Reply To: ONE PART, MANY CHARACTERS contest……

[Herr D]

I am somewhat surprised at the results below. This might be looked at as a flaw in my rubric, but I’ve looked it over. I’ve been internally consistent, if harsh. Randall [R] edged out Keric [K] despite item use scores because his creation had more of what I judge on. . . . well, maybe that’s my work ethic biasing my rubric. “80% of life is just showing up” [approximate quotation.]

Both Keric and Randall used the “mechdrawers” as flying conveyances. I’m not going to do more than mention the Jungian tie-in, but the dream symbolism doesn’t detract from the item abuse. That’s a one for findable with or without prompting / questioning. That’s at least a two for “abuse,” or leaving category in an emphatic manner. That’s a three for incorporating / manipulating in a way that makes it less obvious but still present and belonging to the pic. Randall’s was partly covered by posing, but still edges out Keric’s.

When it came to the “holsteredguns,” I felt harsher. They were still weapons on Randall’s hoverboard, but they were laserbeams / energy bolts on Keric’s. So Keric got a whole point over Randall here.

Then there’s the “woodarms.” Yeesh. They might have made better damage masked to the conveyances than symmetrical features or ripples in the lava or whatever, but okay. That’s worth a two. Keric’s, while it doesn’t look that much like a ‘sea-doo,’ the double-item usage, positioning, and a je-ne-sais-quoi about how it just seems to belong (???) led me to give it a four. I just—like it. I don’t understand that myself. It IS a long way from arm to conveyance . . .

General contribution category went about the same. The emotional content was about the same for how the items contributed to the overall picture. Keric’s items were a much bigger part of the story the picture told, nearly 100% of it, since only one other item was even used, apparently.

Bells here means presence by virtue of item or holistic effect contributed. Keric here suffered a bit for sparseness and what looked like a scaling issue. I can’t tell for certain whether the ‘giant’ is falling behind and to the right of his seadoo or whether it’s just kind of big for him. Ambiguity never helps.

Whistles is about minor pieces or features like placement, shading, highlighting, etc. Keric got a bare one point for a random-looking dispersion of energy bolts and picking the companion that looks most like he’s bailing out. Randall got a four for posing and developing an entire character. Faint praise. It looks interesting. This is where Keric might’ve pulled ahead by adding a scoreboard and a life meter for the giant, transforming the entire thing into a video game without adding an entire background. Or shadowing the bailout to get rid of the ambiguity and be the only contributor who did any shading. Or adding an energy effect for a bolt hitting something or scaling them down for dispersal or distance.

Finally there are background and story. Randall did and Keric didn’t. The three items in my rubric can add to the total score twice or more, as they are the point of the contest. Doing what is obviously more work can overshadow that. In this case, that would’ve only tied everything up. Keric’s score might have compared better if I’d bothered with half points or quarter points, but in this case, it wouldn’t have changed the outcome. Randall wins.

Pick your three, Randall!

 

 

Backstory score: ………………..R3……K0

Bkgd score:……… ……………R3…..K0

Item WOODARM:…………….R2.…….K4

Item HOLSTEREDGUN: …….R1……K2

Item MECHDRAWERS: ….…R3…….K2

Bells: ………………………….R4…….K2

Whistles: ………………..…….R3……..K1

Items-story:……………………R2……..K4

Emotional:……………………..R2…….K2