Competition Report

Three current competitions for the month of December are explored.
(Final Fantasy 7 Remix comp., FAC7: Fanart competition featuring ICO
and Shadow of the Colossus, and brand new Vocal Remixing Competition!!)

In the month of December, there are a couple of competitions both new
and old on the OCRemix forums. This month features a remix competition,
the standard fanart competition and a brand new vocal remixing
competition. These contests help to keep the OCR community busy by
allowing forum go-ers to test their skills against other video game
lovers in new and challenging ways.

The remix competition, held by zircon, takes Final Fantasy VII as
its subject. Competitors are allowed to select one of five tracks from
the original soundtrack and create a new, original remix before the end
of the year. Since the theme was announced on December 3rd, remixers
only have four short weeks to complete their work before submiting it
for evaluation. The five available tracks from FFVII include:
Opening/Bombing Mission, Barrett’s Theme, Still More Fighting, Main
Theme of Final Fantasy VII and Racing Chocobos – Place Your Bets. If
you can’t recognize these by name, then listen to the first couple of
measures of each. Surely, they will stir up memories, as most of the
tracks from FFVII do. Already, four OCR users (Fishy, Nicole Adams,
~Aran Dol~, The Prophet of Mephisto) have announced their bid in this
remix competition. Who knows if there are any other persons with hidden
remixing talent who will also enter? To make things even more exciting,
prizes will also be awarded to the top three that are selected. Third
place will receive a $10 iTunes gift certificate. Second place will be
given a $20 iTunes gift certificate and first place will win an
authentic, if not official, OCRemix t-shirt or hoodie along with a $10
iTunes gift certificate. Though this is first time awards have been
mentioned, zircon states that it is only to provide incentive to
remixers who have both time and talent to contribute. In addition, it
should be noted that any completed remix will be considered as a track
for the OCR FFVII project titled Voices of the Lifestream. So
remixers should know that this is not only an opportunity to gain some
bragging rights and a gift certicifate, it could also put one of them
on an official OCR collaborative project! The stakes are high, but
results won’t be posted until next year.

At the same time, the December fanart competition is underway. Last
month’s competition ended with Electronic Samurai taking a total of 45
votes for his pencil drawing of Kefka from Final Fantasy VI. As always,
winners of the fanart competition get the privilege to select the
subject for the next month. The theme for this month is ICO and its
sequel, Shadow of the Colossus. For those who are unfamiliar with the
games, ICO and SotC are, at heart, puzzle games embedded in heavily
atmospheric tale between a hero and a mute princess. In ICO, you play
as a hero who must escort a princess through a castle while providing a
path for her to move from one point to another. However, in SotC, as
the hero, you must defeat unique bosses who are several times your
own size. To defeat a boss, the path to its weak spot must be
determined which can prove to be more difficult than thought. Both
games, however, place an emphasis on the mood and light. Some memorable
images include the dainty princess, Yorda, wearing a simple white
dress, the hero himself, and of course, the meticulously designed and
detailed boss characters from SotC. The OCR forums have generated a lot
of expectations for this month’s competition. A familiar contributor,
Ninja-san, asked whether or not sculptures are allowed. Maybe his entry
will be worth looking for. On another note, the original concept art
behind either game is exceptionally stunning. Combined with artistic
direction and immersive environment, fanartists will have a lot to play
around with. If anyone interested in entering, the deadline is Monday,
December 28th.

The biggest competition this month would have to go to the Vocal Remixing
Competition, run by pixietricks. First conceptualized by genghisdani,
competitors would allowed to be able to add their own vocal
intepretation to a set remix. It has been compared to an OCR version of
the popular show, American Idol. It opens up the pool of participants
as many OCR fans are able to sing, though may lack skills or experience
in remixing music. In being the very first of its kind on OCR, there
have been a number of issues and concerns over the format of the
competition in general. Nevertheless, with pixietricks at the helm,
decisions have been made to bring genghisdani’s dream to fruition. As
it stands, the lyrical piece can be sung as it stands, replaced with
original lyrics by the singer, or without lyrics at all! Each entry
will be judged in three aspects by the voters, creativity, vocal
execution and production. 24 people have already confirmed their
participation in the very fist Vocal Remixing Competition including
familiar names such as suzumebachi, EazyP, Malcos, Unknown and
bladiator. At first glance, this is already intense from the start (not
to mention that prizes are available to the first, second and third
place winners). Prizes include an OCR hoodie or t-shirt, and/or an
iTunes gift certificate. For round 1, the vocal piece chosen was
zircon’s Smooth Metal remix from Megaman 2. The deadline is Saturday,
December 23rd. Good luck to all of the participants!