AMV News

[Turbo]

Contest schedule

AMV News contest "Big Contest 2012" will be held from February 1st till May 10th, 2012.

The contest consists of four phases:

1) Registration of participants till May 1st, 2012
2) Submission of videos from April 1st till May 10th, 2012
3) Showing of videos starts when enough entries are submitted to showcase continuously 1-2 videos per day.
4) The winners are decided by the joint judges' vote within 10 days after showing of the last contest video.

Video Requirements

Contest video can be made either of anime movies, anime series and Japanese videogames or of manga, as well as of original art. Other footage is accepted only if it makes no more than 50% of the video. No restrictions on music styles. Videos premiered after April 1st, 2012 are eligible, as well as videos made specially for the contest. The contest video is eligible for participation in other contests. Each participant is allowed to submit one video only. Multi-editor projects (MEP) are also accepted. You must know exactly the title of anime/videogame used for your video, as well as the title of the music composition and the name of its performer.Unkown music and animes/videogames are not allowed. The length of contest video may not be less than 60 seconds (without credits). The contest title "AMV News: Big Contest 2012" must be mentioned in the video, how exactly to mention is to participant's choice. A line in credits should be enough.

A video won't be accepted, if:

1) There are significant compression artefacts
2) Footage is of poor quality
3) TV resolution of full version is far too low (320х240 or 352х288)
4) There are hard subtitles not justified by artistic intent.
5) Broken aspect ratio or interlace is visible in most parts of the video.
6) There are black bars on the top and bottom of the video (if those are not used in any way during the screening).
7) There are violations of Russian Federation legislation, in particular concerning the incitement of ethnic hatred.

The voting shall be split in three stages. First the contest administration shall exclude from further voting all obvious outsiders (i.e those AMVs which are rated lowest on the website) as well as the AMVs which certainly do not fit into any of genre categories. This is done to simplfy first round voting. Then, the participants for the final round from each of the nominations will be chosen out of all the videos left; next, the the winners in each nomination will be chosen from the runner-ups. A video wins if it gets the majority of points during judges' voting. In total there will be 5 prize places in main nomination. This time there will be additional nominations as well. A nomination is considered valid if ten or more videos fit into this nomination.

Nota Bene

Contest organizers reserve the right to change the contest date, as well as to change/add some details owing to unforeseen circumstances.

Video format/encoding:

Each contest entry must be submitted in two variants: full version and efficiently compressed preview version.

Video codecs allowed: Main: x264. (Reserve: DivX, XviD)
Audio codecs allowed: Main: AAC. (Reserve: MP3, OGG)
Containers allowed: Main: MP4, MKV (for full version). (Reserve: AVI)

It is recommended to encode with AMVSimpleGUI or MeGUI, see the following articles:

http://amvnews.ru/index.php?go=Pages&in=view&id=34&lang=en
http://amvnews.ru/index.php?go=Pages&in=view&id=7&lang=en

- Full version is to be compressed at the rate of no more than 25 MB per minute of the video, no more than 50 MB per minute in case of HD-version. If you wish to extend the limit, you must send a request to administration explaining why the extension is needed.
- If you submit an HD-version of the video, it is suggested to add a standard definition version as well.
- Preview version: file size at the rate from 3 MB per minute up to 5 MP per minute; resolution width 480 pixels. Encoding combination x264+AAC+MP4 via AMVSimpleGUI is highly recommended! This is the only way we guarantee that the online preview will be available for your video, as well as the best quality of the picture.

Prize fund:

1 place – 10000 roubles (~250 Euro) + diploma
2 place – 6000 roubles (~150 Euro) + diploma
3 place – 4000 roubles (~100 Euro) + diploma
4 place – 2000 roubles (~50 Euro) + diploma
5 place – 1000 roubles (~25 Euro) + diploma

Winners of the additional categories will receive extra diplomas. Prize money can only be payed via WebMoney or PayPal.

Registration of participants

Registration of participants takes place via on-line form. To register, you must have an AMVNews account for that.

Registration for Big Contest 2012
The list of registered participants of Big Contest 2012

How to enter your video:

1) Videos can be submitted from April 1st through May 10th, 2012, by registered contestants only.
2) Fill in the application form located here: http://amvnews.ru/index.php?go=Files&file=add&lang=en
Choose "Big Contest 2012" as one of the categories. Make sure there was the website message "Thank you, your video has been added successfully" after the upload. Hereyou can see whether your video was added to the list for moderatorial check. Then you’ll either wait yours turn to see the video on site or you’ll get a private message from administrator requesting to correct the deficiencies found during the check. If any questions arise, contact the administrator via the private message.

Some remarks concerning the submission of contest videos:
1) If your video did not pass the tech check, there is no point trying to solve technical issues with the moderator responsible for checking.
2) The contestant is to be banned from participation if two attempts were not enough to pass the tech check.

Judges

1) The jury consists of the contest participants (accounts the video was posted from), as well as of other registered members and invitees: famous music videos creators and active commentators

2) Participation in the first round of voting is not obligatory. First round judges must watch ALL contest videos (except for those excluded by the contest administration before the first round) and fill in the online form on the site.

3) Second round judges must watch all finalist videos in each of the nominations and choose the best of them via the online form. Second round judges include those contestants who qualified for the final at least in one nomination, and also specially registered judges. This year participation in the second round of voting is not obligatory.

Registration of judges

1) You can sign up as a judge in a special form.
2) Entry application for a judge can be submitted up to one week before voting.
3) A user can only be accepted as a judge either if he/she comments actively and in detail on contest videos or if he/she has authority within AMV community (on condition that he/she will watch the required amount of videos). The contest participants can vote against any invitee judge before the vote begins. An invitee judge will be disqualified if many participants cast vote against that judge.
4) Any judge can be disqualified before the vote begins without giving reasons.

Voting procedure: first round

First round voting takes part via special on-line form. A judge must choose from 1 to N best videos in each represented nomination. N differs for every nomination depending on the total number of videos. Videos with the majority of points in each nomination qualify for the final round.

Voting procedure: second round

The judges ought to define priorities for N videos in each of the nominations (i.e. place first the best video of the nomination and then others highest to lowest judging from the impression produced). Videos score points in accordance with a new exponential scheme (implies the increased significance of being ranked first)
N - number of participants in nomination
x - place the participant was ranked
Points the contestant gets equal N*(e)^((1 - x)/sqr(N))
Points given by all judges are summarized. A video with the majority of points wins in the nomination.

List of additional nominations

Nominations for all contestants:

1) Audience choice award - the winner is decided by rating in “Big Contest 2012” site category. Only the votes by users registered before January 1st, 2012 count.
2) Best visual effects
3) Most original video
4) Best editing
5) Best credits design and working with text
6) Best poster / presentation

Nominations for videos chosen by the judges in the first round. A nomination is considered valid if ten or more videos fit into this nomination.

7) Best action video
8) Best character profile
9) Best comedy / fun
10) Best dance video
11) Best drama video
12) Best horror video
13) Best romance / sentimental video
14) Best trailer / advertising
15) Best psychedelic video
16) Best story
17) Best GMV (game music video)
18) Best instrumental video
19) Best use of domestic [russian] music
20) Best multisources video
21) Best multieditor project (MEP)
22) Best Manga music video

Contest banners

[kyle_m]

old caption indeed "Rules of Big Contest 2011"