AMV News

[Minstrel]

Contest description

The contest is opened for teams of two or more authors, although it’s primarily intended exactly for the teams of two. Each team should make and present a video in one of 16 categories (listed below). Choose categories you wish to work with from the list and indicate your choice in the contest application. Notice: although you can indicate several categories at registration, you'll have to choose only one of them when submitting your video. One creator can participate in one team only. The main goal is to create a solid cohesive video, one per team, without part-to-part division like in MEPs. Parts made by diferent creators should be indistinguishable.

List of categories

1) Advert – videos in this category should resemble a promotional material or commercial of some kind. It can be, for example, an advertisement of non-existent goods or services, social advertising, propaganda-like video. Examples: Год АМВ, Plunder Propaganda.

2) Videoquiz – the authors play with the audience by proposing some kind of original game or quiz in the video. Examples: Senpai Says, Tomorrow Never Ends

3) Inside Out - As if by some kind of magic, tragedy miraclously turns into comedy, arch-villain into sentimental romantic, boys into girls, hard hentai into touching and tender relations, Chobits into Timati...In short, it's not necessairly to make an alternative story, a complex character profile, etc., the main thing is to turn everything upside down.
Examples: Something Wicked This Way Comes, Yakitate, ChillOut (Director's Cut), Amelie: The Plague 2, Carpathia Trailer, No exit

4) Tell Your Story – the video must have a storyline, as clear, original and elaborate as possible. Of course if the story is alternative to the original one from the anime, it should be rated higher.

5) Parody of Original - the goal is to create the video sequence which is resembling or parodying the original, “official” music video for the chosen music.
Examples: We share our monster's health, Purity.

6) Monochrome - artistic idea should be expressed with a minimum amount of colours, two or three is a right choice. For the last year and a half there were a few very good videos based on sihlouettes, such as Bad Apple!, Say WTF, 107 Little White Silhouettes, Psycho Smile Garden.

7) Idol – a classic character profile devoted to one favorite anime character.

8) HandDrawn – original animation video. Author’s own creative work (art, animation) should comprise no less than 50% of the video.
Examples: White Crow, Is That You, Lost Kitten, FlashBack, 1000 Words, Bad Apple!.

9)Trash – works of this genre include kitch, odd videos, as well as excessive lyric sync, Barmalino-style videos, etc. In short, anything that makes you exclaim “WTF???” and smile.
Examples: Welcome to the my head, Тёмное время дня, Щастье! [Happine$$], My Nightmare Totoro, Перекур, Сосиска, Котики обо всём

10) Epic Remaster – you’re supposed to make a good quality remaster of SOMEBODY ELSE’S video which is a winner of any contest, or made in 2009 or earlier. Name of the original creator must be mentioned in credits. When filling out the form, provide the link to original video.
Example: Solex (Remastered).

11) Upbeat Party - fast beat and foot-tapping dances save the good mood! You have to make a dance video. Dancing characters or the characters moving to music, upbeat music track (trance, techno and other dance music) and overall mood of fun - any mix of these three ingridients will do.
Examples: Upbeat Party 2009 winners, Dance section videos, Prognosis.

12) Do the M@D – you’re supposed to make a video resembling japanese M@Ds (see the respective section). J-pop music is not obligatory, seek the visual resemblance first. Some recommendations concerning the creation of video in terms of contest subject. Put emphasis on :

1) Use of high-definition static images, fragments of visual novels, manga, etc. in video sequence.
2) Creative work with text and typography
3) Special effects, 3D and particles, which enliven the picture
4) Flying camera moves adding dynamics to the statics of video sequence
5) There are no restristions on music used (M@Ds are mostly made with J-pop), and synchronization of music and video is welcomed (it's often ignored in classic M@Ds)

13) Alt Opening – an alternative version of opening credits for anime series. You definitely have some favorite animes with favorite OPs, but there’s always a room for improvement. Make it better, funnier or more creative! Some recommendations concerning the creation of video in terms of contest subject. The video should last approximately 1-2 minutes and visually resemble an anime opening credits. You can use either original music from some anime opening (movie or TV series) or any other music track, but you can’t use an anime and it’s own original opening music to create a new opening for the same anime.
Examples: Release, Alternate Eva Opening: Eva Bebop, Alucard no yuutu, winners of Alternative Opening 2009.

14) Cross Over – this video must feature characters of at least two different animes (not two seasons of one anime, not two movies of a serie, not TV and OVA, but two completely unrelated animes). Furthermore, characters from different sources must interact with each other: fight, kiss, drink beer at the same table, etc., giving the impression of a solid, one-piece work.
Examples: Transcending Love, A Melody of memories, Birth Right, Curse, Pacific Coast Party, Nara, Dead Dreams, Muse, D-ON!, Tainted Donuts, winners of Cross-over 2010.

15) Retro Mode – AMVs created with old sources, using music and anime released before the year 2000.

16) Turbo drive – AMVs made using music proposed by Turbo. You can edit the chosen track or use the version in better quality than in the archive.

Tracklist for Turbo Drive category:
Carly Rae Jepsen - So call me maybe
Avicii feat. Etta James - ID (Levels) (Radio Edit)
Dan Balan - Justify Sex
Audiomachine - Berserker
Rihanna - We Found Love (feat. Calvin Harris)
Army Of The Pharaohs - Battle Cry (Instrumental)
Far East Movement - Like A G6
Elka - Provans
Dj Layla Feat. Alissa - Single Lady
BASTA - Obernis (ft. Gorod 312)
Nelly - Just A Dream
Pink - Fuckin' Perfect
Alexandra Stan - Mr Saxobeat (Original Mix)
The Glitch Mob - Animus Vox
Ellie Goulding - Lights (Bassnectar Remix)
SR-71 - The Best Is Yet To Come
Нюша - Выбирать чудо (Niyusha – Vybirat’ chudo)
Inna - Sun Is Up (Radio edit)
Ratatat - Nostrand
Ben Cocks - Busy Dream
Benny Benassi - Satisfaction
Fort Minor - The Hard Way
Keri Hilson - I Like
Niagara - Pendant que le champs brulent
Nефть - Крылья (Neft’ – Krylya)
CJClip - Is your Trouble
Edward Maya & Vika Jigulina - Stereo Love (Original Mix)
Armin van Buuren feat. Sharon den Adel - In & Out Of Love (Radio Edit)
Serge Devant (Feat. Hadley) - Addicted (Radio Edit)
Баста - Осень (Basta - Osen’)
Jason Derulo - Whatcha Say
Superchick - Stand In The Rain
Slumdog Millionaire OST - Mausam & Escape
The Killers - Human
Sarah Brightman - Time To Say Goodbye
Tristan Garner - Give Love
The Chemical Brothers - Setting Sun
The Chemical Brothers - Let Forever Be
The Chemical Brothers - Hey Boy Hey Girl
Ian Carey - Keep On Rising (Radio Mix)
Da Octopusss - Motors
DJ Smash - Moscow Never Sleeps
Alex Gaudino - Watch Out (Radio Edit)
Alex Gaudino - Destination Calabria (Radio Edit)
Duran Duran - Come Undone
Hybrid - I Choose Noise
Will I am - I Got It From My Mama
Alicia Keys - No One
Justice - D.A.N.C.E.
ERICK E - The Beat Is Rockin' (Radio Edit)
Clint Mansell - Tree of Life
Jojo - Too Little Too Late
Nine Inch Nails - Just Like You Imagined
Город 312 - Вне зоны доступа (Gorod 321 – Vne zony dostupa)
Hi-Fi - Не Дано (Hi-Fi – Ne dano)
Мумий Тролль - Дельфины (Mumi Troll – Delphiny)
Линда - Мало Огня (Linda – Malo Ognya)
Paul Oakenfold - Ready Steady Go
Papa Roach - Scars
Mattafix - Big City Life
Океан Єльзы - Без Бою (Ocean Elzy – Bez boiyu)
Urban Species - Destructive
Sky - Под запретом (Sky – Pod zapretom)
Blue - Curatin Falls
Depeche Mode feat. Mike Shinoda - Enjoy The Silence (Remix)
Hybrid - If i survive
Hybrid - Dreaming your dreams
Prodigy - Pandemonium
Linkin Park - Papercut
Dolphin - Любовь (Dolphin - Lubov')
Staind - So Far Away
Britney Spears - Radar
Aphrodite - Be With Me
Studio B - I See Girls (Radio Edit)
Culture beat - Mr. Vain
U.T.I. - I'm Finished
SR-71 - Mosquito

Archived music:
Mirror 1: http://vidding.ru/Music-Turbo-Drive.zip
Mirror 2: http://narod.ru/disk/51902228001.f5eb7b91e3a7495eaf0a59a420594b89/Music-Turbo-Drive.zip.html
Password: TurboDrive

Contest schedule
AMV News: Collab Con 2012 contest will be held from June 1st till August 20th 2012.

The contest consists of four phases:
1) Registration of participants till August 15th, 2012
2) Submission of videos from August 1st till August 20th, 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. Contest videos must be exclusive, i.e made especially for the contest. Videos should not be released elsewhere on the Internet (including Youtube) before the contest premiere. A pre-scheduled release is followed either by disqualification or by voting penalties, at contest organizers’ choice. 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). AMV News: Collab Con 2012 and nicknames of all colaborators 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) It does not correspond with the team’s selection of genres
2) There are significant compression artefacts
3) Footage is of poor quality
4) TV resolution of full version is far too low (320х240 or 352х288)
5) There are hard subtitles not justified by artistic intent.
6) Broken aspect ratio or interlace is visible in most parts of the video.
7) There are black bars on the top and bottom of the video (if those are not used in any way during the screening).
8) There are violations of Russian Federation legislation, in particular concerning the incitement of ethnic hatred, or pornographic materials.

Scoring of points and adjustment coefficients.
The number of points scored by each team shall be defined by jury’s voting, as usual. But the final rating by which a winner is defined shall be calculated as follows:

POINTS = PENALTY*K*((M+1)/(M+N))*SUM

where SUM is the number of points given by judges
M is the number of contest videos in total
N is the number of videos in a chosen category
K equals 0.9 if the video looks like an ordinary MEP with visible part-to-part division and 1.0 otherwise
PENALTY equals 0.7 is the video was released on the Internet before the contest premiere and 1.0 otherwise.

Explanation: this way videos which fully correspond to the definition of “collaborative work” shall be rated higher as well as videos in rare categories. But the rating is still based on the points scored during judges’ voting.

Voting of judges

There will be one round of voting, organized similarly to the second round of voting for Big Contest 2012.
One representative from each team takes part in the voting (the same person who uploads the video to the site). There will also be previously registered and invited judges from among well-known creators and active commentators.

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

- 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 of exactly 3 MB 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:
There will be two winning teams, 5000 roubles for the first place winner and 3000 roubles for the second place winner. In addition to money every winner team member gets a diploma.

Registration of participants
Full teams register for participation in a special topic:
http://amvnews.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3388
All team members should be registered at AMVNews.ru
For those who have no team but wish to find a partner a special application topic exists:
http://amvnews.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3387


How to enter your video::
1)Videos can be submitted from August 1st through August 20th, 2012, by registered contestants only.
2)Fill in the application form located here: http://amvnews.ru/index.php?go=Files&file=add
3)You should indicate the contest genre of your work in description field.
Choose "Collab Con 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 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.

Registration of judges
1) You can sign up as a judge via special application form on site.
2) Entry application for a judge can be submitted up to the beginning of the vote.
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).
4) Any judge can be disqualified before the vote begins without giving reasons
5) Only one member from a team is allowed to vote, the one who uploads the video.

Voting procedure
The judges ought to define priorities for N videos in each of the nominations (i.e. place first the best video of the category 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 category
x - place the participant was ranked
Points the contestant gets equal (N-x)
Points given by all judges are summarized. A video with the majority of points wins in the category.

List of nominations
1) Best contest video
2) Best video in each of 16 categories

Note: each video is to be nominated for voting in selected category only. A category is considered valid for voting if there are five or more videos in this category.

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

Contest banners

















Contest posters (click to enlarge)



Contest trailer
http://amvnews.ru/index.php?go=News&in=view&id=2068