AMV Contest

FLORIDA ANIME EXPERIENCE 2013 ANIME MUSIC VIDEO CONTEST RULES

The deadline for submissions is May 1, 2013 May 13, 2013 at 11:59 PM (Eastern Time Zone.)  Unless prior arrangements have been made, all uploads must also be completed by this time.

Please follow all posted rules. The violation of posted rules can result in the disqualification of your submission, at the discretion of Florida Anime Experience Staff and/or the Contest Judges. Florida Anime Experience Staff and/or AMV Contest Judges and/or their designated representative reserve the right to reject any video for any reason, including but not limited to: video quality, video content, audio quality, audio content, and time constraints.

Decisions made by the above are final.

Any questions regarding the above and/or the following can be directed to FloridaAnime@AMVContest.com. (We’re here to help!)

THE RULES

The Florida Anime Experience Anime Music Video contest operates at the discretion of Florida Anime Experience staff.

Rules and schedules are subject to change without notice.

Awards have no significant cash value. Awards may, indeed, have no tangible value whatsoever.

By submitting a video, the video editor grants Florida Anime Experience and Florida Anime Experience non-revocable permission to exhibit and distribute their work as they see fit. The video editor otherwise retains all rights and responsibilities relating to the work. Any artistic or other rights involved remain with the original rights-holder.

Please keep all video and audio content to a “PG-13” rating. We are a family-friendly event. If your submission is judged to be in excess of this standard, it may be censored, up to and including exclusion from exhibition at Florida Anime Experience. Generally this means that any nudity and foul language must be brief and non-sexual in nature, and violence should not be overly excessive. With audio content, when in doubt we ask that you make use of a “Radio Edit” over an “Explicit Lyrics” version of a song. If you are still unsure, contact us with your questions.

This contest is specifically a part of the Florida Anime Experience. Every video submitted must PROMINENTLY FEATURE anime or video game source material produced by/for the Japanese market as either the sole source of material for the video, or as the dominant artistic focus of the work. Meaning Evangelion is okay, but G.I. Joe is not. Final Fantasy is allowed, but Halo is not. Florida Anime Experience Staff and/or Contest Judges make final decisions on whether or not your submission follows the convention’s thematic rules and guidelines.

This is an Anime Music Video contest. Every video submitted should primarily be set to music, however we do also allow so-called “trailer” submissions using audio from motion picture trailers. You may edit your audio for content and/or duration. Entries can be from 1 to 6 minutes in length.

Your video may not contain audio from any commercially released English dub. We have voice actors attending our conventions as guests, and they may not take kindly to you using their voice without permission. Audio from a Japanese dub is allowed.

THE DETAILS

Artistic Recommedations
Your video should start and end with the primary artistic content of your submission. Brief studio identification or dedication (no more than 3-5 seconds) is acceptable at the start of your video. Lengthy “production credit” rolls are not allowed. Due to the time constraints of running a contest of this nature, bumpers may be trimmed from exhibition.

Judging
Judging will be held in advance of the convention, conducted by Florida Anime Experience staff members and experienced fan Anime Music Video editors. The judges’ deliberations are private and final.
Video awards will be in the following categories: Best Drama/Romance, Best Comedy/Parody, Best Action, and Best of Show. The awards are not limited to these categories. The judges may add or subtract awards as needed, based on submissions or to recognize superior work.

Screening
We will screen as many submissions as time will allow during the designated period for the Anime Music Video Contest. Entries chosen for exhibition are at the judges’ discretion. The order of presentation is decided by the judges.

Submission Rules
Each entrant is allowed three (3) submissions. Creating multiple handles and/or studio names to circumvent the submission cap may result in all of your entries being disqualified.

How to Submit Your Video
All submissions must be uploaded to our servers via FTP. We will not download the video from you.

To allow the artist maximum control over the final appearance of the submission when presented, and to prevent conversion and reprocessing degradation, it is in the artist’s best interest to handle the digital conversion themselves according to the guidelines presented below. If you have any technical questions regarding your submissions, please contact FloridaAnime@AMVContest.com.

All entries must be registered online at our website www.floridaanime.com/events/amv/contest. Registrations are restricted one per person. Registrations are subject to manual activation by an administrator. Please register early to account for this delay. If you are part of a multi-person group who created the files, please submit the file once on the account of the person to serve as the primary point of contact.

Once you have submitted the form, an FTP account will be created for you. These accounts are subject to admin verification and activation so please take this slight delay into account in your planning. Each FTP account is specific to the user who requested it. FTP login information will be emailed to you, so please make sure your contact information is current and correct.

FILE FORMAT

There are a lot of formats for digital video available right now. If you have any questions after reading these instructions, do not hesitate to check with us at FloridaAnime@AMVContest.com.

  • MPEG-4 is the preferable format to submit in, though the computers we use for judging do support a wide range of specifications.
  • Please do not interlace video.
  • It is strongly recommended you include 1 second of silence and black before and after the video.
  • Do not submit a video and its respective audio as two individual files.

Other Video Formats
Sending a base or main profile MPEG-4 is the best way to practically guarantee that what you send us is what we actually screen. There are many video “container” formats such as MP4, MKV, OGM, etc., most of which are well defined and are things we can handle.

Though it is preferable to have MPEG-4 files, we can accept other formats, so long as you don’t do anything really weird and exotic. Here are some tips, from past experience.

ASF/WMV/Windows Media/etc.
The quality on these formats can suffer greatly. Windows Movie Maker is capable of exporting AVI files. To save as DV AVI:
Open Windows Movie Maker Load the project Click on ‘Save to my computer’ Select folder and filename, Click NEXT Click on SHOW MORE CHOICES and then select OTHER SETTINGS. In that drop-down list, choose DV-AVI Click NEXT to output the file.
If you do export as WMV, do not “lock” the files when they are authored. Try to set the bit rate and settings to maximum.

QuickTime
Due to continuing compatibility and conversion quality issues we are strongly discouraging QuickTime (.MOV) submissions. If you are editing with QuickTime, or on a Macintosh, please use MPEG-4 or MPEG-2 instead of any Mac proprietary DV format.

Flash/Shockwave Animation/Real Media
We cannot accept video in these formats. We do accept videos authored with these programs if they are exported and submitted using one of the above supported formats, however we cannot provide assistance in doing so.

Other
If your entry is in any format not mentioned here, please contact us and we will try to make arrangements. Remember, our screen is bigger than your monitor at home. Therefore, the better quality your submission, the better it will look up on the big screen!

SCHEDULE

SIGN UP for the contest online at www.floridaanime.com/events/amv/contest before May 13, 2013 at 11:59 PM (Eastern Time Zone.)

VIEWING of all entries will take place Saturday of the convention at TBD the Chibi Events.

THE CONTEST takes place Sunday of the convention at TBD in the Main Events room.

THE AWARDS

  • Best of Show
  • Best Action
  • Best Comedy/Parody
  • Best Drama/Romance

QUESTIONS?

Email us! FloridaAnime@AMVContest.com.