Preview
(These articles all appeared in DemoNews issue 88, April 30 1995)
=-----------------------------------[NAID - How it Came About]--[White Noise]-=
_____Disclaimer
You are about to read my praise of the NAID organizers.
In this article, I intend to convey the atmosphere I witnessed and have
been a part of in the last few months before NAID. This is in no way a
complete detailed account of the NAID organization. This, I will ask the
organizers to write with me, and the result will be hooked to dmax, the
Hornet WWW site (http://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/dmax/top.html).
This article is given for you to read as is. I make no warranties as to
the complete accuracy of what I write here. In other words, if I
hallucinated some of this stuff, well it ain't *my* fault. A man's gotta
protect his back, right? :)
And, last but not least, the opinions expressed in this article are *mine*,
and mine only. Though I think most of them are shared by Hornet, I claim
them as my own, and they do not necessarily express the entire group's
view.
Read on... if you dare.
_____Main Article
NAID... it was fun. No, I mean *real* fun. Like... a real TRIP! (in
every sense) It went very smoothly, if we judge based on reports from all
the other parties around the world. And I think a lot of us overlooked or
don't fully realize the tremendous amount of work that goes into creating
such a get-together. I, myself, probably don't even realize it all, since
I was only involved at the very end of the entire organization.
NAID, the North American International Demofestival, is the brainchild of 4
people: Etienne Caron (Mr. Khan), Eric Lagace (Midnight Sun), William Le
(Veritech Knight), Laurent Gauthier (Struk). Sponsors that agreed to take
part of the event were the College Edouard-Montpetit (CEM), A.G.E.C.E.M.
(the CEGEP's student association), COOP Montpetit (the CEGEP's store),
Advanced Gravis (makers of the oh-so-POWERFUL SBOS... not! :>), Corel
Corporation, Tim Horton's, Mediatrix (the guys behind the AudioTrix Pro),
Subway, Techno-TV (cool californian show about... Demos! Nothing else), La
Piece de Musique and Monolithe Info. Phfew. Didn't forget any.
The greatest thing in all this is that they actually managed to get all
these guys to get excited about a "demoparty", in a province that barely
knows where the switch is on a computer... Okay, I'm exaggerating, I
admit, but computer literacy is not at a very high level around here, so to
get all this guys interested in that kind of party is quite an
accomplishment. Congratulations to Struk.
So how did I get involved with NAID? Well, if you guys remember well, I
wrote a somewhat short but to-the-point article for 01 not so long ago,
which partly detailed my encounter with the creators of NAID. Prior to
that, I had only sighted them on a local BBS. From that point on, after
having met Mr. Khan, began my real involvement in the intricacies of NAID.
NAID wasn't planned in a day. It took the four guys 8 months of planning,
negotiating, thinking and discussing to come up with the final result.
That, of course, on top of CEGEP studies - CEGEP is an intermediate level
before University in Quebec, which prepares you for University or the job
market. A lot of work, I have to say.
Picture people talking to the sound of "Verses" kicking on an amplifier
behind them, in front of a cafeteria table with a computer on it hooked to
the amplifier, with NAID posters hanging on the wall behind the table. That
was the settings in which I greeted the organizers each and every day for
close to two weeks prior to NAID. Noisy, hectic, stressed but yearning.
That sums up pretty well how we all felt towards NAID.
Fear is the extra feeling the organizers had that none of us did. Fear
that it would all crumple, that the sponsors would back off from the party,
fear that not enough people would show up. Fear of being disappointed.
Worst yet, fear of disappointing others. Of disappointing all those
demofreaks coming from all over North America to attend the first party of
its genre.
There are a lot of things that went on behind the scenes before and
*during* the party that most people didn't get to see or even hear
directly. A lot of shuffling and talk during and especially after the music
competition. I heard some of it, even witnessed some of it.
_____The Music Competition
I'd like to make here only one point in favor of the organizers, and not
only because they are good friends of mine, but mainly because the
intentions behind the decisions were all but wrong. The guys were so
astonished by the huge number of submissions that they decided, thinking
"hey, we'll give them *all* a chance" - which I think was a nice way,
theoretically, to thank all the musicians who submitted entries -, to play
all the tunes.
They were wrong in doing so, because the infrastructure they had planned
out was not thought with 55 entries in mind. The rules and conditions of
entries were not stated as solidly as they would be at, for example,
Assembly. But this can mainly be attributed, I think, to the lack of
experience of the organizers in such a field. How could they in their
right mind have planned such an overwhelming response?
Over 5 hours straight of music playing. Glitches of course, but think
about it: what player to use? What memory configuration? What sound
setup? I read here and there comments about the compo and I selected a few
that I remember off the top of my head to address here (not that I intend
to denigrate them, quite the contrary, but maybe expose some attenuating
facts):
- "The sound setup was advantageous the techno songs..."
Of course. The sound checks had been made with 2nd Reality, Verses,
Crystal Dream II, and other demos. And, frankly, what usually supports
demos best is fast-paced music, techno or not, with aggressive drums. So
yes, the sound setup *was* accentuating drums. But think about it:
50-something entries... would you have wanted the sound techs to
recalibrate the 12000 watts stereo system we had over there for each and
every song? They could have done it, only I witnessed the first setup, and
it took em close to a full hour before getting the right type of sound for
demo music to come out right.
So, yes, I agree, slow songs and less drum-aggressive songs were somewhat
hampered by the sound system, but the sound calibration was a choice that
would make one side or the other unhappy. The organizers chose, quite
wisely I think, to calibrate the system for the main intended use:
demo-watching.
- "They lost my song!"
This happened to more than one person, notably Epeuis of Night Vision and
the Hornet. Here's what I have to say about it. This is a 2-way
circumstance.
First, the 55 songs should *not* all have been played (I know, this
involves pre-selection and somewhat of a "separation" process where
injustices and unequalities and favoritism can spark up, but I think it
would have saved some people headaches). That way, less tunes could have
been lost.
Second, the echoes I got back on the few songs that didn't play is that
they were not very visibly identified. And this is where I say this is
2-way. First, the organizers didn't force down a labeling system, handing
out pre-made labels or asking people to drop the disks at a special table
prior to the competition. True. Second, if that was really the case, then
how would you expect the guys to differentiate your disks from all the
demos, plus the ones I brought them *during* the party which I had no time
for labeling (including dope by Complex)? As I said, it's a 2-way thing.
- "It was fame and name-driven... I mean, Necros' song wasn't even started
that the crowd roared..."
I seriously don't think the organizers can be blamed for that. They
couldn't control the crowds. I too found myself roaring and highly
anticipating Necros' song, as would be expected from any musician one
personally likes. It's more of a social phenomenon than anything else.
It's like going to see a movie strictly for an actor or a director. The
film isn't even started and you already expect it to be good, mainly
because of the director or the actor. I think in that way every darn
competition that has international (professional or not) artists entering
is "name-driven". Just go to a European demo party and watch which demos
get the best reaction from the public. You'll most probably come back with
only huge group names.
- "One of the organizers stated that only a few songs stood out and that
most of the rest was technostuff..."
This, I have not checked with the organizers themselves and will not. But
if that really was declared by one of the organizers, then it was an error.
A glitch, like we at Hornet let slip out once awhile, like mostly everyone
lets slip out once awhile. I'm sure that statement did *not* convey the
entire NAID organizers' reflections about the compo, overall. If it did,
then *DO* bash them for that. :>
_____The Graphics Competition
I have to admit (shame on me!) that I missed that part and the intro
competition because I was sleeping at home after having partied out all the
energy left in me (foolish, but oh so fun! :>) at the rave from 5 to 6.
From what I gathered, I understand that the winning graphic was
controversial because it created an argument on whether it had been scanned
or not. Having seen it briefly on my computer screen as GraveDigger, one of
the judges, watched it over, I can't really state myself on one side or the
other. All I can say is that only the winner really knows how much work
went into it. And I hope he really drew it himself, cause they're ain't
nothing cheaper than a scan in a graphics compo.
_____The Demo Competition
You all should have seen what the organizers looked like Saturday night.
Midnight and -no- demo entries for the next day's competition. They were
simply biting their nails over it. They really sweated this one out,
especially since it was advertised as the main event. But you guys out
there really rocked 'em off their feet with your productions. As you
rocked me, too. As you rocked the hundreds of people who got together
around the screen and watched your creations.
I have to thank you all in my name and in the organizers' names for the
incredible work that you all inputted in those productions of those. All of
you, even Verhot. :) You stole the show, "Dope" or no "Dope". And, from
the bottom of my heart, I thank you for making us thrill for a few hours.
Here again a few glitches, mainly with the projectors. That's once more
nothing the organizers could have prevented, since the supplier of the
projector had never seen such a thing, so it would have been hard to ask
someone who's supplying a projector in the tens of thousands dollars price
tag to bring a better one. But he promised to supply three projectors of
the highest model (far better than the one we had, which was far from being
bad already) for next year.
The only thing which lacked to make demo-watching just perfect, in my
opinion, was an overlay screen to hide typing and re-booting between demos.
But again, that too was hard to solidly validate in front of sponsors when
you're at your first party ever.
_____Closing Words
All in all it was a great party, with surprisingly very few glitches for a
first time around. Something not even The Gathering 95 can claim
(according to the first report from Scoop, it didn't look too nice).
I think all 4 guys did a tremendous job, and so did all everybody who helped
them out from secondary organizers to security officials and to the CEGEP's
administration.
I think we should all let them know that we appreciated what they did for
us, even though it didn't run perfectly (does anything ever do anyway?).
They don't have a permanent email address, but I do. Catch my drift? Even
if it's just a small line to tell them something like "I've been there. I
liked it. Thanx.", I'm sure they'll appreciate hearing from all of you.
So people, get those mailers running and may my mailbox be FLOODED!
I'd have more to say but time is lacking. Watch out for the organizer's
side of things on dmax, coming SOON!
-White Noise jeff@ftp.cdrom.com
=--------------------------------[NAID Demos - Done the Right Way]--[Trixter]-=
NAID's demo compo was probably one of the best judged compos of any party,
and I'm not saying that because I was one of the judges. :-) There were
several reasons why:
_____Pre-Testing of Demos
The demos all had to be in by a certain deadline, but it wasn't just a
formality--they had to be tested on the compo machine *before* the compo
actually began. Think about how smart this was: By testing beforehand,
all the different system configurations that had to be done were in place
before the compo began, thus eliminating delays in the compo. We found it
also had a great side-benefit: Two of the demos crashed, so we were able
to notify the programmers, and both of them were able to fix their demos
before the compo began. As a result, all 11 demos submitted ran perfectly,
and each demo got a fair shot.
_____Diversity Amongst the Judges
The judges were not only from different geographical backgrounds (a
Scottsman, two French-Canadians, and three Americans), but all had
differing levels of experience:
- The Scottsman (Cairn McGregor) was a reporter for a local newspaper,
with a keen eye for details
- The two French-Canadians were both articulate observers of demos
- DareDevil / Renaissance and myself have been democoders for over
three years
- Snowman / Hornet has been a demo-musician for over three years
The mix of people helped to get a good, round, objective observation of all
the entries. It also brought with it, however, some heated discussion.
For instance, Cairn McGreggor couldn't understand why DareDevil and I had
given higher marks to some of the 4th and 5th place demos--we gave them
high marks for coding because we recognized some of the skills necessary.
On the flip side, some of the other judges couldn't understand why
DareDevil and I gave *low* marks to some of the demos, and that was because
we recognized some ripped code. Based on this experience, I'd heavily
recommend that any jury in the future have at least two coders, because
ripping ideas is marginally okay, but ripping code is not.
_____Solid Rating System
The rating system was designed to eliminate any major differences of
opinion, and was simple to follow: We gave up to five points in four
categories: Coding Skill, Art/3D object design, Music, and Overall Design.
Five points was the best rating; 1 was the worst.
Six judges rated each demo, so the maximum score for any demo was 120.
(Tome of Opticron, which was the 1st place winner, received 103 points, for
example.) Looking back, however, some of the demos' points were so close
(places 5th to 9th were no more than 2 points apart between each other)
that in the future, we should probably give up to ten points instead of
five.
_____Quality of the Demos Themselves
For not having one European production in the whole lot, the overall
quality of all the demos was exceptional (except the last-place demo, which
was essentially a joke-demo). Many had great design; Tome of Opticron, for
example, had more original design than Second Reality or Dope.
_____Fair, Understanding Audience
The audience has to be given some credit as well. They gave credit where
credit was due, applauded when original effects were shown, and *never*
yelled at the screen.
All in all, NAID's demo compo was great, given the fact that it was the
first ever in North America. I'm sure that next year's compo will improve
tenfold.
-Trixter trixter@ftp.cdrom.com
=-------------------------------[NAID Intros - Misconceptions]--[Miss Saigon]-=
When I imagined the judges at demo parties, a picture of the Olympic Figure
Skating judges invariably came to mind: stern, stuffy and sticklers for
technicality. In short, I thought they were probably boring old
representatives from the sponsoring companies who had no sense of humor at
all. I found out how wrong I was when I went to NAID, where I got an
inside look at the judging of a compo.
During the opening ceremony, The Veritech Knight announced the names of
those who were selected to be judges. Much to my surprise, I heard my name
called as one of the judges for the intro compo. I was thrilled to have
been chosen, but I was also apprehensive as I had never even been to a
demo party before, let alone judged a compo.
As I watched the intros, the truth about compo judges hit me: they're
normal people. Even though I was the youngest judge, none of the judges
for any compo were particularly "old". At any rate, they were not the
white-haired businessmen I expected to see on the judges' panel.
The one correct impression I had was that the compo judges ARE a lot like
the judges for Olympic Figure Skating. As I looked at the criteria sheet
for the judging of the intro compo, I noticed that each entry was to
receive marks for technical merit, as well as artistic impression.
The other judges and I watched the intros on the big screen with the crowd,
and earnestly scribbled down notes on each one. I tried to be very serious
about it, like the judges I had imagined, but then I thought, hey! This is
_supposed_ to be fun! After I came to this stunning realization, the intro
compo became a lot more enjoyable. Aside from some technical problems
involving the Soundblaster, everything went very smoothly until the end.
Then came the fun part: deliberation.... I don't know how the OJ trial
will end, but it will probably be something like the process we went
through to pick the winning intros. Of course, not all of us agreed on the
winners, so we had to defend our opinions and convince each other that the
intros we picked really should be the winners. After extensive discussions
and debates, re-viewings of all the intros, and hours of picking apart
minute details in each intro, we narrowed the choices down to the three
winners.
Overall, it was a lot of fun being a judge: the personal room was a nice
place to hang out when the chaos of the main stage got to be too much for
me, and I got to know a lot of people that I probably wouldn't have had a
chance to meet otherwise. It really made my first demo party a lot more
memorable for me.
-Jackie Smith (Miss Saigon) jsmith@UBmail.ubalt.edu
=---------------------------[NAID Graphics - Genuine vs. Fake]--[GraveDigger]-=
A matter of an important nature came to my attention while I was at NAID. I
was fortunate enough to be chosen as an alternate judge for the graphics
competition at NAID. Ryan Cramer was originally selected, but did not show
up.
In judging this competition, I had to work with two other judges. They were
The Veritech Knight and another man whose name I did not know. TVK, of
course, was one of the organizers of NAID. The other man worked for a
professional graphics company, and was not familiar with the workings of
the demo scene. This presented TVK and I with a problem.
We had to explain to this man that the graphics to be entered in this
contest were not to be scanned, and in fact to be created entirely by hand.
He did not seem to agree with this; what with his work in the field and not
requiring any kind of moral obligation to present a true work that comes
from the mind and soul, and not from a magazine or comic book page.
Instead, he saw art entirely from a visual standpoint, and took no regard
to the means with which the graphics were created.
Moral issues versus the big dollar.
There was speculation that the graphic we selected to be the first place
winner was a scanned picture. This led us to view it in several programs,
examine the "beta" graphic layouts that the artist had provided, and use a
"zoom" feature to examine the pixel layout more carefully. Being that I am
mainly a music person, this was a good experience for me to learn the
doings of several graphics programs, and also to learn about scanned
picture detection. This process was grueling, and also involved questioning
of the artist. Fortunately, we all agreed on the first-place picture, but
looked into the matter more carefully to be sure it was legit.
In the end, it was decided that the picture was not scanned, and the artist
won the first place prize. But all of this has led me to think: is prize
money worth the trouble of presenting a false piece of work?
No, trouble is not the word. How hard is it to scan a picture, resize it,
fix a few spots, and save it again? Then, it must be easy to work
backwards. Take parts of the picture away and call it a "beta" copy.
There's not much trouble there. What I really meant to say was, "Is prize
money worth the embarrassment of presenting a false piece of work?"
The demo scene in North America has been, to this point, very
noncompetitive. Uncompetitive in the way that "cheating" to produce a
resultant work is literally unheard of. This is because there has never
been a demo party in this area before. But now we have NAID. We have an
outlet, a competition, a dream come true. And we have to be careful.
Personally, I think it is a waste of time to present a false piece of work
to the demo scene. The demo community is a good place to express one's
inner thoughts and feelings by constructing a representation of emotions
through the production of music and graphics, and where appropriate,
combinations of the two. Therefore, it would be morally improper for anyone
who is dedicated to the demo scene to present any form of false creation.
Unfortunately, in an attempt to be fair, judges are forced to seek the
truth where there may be no need to do so. By taking an entrant's word, it
is possible that fraud will result. To prevent it, investigations must take
place. As holds true in real life, which serves as an effective mirror held
to the demo scene (even if through a pool of water), corruption is not
easily avoidable when there is money involved.
Looking ahead, I unfortunately see the risk of counterfeiting in the North
American Demo scene. Never before has there been a competitional outlet on
such a large scale as NAID for demo lovers and creators in this area. With
this risk present, it is very potential that such fraud will exist and
become visual in the future.
We as a community can oppose such fraud by exposing it and disallowing it
to impress us. In fact, do not allow it to remain among the domain of demo-
related productions.
A person who spends a large majority of their life creating a work of art
from the throne of their personal computer should not be stepped on because
their work is not as good as someone else's who used a scanner to import
graphics. That's just not right. Hard work and honesty are the true
forefathers of art; and not lies, cheating, and shortcuts.
I do hope that all of you who are reading this believe in this philosophy
of mine, because it is merely an extension of the ideas presented to me as
I first set foot into the promised land of the demo scene. I respected
these precise values, and intended to value their significance for all it
was worth. And it is with these words that I ask you to be fair, honest,
and dedicated to your personal beliefs, for which you must take a stand.
-Brett Neely (GraveDigger) gd@ftp.cdrom.com
=-------------------------------[NAID Music - A Test of Endurance]--[Snowman]-=
Two weeks ago, the world saw one of the _longest_ party music compos in
history. I was lucky (unfortunate?) enough to be a judge.
It was Saturday April 15th, the first day of NAID. Expectations were high
and caffeine was buzzing in the air, sparked by can after can of Mountain
Dew and a pinch of Vivarin. The opening ceremonies started and the judges
were announced for each compo. I was very excited after hearing some of the
names:
Intros : Jackie Smith
Graphics : Ryan Cramer
Music : Snowman
Some judges failed to show, and others were added. In the end, the Hornet
family had a judge in every single compo:
Demos : Trixter
Intros : Jackie Smith
Graphics : GraveDigger
Music : Snowman
Sadly, the only competition Hornet was were able to enter was the music
compo itself (thanks GraveDigger). As such, being a judge was the next
best thing to actually entering. :)
The music compo was to be the first of all competitions. The judges were
instructed to report to "Special Room #1" at 15:00 for briefing. I got
there about 14:59 (I'm never late, just prompt).
I plopped myself down on a couch in front of a DX2/80 amidst 8 or 9 other
people. That day I learned a new vocabulary word: anglophone. An
anglophone is someone who is not French-Canadian born or French speaking. I
was the only anglophone in that room.
The Veritech Knight started talking about the specifics of the competition.
"Blah blah blablah.", he said (I don't speak French). After giving a
puzzled look at him, he said "We have about 50 entries to the music
competition."
'50 entries!?' I thought. That's quite a bit. At 3 minutes a song, that's
about 150 minutes, or about 2.5 hours. Not too bad. Even if we add in
time for changing tunes, the whole thing shouldn't last longer than 3
hours.
Then the Veritech Knight went on: "blah blah bakablah blah", to which one
of the other people responded "blah blah?". Then the VK humorously
responded "blah blah? haha blah _blah_ blah!" and they all chuckled.
At this point, I'm started to get a bit peeved. Forgive my choice of
Spanish as a second language, but I do not understand French. At this
point, I had to say "Look, all of you understand English. I'm sorry I
do not speak French. Can we please discuss the compo in English?"
The gentleman on my right whispered "blah blah" about me to a friend of his
and they laughed. Then the VK said "Sorry" and we went on in English...
It was decided that we would play each and every song. That decision
having been made, I was to realize shortly just how much in error my 3-hour
estimate was.
We concluded the discussion, and I went to have a cigar.
At 16:00, I found a seat in front of the big screen and the compo started.
There were perhaps over 150 people in the crowd. It was very exciting, and
I was very proud to be a judge. For the next 20 songs, I diligently took
down notes for each one.
After 20 songs or so, we stopped for a 15 minute break. I went to go have
a cigar and ran into Trixter. "Trixter," I said, "I'm gonna fall asleep if
I have to listen to another 30+ songs in a row". And so Trixter sat next to
me for the remainder of the competition. I was thankful.
The competition went on, and on, and on, and on... :(
Around 21:00 I took a picture of the audience that remained. There were
perhaps 20 people left, almost half of whom were awake. Jeff and
GraveDigger and Dan Wright visited us occasionally to provided moral
support.
I must admit, I was getting irritated with the length of the competition.
One thing I kept remembering though: every song that played was the child
of some musician. I did my best to remain objective and honest throughout
the whole competition.
The group Mazurka had about 7 entries. No problem there until about the
5th entry. At about song 30 something, one of the Mazurka musicians
decided that he wanted to have a light show with his tune. He announced
over the loud speaker "Hey you guys, you don't mind if we have some lights
to go along with my song do you?". The audience was split on this. I was
dead opposed. This was unusual, this was preferential, this was _unfair_.
They played the song and these fancy lights kept zipping around the room
and into my face. I was so disgusted that I got up and went to get a drink
of water. I came back after the song was over and we continued...
At this point, its about 22:00 and the competition has been going on for
about 6 hours, not counting the 1 hour meeting we had in "Special Room #1".
Trixter and I are punchy and hungry.
Finally, at about 22:30, they concluded the music compo. From my
understanding, there were still 2 or 3 songs left but that they would be
listened to in private. I circled 4 songs that I really felt were
excellent and went to have a cigar.
Trixter ended up becoming a judge, simply because he was one of the few
that actually listened to all of the songs. The two of us met the next
day with the NAID organizers and the winners were decided.
Overall, I was _very_ impressed with the quality of music submitted. I
wish I had collected all of the music on-site so that we could have posted
them to ftp.cdrom.com right away. :(
I hope to be a judge for the music competition again next year, but a few
changes should be made:
-Only 20 songs played on the big screen
-Intermission after 10 songs
-Judges need more discussion with one another
The NAID music competition showed off a lot of North American talent and I
was proud to be a part!
-Snowman r3cgm@ftp.cdrom.com