AMV Contest
Last Edited: June 20, 2014
Welcome to the 2014 Contest!
Watch for information on category playlists and winning results in the AMV Forums.
Many thanks to everyone who submitted this year; Kumoricon is still growing and will be the biggest anime event in the Portland Oregon and Vancouver Washington area.
Six AMV Categories
- Intensity – Similar to an 'Action' category, but this year we are merging 'Effects' into this category, because good effects are intense. This category is for a strong dramatic plot or visuals, engaging the audience with impact, high suspense, and gripping scenes throughout. There is an additional prize for best Effects (see below), but the Effects prize winner can come from any category.
- Instrumental – This category may use any anime and any style of AMV, with the only criterion being that the music contain no discernible lyrics, and no scat or nonsense syllables either. Instrumental music may use the human voice as a wordless instrument. Here are two examples:
- Retro – Each submission must satisfy both of these conditions below:
- All music and sources must be at least five (5) years old, and
- The sum, in years, of the latest (youngest) video source and audio source must equal at least 30.
- Comedy & Parody – So you think you're a comedian huh? Well this is where you can show us what you got. The key thing to keep in mind is that while we all enjoy a good joke, there will be some small children in the audience and thus we do ask that you please keep it at a PG or under rating.
- Trailers – Includes fake commercials, TV spots, and movie and game trailers. May use actual advertising audio or a fictitious creation in the style of a commercial, trailer, or fake episode opening credits. Serious and intriguing dual-openers will also show in this category. Comedy trailers may get redirected to the Comedy category.
- Mislead the Audience! – A project wherein the story seen in the AMV is unrelated or opposite to the story told in the actual anime series. Here are some possible strategies:
- Make a romantic couple or relationship that does not exist in the show
- Depict secondary characters as primary driving elements of a new story
- Make a cheerful show come to a tragic or somber ending, or vice-versa, such as a comedy lampoon of a horror story
- Rearrange story elements out of their original timeline to create a new plot
- Apply digital effects / composites to create new settings, lighting, mood, and feel*
- Color-swap hair, skin, eyes, clothing and more to depict new and different-looking characters, objects, and settings**
- Composite characters onto a new setting from another show
- Composite a character from a different show with a similar design style to make a new story or relationship
*Example: Take the 'two kids talking on the school roof' scene and bend over most of the buildings in city backdrop to make it a post-apocalyptic setting?
**This can even include adjusting the color of tattoos, a facial mole, other facial markings, earrings, or other jewelry or fashion accessories to match the character's natural skin color so as to erase these things and thereby change the emotional presentation of a character.
All this and more! Composite work should be convincing and of a quality that you may really fool people in the audience who have not yet seen the original series. This AMV may be of any style, and it must also be entertaining even to the audience who may not have seen the original anime(s). Judges will be looking for a strong, interesting story or setting in addition to the misleading elements. Good luck!!
Additional Prizes
- Judges' Choice: Chosen by the judges' panel. The winnner is revealed immediately following the contest.
- Master of Technical Effects: Chosen by the judges' panel and the contest coordinator. In the event that the selected AMV is not selected for a category, it will be shown as an Exhibition entry and awarded its prize.
Prizes are awarded to one entrant per category by a tally of audience votes. An overall, Best of Show prize is also chosen by audience vote. Besides Judges' Choice, the judges panel may select an additional entry to receive a Special Mention or another honor of their creation. The AMV Contest Coordinator may also select an entry for Special Mention. Therefore, a total of between nine and eleven prizes shall be awarded in 2014. In the unlikely event of a tie, the coordinator will attempt to convene a quorum or sub-set of judges to split the tie, poll a second audience in a run-off showing, or if feasible the coordinator may award twin prizes—we did this in the 2012 contest.
Each prize is usually an anime DVD, or a figurine or other similar anime collectible. Editors of AMVs which win multiple prizes may receive several prizes or may receive a box set or similar combination or uber-prize. Contestants do not have to be Kumoricon convention members and need not be present at the convention to win. Once the results become official and final, winners present at the convention may receive their prizes immediately. Winners not present at the convention will be contacted privately for shipping details and we will ship or deliver all other winners' prizes to them as long as there is a physical address to receive them. Winners not present at the convention also receive a Kumoricon swag-bag containing the convention program and promotional materials and other fun stuff. Shipment from the USA to overseas winners may take up to 3 to 6 weeks.
Video Formats
- Yes: We will accept .avi, .mpg, .mkv, and .mp4 formats encoded in Xvid 4.0, DivX 5.05, H.264, and Microsoft MPEG 4 version 2, or earlier (lower numbered) versions of these codecs. Entrants using formats whose works encounter difficulties in playback will have about 2 weeks beyond the deadline to re-encode the work and resubmit.
- No: We will reject .wmv, .swf, .mov files, and also reject SVCD disks.
- Maximum Length: The hard limit is 4 minutes and 40 seconds (4:40) which will include all bumpers, intro, ending, opening and closing titles.
- Maximum File Size: For best playback, maximum file size is 1GB.
- Subtitles and Bugs: These are to be removed by the creator unless they are carefully selected to complement the work. Exception: You may create your own subtitles and overlay graphics to add to the work. Entries displaying a codec logo from a commercial codec vendor will also be rejected. Example: DivX versions 5.12 and higher often display the DivX logo. Earlier versions often do not display the logo.
- Concerning Bumpers: You may include intros, closing credits, your information, studio name, etc, as long as this content plus your AMV do not exceed the time limit. The bumper content must also conform to the category constraint, e.g.: an Instrumental AMV can not have a bumper with vocals, and bumpers for Retro AMVs must also conform to the Retro rules. You may include bumpers related to other contests such as AKROSS, Sakura-Con, or other contests where your work was or will be submitted. Kumoricon believes that it is beneficial to our audience to popularize these other contests and beneficial to the hobby as a whole. -But- the judges will be instructed that as with music selections, for each Kumoricon category, bumpers for any one other contest will appear only once in each category.
Content
- Anime is: (a) created by Japanese artists and studios for TV shows and movies, created for the Japanese viewing market, shown in Japan first or possibly elsewhere later, and as long as the primary dialogue is in Japanese, and (b) video content produced by Japanese game companies.
- Other video content may be included in up to 10% by frame count. If other content is composited with anime, then it counts as 100% 'anime' as long as 1/3 of the visual field is of Japanese origin. Examples of non-Japanese content are:
- USA: All Disney, Warner Bros, and Hanna-Barbera productions, also Exosquad, Titan AE, Kappa Mikey, Megas XLR, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Teen Titans
- Korea: ("Man-hwa youn-hwa") Shin Anguo Onshi, Wonderful Days, Invader Zim, My Beautiful Girl Mari, Winter Sonata, Robot Taekwon V
- Canada: Di-Gata Defenders, Storm Hawks
- England (UK): Exaella
- France: Skyland, Code Lyoko, Team Galaxy, Totally Spies!
- Chinese and Vietnamese copy-cat animation
- PG: The contest will conform to MPAA 'PG' rating, which is a little cleaner that the TV-14 and the ESRB "T" or 'teen' ratings. The MPAA guidelines require no more than 0.2 seconds of so-called 'illicit material' per 30 min. Since each AMV is shorter than that, this means one instance per AMV, six frames at 30fps or four frames at 24fps of 'illicit exposure' per AMV. Usually 'illicit' means 'something the character would get arrested for not wearing (enough) in public if this were real life'. However, since this is animation we can usually get away with diffuse views which fog out the naughty bits. Creators can also start with 'illicit' material and sanitize it themselves using blurs, mosaics, overlays, and other effects. No panty shots longer than 0.2 sec. The case of US vs. Knox (1994) may imply that panty shots can 'count' as illicit exposure due to the private region covered by the fabric. So you only get one, if you must. Carefully consider if your story really needs to show this and do you really need to take the audience there with you?
- Radio-Clean Lyrics: Each AMV may use no more than one instance of one 'explicit' word or salient suggestive phrase generally deemed 'not radio-clean'. Hint: Good audio editing can often cover an 'explicit' word with a sliver of the same length taken from an instrumental section when the band is playing the same note or chords. In cases of ambiguity, the collective of judges will confer to make a judgement. All such judgements are final.
- No dubbed anime audio: Foreign-language dubs (such as English dubs of anime) may not be used as any audio source for AMVs.
All entries will be pre-screened by a panel of judges who will select the final contest playlist. At their option or consensus the judges' panel may elect to bend or waive one or a few rules, usually in the case of an exceptional entry. The judges may move an entry into a different category if they collectively believe that it is a better fit, more effective, or more entertaining. The judges may create a new category if a number of entries are received which would support such a theme or event class. The Coordinator would award an additional prize for this new category.
The decisions of the judges panel are made on the day following the contest deadline and are final.
Submissions and Deadlines
- Submit by Internet: The contest e-mail is the following:
amv@kumoricon.org
You may email us a link to any site where we can click to download.
You may send direct download links from a website which does not require us to register an account to download the file.
We need to receive a stand-alone file which will play without needing Internet access. Links to streaming sites such as YouTube or vimeo are not acceptable as entries.
- Submit by physical mail: Physical media may be sent to:
Kumoricon – 2014 AMV Contest
1000 Wilsonville Rd Unit 106
Newberg, OR 97132 USA
Physical media is not returned and is destroyed for privacy shortly after the contest.
Deadlines
- The deadline for electronic submissions for the contest is Wednesday, July 23, 2014, 11:59pm Pacific Time.
- The deadline for physical mail-in submissions for the contest is Friday, July 25, 2014, 5:30pm US Pacific Time.
The physical mail deadline means "arrival", or "material received at the drop-box", not a postmark deadline.
Make sure to allow for delivery transit time if you mail media.
Who Can Enter: Any person or team or group of people may enter, from any location on the planet. Kumoricon staff not associated with the AMV Contest may enter. The only people who may not enter are the Contest Coordinator and members of the 2014 AMV Contest judges' panel.
How Many AMVs: Each person may enter up to four (4) AMVs into the 2014 contest. Groups or teams may enter up to four (4) AMVs per person. Each entry must have one person's designated name associated with it. Prizes will be awarded by the names associated with the winning AMVs. Each person may enter up to two (2) AMVs into any one category. You may also send in AMVs without a category and let judges decide which category may fit. Warning: Only about 1 out of 20 of these undesignated works get selected, so except for trying for the Effects prize, it's better to actually try to fit into one of the categories above.
If your AMV is good, the Kumoricon audience wants to see it! We will not care how old your AMV is or which other contests it may have run in, or prizes it has won elsewhere. If it fits our categories and hasn't been on-screen at Kumoricon before, send it in!
The contest playlist selected by the judges is usually kept secret as a suprise until very shortly before the contest itself. After the contest playlist and winning results are revealed, winners and other participants are encouraged to visit the convention forum at https://www.kumoricon.org/forums/index.php?board=64.0 to post download links to their works. Kumoricon does not post these links automatically, but forum members are free to do this.
Generally, (and this is a goal rather than an "official rule") the judges tend to select AMVs so that any particular anime series appears only once per category. For example, there may be one Accel World AMV in 'Trailers' and another in 'Intensity', but the judges would tend not to select two Jormungand AMVs for 'Instrumental'. They would pick the better of those two first, then make room in the category for a different AMV using a different series. Follow-on series may be lumped into original series, for example Bakemonogatari and its prequel Nekomonogatari (Kuro) may be considered the same series because they use the same characters, animation studio, production crew, and design style. The outcome is that while wildly popular characters may hit the screen a little less often, the audience gets to see many more anime series over the course of the contest.
One other General Goal is that any given audio source should play only once in the entire contest.
Good luck & see you all at Kumoricon 2014!
