The V.E.S. MV contest for Matsuricon 2018 is now accepting entries. Deadline for registration is the end of day (or 11:59 PM) July 15th, 2018. We are taking videos from all kinds of video source material and not just anime. And we have a separate 18+ contest as well. I have the rules posted below. And for more information about our contest, who we are, and to check out last year's contest, please visit our website.
http://matsuricon.org/events/video-events
Main Contest:
Registration Information:
- All videos to be submitted for the contest must be registered first. Please see the registration form at the bottom of the page.
- Each registration must include the following information:
- Given first and last name
- Email address to be reached at
- Pseudonym or studio name that is to be used in the credits.
- Category for the video. This year we will not be offering secondary categories. Whatever is decided is what the video will be sent to.
- Video title
- Video source material. If more than 3 video sources are used, please put “various.”
- Audio source. This includes the artist(s)’s name(s) and the song title, a movie source for any trailer audio, a creator’s name for any misc. fanmade audio sources, etc.
- Link to download the video. Submit a link so that the staff can receive the video (by way of google drive, sendspace, mediafire, etc.)
- Comments. Please post any comments here, such as, any awards the video has won, any contests it has been submitted to (pending results), and any issues on submitting the video that need addressed.
- Action – These videos provide a roller coaster ride of adrenaline, excitement, and suspense. This could involve fight scenes, flying, or just playing sports. These videos are typically set to up-tempo music, usually associated with harder rock n’ roll or EDM.
- Drama – This is meant to invoke emotion from the viewer. This could be done by telling a simple story or even bringing awareness to a cause. Music genre used may vary, but typically, this is set to a slowed-tempo style of music.
- Romance – A subset of Drama (in the sense that it also tells a story), this category focuses on the relationship of specific characters or just simply invoke a romantic mood. This typically has a happy or sad approach, but could also be violent as well. Set to music in which its lyrics focus on love and relationships. The tone of said music may vary.
- Comedy – The goal for this type of video is to make the viewer laugh (duh). Although these are typically set to comedic audio and video sources, the best ones in the bunch are put together and presented in such a clever way that the audio/video sources are just the pieces to the overall concept of the video.
- Trailer/Commercial – This is where the source video is matched up to a movie trailer or a T.V. commercial. Parodies of movie trailers also qualify.
- Upbeat/Dance – These videos are for making the viewer feel good. While these typically involve dancing videos (set to any type of dance, trance, or techno music), this can also include happy slice of life pieces set to any upbeat or uplifting music.
- All video source types: Japanese anime, manga (such as in Manga Music Videos), video games, live-action, and non-Japanese animation (Disney, Avatar: The last Airbender, Marvel and DC animated movies, etc.) are accepted for registration.
- All registered videos must have been created after September 1st, 2017 (and as such be a first-time entry to the V.E.S. MV contest).
- Please do not submit any video that has won more than 3 major awards at other conventions. If the video to be registered has been submitted to other conventions and the results are still pending at the time of registration, please mention this in the comments section of the registration.
- Registration will open on April 2nd, 2018.
- Registration will close on July 15th, 2018 at 11:59 PM EST. All registered videos must be submitted to contest by this time. If there are issues with this, the contest coordinator will reach back out to the editor in question to verify if they still would like to submit or close the registration out.
Content Rules:
- No “copied” or stolen videos are allowed. The definition of copied is any or all use of material from AMVs edited by someone other than the submitter. If a submitted AMV is found to contain copied material, that video will be disqualified and the editor(s) will be banned from entering future V.E.S. MV contests. No exceptions.
- In terms of content, all videos must conform to CARA PG-13 rating standards. The official rating guideline define the PG-13 rating as follows:
A PG-13 rating is a sterner warning by the Rating Board to parents to determine whether their children under age 13 should view the motion picture, as some material might not be suited for them. A PG-13 motion picture may go beyond the PG rating in theme, violence, nudity, sensuality, language, adult activities or other elements, but does not reach the restricted R category. The theme of the motion picture by itself will not result in a rating greater than PG-13, although depictions of activities related to a mature theme may result in a restricted rating for the motion picture. Any drug use will initially require at least a PG-13 rating. More than brief nudity will require at least a PG-13 rating, but such nudity in a PG-13 rated motion picture generally will not be sexually oriented. There may be depictions of violence in a PG-13 movie, but generally not both realistic and extreme or persistent violence. A Motion picture's single use of one of the harsher sexually-derived words, though only as an expletive, initially requires at least a PG-13 rating. More than one such expletive requires an R rating, as must even one of those words used in a sexual context. The Rating Board nevertheless may rate such a motion picture PG-13 if, based on a special vote by a two-thirds majority, the Raters feel that most American parents would believe that a PG-13 rating is appropriate because of the context or manner in which the words are used or because the use of those words in the motion picture is inconspicuous.
- For more information, please see the rating guideline: https://www.filmratings.com/Content/Dow ... _rules.pdf
- For audio content, no songs or other audio with racial content (deliberately expressing the superiority of one race over another), sexually explicit content, or the “7 words you can never say on television” (you can submit “language” as long as you edit/bleep words sufficiently).
- All videos are allowed as many video courses as the editor chooses. However, there can only be allowed up to two audio sources.
- There can be no audio sound from any anime or video game that is not licensed for commercial distribution from anywhere outside of the Japan/Pacific Rim region. However, if it is from a licensed anime or game, we will allow it.
- No bumpers or credits allowed. This includes “thanks for watching”, “subscribe”, or something similar. Uniform bumpers will be provided for each submitted video whether they are in the contest or non-contest portion. This may be allowed if such credit identification is done creatively in a way that cannot be easily removed. However, this, like all other rules, is left to the coordinator’s discretion.
- All logos, watermarks (TV Tokyo, etc.), and screen names are not allowed.
- If subtitles are to be used, they must be done so by the editor themselves and must serve a purpose for the MV. We will outright reject any video with any fan or commercially produced subtitles.
- The V.E.S coordinator reserves the right to reject any video for any other reason not mentioned in the rules.
Technical Rules:
- Entries must be no shorter than 30 seconds and no longer than 5 minutes.
- While we can playback a variety of video formats, it is highly recommended to use the following video settings for best results:
- Resolution: 1280x720 or 1920x1080 for widescreen; 960x720 or 1440x1080 for fullscreen
- Frame Rate: 23.976 frames per second
- Video Codec: H264, 2mbps or higher
- Audio Codec: AAC, 160 kbps or higher
- Audio Sampling Rate: 44.1kHz or 48kHz
- Container: MP4 or AVI
- This year, we will be heavily screening any submitted videos not only on rules violations but also on the quality of said video as well. As such, there may be videos that get disqualified on this issue depending on the severity. But otherwise, these would simply be returned to the editor with a request to redo the video before resubmission. Please be mindful of the following issues that could cause the video to be rejected:
- Video has interlacing.
- Squashed/stretched aspect ratios.
- Chunky/blocky video (often caused by low quality sources or even excessive data compression).
- Extreme banding (i.e. Color gradients caused by video re-compression)
- Jagged/saw-tooth lines (i.e. line aliasing)
- Audible distortion
- Audio levels that are too high, low, overdriven, or clipped.
- Pitch-shifted or speed-adjusted audio (unless by obvious artistic necessity).
- All submitted videos will undergo an initial screening process to verify rules and quality of the video. All videos that pass this screening test will be placed in our contest queue for the V.E.S. staff to screen and determine contest finalists. If the video fails in this the first screening process, the editor will be provided the necessary steps to correct any issues (i.e. technical, visual, audio issues) before it can be accepted into the queue. As such, it is highly recommended to register the video early so that in case there are issues, this can be corrected early on. Any video that is rejected outright (will not be allowed to be entered in the contest again) will be mentioned as such to the editor. Please note this is only done in extreme circumstances such as blatant rules violations. Any content issues will always be encouraged to be redone before resubmission.
- Please allow up to 3 days from the time of the registration for a response on the submitted video. Editors are encouraged to reach out to the V.E.S. staff if they have not heard back from them on their video after said time. This helps in case a video or two slipped through the cracks.
- All videos that are sent to the contest queue will not be removed from said queue, unless there is a blatant rules violation discovered in the video by the staff. In which, the video will be dropped and the editor will be notified of such. For peace of mind, please note that this has only been done once in the past several years. This is the purpose of the screening process, so that something like this doesn’t happen.
Contest Queue Screening:
- The V.E.S. staff will host a screening party in which all videos in the contest queue will be screened and graded using a specific grading rubric.
- This screening will determine the following:
- Which videos are the best of the contest queue? Best in specific category and best in show.
- Which videos will take part in the contest showing? For the audience at Matsuricon to view.
- Which videos will be part of our non-contest showing?
- Contest winners will not be announced until Sunday, August 26th, which is the Sunday of Matsuricon. This will also include on various websites and social media as well.
At-Con:
- Matsuricon will host a contest screening on Saturday, August 25th, 2018.
- Awards will be handed out for the following:
- Best of each category.
- Audience choice award.
- Best of show.
18+ Contest:
- All rules of the standard contest apply, with the following exceptions:
- Number of Entries: One entry per editor. Will not count against the number of entries in the main contest. Ex: If an editor already submitted 2 videos to the main contest, they can still submit to the 18+ contest.
- Content:
- This contest is rated 18+
- Editors submitting must be at least 18 years of age at the time of submission. By submitting an entry, editors are certifying that they meet this requirement.
- This is a contest for Hentai AMVs, not for videos that have graphic violence, including sexual violence (e.g. rape). Videos that do not meet this requirement will be disqualified.
- Language in audio sources does not have to be censored.
- Lolicon and shotacon videos are strictly prohibited and will be disqualified.
- As of April 2nd, 2018, all rules shown will be deemed final and non-negotiable.
- Any questions, issues, or concerns should be submitted to: vescontest@matsuricon.org
- All registration must be done via the following link:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=18HsPJ ... Tyuh-RAQfU
! I didn’t read the rules carefully enough obviously and I have no problem being moved to exhibition. I really respect freshness rules and I’ll be rooting on the other finalists!!
