MovieNews Contest Winners, Assessment, and Judging Process!

On December 1, 2009, MovieNews was re-launched from its predecessor and former owner whom I will not disclose the name for security reasons. It was a big decision for us new owners (richie and yatot) of this site to step into the movie blogging niche because we are known for different niches in the blogosphere. Richie was then blogging TV guides on the Internet via his former blog, Idiot Box, and I (Yatot) am blogging on my everything under the sun blog, The Yatot Chronicles, well mostly entertainment blog entries are included there, but I really don't do or write about movies.

It was really a challenge for us to take this blogging milestone, plus the fact that this website is a dot-me website, not a dot-com, so the thing immediately enticed us to start movie blogging as soon as possible. A year later, some 150+ blog entries, and some 200,000++ page views since we relaunched our site (as of this writing), MovieNews is continuing its legacy (from the previous MovieNews) to give you nothing but the best must-read news on must-see movies on a no spam policy. With these things in mind, richie and I decided to have a blog writing contest to further expand our readership and to have an advocacy to encourage our readers to watch and support Filipino Films, thus, our "Yes, I Will Watch MMFF 2010 Contest" was born!

Assessment of the Contest

In celebration of our first year being on the web, we, the owners of MovieNews, wanted to have a (not-so) grand celebration, that is, by giving our loyal readers some cinema tickets (or cash equivalent) as prizes for our contest. In line with this, we are also launching an advocacy to support the upcoming MMFF 2010 movies this December 25. With this writing contest, we encourage everyone to write why they want to watch an upcoming MMFF 2010 movie and their reason/s why they want to watch it.

As much as we wanted to make this contest to have a grandeur, Richie and I decided to sponsor the contest. Unfortunately, the turn out of events for the contest did not really turn out as we expected it. We have encountered problems during the contest period that made us look into it and note it for future references. After much deliberations, we fall into three culprits:

• Most of our readers or followers are non-bloggers. You can't really say we don't have audience or nobody visits our site because you can't deny the fact that blogger.com now counts the total number of visits as one of their features. So, we came to a decision that majority of our readers are non-bloggers. People only come to our website because they want to read the different information on upcoming movies, reviews, watch trailers, etc. Because our contest is a blog writing contest, the attempt to make this contest successful is somewhat a failure, but then again, we really enjoyed our decision to have this contest.

• Lack of promotion. Aside from being movie bloggers, Richie and I have regular day jobs which really affected our online and offline promotions. Most of the time, we are in front of computers, however, this does not mean that we have Internet access all the time. We felt that promoting via the social networking sites such as twitter and facebook would be the best promotion tools because of our Internet accessibility, but work really came along the way. We underestimated the month of December for work-related deadlines.

• The prize is not really enticing. When we decided to sponsor our own contest, we made sure that the contest is really worth to join. Since we are a new movie website, we decided to have free movie tickets (or cash equivalent) as prize for the contest. I guess, P1500 worth of cash or tickets is not really enticing. Hehehe. Because of this, only three contestants joined the fun!

Changes

Because of the above-mentioned reasons, richie and I, decided to change the contest rule with regards to the consolation prizes. Since there are only three contestants who joined our "Yes, I Will Watch MMFF 2010 Movies" Contest, we made some minor changes which we think will be a win-win situation for everyone who joined. From the only one major prize winner of P1500 worth of cash or tickets and P500 worth of consolation prizes, we changed that rule and came up with three winners with P1500 worth of tickets or cash for the 1st prize, P1000 cash or tickets for the 2nd prize, and P500 cash or tickets for the 3rd prize. We thought that this changes will make a win-win situation for everyone.

Judging

In the spirit of fair competition for those who joined the contest, we invited three bloggers to judge for the articles that were submitted during the contest period. There's blogger Mam Jena of GewGaw Writings, Sir Roy of Struggling Blogger, and Jan of Writing to Exhale. Of the three invited judges, only Mam Jena did not pass her judgments, which of course we fully understand. We would like to thank the judges for participating in this blog writing contest.

Two out of three judges where in, however, again, in the spirit of fair competition (again), we let ourselves dug in the judging process. It was an executive decision that richie and I must do in order to have the rankings of our winners. And finally, it was unanimous!

The Winners

After much deliberations, I present to you the winners in our "Yes, I Will Watch MMFF 2010 Movies" Contest! Here they are in reversed order (from 3rd place to 1st place!):

3RD PLACE: Super Francois' entry, "Child at Heart"

"(Excerpt) This MMFF 2010 season, I am going to watch the movie RPG:Metanoia… because i love cartoons. Who won’t like cartoons? And who did not watched cartoons ever? Everyone can’t hide the fact that we have child in us. What more those who already has children that can come with them?"


2ND PLACE: Mike Catuira's entry "Si Agimat sa Mundo ni Enteng Kabisote"

"(Excerpt) This MMFF 2010 season, I am going to watch the movie “Si Agimat sa Mundo ni Enteng Kabisote” because I am really proud of my town where I belong.. Tanay Rizal! So what was the relation of my hometown sa movie nila Bossing Vic at Sen. Bong?? Karamihan ng mga eksena sa naturang pelikula ay kinunan sa aming bayan ng tanay partikular sa mga lugar na pinagmamalaki ng aming bayan katulad ng Daranak Falls, Batlag Falls at Kalinawan Cave kasama rin ang mapunong bahagi ng aming bayan. I am very thankful in this movie because  they can help the local tourism in our town. I am also excited how my town looks like in a big screen."


And finally, we reveal our 1ST PLACE: Mark Glenn Cabrera's entry, "Which MMFF 2010 movie entries will I watch?"

"(Excerpt) This MMFF 2010 season, I am going to watch the movie Shake Rattle and Roll 12 because Christmas without some shaking, rattling and rolling frightfulness could be entirely boring.I know there are great upcoming films... but if ever I’ll miss this childhood movie who opened my mind into the world of scaredy-catiness I think I’m going to have a merry boring Christmas."

It was a unanimous decision from four (4) judges that Mark Glenn Cabrera's (aka PinoyMovieBlog) entry is the winner because we really enjoyed reading this entry based also from the criteria that we have made.

Claiming of Prizes

To Mark Glenn, Mike, and Francois, here's how you can claim your prizes:

Step 1:
Follow @movienewsdotme on twitter and leave a Direct Message (DM). DM us your full name (with middle name), complete address, age, sex, and mobile number.

Step 2:
Email me your information, full name with middle name, complete address, age, sex, and mobile number at yatotski[at]gmail[dot]com. I will be sending you a code in your email to confirm your identity.

Step 3:
Wait for my SMS message. I will be sending text messages for your claim number of each of your prize — P1500, P1000, and P500 cash equivalent of tickets. Cash prize equivalent of tickets will be sent via ML Kwarta Padala or whichever money services I will be texting and emailing to you. Prizes will be sent as soon as we get the information that we needed from you. Prizes will be forfeited after 60 days (February 21, 2011).

Step 4:
Use the money to buy ticket/s of the movie/s you want to watch. Enjoy the MMFF 2010 movies!


We at MovieNews would like to thank those people who find time to view, read, wish to join the contest, and participate in our little advocacy. We hope that in the future, you will continue to watch and support Filipino movies at all cost. Thank you very much and we wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year 2011!!!