Anime Music Video Contest: Rules and Regulations

Please read this document in its entirety before submitting a video for this year’s contest.

Please check back occasionally to see if any rules have been added or amended. We will indicate if this has happened at the top of this page.

August 18th: Added extra rule for video game footage.

Submission Basics:

• The deadline for submissions is October 25th, 2011.
• Each entrant/small 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 11th, 2010.
• 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 N2U AMV Committee.
• Multi-editor projects (MEPs) will not be accepted. If it were to win a Category prize, it’s hard to split up a single DVD between eight or nine people.
• Entries must contain NO watermarks or added logos of any kind in the main body of the AMV, like a TV network’s or your editing team’s. Logos which are part of the original show, like Pizza Hut in Code Geass, are still acceptable. 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.
• N2U will supply opening and closing credit screens for all of the entries which will be shown. If your entries have credit bumpers that can be easily edited out, please do so before submitting them. If the credits show onscreen while the main audio is still playing, leave them in.
• Entries must contain no subtitled or English dubbed dialogue from the source anime. English audio from other sources and subtitles created specifically for the entries are acceptable.
• 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, and
  • (B) only cutscene footage (animation shown during non-gameplay times) is used.
  • (C) Using anime footage from titles based on video games is perfectly acceptable.
  • (D) Cutscenes from video games which later had anime made based on them (i.e. Clannad) are also acceptable.
• Entries with excessively violent/sexual content or excessive profanity 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 N2U 2011 (but, so far, we haven’t had to cut any videos for time yet).
• 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 regular mail, our FTP site, or a third-party file service (like MegaUpload) as a last resort.
• All submitted entries will become the property of N2U. 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. Does it draw the viewer into its world?

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, but the Grand Prize winner may also win one in addition. 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:

All standard video categories (including Trailers and Parodies) will be accepted, with the exception of multi-editor projects (MEPs).

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 to us in a sturdy case inside a padded mailer to the address below. Please label any discs you mail us with “N2U 2011 AMV Contest,” plus your/the Production Group’s name and E-mail address. Please complete the entry form (linked below), E-mail it as a file attachment to [email protected] once you’re finished, and print it out to enclose with your entries if you are submitting them by regular mail.

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 audio 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

Entry Form: (RTF)

You can submit your entries and completed entry forms (data and printouts) to us on data CD/DVD to:

N2U 2011 AMV Contest
c/o 2604 Fox Hollow Crescent
Gloucester, Ontario
K1T 1X4
CANADA

N2U is not responsible for entries which are lost or damaged in the mail.

You can also FTP your entries to:

ftp://ftp.naru2u.com/

Login – u42951387-AMV
Password – 1b95dgnb

Once this is done, please E-mail the entry form(s) as a file attachment to [email protected]

If you have any problems with either of the above methods, you may upload your entries to a third-party file service (we prefer MegaUpload) as a last resort. If you do this, please E-mail the link to the above address. Don’t forget to attach the entry form file(s) before sending it.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to E-mail us at [email protected] (Subject: N2U 2011 AMV Contest). Thank you for reading this, and good luck if you’re entering.