Fantazzztic!

Wall of text incoming! Let this serves as warning for the people whose planning to join a suddenly sponsored  competitions…

Hello readers! Let me tell you my “wonderful” story about the e-games sponsored Cinemanila Machinima. Way back on the wet and rainy month of August 2009 a friend of mine notified me about the Cinemanila Machinima.  Upon hearing the news i suddenly said to myself “Oh my god Cinemanila the prestigious film competition spearheaded by Mr. Tikoy Aguiluz an award winning slash critically acclaimed movie director slash producer slash  is opening its door to recognize machinima as a form of visual medium for arts! I am so going to enter and compete in this!”

The competitive spirit officially entered my entire body so at that time I decided to create a dance music video machinima for four reasons.

• To make it as a promotional slash viral video material for my newly established blog
• My video editing skill is getting rusty and is crying out loud for some oil.
• Last but not the least to showcase my talent outside the Granado Espada community and Cinemanila Machinima is definitely a good place for that.
• I am just a fan of the wonder girls who wants to pay homage by releasing a machinima version of nobody in the month where they released the song a year ago.

And for the whole month of august I struggled managing my work and my other work (GE Nobody Video production etc.) and at exactly September 7 2009 the video finally made its debut to the online world. The video epically made a mixed emotions like an explosive chemical reaction in a science laboratory. From the members of the Granado Espada Community who rejoiced and celebrate by seeing their female character dancing a somewhat emulated Nobody Dance Move, To my clever former colleagues who made the video as a flame bait for whatever viral marketing slash reputation building strategy scheme in some various social networking sites. To the dogs “who can only bark but no bite” in a popular MMO Site who continuously throwing some not so good comment just because I used the song NOBODY! Just because I used the song nobody by the Wonder Girls! And of course to the Wonderfuls (Defines as a Wonder Girls Fan) who expressed their sincerest gratitude to me for sharing this fantazzztic fan made video.

Why nobody by the wonder girls in the first place? Simply because I want nobody nobody but this song! Let’s just say I need some promotional powers and the best way for that is to join the hype and of course I really want to make some peoples eyebrows raise! Yes those so called K-Pop fans slash elitist who think that they are the only human being who has the right to enjoy the song. Most of them are internet users who discovered this song around September 2008. I even tried to find ways to contact JYP Entertainment asking a permission to use the song but based on what I found on the internet a giant disclaimer will do the work.

Septeber 30 of the year 2009 a local MMO Publishing company IP E-games announced in their official website that they are sponsoring the 1^st Cinemanila Machinima Film Festival aside from that they SAID that they will be rewarding three videos who uses ANY of their game as an entry (Best E-games machinima).­

A Part of me just died just by hearing the news, yeah I suddenly felt discouraged. I hesitated to join. We had a not so good experience with IP E-Games about Machinima Competitions. So let me tell you a short story.  A few years ago Infocom Asia Holdings the Regional Publisher of Granado Espada in South East Asia called for an entry for their Fantazzztic Film Award. As the local distributor of the cash shop points of GE in the country IP E-Games joined the bandwagon by giving away a whooping 1GB Video Card if ever the 1^st Place Winner or the Grand Champion is an entry made by a pinoy. The competition comes to an end and my 2 teams managed to grab not just the Top prize and the Second prize but as well as the sponsored packed scene and heard weeks. (Weeks wherein you can win a prize from their sponsor).Instead of supporting and praising us for our achievement what we get is this sort of reaction “What!? They won that’s Impossible?” Unlucky for them we will be taking away something.

Just by remembering the said situation I decided not to join the E-games sponsored Cinemanila Machinima. But!! By not joining the competition I will be dropping away all my 2 months long effort of promoting the video! I said to myself I won’t let anyone destroy my dream especially in this industry! So I decided to join again. The video is already there. So why won’t I give it a shot? It’s like betting in a lottery game with the GE Nobody Dance Music Video as your lottery ticket. I’m kind of expecting that by joining this competition we will be playing with something with you know who again and expect that some “Miracles” will happen yes sarcasm is included.

This is a prestigious competition so expect that I will be competing with the Pros of the machinima world. Based on the submitted entries I said to myself that I might not win any awards in the original award roster made by the Cinemanila Machinima Committee but my entry can win any of the 3 places from the so called best e-games machinima and by twist of fate I am only the participant who is entitled to received the sponsored award since I am the only person who submitted a machinima made by a game they distributed.  Some mmo blogsites even labeled me as a shoe in winner for that category.

The awards night came, and it’s kind of odd that we didn’t see the E-Games Logo in the banners and the ticket in the said event. What made it worse is that we cannot see someone from E-games around. “I knew it” that’s the only thing that I can say upon seeing those. The night ended the winners received their prize which they really deserve. There is no best e-games machinima award.

According to Ms. PJ Punla who managed to conduct an inquiry with a Cinemanila Machinima staff; she wrote an entry from her latest blog post stating that “e-Games dropped the sponsorship like a hot potato. The folks at the film festival claimed that after receiving word that e-Games was going to do the sponsor thing, they went ahead with the paperwork for the award: Cinemanila put together a memorandum of agreement, put the e-Games logo on the website (it’s still there as of the writing of this article), etc. etc. But the MOA was not returned, and there were apparently no further communications from e-Games. “Basically, as of 12 October (when the voting period for the entries began), the award had been withdrawn. No announcements were made regarding the withdrawal.

I’m kind of expecting this so I’m not surprised. They announced, Called for entry and then somehow dropped the sponsorship without an announcement? In Filipino Language  “Ano yun? Umeksena lang at biglang nanlaglag sa ere?”

Of course there are two sides in every story, a friend of mine tried to get the side of IP E-games from one of their  current employee and the employee claimed that “they don’t even have an idea that they became a sponsor”. Wait! Am I hearing this right? They don’t even have an idea? Is this a joke or something? Of course it is only a statement made by an employee ( who possibly don’t have any idea about the contest affairs ) and IP-Egames is yet to release an official statement (i guess they won’t but lets just see) regarding this matter. But if they intended to drop the sponsorship for whatsoever reason they should have formally announced it even BEFORE the voting period started.

As for ignoring or not accepting the MOA from Cinemanila Machinima, IP-Egames probably realized that there is only a single entry that is fit to win their sponsored award. Maybe because of this reason they decided TO drop it. BUT! It is clearly noted in the terms and conditions that   the rules DO NOT include clauses where cinemanila or e-games reserve the right to NOT award a category for whatever reason they may deem fit.

Let’s go to the Cinemanila Machinima side I can’t really blame them they did their part by sending the MOA to IP-Egames and promoting the sponsored award as far as putting IP-Egames Logo in their official website.  But after that they didn’t hear anything from them. They can’t even announce that IP E-Games dropped the sponsorship or something since they do not really know the decision of IP-Egames about this is.

Anyway this is a thing of the past. Some people commits reputation suicide, I didn’t get anything but it is an honor to speak (even though a bit nervous and bluring out) in front of the media industry and of course in front of a critically acclaimed film personality. I really loved the reaction of the viewers when my work played in the wide screen. It’s as if they recovered from a visual indigestion. Oops not that let’s just say change of mood from a serious themed entries to a humorous one.

As to the winners of Cinemanila Machinima You guys deserved it! Especially To Dean Loreños of Worship The Will (Audience Choice Best Music Video) and Erica Cruz of Inside Your Head (Best Machinima for Music Video Category). Keep it up and bring glory to the Philippine Machinima Industry. To all my real life friends and netizens who rooted for my work, sorry to disappoint you guys but I didn’t manage to bring home the bacon. But let me express my sincerest appreciation for pimping my work online and I hope you can continue the support to me since this video will be competing again. Hopefully “wala na sanang umeksena at sa bandang huli mang injan” . Yes I want you to support me again, I want nobody nobody but you!

No Picture No talk? Check this out people.

Read More About the Cinemanila Machinima outcome:

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