AnimeUSA 2016 AMV Contest *Main Contest Finalists Posted!*

[Freki]

Welcome! AUSA invites you and everyone that wishes to come and enjoy the 2016 AMV Track at Anime USA! We, the AUSA AMV staff wish to put out a challenge to all AMV Editors and Studios to put their game face on and make their best work to date! Let's do this! If you will be attending the con and you wish to speak about how you edit your AMV's or even if you decide to show people the AMV's that inspired you or even your top 10 AMV’s, we have room for panels! If you'd like to watch some Fan parodies, we will of course have those again, and we will have an After Hours track as well to allow for the racier AMV's to be shown! See below as to the things we have for you this year, and the descriptions of the events follow.

This year we are having the following events:

The 2016 AMV Contest -- This is your standard AMV contest, the rules and submission information follow the descriptions of this year's AMV Track offerings.

The 2016 AMV Horror Contest (Mature content amvs) 18+ content -- These videos will be for editors to show us what they can do when the restrictions of language, violence, gore and nudity are relaxed. If your video does not make the cut for this contest it will show during the AMV After Hours track. This will be in the 18+ track, so contest rules #2 and 5 are modified to allow for more explicit content in terms of nudity, offensive language and violence. If videos are received with any of these in extreme excess they will be disqualified.

AMV Showcase -- AUSA AMV Staff will choose videos that did not make the final cut. If an AMV is disqualified but it falls within the rules of the main contest, it will be shown here time permitting. You can also request to have a video go directly into this overflow. The AMV staff will determine what content will be placed in this panel. (Rules 3, 4, 5, and 8 are relaxed, Rules 1 and 14 do not apply. Entries sent for the Showcasing will not take up submission slots for the contests.)

AMV After Hours -- 18+ content, allows for more violence/gore but still not extreme amounts, some nudity but not extreme amounts, and some offensive language. This is not a contest but a place where AMVs that are not making the contest and contain mature content. We will automatically shift any video submitted to the main contest that cannot compete to these showcases unless you wish to enter them into the 18+ contest. The following rules are modified for this: #2, follows the Horror Contest (18+) set of rules, and #4, there are no time restrictions here, but we have to judge what to include and length may cause a video to not be included in these showcases. Submitting an AMV for this panel will not count against the number of submissions for the contest. There will be a section of the submission form to indicate that a specific AMV is for this panel. Time limitations will affect our choices as to what will be in this panel, and will have no bearing on the full AMV contest what so ever. Enjoy and be creative! (Rules 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8 are relaxed, Rules 1 and 14 does not apply. Entries sent for the Showcasing will not take up submission slots for the contests.)
 
AMV Panels -- Do you like AMVs a lot? Do you make AMVs? Are you an AMV Judge at another con? Well for any reason if you wish to discuss AMVs then apply for a panel spot! The AMV Coordinator will inform anyone of accepted panels, and the panel times. These panels are for anything to do with AMV's, your top 10, your best editing tips, your best tips to have AMV's judged well in contests. Also if you wish to have 18+ content please inform us on your panel submission.

Fan Parodies: We will show some parody movies at AUSA again this year, we will update this section with the ones we will show as we make those selections. If you know of a fan parody you would like to have shown or you made one yourself let us know!
 
Anime USA 2016 AMV contest rules:

Submission deadline: August 29th, 2016, 11:59pm. (FOR ALL FORMATS)

1) Each person/studio may submit up to 3 AMV’s in total for each contest, but no more than 1 per category.
*NOTE*: If you are part of a studio, you may submit AMV’s either as yourself or as the studio. You still can only have a combined number of 3 AMV’s between them.
2) Main Contest: No nudity, offensive language or excessive violence or gore. The audience for this will be a general, all age audience!
Horror (18+) Contest: These rules are relaxed somewhat, still extreme amounts of gore, violence, nudity or language can be cause for disqualification from the contest.
3) Videos cannot be more than 1 year old from its creation date, nor have won 3 or more category or best in show awards from separate contests by the date of latest submission. We must keep new ideas coming forward and give everyone the best chance to enjoy winning or participating in a contest.
4) Ensure your Video is between one minute and six minutes in length, exception is the trailer/parody category where the minimum length is 30 seconds.
5) You may use footage from video games, anime, Japanese live action and you may even use stop motion footage you created yourself. At least 50% of your video to be content from Japanese video games or Japanese anime. You must conform to the general audience rating with all footage no matter where you get it from.
6) Dubbed audio from licensed content is not allowed. You may record your own dialog but you cannot take the script and read it!
7) Do not include any subtitles from your original sources. You may however add in your own as long as you do not just copy the subtitles. Game footage is included in this; you must have a clean capture.
8) Do not include any bumpers or credits for your video, Title cards will be made by the AUSA AMV Staff to introduce your video, even if it does not make finalist as we may be showing it in our overflow showcases. I want you to get the exposure if possible.
9) Do not use any commercial studio logos or other forms of watermarks that you did not create yourself as a parody of said logo or your own logo. NO FORM OF REFERENCE TO THE MPAA ITSELF WHAT SO EVER; you may however parody the formatting of the screen just do not name the MPAA look to the following video for an example “http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... p?v=197392”.
10) With the exception of the parody/trailer category, excessive narration or dialog could be grounds for disqualification.
11) Submissions should not contain unaltered video from your audio selection’s official music video. If this is seen even in sections of your AMV it may be grounds for disqualification.
12) Attendance to the Convention is not needed to enter, our request to know if you will be at the convention is for our informational use only. We love calling people up and handing you your prize in recognition of your hard work! Please come to the convention if you can!
13) Anime USA is not responsible for Lost, damaged, misdirected, or stolen submissions or prizes if one needs to be shipped.
14) AUSA AMV Staff and any Judges are precluded from entering this AMV contest. (This means AUSA staff can submit to this contest if they wish).
15) We reserve the right to reject or disqualify any entry for any reason; all rules here are subject to change and will be applied equally to all submissions once posted. An FAQ will be posted if it seems that a rule is ambiguous.
16) All decisions by Anime USA’s AMV staff are final.
17) All submissions must be accompanied with a completely filled out entry form. Please note: Format the form to be legible.
18) All submissions become the property of Anime USA and will not be returned.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask by emailing: Jon.Webb@AnimeUSA.org

Main AMV contest categories:
Action
Comedy
Drama
Parody/Trailer
Upbeat
Romance

Horror AMV contest categories: (separate mature/18+ content contest)
General (if it doesn’t fit in the other categories)
Action
Comedy
Trailer/Parody

AUSA AMV Staff will judge the entries to determine the finalists, then the finalists will be presented to the audience to vote. Awards will be given to AMV’s in first place of each category: Best in show, Director’s choice and Judge’s choice. Second place will be announced and recorded.
 
This year we will be accepting submissions in the following forms:
Digital delivery (delivery via Internet, preferred way)
Optical (CD/DVD/Blu-ray) -- Please contact the AM/V Coordinator if you wish to submit this way.
Flash Media (all SD card sizes and USB flash drives) -- Please contact the AMV Coordinator if you wish to submit this way.
The deadline for receipt of all forms of submissions is August 29th 2016, 11:59pm. AUSA is not responsible for lost, damaged, stolen or incorrectly delivered submissions; you MUST take all precautions to protect your media if you ship! It is recommended that you use Digital delivery for material submission.
During the initial judging of the submissions if there is an issue with your submission we will contact you to allow you to address or dispute the issue, and if you are able to correct or submit a different video, in place of the video with the issue, by the submission deadline that will be accepted. We cannot guarantee that this will be possible depending on how you will send your submission.

All submissions must meet the following standards:

Video Format:
MPEG 1
MPEG 2
M2TS (MPEG2 Transport Stream)
AVI (DivX or XviD for lossy codecs, UTVideo or Lagarith for lossless)
HuffYUV avi
MP4 (h264)
NOTE: We will not accept .MOV and .WMV so if you are using windows movie maker please make sure to set your output to .AVI.
Audio Format:
Uncompressed wav (PCM)
MPEG audio (mp3, mp2, etc.)
 
Resolution:
Full Screen: DO NOT LETTER BOX these entries or we will have to strip that and resize your work.
640 X 480
960 X 720
1440 X 1080
Wide Screen:
720 X 480 *
848 X 480
1280 X 720
1920 X 1080
* This particular resolution happens to be the default DVD resolution and the actual footage is either 640x480 or 848x480. Should you resize appropriately that is acceptable, if you choose to keep the resolution we recommend that you submit as MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 with a frame rate of either 29.97 or 23.976 flagged for 3:2 pull down. As stated above letterboxing is NOT accepted, please flag for 16:9 if that is the native aspect ratio of your footage.
Frame Rates: 23.976, 24, 25, 29, 97, 30 and 60. Any deviation from these listed rates and your video will be rejected. (you can re-submit if time allows)

Submission information:

All Submissions must be accompanied with a text file of the submission form and named with “editor/studio name – AMV title”. If you submit multiple videos each MUST have its own submission form. See the following Example: “John Smith – To the MOON.avi & John Smith – To the MOON.txt”
For submissions online we have a DropBox account, file size limit is 5 GB.
You may submit by email: Jon.Webb@animeusa.org or by initiating a share of your dropbox folder containing the AMV(s) and the entry form(s). If you wish to use another entry method like sendspace, and others like it; realize that your entry may be delayed due to access restrictions on our part and this delay could push past the entry deadline. If you would like to submit physical media, please contact me at the above email to make arrangements.
Any questions or need of clarifications please email The AMV Coordinator at Jon.Webb@animeusa.org
 
AMV Submission Form (make into text file, make sure all fields are filled out with and is legible):

Full Name (as seen on your Government issued ID!):
Studio name (or editor’s name):
Full Mailing Address:
Telephone number including Area Code:
Email Address:
Date of AMV completion:
Category of submission:
AMV’s Title:
Source Video name(s):
Source Song title(s):
Source Song artist(s):
Source Song recording label(s):
Is this submission for the 18+ Contest?
Is this submission for an AMV After Hours Showcase?
Is this submission for any other specific AUSA AMV panel?
Any notes you would like to let us know about?

*NOTE*: Please make sure to list a minimum of 6 Video sources (or all if less), and if you leave any blanks we will be letting you know to correct and re-submit

AUSA AMV panel submission form:

If you wish to apply for a panel please look at the following FAQ first:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bvL ... sp=sharing

Once you have read the FAQ, submit the panel here: (Deadline for AMV panels is August 29th, 11:59pm)

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1piPpgW ... M/viewform

NOTE:
1) AMV Panel deadline is one month after normal AUSA panel submissions, once the above link will no longer accept submissions please use the form below and send to Jon.Webb@AnimeUSA.org.

2) The decision of what panels will be in the AUSA AMV Track and times will be made by the AMV Track Staff and final. If you will be arriving on Thursday and there are panel slots open, would you like to have this? If you are arriving at a certain time during the convention and cannot present before that time please let us know so we can properly schedule you.

To be used only if there is an issue with the normal AUSA panel submission form, or it is past the convention submission deadline
Name(s) of Panelist(s):
Panelist(s) Contact Information (Phone number and Email):
Name of Panel:
Length of Panel (in minutes):
Will this panel feature mature content/R rated:
Please inform us of your panel's equipment needs:
Description of Panel:


Other information that would be helpful in scheduling your panels:


Freki
AnimeUSA AMV Track Coordinator

NOTES:
Edited 6/23/2016:
Fixed various typographical Errors.
Changed the 18+ contest to be entitled Horror Contest which changed a category from Horror to General.
Changed Rule 3 to not make editors guess if their video will win 3 or more awards in separate contests, if it has not won this at the time of the latest submission it will be allowed to compete.

[Freki]

Don't forget about Anime USA's AMV contest this year! I will be looking to announce some new happenings here at AUSA soon, I don't want to set it up and find out we just can not get it going in time for this year's convention! Keep up the hard work, keep those videos coming in!

Also do not forget we will be allowing Editor panels once again, please follow the instructions for the submissions for your panels. We also will have Showcases once again so if you have videos you want shown (with Title cards) submit those as well!

I am anticipating a GREAT year for 2016!

Freki
AnimeUSA AMV Track Coordinator

[WinterRaineeDay]

Is editors outside USA allowed to enter?

[Freki]

Yes you are more than welcome to enter. We have had editors from italy, australia and i believe poland before. Please feel free to ask questions if you have any and I look forward to seeing your work.

Freki
AnimeUSA AMV Track Coordinator

[Freki]

NOTE: there are some changes coming to the Anime USA AMV contest. most are just edits where I found better ways to say things and there are a few things that changed in the rules, I will post the Major changes in a message here. it will NOT affect any submissions so far (already to 19!!!! lets keep them coming!!!) These changes will be posted in the next 24-48 hours and will be in effect for the 2016 Contest.

Freki
Anime USA AMV Track Coordinator

[Freki]

Changed one rule, fixed typos and changed the name of the 18+ contest to Horror. Please review the rules to understand the changes listed at the bottom of the rules post. There are no videos that have been submitted to AUSA's 2016 AMV contests that would be affected by these changes.

Freki
Anime USA AMV Track Coordinator

[Freki]

Hey editors! I hope you had a great fourth of july (if you celebrate that), and I hope your summer is going well (fall if you're in the southern half of the world)!!!

Just an update, I know many of you are working hard on your videos and I do not want you to rush them at all!!! Remember though if you have a video that is ready if you submit it and it has been submitted to other contests you no longer have to worry if you will hit the maximum number of wins because of the rules change on the 15th unless you re-submit your video for any reason.

We are looking at all submitted videos early to make sure that if there is something that needs to be changed or fixed, you have the time to make it right without worrying.

We still have a horror contest! This year it is not just one category, but has a few categories! check it out!

Any questions please feel free to PM me, or email me, or message here on the boards! I will respond as soon as I can.

Freki
Anime USA AMV Track Coordinator

[Studio Hawk]

I've submitted! Looking forward to the contest!

[Freki]

I am sorry for not coming back here as often as I did last year, I have had a good amount of work to do both for the contest and for other things. I wish to thank every single Editor that has submitted for this years contests and I wish you all the best of luck in it! Any Editors that have already submitted an AMV panel have been approved, you will get more information once I start getting the schedule down.

*** IF you are an editor and attending AUSA, would you all be interested in an Editor/Judge Meet and Greet? nothing fancy just us sitting down talking and what ever. no food provided, it is not going to be on the schedule but will be announced (we have a few rooms we could do this in for the con as it does not have to be a panel room) heck we could do it in the hotel resturant etc. it could be friday, sat or sunday but will not interfere with the contest showings or the cosplay definitely. send me a pm here, or to my email Jon.Webb@AnimeUSA.org and if I get a few of you wanting to do this I will make it happen. It will have my judges there (well one will be in the AMV room at the time) and myself. What do you all think? ***

for the next week or two if you are going to be at AUSA and wish a panel please contact me with the information, I have not completed the scheduling but I do have to do that soon. I will say currently I am planning three showings of the contest! there will be a showing on friday night, and two on sat! Watch for them on the schedule when it is published!

Thanks again and if you have an Idea email me or pm me!

Freki
AnimeUSA AMV Track Coordinator

[Freki]

Hey Everyone! I am sorry it is taking so long to get the Finalists announced! but we will have that announcement very soon as long as good ole Matthew or Natalie doesn't have anything to say about it! First of all to everyone on the South Eastern Seaboard (including ALL of Florida) PLEASE PLEASE KEEP SAFE! evacuate if you are told to... do not risk your lives by staying.

Now for the GOOD STUFF! Judging is almost done, probably by the end of the weekend or early next week, Life has hit all of the judges here including me (keeping my 3.64 GPA is very important to me hehehe) but I want to say that it is a very interesting set of Videos this year! Thank you for bearing with us on this. I also would like to show you some great pictures of the Awards this year. We will still have the certificates for everyone, but there are a great many new awards. I am going to send you to Facebook for a look at the awards, if you can't see please let me know I'll zip em up and drop the pictures into your inbox

https://www.facebook.com/jon.webb.1257/ ... 148&type=3

Freki

Jon Webb
Anime USA AMV Track Coordinator