Animaritme 2004 (New Brunswick, CANADA)

[thecleric007]

Animaritime 2004 is a first year convention held by the "[Insert Catchy Name Here]" Anime Club at Mount Allison University, in Sackville, NB, Canada. From March 19th through the 21st, Animaritime 2004 will be holding events such as day long anime showings, panels and workshops, cosplay contest, an artist's alley, vendor room, card and board games, RPG's, console games, and much more.

For more general information about the convention, please check out the following website: http://mtaanime.org/animeritime/index.html


This convention will include an ANIME MUSIC VIDEO CONTEST. You do not need to attend the convention to participate. The contest is being overseen by myself, and more details will be posted shortly.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at thecleric007@hotmail.com




The Cleric 007

[dokool]

The cross-post was unnecessary. This is a forum specifically about AMV contests, so you should only post info about the AMV Contest here...

-DOKool

[thecleric007]

I realize that this information is posted on the other board, but I felt that it was important for the contest to be connected to the contest, because preferably people who enter the contest will attend the con if they are able.



The Cleric 007

[thecleric007]

Ok, well the contest rules have been approved, so here they are.


Anime Music Videos Contest Rules:

1. Videos must be either .avi or .wmv files. If you are unable to submit in this file type, please get in touch with the contest director at thecleric007@hotmail.com

2. Video entries must be mailed to the contest director at: this address:

Vicki Martin
Mt Allison University
152 Main St, Unit 1943
Sackville, NB, Canada
E4L 1B3

Videos may be collected at the convention by the entrants. Otherwise, they will not be returned.

3. All entries must be postmarked no later than Friday March 12, 2004. The club does not take responsibility for any videos that do not arrive in time for the convention,

4. Entries must include the following information: name of entrant, email, title(s) of anime(s) used, spoiler warnings, studio (if applicable), and any other information about the video deemed necessary by the entrant.

5. Winners will be announced at the convention, and on the website, on Sunday, March 21, 2004.

6. Entries will be judged in the following categories: choice of song, choice of clips, quality of clips and sound, unity and originality. Extra marks may be awarded for use of effects and lip syncing.


Once again, if you have any questions at all, feel free to email me at the address listed in the rules.

Good luck to everyone who enters!



The Cleric 007

[dokool]

1. Videos must be either .avi or .wmv files. If you are unable to submit in this file type, please get in touch with the contest director at thecleric007@hotmail.com

...Wow. Just wow. .avi and .mpg, I can understand. But .avi and .wmv? Making WMV a mandatory file type for a contest is probably the worst thing you can do, as the quality will go straight down the tubes...

-DOKool

[thecleric007]

HEY! My videos are all .wmv files!

Those files are just the ones my computer runs best. Though I probably should have put .mpg on the list...forgot about that type.




The Cleric 007

[dokool]

HEY! My videos are all .wmv files!

Those files are just the ones my computer runs best. Though I probably should have put .mpg on the list...forgot about that type.

You should strongly consider a better way to display the AMV contest other than *your* computer. If you have to use a computer, it should be one that can handle ANY file type well. Or you could put the contest on a DVD or VHS tape...

-DOKool

[thecleric007]

As I am the contest director, the video files need to be playable on MY computer. It is there that they will be judged.

I appreciate the insight of someone who has more experience in AMV contests than me, but I will be running the contest in MY own way. People can either abide by that, or choose not to enter.




The Cleric 007

[Vlad G Pohnert]

As I am the contest director, the video files need to be playable on MY computer. It is there that they will be judged.

I appreciate the insight of someone who has more experience in AMV contests than me, but I will be running the contest in MY own way. People can either abide by that, or choose not to enter.

The Cleric 007

I don't think anyone is trying to say not to run it, I think it's that they are trying to provide some suggestions. Most AMV creators like myself put a lot of time and energy into our video and so want them to look the best on a screen during a convention. I realize there might be a limitation in terms of the formats you are able to handle as well. I do have to agree that although wmv may look ok when played on the computer, but when projected onto a video screen the artifacting and relativly low data rates will show quite predominently... It's not the best format by far..

Even if your planning to play then using media player, you can download various codex that will play back mpg and even DivX files. I myself master everything into Mpeg2 and then playback can be done via DVD playback software if on a real cheap budget or a realtively cheap mpeg decoder card (via a playlist)

Just some things to consider....

Vlad

[Ashyukun]

1. Videos must be either .avi or .wmv files. If you are unable to submit in this file type, please get in touch with the contest director at thecleric007@hotmail.com

First off, I agree with Dan and Vlad- MPEG is a very, very common standard and realistically if your computer can play back most AVI files, it can handle an MPEG1. Personally, I like mastering files out to MPEG2 like Vlad (and a number of other people) since you can get quality as high as the original source DVDs were (as MPEG2 is the format DVDs use). If you're going to be running contests or just playing videos back on something other than the computer monitor, I'd highly recommend picking up something like the Netstream 2000 MPEG/DVD decoder card- it's what some of the most high-profile contests are played back from and they can usually be gotten for under $50US on eBay.

Additionally, I'd highly recommend being more specific about what you can take in the way of .AVI files.... WMV & MPEG are specific codecs. AVI is not, there are many many flavors of AVIs, from exceedingly low bitrate DivX files that are under 10MB to the lossless HuffYUV files many of us use in editing that can easily end up being over 5GB. If your system has problems playing back MPEGs, I would doubt you'd be able to play back HuffYUV files smoothly. One thing in contest rules- you can never be <i>too</i> specific. The more specific you are, the easier you life will be- most people are fairly good about following the format specifications of a contest, and I'd imagine you'd much prefer to have the entries that come in work perfectly right off the bat and not have to spend lots of your time converting them over to a format your system can handle.

2. Video entries must be mailed to the contest director at: this address: *snip*

You don't anywhere specify what mediums you will accept for sending in the videos. This would be good to make quite clear to avoid someone sending you something you can't handle (I know people who submit DV AVIs on MiniDV tape, for example). Even if you think you can handle anything, list out everything that you think you can handle- you never know what some people may consider as 'standard'. Also, if you're accepting submissions on DVD, make sure you specify as to what format (+R, -R, or either) you can take and whether they should be data, video, or either.

6. Entries will be judged in the following categories: choice of song, choice of clips, quality of clips and sound, unity and originality. Extra marks may be awarded for use of effects and lip syncing.

You might want to let people know just who will be doing the judging- listing out the exact people isn't necessary if it's not being done as an audience vote, but people like to know these kind of things in general...

Running a contest isn't an easy thing, even at a smaller convention, and the more planning and knowledge you have the smoother it should run. We just want to give you the benefit of our previous experiences with contests to try and make sure yours goes off as good as possible...