What do these contest rules mean exactly?

[ComplicatedMuse]

A) No Clipshow Entries – Reels of micro-AMVs (AKA “AMV-Hell”) will not be accepted.
B) No “Low Effort” Entries – Entries that consist largely of unedited segments of video may be disqualified.

[Rider4Z]

Contest rules vary by convention and coordinators. I recommend asking for clarification from the source of said rules.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=133424

[XStylus]

A) No Clipshow Entries – Reels of micro-AMVs (AKA “AMV-Hell”) will not be accepted.
B) No “Low Effort” Entries – Entries that consist largely of unedited segments of video may be disqualified.

Those look like rules 6 and 8 from Sakura-Con's AMV Contest Rules, respectively. Those were written by me, their AMV Contest Coordinator, so please allow me to clarify!

6- No Clipshow Entries – Reels of micro-AMVs (AKA “AMV-Hell”) will not be accepted.

There's an AMV multi-editor project called "AMV Hell" (in fact, there's been five of them). It's basically an hour-long collection of humorous mini-vid shorts.

A few editors once applied a similar concept to AMVs, in that they made four-minute or five-minute collections and then entered them into various AMV contests. Rule 6 explicitly prohibits those for two reasons: First, they're not an anime music video per-se. Secondly, they're not just one video, they're multiple short videos combined into one.

8- No “Low Effort” Entries – Entries that consist largely of unedited segments of video may be disqualified.

The rule means exactly what it says. We've sometimes had entries whereby an editor took a 4-minute long uncut segment from an anime, didn't change a thing, and simply slapped some music over it and called it an AMV.

We've also had a similar case whereby an editor took the entire intro from a show, replaced the music, and called it an AMV.

Basically, there was zero editorial effort at all. They just thought "Hmm... I think this song would be great for this scene!" and that was it.


I hope that helps answer your questions! Please feel free to ask if you have any others!

[ComplicatedMuse]

thank you! And yes... these are plagiarized from your rules

I'm new to contests (just discovered they existed end of last year...) so trying to learn what is okay and what isn't. I was worried "unedited segments" means you have to do editing (e.g. masking) on each individual clip

Thank you for the clarification.

[ComplicatedMuse]

Since you offered, I'm going to ask another question since you're a coordinator.
It seems like AMV contest coordinators are more opened to questions. (I'm a writer, and that community is more a just submit it and we'll accept / reject. I think it's an inbox management tactics. They may also have a question, ask here type language. But the sense I got is they don't really want to field questions from wanna-be-writers all day long.)

What is the general community etiquette? Is it better to ask for clarification? Or is it better to just submit the video if you're not sure?

[Kireblue]

Since you offered, I'm going to ask another question since you're a coordinator.
It seems like AMV contest coordinators are more opened to questions. (I'm a writer, and that community is more a just submit it and we'll accept / reject. I think it's an inbox management tactics. They may also have a question, ask here type language. But the sense I got is they don't really want to field questions from wanna-be-writers all day long.)

What is the general community etiquette? Is it better to ask for clarification? Or is it better to just submit the video if you're not sure?

I'm also a coordinator, so I'll help with this question. Although they may be worded differently, most AMV Contests follow the same set of basic rules and guidelines. So about 90% of the rules that you will see across various events are relatively the same. I created a list of those widely used guidelines here: A-M-V.org CONGRSS Rules. But even so, it's important to read the specifics for each contest to know what rules are unique to that event, and what the deviations are. If there is ever any confusion, coordinators are more than happy to answer whatever question you may have. And if you submit a video that violates their rules, they will typically contact you to explain the violation and allow you to correct it.

[ComplicatedMuse]

thank you!