General AMV Contest Rules

The following are the contractual rules for Tekkoshocon VIII's Anime Music Video Contest. All videos submitted for the purpose of entry into the contest are subject to the following terms and conditions. 

The videos in the contest are voted upon by two groups: the audience for the contest showing and the judges, who are comprised of experienced anime music video editors and noncompeting Tekkoshocon Staff members. Because of the nature of the video judging, Tekkoshocon Staff are allowed to enter music videos, unless they are members of the AMV Department Staff or are participating in judging the AMV contest.

The categories for audience voting (by ballot) awards are as follows:
Trailer or Commercial Videos
Romance & Sentimental Videos
Action Videos
Upbeat Videos
Drama Videos
Comedy Videos
Best Audience Favorite Video

There will also be Judges' Awards that will be selected from the submitted videos to the contest. These award types vary, therefore a list is not provided for what qualifies for a Judges' Award, other than the "Best In Show" award presented to the video that is the Judges' overall best pick of the convention.

If the overall submissions' play time is larger than can fit in the appropriate contest time slot, cuts will unfortunately be made. Keep in mind that video selection for the finals will be determined on qualities such as technical aspects, effectiveness of the video and general execution. All accepted entries will be played at least once in the AMV room during the duration of the convention.

You do not need to attend the convention to enter the contest, although it is highly encouraged.

GENERAL RULES & GUIDELINES

- All videos must be received postmarked if sending by mail no later than February 21, 2010. FTP submissions get a few extra days to upload and must FTP access must be requested by the mail in deadline, but one additional week to complete their upload, March 8, 2010.

- As this is an anime music video contest, the majority (approximately 51% or more) of your video must contain Japanese anime or Japanese videogame-related media (that originated in Japan).

- There is a time limit of 6 minutes on videos and a minimum of 30 seconds. Anything beyond 6 minutes may be acceptable at the AMV Contest Coordinators' discretion only.

- You may submit a maximum of three videos in DIFFERENT categories.

- The general contest is an all-ages audience showing. Thus, no video submitted for the main contest should rate higher than a PG-13 rating. A good general rule is that if the song cannot be played on the radio without edits (bleeps or omission of certain words), sexual genitalia (no hentai) or very extreme violence, then it's not acceptable for the general contest.

- Video entries must have been created after April 5, 2009, and has not won any previous awards prior to the beginning of submissions, December 16, 2009.

- No watermarks in the video will be allowed. This includes the DivX logo, any television station bugs & logos, AMV studio logos, etc.

- No videos will be accepted with "hard subtitles" (subtitles permanently overlaid on video) nor will we accept videos from bootleg or fansub releases with these subtitles. The sole EXCEPTION to this rule is if you create your own subtitles as an actual part of the anime music video.

Other than the limited exceptions above, any video that does not follow the guidelines above and rules below WILL BE DISQUALIFIED AND NOT BE ENTERED INTO THE CONTEST. All judging methods and decisions are final.

Tekkoshocon AMV Department and Administration Staff reserve the right to prohibit from convention viewing any video submission entered into the contest for any reason. All submissions become the property of Tekkoshocon, Inc. and/or its assigns, and will not be returned to the submitter -- Please do not send in your only copy of your video submission.

All submissions may be used for display and promotional purposes. All videos entered will be considered to be cleared for this purpose.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

- The following video formats are the only formats that will be accepted for submission to the contest, in order from most preferred to least:

MPEG-2 Video, MPEG-II Layer Audio (.mpeg, .mpg)
Lagarith Lossless Codec encoded AVI (.avi)
H.264 MP4 format (.mp4)
DivX / XviD in AVI format (.avi) encoded at the highest quality possible (Quantizer 1 is most preferred)
Quicktime format (acceptable, but not recommended) 
Windows Media format (acceptable, but not recommended)

(Please note that since all video will be encoded to MPEG-2 format for playback purposes, it is highly recommended that you encode your media files to MPEG-2.)

Any file format not mentioned above will not be considered and immediately disqualified. This includes MPEG-1, Real Media, or the use of any codec other than DivX, Lagarith, or XviD. If all fails, contact the Contest Coordinator and we can try to work out an acceptable solution.

- It is preferable to use a frame rate of 29.976 or 23.976 as all videos will be played on a NTSC projector. All other frame rates will be converted to the preferred ones.  

- If sending by mail videos must be on a data disk (DVD or CD-R). VHS Tapes will not be accepted.. Also, do not author your videos as VOB-format DVD playback files. Please burn the actual files onto a CD-R or DVD+R/DVD-R Data Disc.

Adult Contest - R and NC-17

As an additional contest block, two separate contests for mature content will take place--one for R-rated videos and one for NC-17 rated videos. This contest will be separately judged and there will be only one winner of each of the rated videos (one for R-rated, and one for NC-17). 

Things in a video that would designate it as rated R:
- Strong Language
- Strong non-graphic sexual situations
- Excessive violence (i.e. Berserk)
- Innuendo or other situational humor that could be considered offensive

The NC-17 rating is more or less for hentai, smut and depravity and is nearly anything goes. However some limitations still apply as stated in the rules below.

All adult contest submissions follow the same general guidelines of and require the same information as the general AMV contest, with one exception: On the contest entry form with the video, instead of one of the audience-judged categories filled in, you may write "R" or "NC17" to have your video placed into those contests. If you are uncertain as to which of the two the video fits, it will be viewed and categorized appropriately. If you submit by disc in the mail and have entries for both contests, please have separate sheets for the adult contest submissions and label all video files clearly.

To attend the Adult Contest at Tekkoshocon, you must verify that you are 18 years of age or older. At the convention, check the Tekkoshocon program guide for more details on requirements for 18+ events.

ADULT CONTEST RULES

In addition to the General Contest Rules (with the exception of being PG-13 or less), the following additional rules will apply:

- THE CREATOR (AND/OR SUBMITTER) OF THE VIDEO MUST BE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OF AGE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE CONTEST. There will be a form provided that will act as a waiver to enter these categories for viewing and awards.

- There is no limit to the number of submissions you can give as long as it has not premiered in any Tekkoshocon AMV contest or another AMV contest 2 or more years ago.

- Please note that there is NO PEDOPHILIA (Underaged girls or boys performing sexual or perverted acts ) ALLOWED IN EITHER OF THE CONTESTS.

- Do not submit anything that is deemed to be illegal in the United States. Again, Tekkoshocon AMV Department and Administration Staff reserve the right to disqualify ANY video on these or other grounds.

Content Submission Information

When submitting your video, take the time to type up or fill out a sheet of paper with the following information to submit with each video entry. If submitting via FTP, a text file or Microsoft Word document is recommended; if by mail submission, simply write the information legibly and place it with your disc(s):

- Video Title
- Source Used (if more than 3 list as "Various")
- Song Title (if more than 2 list as "Various")
- Music Artist (if more than 2 list as "Various")
- Aspect Ratio of the video (usually "4:3" or "16:9", however you may request on the form that you will leave it up to the AMV Department Staff to put the video into the proper Aspect Ratio.)
- Your name
- Your email address
- Your physical mailing address
- Your choice of category to compete in. If you are not sure, you may leave it blank and we will assign your video to what we think is the best fit. 
- (Optional) A phone number you can be reached. It is only used if other means of contact are exhausted. 

FTP

An FTP system is being provided this year for uploading contest videos. Each user will be given their own username ID and unique password. If you wish to be provided with a user account and password for your video upload, e-mail amvcontest@tekkoshocon.com with a text file of the video information and a subject line of "FTP Upload request".

Please be aware that the FTP account will only fit 1 GB maximum. If you need to upload more files than what would fit under the account size limit, use the options below to contact the coordinator so the files can be moved. If your single video file is larger than 1 GB, you should burn the file to disc and mail it instead.

MAIL

Mail in Entries can be made to the following address:
Tekkoshocon VIII AMV Contest
c/o John Wendel
1202 Maplehurst Drive
Somerset, PA 15501

Dedicated AMV Room

Back for yet another year, the AMV room will be returning with all new videos shown the way they were meant to be, on a huge screen and with a superior sound system! Be amazed and be swept away as we present some of the best videos from all over the world! 

With the largest high quality Anime Music Video digital archive at its disposal, the AMV room features many different blocks and themes during the entire weekend for your enjoyment and fun which include:

• Themed blocks including action, drama, fun, trailer videos and the ever so popular comedy hour.
• Specialty AMVs and unique entertaining AMV themed presentations
• AMV related Panels including creation tips and techniques.
• Creator Spotlight blocks highlighting the works of AMV creators attending Tekkoshocon.
• The ever entertaining and original AMV Game Show that pits three contestants against each other answering questions of AMVs shown on the screen. Fun to watch and features some of most entertaining AMVs ever created!
• Entire showing of all the accepted entries submitted into Tekkoshocon’s AMV Contest including all the finalists.
• And much more!