like it either. Even if you weren't, there's not much here to watch.

1. This contradicts the previous automated statement that there is merely an error in the application.
2. I believe films are never rejected for quality - they are just not reviewed by staff and placed in the 'All' category. (Correct me if I am wrong)
3. The film application has been deleted, including the discussion topic (as far as I can see) - when the E-Mail says there is an error with the application and can be fixed, and has been put to the bottom of the queue - which is hasn't since the topic has been DELETED.
4. The Reviewer is incredibly rude in his comment. I recognise his feedback, but back on Brickfilms.com rejections it was much better phrased and explained exactly why the film was rejected - although the film SHOULDN'T be rejected because rejection does not happen despite how bad the quality.

I am honestly disgusted. Not only does this contradict the set rules established, and the reason behind its rejection, it has been dealt with in a rude and unprofessional way. From the Reviewers comment, I feel as though I have offended him in some way and this is his payback - which, although I doubt this is the case, is not how a Reviewer employed by Smeagol should act.

If I am right in assuming that rejection based on the quality of the film is impossible - this is a disgrace.

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Max, She/Her

Max Butcher's Website

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Re: I wish to register a complaint...

That's strange. Your film has certainly not been rejected for quality. Perhaps because it's an Unfinished movie mini/confused I don't know...

http://i50.tinypic.com/2ex4k0w.jpg
/ Youtube / Cinematography Challenge
  • Location: England (sorry)
  • Joined: January 1, 2009

Re: I wish to register a complaint...

If it is unfinished, then the Reviewer should have stated this as the reason for rejection, rather than "there's not much here to watch", along with his/her snide comments. I am not complaining that the film has been rejected, but of its flawed logic behind the rejection and appalling feedback.

Last edited by Max Butcher (February 15, 2011 (09:54am))

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Max, She/Her

Max Butcher's Website

  • Joined: December 26, 2008

Re: I wish to register a complaint...

A PM to me would have worked (but there's nothing wrong with creating this thread). Sméagol named me head of the review panel a while back, but that fact seems to be BiM's best-kept secret.

I'll look into this. I'm not sure who it was, and there's no way for me to find out unless the reviewer in question confesses, but I'll see what I can find out. Unless the reviewer can provide another reason for the film's rejection, we'll likely have you resubmit and bump it back to the front of the queue. While the message you received certainly sounds overly curt and possibly impartial, I'm refraining from passing any final judgment until I've heard both sides of the story.

The automated message you received is due to an error in the text that I thought had been fixed by now... the message that's supposed to be sent out when we send a film to the back of the queue also goes out when we straight-up reject a film.

Incidentally, films can be rejected for quality, but they've got to be horrendous. Our stated policy is "Films whose technical qualities are embarrassingly far below site averages (3 FPS, sizable camera bumps every frame, etc.) are to be rejected. This should be a very rare occurrence, as giving a film all “1s” and accepting it into the “all films” category is quite possible. Rather, rejection should be saved for films whose directors obviously made no effort to avoid even the simplest of brickfilming mistakes and for whom “0s” would be more fitting ratings."

With all due respect Noodle, I don't want you here. - Ratboy Productions
  • Location: England (sorry)
  • Joined: January 1, 2009

Re: I wish to register a complaint...

Thank you very much for offering to look into this. And thank you for clarifying the conditions of rejection.

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Max, She/Her

Max Butcher's Website

  • Joined: December 26, 2008

Re: I wish to register a complaint...

I know who wrote that and I'm not cool with it, have pm'd Noodle some details, but not having seen the video myself I don't know if the rejection was valid or not.  If a video is in a very incomplete state to where it seems not worth including in the directory it can be rejected; however we do have some unfinished works in the directory, like 'The Dentures.'

The Mona Lisa is unfinished, after all, and that's in a museum.

http://i.imgur.com/wcmcdmf.png

Sméagol's Website

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Re: I wish to register a complaint...

No his video is very much completed... Might seem odd to some, but still...


I had one like this before, I submitted a film and wrote some self-doubting comments in the description, and I got the same reason as Max's, and the reviewers's note was:

Self-deprecation is awesome.

I ignored this at the time, but it seems we have a problem..

Brickyman's Website

  • Joined: December 26, 2008

Re: I wish to register a complaint...

The reviewer asked me what I thought about their reasoning and I was against rejecting for the fact it's incomplete you can get a lot of entertainment out of incomplete pieces of work (and I'm not just saying that because The Dentures is in:shifty: ).

  • Joined: December 26, 2008

Re: I wish to register a complaint...

I don't know who did that, but I'd rather not have people making smart remarks as rejection messages.  We're in a difficult position in that we can't just promptly remove said reviewer, since he obviously does do some reviewing and we don't get very many good applicants who actually stick with it.

http://i.imgur.com/wcmcdmf.png

Sméagol's Website

  • Joined: December 26, 2008

Re: I wish to register a complaint...

I hardly think two comments is a problem. It was likely the same individual, and now that the situation has been addressed, I doubt we'll see it again. If we do... then we have a problem.

Now, as for the topic at hand. The reviewer in question messaged me shortly after this thread went up, unsolicited, apologized for the content of the rejection notice, and asked that I pass the apology on. I suggested that he perhaps apologize to Max directly, but should he wish to remain anonymous (a decision I can certainly respect), suffice to say that he knows he should have handled the message better and will make every effort to do so in the future.

However...

While I disagree with the way the film was rejected, I agree 100% with the decision to reject it. RP is right that unfinished films can have entertainment value, but entertainment value isn't the only thing we look at. Incomplete films in the directory like "The Dentures" or Rsteenoven's "Swine Flu: The Pandemic" have one major difference separating them from "Yor": for the most part, they're completed section(s) of the desired final film.

There isn't a single thing in "Yor" that's complete... a shot here, some dialogue there. The lightsaber fight was fully animated, but you stated yourself that the sound design was basic and the effects you wanted to do aren't present. But perhaps most importantly, between all the titles, movie clips, live action segments, and clips borrowed from your other brickfilms, I highly doubt more than 50% of the film was actual animation shot for the film. While I didn't do the math, I wouldn't be surprised if the number was closer to 25-30% or even less.

I don't mind admitting that this had some amusing moments. But the way this cinematic Frankenstein was pieced together, practically out of nothing, renders it unworthy of directory inclusion in my opinion.

With all due respect Noodle, I don't want you here. - Ratboy Productions