Tekkoshocon AMV Contest Deadline March 8th

[Illia Sadri]

Alrighty I have unfortunately been rather sick and otherwise under various influences such as schoolwork to properly advertise for the contest. So this is a last call for amv's for this year's contest.

General

- You do not need to attend the convention to enter the contest, although it is highly encouraged. Nothing like seeing your videos played on a big screen and with an audience reacting to it accordingly.

- The categories this year are the same as last year which were: Romance, Drama, Action, Comedy and Trailers. When you submit your video please indicate which you feel best fits your video. If it is between two categories and you are unsure then indicate whichever ones you feel are candidates and it will be decided on from there.

- As this is an anime music video contest we do ask that the majority of your video actually be anime or Japanese video game related. So any anime under the sun is fair game as are .hack//sign and final fantasy games and so on and so forth. Spongebob Squarepants, Teen Titans and Halo though don’t work. Note that it is a majority. If other sources are used in small amounts it won’t be instantly disqualified.

- There is a time limit of 6 minutes on videos and a minimum of 30 seconds.

- You may submit a maximum of three videos in DIFFERENT categories.

- When submitting your video, take the time to fill out the following information If submitting via ftp a text file or Microsoft office document is recommended and if by mail simply write the information legibly and place it with your disk.

o Video Title
o Source Used (if more than 3 list as various)
o Song Title (if more than 2 list as various)
o Music Artist (if more than 2 list as various)
o Your name
o Your email address
o Your physical mailing address
o Your choice of category to compete in

It’s the best way to ensure that all credits are accurate and necessary information is provided. And I will not try to look up information if it is not given. Please take the time to give this information.

- The contest is an all age audience showing and thus no video can be played that is more than a pg-13 rating. Good general rule is if the song cannot be played on the radio without edits,(bleeps or omission of certain words) sexual genitalia (No hentai) or very extreme violence (good example for what goes too far would be the last couple episodes of Berserk). If you have a video to such a source I suggest submitting it to Anime Central’s Too Hot for Acen block or Anime Weekend Atlanta’s contests as they have the means to show such videos that we simply cannot do.

- Videos can be of any age as long as it has not premiered at a convention more than a year ago and has not won previous awards. Any known trolls will be disqualified as we want a chance for new videos to have a spot in the playlist and to win. Obviously if a video is in several contests all fairly close in timeframe then that will not affect things at all.





Technical

- The following formats are the only ones accepted: huffyuv, mjpeg, divx, xvid, mpeg2, mpeg1, (not recommended) and quicktime (not recommended) Do NOT send anything in real media or Windows Media format. It’s not that I hate Windows Movie Maker users but converting the videos are time consuming. If you use Windows Movie maker you are welcome to encode it in a different format; however it is up to you to take the time to convert everything to an acceptable standar.
- Don’t be afraid to send a large file. Large files often look much better and the higher quality the video is compressed with, the better the end result when it is processed for the contest and projected on the screen. If we can’t tell Vash from Wolfwood in your Trigun amv, it won’t be played.
- The final play disk will be mpeg2 standard 720*480. If you are working off the dvd’s directly this should be of no consequence.
- Please only NTSC 29.97fps format or 23.97fps. If you are from another country that uses PAL format, please let me know and we can work with you on adapting the video accordingly for playback in the contest. But if you are in North America there’s no good reason for it (and yes it has happened.)
- Don’t submit videos with subtitles. If you create your own subtitles as an actual part of the video that is certainly acceptable. But there should be no subtitles from any bootleg or fansub release. Adobe premiere and virtualdub both have cropping abilities to remove those.
- If submitting in divx/xvid format, please don’t have watermarks or logos. You can turn it off and is highly recommended. Same applies to Cartoon Network, Tech TV or any other foreign elements. Once again if part of the video you can make your own by all means.
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Submission Info

- All videos must be postmarked if sending by mail no later than Monday March 6th, 2006. FTP submissions get a few extra days and must be uploaded to the server no later than Wednesday, March 8th, 2006.
- Yes we have an ftp server for submissions once again. Send an email and I will give the directions for the account.
- If sending by mail videos must be on a disk. Don’t send on VHS tapes as some screening devices used by some post offices can wreck them. We can take just about any disk type from cd+-r to dual layer dvds.
- Do not author your videos as vob dvd playback files. Simply burn the files as a data disk as that is much simpler for both parties.
- Before shipping always double check the media burn to make sure the video plays in its entirety. It’s not uncommon to get at least one video that simply doesn’t play properly because of a bad burn.
- Labeling your video with basic information such as name and video title are always a good idea. Don’t use a ballpoint pen but a soft tip marker such as a sharpie. Just make sure it doesn’t smudge off too easily if using certain types of markers.
- Place video media in a protective case that cannot bend and in a padded envelope. And please place the correct postage. (I've had four disks this year that have had at least one of these two problems)
- Don’t send your only copy of the video as it will not be returned. We keep all copies of our submissions.


The address for submissions are as follows

J. Lynn Hunt
317 Arey Hall
1024 W. Starin Rd
Whitewater, WI 53190

[Illia Sadri]

Just a reminder this is the last shot to enter the contest. There have been a lot of uloads on the server the past couple days and some have had issues as a result. If that is the case contact me, or use a system like you sendit as an alternate means of obtaining the video.

I will admit though I am amazed at the turnout for the contest. There are currently over 60 valid entries while last year was all of 26. And I still have more coming in. In the next 10 days I will compile the finalist list that will create a runtime of 2 hours. So good luck to all of those who have entered.

I will be holding a prejudging at University of Wisconsin, Whitewater on Saturday. So anyone who is in the area and would like to try and make it is certainly welcome although I don't think WI is a huge state for editors.