Anime Music Video Rules

Information about the AMV contest.

• Contest Rules

Contest Rules

General

- You do not need to attend the convention to enter the contest, although it is highly encouraged. Nothing like seeing your videos played on a big screen and with an audience reacting to it accordingly.

- The categories this year are going to be the same as last year Romance, Drama, Action, Comedy and Trailers and Upbeat
As this is an anime music video contest we do ask that the majority of your video actually be anime or Japanese video game related. This includes any animated source that originates from Japan. .hack//sign and final fantasy games and so on and so forth. Spongebob Squarepants, Teen Titans and Halo though are not considered anime. Note that it is a majority. Small quantities of non-anime including live action can be used and will be determined on a case by case basis.
- As a footnote since this has come up previously, manga and other anime related but not directly anime (art, toys, models) can be incorporated into a video and accepted on a case by case basis. Last year we accepted a stop motion piece using anime toys and models combined with original animation

- There is a time limit of 6 minutes on videos and a minimum of 30 seconds.

- You may submit a maximum of three videos in DIFFERENT categories.

- When submitting your video, take the time to fill out the following information If submitting via ftp a text file or Microsoft office document is recommended and if by mail simply write the information legibly and place it with your disk.

o Video Title
o Source Used (if more than 3 list as various)
o Song Title (if more than 2 list as various)
o Music Artist (if more than 2 list as various)
o Your name
o Your email address
o Your physical mailing address
o Your choice of category to compete in. Once again, if the video is a Trailer or Upbeat video, give a second category.
o Optional: a phone number you can be reached. It is only used if other means of contact or exhausted. This is highly recommended for close to the deadline submissions where an immediate response is required.

It's the best way to ensure that all credits are accurate and necessary information is provided. And I will not try to look up information if it is not given. Please take the time to give this information.

- The contest is an all age audience showing and thus no video can be played that is more than a pg-13 rating. Good general rule is if the song cannot be played on the radio without edits,(bleeps or omission of certain words) sexual genitalia (No hentai) or very extreme violence (good example for what goes too far would be the last couple episodes of Berserk). If you have a video that makes use of such a source look for the rules for the adult contest we are having and label it independently from your general submissions..

- Videos can be of any age as long as it has not premiered at a convention more than a year ago and has not won previous awards. Any known trolls will be disqualified as we want a chance for new videos to have a spot in the playlist and to win. Obviously if your video debuts at several conventions within a short timespan and wins, your video will not be excluded from competition.

-Last year we had an incredibly large number of videos submitted to the contest. If we once again obtain more videos than fit in the appropriate time slot, cuts will unfortunately be made and the determination will be on qualities such as technical aspects, effectiveness of the video and general execution. Do not take it as an insult if your video does not make it because last year some pretty good videos were cut.
-Judging will be a combination of audience ballot for categories for general favorites while judges will award videos that stand out on technical and creative criteria.

Technical

- The following formats are the only ones accepted: huffyuv, divx, xvid, mpeg2, mpeg1, (not recommended) and quicktime (not recommended) or Windows Media format (highly not recommended) Yes we will take wmv files but keep in mind that they need to have the highest possible bitrate and quality settings. Real Media is unacceptable or any codec not mentioned elsewhere.

- Don't be afraid to send a large file. Large files often look much better and the higher quality the video is compressed with, the better the end result when it is processed for the contest and projected on the screen. If we can't tell Vash from Wolfwood in your Trigun amv, it won't be played.

- The final play disk will be mpeg2 standard 720*480. If you are working off the dvd's directly this should be of no consequence. If working on anything else, virtualdub is a program that has the capabilities to quickly and easily do this for you.

- Please only NTSC 29.97fps or 23.976 format. If you are from another country that uses PAL format, please let me know and we can work with you on adapting the video accordingly for playback in the contest. But if you are in North America there's no good reason for it (and yes it has happened.)

- Don't submit videos with subtitles. If you create your own subtitles as an actual part of the video it is certainly acceptable. But there should be no subtitles from any bootleg or fansub release. Adobe premiere and virtualdub both have cropping abilities to remove those if you really really have no other choice. Although good rule of thumb is to use the dvd’s whenever possible.

- If submitting in divx/xvid format, please don't have watermarks or logos. You can turn it off and is highly recommended. Same applies to Cartoon Network, Tech TV or any other foreign elements. Once again if you make your own for a portion of the video (not a creator watermark) the video will not be excluded.


ADULT CONTEST

You must be at least 18 years of age to participate. To attend the contest will require a state or military issue Identification card that indicates date of birth and a photograph.
There will be two categories: R rated and NC-17
Things in a video that would designate it as rated R:
o language
o strong nongraphic sexual situations
o Excessive violence (well known example can be seen in Berserk)
o innuendo or other situational humor that could be considered offensive

The NC-17 rating is more or less for hentai, smut and depravity and is nearly anything goes with one exception:
o No pedophilia. Just because the box says she is legal does not mean she is. Please, do not submit anything that has middle school or younger uniforms or other giveaways to a girls' age.

There is no limit to the number of submissions you can give as long as it has premiered less than 1 year ago in another contest. Your submissions does not count against the limit in the regular contest as they are entirely separate. Because the contest will be shown late at night in the AMV room we will attempt to show all submissions.
All Adult submissions require the same information as the regular amv contest. For category however indicate R or NC17. If you are uncertain, it will be viewed and categorized appropriately.
If you submit by disk in the mail and have entries for both contests, please have separate sheets for the adult submissions versus the regular submissions and label all videos clearly.
Technical requirements for submission are the same as the general contest and the same rules for disqualification applies on these grounds.


Submission Info
- All videos must be postmarked if sending by mail no later than Friday, March 21st, 2008. FTP submissions get a few extra days and must request by the mail in deadline, but one additional week to complete their upload, March 26th 2008.

- Yes we have an ftp server for submissions once again. Send an email to
unefemme_2001@yahoo.com or huntjl12@uww.edu and I will give the directions for the account.

- If sending by mail videos must be on a disk. Don't send on VHS tapes as not only have those been problematic in the past, I no longer own a VHS player on which to convert them to digital format.

- Do not author your videos as vob dvd playback files. Simply burn the files as a data disk as that is much simpler for both parties.

- Before shipping always double check the media burn to make sure the video plays in its entirety. It's not uncommon to get at least one video that simply doesn't play properly because of a bad burn.

- Labeling your video with basic information such as name and video title are always a good idea. Don't use a ballpoint pen but a soft tip marker such as a sharpie. Just make sure it doesn't smudge off too easily if using certain types of markers.

- Don't send your only copy of the video as it will not be returned. We keep all copies of our submissions.


Mail in Entries can be made to the following address:
J. Lynn Hunt
215 S Boone Ct
Apartment #3
Whitewater, WI 53190

Any emailed questions please go to unefemme_2001@yahoo.com or huntjl12@uww.edu I should answer anything within 3 days time.