AMV Contest

Introduction:

Now that digital video editing can be done on nearly every computer in the world, more and more anime fans are discovering the fun of making their own music videos from their favorite songs and their favorite anime series and movies, and the New York Anime Festival is proud to play host to a competition between the editors, storytellers, and artists that are AMV (anime music video) makers.

For seasoned AMV veterans who are interested in submitting, you'll find NYAF's AMV Contest works pretty much the same way other anime con AMV Contests have worked for years. If you're new to the scene, we recommend you educate yourself on the how-to guides over at animemusicvideos.org.

Submission Categories:

The New York Anime Festival is accepting AMVs in four genres. Please note that NYAF may alter these categories during the pre-judging process, based on the variety of entries received.

Action: If your AMV is a hard-boiled, hard-rock tribute to the very essence of shounen anime, this category's for you.
Comedy: There are many types of humor, and it's hard to nail even a single one. But if you think your AMV will leave NYAF's audience rolling in the aisles, you want to compete for Best Comedy.
Drama/Romance: If your AMV asks questions, explores emotions, and makes the audience feel, think, and change, you want to enter your AMV in the Drama/Romance competition.
Special Effects/Motion Graphics: Think you know your stuff? Think you're an After Effects wizard? Prove it. Create the most visually mind-blowing AMV through your own effects and graphics to win this category.

Prizes:

The New York Anime Festival will be awarding prizes to the best AMV in each category as well as overall Judge's Choice and People's Choice awards.

Rules:

One entry per person. If we catch you inventing yourself new names so you can enter more than once, you will be disqualified.
All entries must be submitted digitally by 11:59 PM EST on August 31, 2009. No physical entries will be accepted.
Proof read your title card info BEFORE you enter. These cannot be changed after you submit your entry.
Bumpers/credits will be chopped off. If they can't be chopped off without damaging the video, it will be disqualified.
The video must contain ONLY anime or game footage.
The video must be free of dialogue, except for small sound bites from the shows you used, if appropriate. Dialogue is generally a really bad idea.
The video must not contain subtitles unless the dialogue is actually used in the video. Again, this is a really bad idea.
The video must be "PG" and be free of profanity, sex, nudity, and excessively bloody violence.
You do not need to attend NYAF to be eligible, and your attendance will not be a factor in judging your video.
Pre-judging is solely the dominion of the NYAF AMV Committee. All decisions are final. Do not beg.
Video tape submissions will NOT be accepted. Neither will DVDs. All submissions must be sent digitally.

How To Enter:

Thank you for your interest; however, AMV Submissions are now closed. Come by NYAF to watch all our finalists!

Judging:

NYAF's AMV Committee will narrow down the entries to the five best from each category. These twenty finalists will all be screened at the New York Anime Festival, and those attending will receive a ballot to vote their favorites. The video receiving the most votes in each category will win. In addition to the category prizes, there will be a Judge's Prize awarded to the favorite video of the AMV Committee. There will also be a People's Choice Prize awarded to the category winner garnering the most votes. Winners will be revealed following NYAF at nyanimefestival.com.

Judges will make their decisions based on the following criteria:

Originality: Is it a new take on the original show or the song? Does it simply restate the themes, or does it make something new from the parts?
Editing skill: Is it slapped together or skillfully assembled?
Concept: How important/interesting is the overall idea?
Entertainment Value: Is it interesting to watch, or does it put us to sleep?

How To Fail:

Doing the following will not automatically disqualify your entry but still make it pretty likely your video will not get selected. You might make us laugh, but that probably wasn't your goal.

Including stray subtitles from your source footage, unrelated to the music.
Including dialogue from the source anime. This is a music video contest, so it should be about the music.
Sending us a poor quality video file.
Using over-used AMV artists, like Weird Al Yankovic, Linkin Park or Evanescence. Seriously, if we have to see Naruto and Sasuke fight to "In The End" one more time, we're going to hurl our monitor out the window.
Submitting via YouTube or similar sites.
Including your own, poorly-recorded voice acting or narration.
Bad encoding. There is no reason a 4 minute video should be more than 4 GB.
Submitting a video longer than 6 minutes.
Making a really offensive video. You know what I'm talking about. Not that we don't think it's hilarious, but kids will be present. Angry parents are scary.

Questions:

If you have any questions about the New York Anime Festival's 2009 AMV Contest, please contact us at nyafamv@gmail.com. Good luck, and may the best editor win!

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