Events: AMV Contest

Video editors, old and new, send us your videos! Whether this be your 1st, 10th, or 100th video, we would love for you to show off your work! We are looking for a combination of Japanese Animation set to music. Please read the rules thoroughly before submitting.

Deadline for Contest Submissions: ***October 16, 2009***

If you have any general or technical questions, please contact religionx@animemusicvideos.org.

General AMV Contest Participation Information

You may only submit an AMV of your own creation. The AMV must have been completed after November 7, 2008. You may only submit an AMV that has not won first or second placement in any category in any other AMV contests at the time of submission to Zenkaikon. You may submit videos that have been submitted to other conventions and/or shown during general screenings. We will be accepting up to two (2) AMV submissions per individual or collective group of editors. AMVs submissions may not be slightly different versions from one another using the same song. Only one (1) of two (2) videos submitted by an individual or collective group of editors will be shown during the AMV Contest.

All AMV submissions will be pre-screened for content and audio/video quality. Follow a general PG-13 content guideline for audio/video content. Videos containing any sort of logos, watermarks, fan-sub subtitles, corporate subtitles, or any other graphic or lettering not specifically of your own creation will be disqualified. Audio containing any U.S. commercially produced dubbed voice-overs will be disqualified.

Anime Music Videos must contain a majority of Japanese Animation. This may also include Japanese video game footage and Japanese manga. AMVs may contain small amounts of live action video and digital images. Any video that is not primarily an Anime Music Video will be disqualified.

We will not be accepting at-convention submissions.

Competing Music Videos

Only competing videos will be shown in the Zenkaikon AMV Contest, and only those videos will be eligible for prizes. Not all AMVs submitted to the contest will be shown during the contest. Submitted AMVs will be rated and categorized into genres during a closed screening by pre-selected judges. The highest rated videos for each genre will be shown during the Zenkaikon AMV Contest. We will try to have the following 5 genres in the contest, but we may have to re-organize them if we do not receive sufficient submissions.

  • Romantic / Sentimental (Cheerful or sad. Subject matter is about love.)
  • Dramatic / Serious (Subject matter is not primarily romantic, cheerful, and / or action.)
  • Action / Adventure (Subject matter is action and / or story based.)
  • Upbeat / Dance (Subject matter is peppy, vibrant, and rhythmic.)
  • Comedy / Parody (Subject matter is primarily intentionally comedic.)

During the AMV Contest, the audience will be given a ballot to vote for their favorite video in each genre. The videos with the most votes in each genre will receive a prize.

We are not currently accepting AMV Hell, non-comedic trailers, or non-full song fan parodies for the purpose of competing in the AMV Contest. Any such submission may be shown during the AMV General Screening.

Comedy-in-non-comedic AND cross-genre AMVS Policy: The use of cross-genre elements is permitted. What emotions an AMV evokes in a person is subjective. The primary genre categorization of an AMV is determined by the information on the editor's submission file, but may be overridden by the pre-screening judges.

Non-Competing Music Videos

You may choose submit AMVs to the Zenkaikon General AMV Screening if you do not wish to compete. Videos that have won awards in other contests will automatically be placed in the non-competing, General AMV Screening. All non-competing videos will be shown during the General Screening, along with any AMVs submitted to the contest, but that did not make it to the contest. Videos disqualified from the AMV Contest for content reasons will also not be shown during the General Screening.

Video/Audio Information

The duration of all AMVs must be between 30 seconds and 360 seconds long. Please start your video with one (1) second of silent black leader and end with one (1) second of black footer. Do not include any other bumper or credits of any kind. A standard title screen will be placed at the beginning and end of every AMV during the screening.

We are only accepting digital formats. AMVs will be played back on a PC. We are able to accept a wide variety of file formats, file sizes, resolutions, frame-rates, aspect ratios, sample-rates, and bit-rates.

Video: Please use standard file format such as .avi, .mpeg, .mp4, .mkv, .wmv, etc. File sizes should not exceed 500 MB. Resolution should not exceed 1280x720. Frame rate should not exceed 30 frames per second. Aspect ratio should be 4:3 or 16:9. Video files will automatically be set the correct aspect ratio, regardless of submitted aspect ratio. Video will be played back in 4:3 Full Screen.

Audio: Sample-rate should not exceed 48000 Hz. Bit-rate should not exceed 320 kb/s. Audio can be in any format that is regularly used for digital playback on CDs, DVDs, and computerized audio/video files. Audio will be played back in 2-channel stereo.

Files that exceed these limitations will most likely play back poorly. If there are technical flaws with your video file, or if we simply cannot play your video, you may be contacted before Zenkaikon to re-submit in a different format if there is sufficient time before the deadline.

Sending in Your AMVs

Please include a .txt file containing the following information for each of your AMVs:

  1. Full name(s) of all editors
  2. Pseudonym, screen name, alias, or studio name that all editors would like to go by
  3. E-mail address for primary contact
  4. List all music artists and songs used for the AMV
  5. List all anime used for the AMV
  6. Title of your AMV
  7. Genre of your video
  8. Approximate date of AMV completion
  9. Please note if any audio tracks, logos, graphics or lettering are of your intentional and original creation. Give a brief description of each if necessary.
  10. If submitting 2 AMVs, note which one you would prefer to have shown during the AMV Contest.

Please title your video file(s): "Editor / Studio – AMV Title"

Please title your video information file(s): "Editor / Studio – AMV Title"

You will receive a notification by e-mail upon receiving your submission.

Option 1 of 3 – Mailing by CD or DVD

Please send the CD or DVD containing your AMV(s) to:
Zenkaikon AMV Screening
615 Downingtown Pike
Apt. 55
West Chester, PA 19380

Please label your submission with your name, mailing address, and telephone number. We need to be able to contact you if we have received your disc, but cannot play it.

We will not be using your CD, VCD, or DVD during Zenkaikon. We are not accepting any other digital format, such as HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. Do not send in discs meant to be played back on DVD players. Do not mail in your only copy of your AMVs. You will not receive your discs back.

Option 2 of 3 – Direct Download

Please send an e-mail to religionx@animemusicvideos.org (Subject: Zenkaikon AMV Submission)

Please provide a link to where your AMVs can be directly downloaded. Please include any information necessary to download your file(s). We will NOT install special software to extract video from web-based media.

Option 3 of 3 – FTP Upload

Please send an e-mail to religionx@animemusicvideos.org (Subject: Zenkaikon AMV FTP Request)

We will e-mail you with a temporary FTP login and password to upload your AMV to our server. After you have uploaded your video, send us a second e-mail. Note: Files in excess of 100 KB may require several attempts to complete the transfer.

If you have any general or technical questions, please contact religionx@animemusicvideos.org

Disclaimer

Zenkaikon reserves the right to reject or otherwise not show your AMV for any reason, with or without notice.