dunno… you up for it?

logo looks better than all the previous attempts

it's december, folks. almo and brigs pretty much solo'd '09 and '10 - what's the what this time round?

as before i can get myself into it. i can post the call for nominations still today, if we're not changing any category. i'll try to avoid last year's mistakes. help with the screenshots for the voting polls would be much appreciated. let me know so i can start crackin'

screen shots mosdef

Include the worst video nomination please.

ok here are the categories. any objections or suggestions, make them quick. nominations will be open from december 6th to 13th, agreed?

Most Fun Video Best Animated Video Best Performance Video Best Narrative Video Best Mainstream Hip Hop Video Best Choreography Best Art Direction Best Editing Best Cinematography Best Commissioning Artist Best Unknown/Unsigned Director Best New Director Best Director Video Of The Year

"worst video" for me is a no. imo the awards exist to celebrate the good work, not focus on the bad…

why not best hip hop video instead of this Best Mainstream Hip Hop Video theres more to hip hop than kanye west whos more hip pop than hip hop if u ask me videos like this could be overlooked

also, what about best grime video? :D

withu on celebrating what's good - what's bad is its own punishment, there's schadenfreude enough out there.

new categories... always an issue. best medicine: overturn a category with your nominations - if they find a consensus, you win.

has anything changed significantly in the mv landscape to warrant new categories? best non-standard/long-form mv? best interactive/webthingy mv? best online mv site/tools (vimeo vs ffffound ;-)? i dunno, seems a little moot to me (hi, moot!)...

There used to be the worst video nomination in some of the past years, wasn't it?

as a kind of drunk, post-party in-joke, yeh, kozo....

i would add these:

Best Rock/Alternative Video (anything but dance, pop or hip hop) Best Innovative Video (interactive, webthingy, etc.) Best Visual Effects

and change Mainstream Hip Hop to Hip Hop or Urban…

that is all.

^ co sign, Prog non standard / long form is fuzzy to classify but I think it's good. There were a few non traditional this year.

Best new director can replace unsigned. They cancel each other out.

And this is a wild one, but coloring? DP's aren't responsible for the look of the images only capturing it, colorists have rose to become true collaborators. Most of the good stuff is well colored.

brigs: if at all possible, avoid compartmentalising by type of music. ghettoizing hiphop is enough corralling/discrimination to go round.

visual effects... what counts as that nowadays - only the high-end flame-gasms or the myriad digital home-tricksters out there?

colorists - fundamental, but maybe too niche a role for people really to have enough of an opinion about to bother to nominate/vote here?

and: tho 3 director categories do seem overkill, there is a difference between new-hot-name-of-the-year director, and near-unknown-but-teh-hot-of-tomorrow director (and sometimes this is really the place where it first comes to light) so...

if push comes to shove, brigs? just keep last year's - should work out fine.

prog: the visual effects award would encompass everything from after effects wizards to the big name post companies. that's the beauty of it, one skilled person with zero budget working at home could take it against the big name effects company. and there's more of these kind of videos everyday

colorists: agree too niche and full credits are sometimes hard to find. so it would be a bit of a stretch for everyone to have an educated guess.

3 director categories: also agree

I wonder what the point is of having one specific genre category. It seems extremely arbitrary.

^ yep. have 'em all or none i say.

let's drop the hip hop category...if it's a good noteworthy video the music genre shouldn't matter.

Racist!I||¡!!

(seriously, tho: can we not retumble down this hole? pretty please?)

The hip-hop category was because directing mainstream hip-hop videos is completely different from indie bands. Artists aren't into taking chances, and shoots can be really challenging to pull off.

In theory, there should be a best country video, but no one anywhere likes country.

And best pop video isn't really needed because a lot of pop stars are into taking chances.

Anyway, best rock category is stupid because I guarantee you rock videos will not be underrepresented.

That being said, feel free to drop it. I can't think of any cool hip-hop videos this year.

Visual Effects could be cool; but what happens when you have something like Justice "Civilization" vs. a Daniels' video? I mean, is the vote for best use of a visual effects or most money/hours spent?

Unsigned director always annoys me because I can never find anyone but I figure it's a nice award for those who get it so good for them.

Might it make sense to acknowledge colorist within the cinematography category?

captain: best use of a technique vs most money/hours spent - that can be said for every category up there… it's simple enough, just vote on what you prefer…

progosk, start working all you did was you gave pieces of advice nobody asked for go back to work and keep the change

(no idea what you're on about, matei.)

poll it, if in doubt, brigs. on the whole, tho? go with what feels right.

no need for best hiphop video

Here it is:

it would still be smart to keep urban, pop, and rock categories, otherwise the awards swing heavily pitchfork.

^ true

best hip hop video is a must @progosk - ud better start working on them polls than just giving advice on how to do it. my 2p

I'm really found of brigg's Best Innovative Video category.

Well, with a difference of 3 votes i don't think we should ditch the hip hop award. Question is should we add other genres awards like rock and pop.

brigs: why poll if you ignore the results? and also let me quote you: "imo the awards exist to celebrate the good work, not focus on the bad…" so why have people vote on crappy hh/urban/ciwyw videos? if a video is genuinely good it will get votes in other categories. who cares if those artists and labels don't have the balls to commission groundbreaking videos? is this fucking trade.antville.org?

^ i'm just trying to get a pulse of what everyone thinks. i don't own the place. so we should ditch genres altogether, that's what you're saying?

in case of doubt just leave the hip hop category in...and like prog said before: overturn a category with your nominations if you don't like it. to add more categories is not necessary, imo.

^ yeah i guess that's the wisest choice.

I think it's fine to leave the hip hop category in, I would of voted for it if I had checked this thread yesterday. Whatevs. Anyways bring on the awards!

ok, i'm posting the call for nominations. the hip hop award is staying in and best visual effects award is going in too. if it doesn't make sense for you, don't vote on it. it will send a message and maybe next year we can sort this out in a better way. i need help with the screen shots, legion you said you'd help so i'm conting on it. also if the awards post could be kept as the top post until the deadline it would be great (like in previous years). thanks

screengrabs for shortlists sure