Once again, I'll be running the AMV contest. This year as also the Director of Site Operations for the con, I'm also pleased to also announce that the contest will be held in out brand new huge Main Events room! I've made sure to outfit it with a huge screen and great sound so it should be awesome
Rules are not yet up on the web page (they will be soon, so below are the final beta rules)...
Vlad
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OVERVIEW
The Animethon 14 Anime Music Video (AMV) Contest is a chance for fans to showcase their creative talents in the form of music videos and is open to anyone who may wish to enter, be they amateur or professional. The contest will be screened in front of a live audience at Animethon 14 and the winners of the contest will be announced shortly thereafter.
The awards will be as follows:
Category Winners:
Best Romance/Sentimental
Best Dramatic
Best Action/Adventure
Best Comedy/Parody
Best Upbeat/Fun
Grand Prize Winners:
Judges’ Best Video Overall
Audience’s Best Video Overall
Best “Made in Alberta” Award
Award sponsored by Anime Alberta for the best video made in our home province of Alberta!
Each of the Category awards will be chosen by a panel of judges as determined by the Anime Music Video Coordinator. Each of the two Grand Prize winners will be chosen either by the judges (Judges’ Best Video Overall) or by audience ballot at the screening event (Audience’s Best Video Overall).
To recognize the talent of Anime Music Video creators of Alberta, Anime Alberta is once again sponsoring a special award for the Best Video made here in Alberta.
Ideally, all accepted entries into the contest will be shown at the screening, but because of time constraints and the total amount of entries that may be received, this may not be possible. Therefore if required, all accepted entries will be pre-judged by a panel of judges and only the finalists will be screened at the contest event. All entries however will be shown at the convention in one of the video rooms. All efforts will be made to ensure every entry is shown during the course of the convention to the audience.
All entries must meet all the general and submission rules as stated below. Entries must be received (in our hands) by Wednesday, June 20, 2007. Entries may be mailed via the regular postal system to the following address:
Animethon 14 AMV Contest
c/o Vlad G Pohnert
1708 – 81 Street
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada T6K 2E8
For those who wish to send their entries via Fed-EX or UPS, please e-mail us at amv@animethon.org for an alternative address and required information. Submissions will also be accepted via the contest’s FTP site (as outlined under submission formats). NO SUBMISSIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED AT THE CONVENTION.
Please take the time to read both the general and submission rules FULLY so that your entries do not get disqualified by not meeting any of the requirements. If you have any questions or concerns about any of the rules or the contest itself, email us at amv@animethon.org.
GENERAL RULES
1) Video must be a minimum length of thirty (30) seconds and no longer then six (6) minutes (including any titles or opening/closing sequences) to qualify. Videos over six (6) minutes may be accepted at the AMV Contest coordinator’s discretion.
2) A maximum of two (2) video entries will be accepted from one individual or a group. Individuals belonging to studios but submitting under their own name will be considered an individual entry (therefore, if two individuals belong to the same studio, they can each send in two (2) entries provided that it is sent in individually under their real names and not under the studio name).
3) All video entries must be accompanied by a filled out submission form (PROVIDE THE LINK ON WEBSITE FOR THE UNDERLINED) either in hardcopy or electronic format and meet all the submission rules. E-mail will be sent to contestants who submit the entry form electronically via the FTP site with reply instructions. A reply must be send back as per the e-mail instructions or else the entry(s) will be disqualified. Entry forms with invalid or missing contact information will be disqualified.
4) Videos must use at least 65% of anime content. Anime content is defined as any animated TV, Original Video Animation (OVA) or movie originally produced and created in Japan. This includes the use of anime computer-generated animation in TV, OVAs, movies and anime related video games. The other 35% may be any combination of anime/animation, live action, original computer animation or special effects.
5) Videos made to songs, music or trailer audio will be accepted provided they meet all other rule requirements.
6) Anime Music Videos that use footage with subtitles from fan-subtitled anime will not be accepted. Intentional self created subtitles and any other text incorporated into the video is fine.
7) Since the videos will be shown to a public audience at the event, all videos must be rated either G (General) PG (Parental Guidance) or 14-A (Suitable for viewing by persons 14 years of age or older) as defined by the Alberta Film Ratings board. All videos will be submitted to the Film board to be rated and those that do not meet the above criteria (i.e. rated Adult) will not be shown during the contest finals or the all entries showing. Thus, videos should not portray explicit nudity and/or excessive graphic violence or foul language. The AMV Contest Coordinator and the Animethon Executive Committee reserves the right to disqualify any video that is considered not suitable for general viewing due to any combinations of nudity, graphic violence, foul language or non-suitable content.
8) Bumpers and Credits will be allowed into the contest PROVIDED they appear at the end of the video and are not overlayed over any part of the video (in other words, do not overlay studio logos, test over the video). Since the pre-judging is blind, they will be removed for the judge’s tape but will be left in for the actual showing of the contest. Bumpers will be included as part of your video length and should not be longer than ten (10) seconds. The AMV Contest Coordinator reserves the right to disqualify any video that is does not meet any of the above criteria.
9) Previously released videos (as shown publicly at conventions/ clubs or for download on the internet) must have been premiered after January 1st, 2007 to qualify. The only exception being a video that has not premiered publicly as defined in the above may qualify at the discretion of the AMV Coordinator.
10) By submitting a completed entry form or replying to the confirmation email you allow Animethon and the Alberta Society for Asian Popular Arts (ASAPA) the right to use any entry you submit for display and/or promotional purposes.
11) Although attendance at the contest is encouraged, it is not required. Submission to the contest does not require any entry fees or passes.
12) All decisions or ramifications of any of the contest rules as made at the discretion of the AMV Contest coordinator are final. All judging methods and decisions are final.
13) Animethon reserves the right to make changes to these rules at anytime. The rules as published on Animethon’s website (www.animethon.org) are considered the official rules.
SUBMISSION FORMATS
Videos will be accepted in digital only submissions as follows.
Digital disk: DVD / DVD-R / DVD+R media.
Digital media: Using accepted codec as listed below recorded on CD-R / DVD+R / DVD-R media.
Digital FTP uploads: Videos may also be uploaded to the contest FTP site in an acceptable codec as listed below.
To the following Site:
To Upload your entry(s), follow the instructions listed below:
1) E-mail amv@animethon.org with the subject “Animethon AMV Contest Upload Request”.
2) Include in the e-mail a filled out Entry form as provided here.
3) An e-mail will be sent back to you with site, user and password instructions for you to upload your entry(s) to.
All videos will be compiled digitally and converted into the Mpeg2 format and played digitally at the contest using a system with a Netstream mpeg decoder playback card.
ACCETABLE Codec for Digital submissions:
Mpeg2: Since the contest will be played in this format, all entries encoded in Mpeg2 will be played directly without conversion (provided the Netstream is able to play them). It is preferred to encode into 720x480 resolution using a 29.97 frame rate, but 640x480 and a 23.97 or 24 frame rate is also acceptable. Ensure to use as highest bit rate as possible (6 - 8 megabits per second as the average is recommended) and ensure the audio layer-II is set at 224 kilobits per second or better.
AVI: Submissions may be also sent in uncompressed format or with the following Codecs:
HuffYUV, DiviX (no beta versions), Xvid (no beta versions) Or DV. Uncompressed files will also be accepted. Please note that if you require the space of more than one disk, WinRAR can be used to span files over multiple discs.
WMV : This format is not recommended, however, it will be accepted PROVIDED the video is encoded in an acceptable bit rate and resolution size at the discretion of the AMV Contest Coordinator.
QuickTime: All formats of quicktime that are included in PC Quicktime Pro. If converting from a MAC, the file must be “flatten” to be read.
Do not send submissions in Real Media since we will not accept them.
If you have problems sending your entry in any of the above formats, please contact us and we will try to come up with something that will work for both you and us.
SUBMISSION RULES
1) Send us a copy of your video in the best possible quality. Do not send us your master tapes since all entries will not be returned.
2) Videos provided on DVD or CDR may be recorded on the same disc provided they are chaptered on DVDs or follow the following naming convention on CDRs: Submitter’s Name-Animethon-Video Title (i.e. John Doe-Animethon-Spectacular video).
3) Submissions made via the FTP site must include the text version of the entry form with all the information filed out for each video submitted. Both the text file and video file must use the naming convention as follows: Submitter’s Name-Animethon-Video Title (i.e. John Doe-Animethon-Spectacular video).
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