SQ's AMV Challenge (AKA TRWYP2)

[SQ]

INTRODUCTION

Last year, I came up with TRWYP, A stupidly named contest that had 'project' thrown in the name for some reason sporting a rule that you had to use a certain song - "Double Trouble" - From the Pokemon 2.B.A. Master Soundtrack.

The key rules that really snagged people in this contest were:
-You COULDN'T use pokemon
-You HAD to implement lip synching SOMEWHERE
- and there could be NO repeated use of anime(meaning if someone else was using the anime in the contest, you couldn't)

This contest lasted for several months, and because of a lack of my leadership(it was my first contest, afterall) it ended up being a flaming failure.

Only one person actually submitted a "finished" video, and over half the participants dropped out.

Well, screw them! I'm trying this again, damnit!

[SQ]

SQ's AMV Challenge A.K.A. TRWYP2

The TRWYP has been remastered, refitted, reformatted, and hell. It's just been torn down and rebuilt from scratch.
The old TRWYP was meant to be a one night stand. A "Hey, let me torture you, and I lose money" kind of deal.

As the months went on, even though the contest itself was a failure, I liked the idea of torturing AMVers.

Before, I picked the song for you.

Now, I pick the footage for you.

Yes, that's right. I picked the footage for you.
Don't have the footage?

That's okay, in fact, no one has the footage.
The footage is a downloadable piece of crap.

And that's why I like this contest

Your mission:
Make the downloaded piece of crap look like a movie made in heaven!
(or as close as possible)

[SQ]

The Footage

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jwagnerk/ff7advent.rar
(graciously hosted by Kalium! Thank him!)
[Archived by WinRAR. It's like WinZIP. Get it here for free.]


What you are going to be working with is Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children footage.
This specific footage is from the TGS 2004 Film Festival.
What you're downloading is a wmv of a really terribly and shaky bootleg of what happened in the trailer.

The trailer is just about five minutes long, and so for a 2-4 minute song, this should be enough footage.

Repeated scenes will not be penalized so much, but it's highly suggested you try not to repeat, or invent ways so it doesn't seem like we're watching the same footage 500 times over in your AMV.

What you have to do with this footage is whatever you can to make it look the best you can.

Your AMV will be judged by first and foremost how good your footage looks. Editing and storyline will only come second to the Video Quality.

Unless you are using Windows Movie Maker, you will need to convert the wmv to a workable format, such as huffyuv.
You can convert using this nifty little video converter:
http://eo-video.com

After you convert, it's up to you to make the footage look as good as possible.

[SQ]

RULES

Video:
~You MUST use the footage provided, and NOTHING else.
(This includes other Advent Children trailers/footage)
~There is no limit to what you can do to the footage to make it look as good as possible.
~You must list all the effects you do in your video, seperated into two categories: What you did to enhance the footage, and what you did for the AMV itself. Your video will be disqualified if you don't have this information!
~Your final export must be a 320x224 resolution and 29.97 framerate.
~Your final video must be no larger than 30 megabytes (MB).
~It doesn't matter what your final encode is, and you can rar/zip the video so it will stay within the filesize limit.

Audio:
~Your song can be of any choice
~It must be a SONG. (no trailers or the like)
~The song doesn't have to have lyrics
~The song must be between two (2) and four (4) minutes long. It cannot be any shorter than two minutes, or any longer than four.
~You may edit your song however you'd like
~You cannot use a song is someone else is already using(i.e. is on the "song list")

Photo Rule:
~The photo must be of 320x224 resolution, and in .TIF format
~You must host it on your own.
~The filesize does not matter
~If your photo is not available to see when judging comes around(i.e. no bandwidth, etc) then your score will suffer.


THE DEADLINE IS TENTATIVELY SCHEDULED FOR FEBUARY OR MARCH 2005

[SQ]

THE PHOTO RULE

Once you have enhanced the video as much as you possibly can, you must take a screenshot of what you believe the best frame of your video is.

This is for consideration through compression.

We, the judges, understand that sometimes compression simply cannot get the filesize as small as you want it to be with the quality you'd like it to be.

Although horrible quality is simply uncalled for in this contest, the screenshot of your best frame will allow us to determine approximately how much quality was lost during the final encode.

No matter how you encode, some quality will be lost due to the 30mb filesize limit, so having the best possible screenshot of your footage can only help you help the judges discern how good your footage could look, if it were unrestrained. ^_^

[SQ]

PRIZES

Apparently there was some hype going on about the prizes that weren't given away last year, so I guess I will keep the old list and post it here, with a few minor changes. ^_^


Games:
If you win, you can choose ONE game. :!O


Dreamcast - Sega Rally Championship
Dreamcast - Time Stalkers

PSX - Tekken
PSX - Jetmoto
PSX - Nightmare Creatures
PSX - Final Fantasy Chronicles

OR

DVDs:
You may choose Three of the following:

Ayashi no Ceres volume 1
Ayashi no Ceres volume 2
Ayashi no Ceres volume 3
^-- all region 1 USA releases --^

Les dossiers du manga vol. 1(contains 1 hour and 30 minutes of promotional anime material to France - 1st episode of Harlock saga as well as "Les mysterieses Citees D'or"[don't know french]. Also has articles, pictures, etc. This is unused, never been playes, came in a france magazine and the DVD is whatever region France uses[i'm not sure what it is]).

OR

You can choose however many you want of the following(yeah, I got tired of 'em):
(all are NEWTYPE USA magazine DVDs. They contain only the first episode of each listed anime IN ENGLISH)

Magical * Shopping Arcade Abenobashi
Final Fantasy Unlimited
Full Metal Panic!
Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat
Nuku Nuku TV
Sakura Wars TV, Samurai Deeper Kyo, Boogiepop Phantom
Azumanga Daioh, The Aura Battler Experience, Comic Party
^-- Region 1 --^

OR

any amount of newtype DVDs and a newtype poster:
Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat
The Super Milk-chan Show
Angelic Layer

Picture(s) upon request only...

OR GMAIL!

Yes, that's right. You can get a Gmail account if you win this contest. In fact, you can get up to four invites... 4 gmail invites if you only want gmail, then the number of invites you can get will go down with your other choices. Have fun with this! ^_^
Learn about Gmail here.

I don't have much money anymore because I am moving out next December.
So really, this contest is just about the challenge rather than the prizes.

[SQ]

PARTICIPANTS

[no participants yet]

[SQ]

MAILING LIST

Okay, let's got one thing straight:
There is no mailing list.

There will never be a mailing list.

Everything pertaining to the contest should be in this thread.

I will post news on the first post of the second page(so you don't have to scroll through this junk to read it).
I will also make a new post to post the news.

It is highly recommended that you check "Notify me when reply is posted" under your post, when you are replying to this thread.

This will ensure that you are emailed every time this thread recieves a post(it's not as spammy as it sounds).

When you join this contest, you agree to the following:
~I (SQ) am not responsible if you (contestant) do not recieve news of the contest if I have posted it in this thread.
~You are not liable to a deadline extention, or otherwise a "handicap" of any sort, regardless of your excuse
~You will not, under any circumstances, have authority to critisize me (SQ) for not informing you of any new updates, when they have been posted in this thread.
~It is not my responsibility to email you everytime something gets updated (unless you emailed me about it)
~It is your responsibility to check this thread for updates, and if you miss something, you understand that you may be penalized or disqualified from the contest.

[SQ]

HOW TO JOIN

If you expressed interest in the other thread, you must post here to "officially" be in the contest.

This is the form you need to fill out:

Code: Select all

[b]Org Screenname:[/b]
[b]Editing Tools:[/b]
[b]Song:[/b]

"Org Screenname" obviously refers to your screenname.
"Editing Tools" are all programs you are going to be using to enhance the video and edit your AMV.
"Song" is what song you'll be using. "Artist"'s "Song" format, please.
(If orchestral or otherwise concert piece, "Producer" - "Title")

This form must be posted in this thread.
You will then, shortly afterward (depending on my schedule) be added to the "participants" list.

[SQ]

THE HOST

Unlike last year, I have a host for this year's contest.

You will upload your videos(which should be no larger than 30mb) to the host via FTP by the deadline, so people can download your videos and judge accordingly.

<strike>Needless Information about Obtaining the host:
Apparently I have a friend who is willing to give me 500mb to a gig of space on his server for one month. It will not be free. I am paying for it.
At this time, the bandwidth is tentative, but so far it is around 25 gigs.

With the filesize limit on videos I've made, I am thinking that whatever this contest turns out, 25 gigs will be enough.

I will only have this server for one month: The deadline month.
You can upload your video, and download to test it to see if it works, but otherwise, that's pretty much it until the last few weeks, when the links will be made public and everyone can download to vote.

Since I am moving out next December, my money flow is constantly changing (Free spending money, I mean). So you should know that while I am pretty sure the host will be there for us, there is a slight chance that things could go wrong.

I could go broke, the server could go down, all that nice, technical stuff.
So in essense: Don't abuse the server.</strike>

I have my own dedicated hosting, no matter what happens, I will have this host regardless, because it's mine. =)