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The Contest:
The Categories:
Submissions:
Format:
Screening:
Promotional Use:
Conduct:
Important:


The Contest:
The Sakura-Con Anime Music Video Contest gives fans a chance to showcase their audio and video editing talents. This contest is open to anyone from amateur to professional, and is separated into two main types of video editing:

-Anime Music Videos (AMVs) are created by combining video footage from any Japanese animation show, movie, or video game and synchronizing it to music.

The Competition:
The 2010 Competition will be broken into two separate levels of showing:
--General Exhibition: This category is designed for those who wish to showcase their work outside of competition.
Exhibition videos will be shown at a seperate screening than the contest.
--General Competition: These videos compete against each other in respective categories. The winners will be decided by an audience vote.

Staff: As the contest is voted upon by the audience, and the screening process is anonymous, staff are eligible for all levels of competition.
OVA: Due to lack of interest, all OVA submissions will default to the Exhibition showing.
Exhibition: Entries submitted as Exhibition will be shown in a seperate showing in the AMV Theater.
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The Categories:
Listed below are the categories that entered videos can compete in.

Judges Awards:
-Technical
-Judges Award
-Most Artistic

Audience Popular Vote:
-Action/Adventure
-Drama/Romance
-Comedy/Parody
-Offbeat
-Trailer/Commercial
-Best of Show
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Submissions:
1: Each Entry will be limited to a maximum length of seven (7) minutes. Trailers/Commercials will have a maximum length of three (3) minutes. This is an absolute limit. No exceptions will be made.

2: Only three (3) entries will be accepted per individual between both the Competition and Exhibition showings.

3: Entries may only be submitted in the formats listed below in the Format section, and must conform with the National Television System Committee or NTSC standards of 29.97 frames per second, and be no smaller than 640X480.

4: Anime Music Videos must contain a minimum of 80% footage from Japanese Animation or Japanese Video Game Footage as well as a minimum of 75% footage set to music, while Original Video Animations must contain a minimum of 80% original animated footage and may use any form of audio for their soundtrack. Any that fails to meet this minimum can be disqualified.

5: Please do not include any bumpers or slates for your entries, and keep your intros and exits free of any text that does not relate to the video itself. This means no intro or exit text overlays, bugs, watermarks or similar graphics. Specifically designed titles containing your name, the video name and category/number will be generated for each video. This is to maintain a professional uniform look throughout the contest.

6: All videos will be screened by a panel of judges to best fit the video to an appropriate category. The screening process is to help determine cuts so that the final playlist runs to a two (2) hour time block. For those interested, I have included a link to the Screener’s Policies.

7: Entries may be disqualified if deemed inappropriate for a general audience. Entries containing excessive nudity, graphic sexual content, gratuitous violence and excessive foul language may be disqualified. As a general guideline, all entries should fall within a MPAA rating of PG-13 or lower.
(For more information see http://www.mpaa.org/movieratings/).

8: An entry number must accompany each submission. The entry number is generated and attached to your video information when you submit online via the submission site. This number must be written on the physical media if sending a CD or DVD, or as part of the file name if submitting via FTP.

9: Entries must have been made during the time elapsed since the end of Sakura-Con 2009, and not won awards at more than 2 seperate conventions.

10: All entries must be received by Saturday February 28, 2010. Please note that this means physically received and not postmarked. Entries may also be handed in at general meetings until the February general staff meeting. Sakura-Con is not responsible for entries delayed or lost in the mail. Please mail submissions to:

11: If a video or audio error occurs while the master play list is being compiled, the entrant will be informed so that a re-encoded video can be sent back in. This is to ensure that errors are taken care of in advance. The cut off date for re-submission will be February 28, 2010.

Sakura-Con 2010 AMV Contest
c/o Tom Allmendinger
1910 S Fruitland
Puyallup, WA 98371

ENTRIES WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED AT THE CONVENTION, NOR WILL ENTRIES BE ACCEPTED IN PERSON AT THE ABOVE ADDRESS.
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Format:
Acceptable Digital Media Formats:
AVI: HuffYUV, Uncompressed, AVI DV, MPEG-4 (DivX/Xvid)
MPEG: MPEG-2, MPEG-1.
Audio: a sample rate of no lower than 44,100 Hz (44.1 kHz) Dual Channel, Stereo

Unacceptable Formats (Disqualification)
Windows Media Video: WMV
Real Media: RM, RAM, RA, etc
Authored DVD: (When you make it play as a video DVD in a DVD Player. You are still able to submit the files as a Data DVD)
Other: m4v, mp4
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Screening:
The AMV Contest Screening Panel’s interpretation and implementation of the rules, and contest winners are final.
The AMV Contest Screening Panel reserves the right to place an entry into a category they feel is more appropriate for the video to compete in.
People invited to sit on the AMV Contest Screening Panel will not be eligible to enter the competition portion. Exhibition will still be open to these individuals.
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Promotional Use:
All entries, regardless of their submission format, become the property of Sakura-Con and will not be returned to the creator. Please only send the best copy of the video you can and not your original masters.

Sakura-Con reserves the right to use any entry for display or promotional purposes. By submitting to Sakura-Con it is assumed to be cleared for use by the creator for this purpose.
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Conduct:
Heckling of other entries will not be tolerated, and will be grounds for removal from the showing, as well as a strike against your badge. Entrants found encouraging or participating in heckling will be disqualified from the contest.
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Important:
All rules, prizes, and methods of judging for the Sakura-Con AMV Contest are subject to change without prior warning. While we will attempt to keep everyone up to date via the Sakura-Con Website (http://www.sakuracon.org) and the Sakura-Con Message Board (http://scmb.sakuracon.org/), these changes can occur at any time.

For all suggestions, comments and questions, please feel free to contact the Contest Coordinator via his Email Address (amv@sakuracon.org) or on the Sakura-Con Message Board (Dinger)
Thank you for showing your interest in the 2010 Sakura-Con Anime Music Video Contest.
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Tom Allmendinger
AMV Contest Coordinator
September 19, 2010