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AC-Cubed 2007 Anime Music Video Contest

The deadline for submissions is September 30, 2007.

Each entrant/group can enter no more than two (2) anime music videos (”entries”) to this contest.

The entry/ies must have been produced no earlier than November 19th, 2006.

The maximum run time for each competing entry is six (6) minutes. Entries longer than that may be submitted if you obtain expressed permission from the AC Cubed AMV Committee.

Entries must contain no bumpers, credits, watermarks, or logos of any kind. AC Cubed will supply their own credit screens for the opening and ending of all the entries for the Contest Showing. The only identification for your entry/ies should be its/their file name(s) and the information on your entry form(s). If you use DivX as a video source and the DivX logo keeps popping up in the corner of the screen, here’s how to shut it off.

Entries must contain no subtitles or English dub dialogue, unless they have been created by the AMV producer(s) specifically for the entry.

Entries must contain at least 75% anime footage.

Entries must contain at least 75% music, with the exception of trailers and parodies.

Video game footage will only be accepted if

(A) the video game is based on an existing anime (video games that have had anime made of them afterwards don’t count), and

(B) only cutscene footage (animation shown during non-gameplay times) is used.

Entries with excessively violent/sexual content will be disqualified. This is an all-ages convention, and we cannot exhibit entries that are inappropriate for a younger audience.

We will only have a limited time slot to represent the Anime Music Video Contest, so we cannot guarantee that your entries will be shown at AC-Cubed 2007.

We wish to encourage the creation of new anime music videos. If your entry has won any previous contests, please list them in the entry form.

AnimeMusicVideos.org links alone are not acceptable as entries. We only ask for them on the entry form as backups. You must submit your video file either through the mail or our FTP site.

All submitted entries will become the property of AC Cubed. Do NOT send us the master copy of your entry.

Judging Categories

The judging criteria and individual categories are:

Most Original: Are you using stale or fresh anime or music? Are you presenting them in unique and novel ways?

Best Technical: This applies to editing skills, use of effects and quality of encoding of the final product. Speaking of which, if you’re using Windows Movie Maker, here’s a page about setting encoding quality for it.

Best Composition: This is what we call the ability to make an AMV more than anime with music playing under it.

VidOpp Note: There is no discussion of prize content - sorry, but it looks like they expect you to do it for love. 

There will be awards and runner-up awards for these three categories as well as a Grand Prize, for a total of seven (7) awards. No entry can win more than one category, except for the Grand Prize winner, who can win only one (1) more. Category award winners will still qualify for one (1) additional runner-up award. No entry can win more than two (2) runner-up awards if it hasn’t won any category awards or the Grand Prize.

Other award categories may be devised at a later date. They will be added here if/when they are.

Submission Formats

Video Categories: Action; Comedy/Parody; Dance; Drama; Horror; Romantic/Sentimental; Trailer.

We only accept digital formats. If you wish to mail your entries to us on CD-R or DVD-R, burn the files as a data disc (not as a DVD video or a Video CD), use reputable brand name discs, and send them in a sturdy case inside a padded mailer. Please label any discs you mail us with “AC Cubed 2007 AMV Contest,” plus your/the Production Group’s name and E-mail address. Please complete the entry form (PDF) — note that you must complete a form for each entry, so two entries, two forms. The PDF will allow you to fill in the entry blanks, E-mail to it to amv@ac-cubed.ca once you’re finished, and print it out to enclose it with your mailed entry/ies.

Our preferred submission format is DVD-ready and DVD-quality MPEG-2 format, NTSC video standard, region 1 or region-free. If you could submit your entry/ies in that format, it would make our work much easier, and you can guarantee the quality you want yourself.

Acceptable Container Formats:

AVI (Audio Video Interleave)
MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14)
MKV (Matroska)
WMV (Windows Media Video)

Acceptable Video Formats:

MPEG-1
MPEG-2
XviD (MPEG-4 ASP)
DivX (MPEG-4 ASP)
H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC)
WMV (all variations of WMV video, including VC-1, are acceptable)

Acceptable Audio Formats:

MP3 (no lower than 192 kb/s CBR)
AAC
Uncompressed PCM
Linear PCM
Dolby Digital AC-3

Bitrate Considerations: As this is a convention and your video may be showcased on a big screen, we strongly suggest that you encode high-bandwidth, high-quality versions of your videos. The maximum allotted bitrate for Video will be 8000 kbps and for Audio will be 1536 kbps. High bitrate MPEG-2 submissions using uncompressed LPCM video will achieve the best visual quality for playback, but lower-bitrate submissions are entirely acceptable without question.

Minimum Resolution: The minimum resolution for all entries will be 640×480. We will be showing them on a large screen, and it is our experience that any videos that are smaller than that look terrible blown up to that size.

Entry Submission

You can submit your entry/ies and completed entry form(s) to us on data CD/DVD to:

AC Cubed 2007 AMV Contest
1430 Prince of Wales
P.O. Box 38062
Ottawa, Ontario CANADA K2C 1N0

Since this is a P.O. Box, we ask that you please do not send your entries via courier. AC-Cubed is not responsible for any entries missing or damaged in the mail.

If you’re working on your entry right up to deadline time (September 30, 2007), you can FTP your entry/ies and completed entry form(s) to: ftp://ftp.ac-cubed.ca/incoming/amv/ (Note: Not yet available)

If you have any further questions, please feel free to E-mail us at amv@ac-cubed.ca (Subject: AC3 2007 AMV Contest).

If there are any changes in the AMV Contest rules, we will indicate them on the AC-Cubed website (http://www.ac-cubed.ca/), so you may wish to check back occasionally.

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