Metrocon 2008 AMV Contest

AnnaMayBelle · Post by **AnnaMayBelle** » Sun May 18, 2008 8:10 pm

Hey y'all! I'm proud to be asked back as the hostess of the Metrocon 2008 AMV Contest for a second year. To see the rules for the contest, most people have to log into their Team Metro Account (which is also the upload form), but I figured I'd go ahead and post the rules here for you guys to see!

The METROCON 2008 AMV Contest is your opportunity for everyone, from amateurs to professionals, to showcase their video editing talent! Anime Music Videos, or AMVs for short, are videos composed of anime and videogame footage, then set to music, creating a fan-made music video.

Please note that these categories are only examples and suggested guidelines of the categories that may be awarded in the METROCON 2008 AMV Contest. Actual categories will be selected by the judges, based on actual entries received. For example, if no action entries are submitted, or only one or two videos that do not accurately reflect the theme of the category, an award for Best Action may not be presented.

* Action
* Drama
* Comedy
* Parody
* Novice
* Professional
* Homebrew OVA (original animation / live action - see below)

Remember, these are categories of AMVs, not specifically awards. A Best Of Show will be given, and more awards may be added at the judges’ discretion.

Note: “Comedy” refers to comedic AMVs in all forms, while “parody” specifically refers to videos of a satirical imitative nature (IE, TV commercials, movie trailers, etc). Parody videos are not necessarily comedic. The “Novice” category is open only to editors who have never won a ‘Best Of’ award (Best In Show, Best Comedy, Best Technical, etc). ‘Honorable Mentions’ are still allowed under the Novice category, and purely internet contests to not count as official awards. The “Professional” category is open only to specific videos created within the last year that have won a major award previously.

The term “Homebrew OVA” refers to any video composed of live-action or animated source created by the editor; no material taken from an anime, videogame, or live-action movie will be accepted. Audio source for a Homebrew OVA can be original or pre-existing. This is a music video, not a demo-tape; the video must follow the theme of the music, rather than just being a video of someone performing or lip-synching to the audio. The Homebrew OVA must have a Japanese animation, movie, video game, or culture theme. Remember, this is an anime convention!

Rules

* All entries must be received by 12:01am on Friday, July 11th to provide adequate time for judging.
* Each entry will be limited to a maximum length of seven minutes.
* Only three entries will be accepted per individual.
* Entries must have been created no earlier than July 8th, 2007 (the last day of last year's Metrocon).
* Entries may not be smaller than 640x480, and may not run at a slower speed than 23.97 frames per second.
* The preferred format for AMV submissions is Xvid, but MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and Divx can also be accepted at your own risk. We do not accept WMV, RM, RAM, RA, or FLV formats. If you need help converting your WMV videos to another format, please use the following guide: http://www.wikihow.com/Convert-.Wmv-to-.Avi-Legally
* To ensure that your video plays at its best, please include two seconds of blank footage before your video begins.
* Entries will be disqualified for inappropriate content, including but not limited to nudity, graphic sexual content, excessive violence, and excessive foul language. The judge’s decision on disqualification is final, so if you are concerned about the content of your video, please censor it on your own before submitting it.. As a general guideline, all entries should fall within an MPAA rating of PG-13 or lower. You can learn about this rating here: http://www.mpaa.org/FlmRat_Ratings.asp

Thank you for your interest in the METROCON 2008 AMV Contest. We hope to see you and your videos at the show!

http://www.metroconventions.com/

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Sun May 18, 2008 8:57 pm

Is there a file size or resolution limit? I remember that last year I had endless troubles uploading my video (848x480) and I don't remember what I had to do to finally get it to work.

Also, what are the rules for the audio? Samplerates, accepted codecs, bit depths?

AnnaMayBelle · Post by **AnnaMayBelle** » Tue May 20, 2008 4:28 pm

Hopefully the upload troubles have all been fixed, but attempts to add a 'progress bar' for uploads went down in flames.

For Audio, if you're going with MPEG, we'd like stereo Layer-II audio. I'm just the hostess, not an actual technical staffer, so unfortunately I don't know what audio codecs they have installed. I would assume MP3, PCM, AC3, the standard audio codecs, would be acceptable. 224kbps or better would be ideal.

Metrocon's AMV contest is growing in leaps and bounds over the last year or two, and while there are a lot of professionals entering, many local editors are still learning a lot about AMVs. While we want good quality entries, we also don't want to run off potentially talented new editors with too many strict rules. The hard-and-fast rules are basic quality things like 'no subtitles' and so on. To the professionals, I say give us the good quality we can count on you for without using any obscure codecs, and to the newbies, I say do your best.

AnnaMayBelle · Post by **AnnaMayBelle** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 2:09 am

Just sixteen days left until the deadline! Get to work on those entries and get them uploaded!

AquaSky · Post by **AquaSky** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 6:36 am

Eep, it's coming so soon. Guess it's time to really buckle down before I have to start pulling all-nighters.

Unlimited Rice · Post by **Unlimited Rice** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 12:37 pm

I'm pretty sure I'm not going this year due to busy stuff.

So I'm probably not going to enter anything this time.

AnnaMayBelle · Post by **AnnaMayBelle** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:53 pm

Aww! And I was so hoping you two would both try to defend your titles.

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 9:03 pm

AnnaMayBelle wrote:Aww! And I was so hoping you two would both try to defend your titles.

I can still try to defend mine...

After this weekend, AnimeNEXT will be over and I'll be able to start thinking about editing something new again instead of getting my current vid ready for distribution, so.

Ashnak · Post by **Ashnak** » Sun Jun 22, 2008 2:17 am

Hi! Entering into MetroCon for the first time this year, so I thought I should at least pop in and see whats shakin'!

Omikami_Amaterasu · Post by **Omikami_Amaterasu** » Sun Jun 22, 2008 4:11 am

I am surprised you guys didn't list MP4 as a valid format... isn't AVC better than XviD?