AkaiCon 2013 AMV Contest DEADLINE: September 20th 2013

[ShadowCat_13]

AkaiCon AMV Contest

The AMV (Anime Music Video) contest takes place on Friday, October 11th at 7pm. Seating starts at 6pm. Anime Music Videos consist of clips from one or more anime series or movies set to songs. They are made by fans who have a passion for an anime/song combination that drives them to create and show their vision to audiences.

Rules are subject to change.

AMV Categories:
Action, Drama, Comedy/Upbeat, Con Theme(Post-Apocalyptic), Sailor Moon; Sacrifice, and Pro.

Contest Rules
I) AMV Restrictions
Maximum Length: Soft cap at 2 minutes, hard cap at 6 minutes.
Content: G, PG, or PG-13. No excessive nudity or violence.
No Intros or Outros. No text in the video that does not pertain to the video itself.
Limit video less than 1GB
All videos are required to be in at least a resolution of 640 x 480 or higher and a frame rate of 23.97 or better (29.97 or better preferred). Audio shall be at a sampling rate of no lower then 44,100 Hz.
Accepted Formats:
Video: mp4(H.264), AVI
Audio: wav and mp3

Files only. Physical Media will NOT be accepted.

II) Submission Restrictions
NO ENTRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER SEPTEMBER 20TH 2013
NO ENTRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED AT THE CONVENTION
You may submit THREE videos in the catagory of your choice. One video per catagory.
If for any reason you are unable to attend AkaiCon to receive your award, you must have someone attending in your honor to claim it for you.


III) How to Submit a Video
Complete and submit the form for each AMV submitted. Click the link for the form: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/vie ... c6MQ#gid=0
Fill out form and send the link to the video. No Youtube or sharing websites where you have to sign up.

Only accepting online submissions.

For any further questions or concerns please email: akaiconamv@gmail.com

[Scintilla]

I think the most important question to ask here is: Can you describe the Pro category?

Other than that, what codecs are acceptable for the AVI and MP4 video formats?

And what do you mean by the "soft cap"? The majority of non-trailer videos entered to AMV contests tend to be over two minutes long.

[ShadowCat_13]

Basically here are examples from what I think are my opinions on the category: (The videos below are NOT mine but examples.)

Action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQRiwKlMy4U ( Anything with battles, Action really is self explanatory)

Drama: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8tcoPAltIo (Anything romantic, serious, literally a tearjerker, emotional scenes (don't be too graphic with excessive blood or sexual)

Comedy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1c0Lle01_M ( Anything funny, fun, dance, upbeat)

Con Theme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrX-0UI3HOk (Anything that can happen when the world is destroyed. Either space, zombie, futuristic)

Pro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMm6wvzDosI (Anything goes with majority of lots of graphics, video going with song, lip syncing)

Codec wise? The DVD that the whole contest will be on will have to be only AVI, MP4 or WMV. So that the DVD player will be able to play it without any issues. Our tech that we have for our con will be meeting with me before the con to make sure it works so I don't have to go all ghetto and get the videos from my computer and click on them one by one. I am going to be pretty fancy about the contest itself.

Soft cap means nothing under two minutes. I like seeing videos that are longer, keeps people entertained and not saying " That was too short" or "That was great! Just really slow.."

Does this help at all?

[Scintilla]

I asked specifically about Pro because some other contests have had trouble in the past with categories with similar names, with confusion between the coordinators and the contestants on just what the criteria were.

I saw that it said AVI, MP4, or WMV only, but I asked about codecs within AVI and MP4. For example, if we're sending an AVI, should/can we encode the video as uncompresed, or HuffYUV, or Lagarith, or UTVideo, or XviD, or...?

... Also, you have a DVD player that can also do MP4 and WMV? I'm impressed.

Thanks for clearing up the two minute rule. When I saw "soft cap", I assumed cap meant maximum rather than minimum, which led me to the rather odd interpretation that you discouraged (but didn't outright prohibit) entries over two minutes.

[ShadowCat_13]

When I meant contest on a DVD, I meant on a computer..I did not clarify that enough.

Codec wise XviD is the only one I know to tell you the truth, I never really have been asked that question.

As I said Pro basically on beat with the song, how it impacts me and the audience when viewed. More so me, because I am the one with final say along with my staff.

[ShadowCat_13]

Still accepting submissions.


www.akai-con.webs.com

[l33tmeatwad]

When I meant contest on a DVD, I meant on a computer..I did not clarify that enough.

Codec wise XviD is the only one I know to tell you the truth, I never really have been asked that question.

As I said Pro basically on beat with the song, how it impacts me and the audience when viewed. More so me, because I am the one with final say along with my staff.

XviD is very outdated and not great quality for accepting submissions. If I were you I would only accept AVIs that use lossless codecs. If you have any technical questions concerning codecs and what would be best for codecs for future contests, feel free to drop me a message or hunt me down on skype and I'll try to answer any questions you may have !

[ShadowCat_13]

Awesome. Thanks so much. I will be sure to make that change. AVI's are a lot easier, I agree. Thanks again!