Video Art Showcase Theater Rules
Who can enter?
The contest is open to all participants. Although it is strongly encouraged participants in the contest be attendees, attendance is not a requirement for entry. The only exclusion for entry is the direct staff / judges of the KK-VAST – all other KK staffers are allowed and encouraged to enter. Please read and understand all the rules listed below – if there are any questions, please feel free to email your questions to the VAST Director (see contact email at the very end of the rules).
What can I enter?
Video art is defined as a video production work of editing, mixing audio sources (mostly, but not limited to, music) and video sources (again mostly, but not limited to, anime). Original production video art is welcome and encouraged. Live action and/or self-animated works (by computer or otherwise) are also welcome, but may be judged separately if warranted by the number of entries submitted.
To enter, you must be the creator (or one of the creators if it is a multi-editor project) of the video production work being entered. You may not enter a video that you did not create nor can you enter a video anonymously.
There is currently no limit to the number of entries you may submit.
The only exclusion is for videos that have been sent to previous Kawaii Kon contests. These videos are ineligible for competition in the KK-VAST Contest.
Where can I enter?
There are two ways you can enter your video into the contest – either electronically by public file transfer websites or via snail-mail. For both electronic and snail-mail submissions, please see the How do I enter? section below for more information.
The preferred method is electronically via a public file-serving site such as http://www.megaupload.com, http://www.yousendit.com, or other such sites that do not require a membership to download the files or thru your own web hosting site.
The second way to enter is via snail-mail.
As the contest will be judged prior to the convention, no entries can be accepted at Kawaii Kon in person.
When can I enter?
Video submissions will be accepted starting NOW!
Entries will be accepted until January 31st, 2012
Please note: this is an “in hand” date, not a “posted by” date. Again, as the contest will be judged prior to the convention, no “in person” entries will be accepted at Kawaii Kon.
Why do I enter?
To see your video on the big screen in front of a live audience and for the chance to win fame and fortune - okay, not fortune, but maybe a certificate or a cool customized plaque!
An Overall Winner for the KK-VAST Contest will be awarded: additional prizes / awards may be awarded at the discretion of the Judging staff, the KK-VAST staff, guests, and / or the VAST Director. All prizes and awards have a negligible cash value.
How do I enter?
Entry Form
To enter your video, you must submit a completed entry form along with each of your video entries. If you enter multiple videos, you must complete multiple entry forms – one form for each video.
Please create a simple TXT file with the following information in it:
Real Name:Full Address:
Phone Number w/ area code:
Working Email Address:
----------
Editor Name (your real name if you do not use a pseudonym):
Member Name at http://www.animemusicvideos.org (if any):
Studio Name (if any):
Video Title:
Video Source (if 3 or more, you may list as ‘various’):
Audio Source Title:
Audio Source Artist:
Note: if submitting a multi-editor project, list all the editors in the Real Name and Editor Name sections in order above, with the contact person as the first person listed. For the Address, phone number, and email address, only the contact person’s information is required.
Please insure that your information on this form is correct, as your entry form will be used as the source for all data on your video: video title, editor name, address, etc.
Save the above as a TXT file and name it as stated below in the File Naming Convention section below.
Electronic / Mailed Entries
For both electronic submissions and mailed-in entries, please email your completed entry form(s) to the VAST Director (see contact info at the very end of rules section). If your entry is not received in a timely manor, you can then be contacted about your entry.
Enter via Upload:
If you are entering electronically via public file-serving sites, please compress your video and completed entry form together into one file using either a ZIP or RAR compression format prior to uploading it to the site. Please limit one entry (video and entry form) per compressed file – if you are submitting multiple entries, please upload multiple compressed files for ease of documentation of your entries. Once you have uploaded your file, email the location to the VAST Director (see contact info at the very end of the rules section).
Enter via Mail:
If you are mailing your entry, please print out the completed entry form and send it along with your entry disc as well as burning a copy of it onto the disc itself along with your video. Again, if you are sending out multiple videos, you’ll need to print out an entry form for each video.
Please mail your entry to:
Roy Bann
KK-VAST Contest
1580 Makaloa Street, Suite 1100
Honolulu, Hawaii 96814
Please note - it takes approximately 3 to 5 days via first class / Priority USPS mail for a CD-sized package to transit from the US mainland to Hawaii, so plan your submission time accordingly. Whatever you do, please do not use the USPS media mail as it can take up to 6 or more weeks to get here and you only save a few cents by doing so. You may also send your entry via private carrier service (FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc) but costs of these services to Hawaii are not cheap, so again, please plan accordingly.
Media:
We can accept CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+R, or DVD-R. Single layer discs only, please. Do not use sub-standard media when entering your videos. If there is a problem reading your discs and I can’t get a replacement of your video in time, you may face disqualification. Whatever you do, please do not send us your only copy of your work as no entries will be returned and we would hate to have it lost in transit.
When burning your entry, please do not make it a playable DVD or VCD – just a simple data disc is all that will be required.
You may burn as many video / entry form combos from a single creator (or creator group in the case of multi-editor video projects) onto a single disc as space permits. For multiple entries on a single disc, please put each video / entry form combo into a separate folder and name each folder “Entry 01, Entry 02, Entry 03” etc. For single entries, just burn the video & entry form onto the root level of the disc – no need for folders.
Please do not burn multiple entries from different creators onto the same disc, as it will just cause confusion.
If a video / entry form combo is too large to fit onto a single media disc, please use ZIP or RAR to break the file up into manageable parts and burn those to the media and clearly label each disc as part of the set (for example, part 4 of 7). Do not do this however just to get more entries onto fewer discs – only if a single entry is too large to fit onto a single media disc.
After you burn your disc, legibly write on them (do not use a sticker or a label, but write directly on the disc) with a permanent felt-tipped marker (like a Sharpie or similar) with the following information:
Real Name
Email Address
Disc Number (used only if you are sending a file spanning multiple discs)
Do not burn any additional material on your discs other than your video and your entry form TXT file (placed into folders if you are entering multiple entries on the same disc).
File Naming Convention All video files and completed entry forms submitted must be named in the following format:
Creator – title – music artist – music title – anime source . file type
Creator – your editor name (or real name if you prefer)
Title – the title of your video (if any)
Music artist – Artist / group name of the song used in the video, or if using another audio source type, source of the audio file (e.g. – ‘The Matrix’ movie trailer)
Music title – title of the song, or identifying segment for the audio if not using a musical source
File type – the type of video container you are using (MPG, AVI, MP4, WMV, etc), or TXT for your entry form
This means that both your video and your completed entry form will be named exactly the same, with the exception of the file type at the end.
Video Entry Requirements
Blank Space - Please provide a minimum of 2 seconds of black video / no audio both before and after your video.
Bumpers, title screens, credits, or any other form of creator / footage / audio identification are discouraged, but allowed: you will not be disqualified for their inclusion. We will be adding custom title screens to identify each video so there really isn’t a need for them on your submitted files, so if at all possible, please remove them.
For judging purposes, videos will be scored on the actual submitted file. For contest purposes, submitted files will be converted to MPEG-2.
Video Formats:
Preferred format – MPEG2. The KK-VAST contest is designed to run off a DVD player, so the preferred format for video submissions is MPEG2. Please use the MPEG-2 profile given below.
MPEG-2 Profile:
Resolution: 720 x 480
Framerate: 29.97fps
Audio: MP2 at 48khz, stereo audio only, 224 kbps or higher, no variable audio bit rates
Video: 8000 kbit/s max, progressive
note: please do not send in authored DVD video files, just send the MPEG2 computer file.
Other accepted formats - Kawaii Kon continues to accept non-MPEG2 formatted entries for the contest. Please note - all non-MPEG2 submittals will be converted to MPEG-2 using the profile given above.
For maximum control of the output of your videos, it is highly suggested that you do the MPEG2 conversion yourself – but if you can’t, we’ll do the conversion for you. We will do our best to preserve the highest quality of your video / audio, however we cannot guarantee the final output of the converted files.
Non-MPEG-2 Profile:
Resolution: 640x480 is the recommended minimum
Framerate: 23.976 / 24 fps or 29.97 / 30 fps
Audio: any suitable audio format per your container files at a suitably high (192 kbps or higher) bitrate.
AVI containers using the following codecs – DIVX, XVID, HuffYUV, Lagarith, DV-AVI, or the standard compliment of codecs installed by Windows.
WMV - Please follow the resolution/sound rules above for any Windows Media format. Please make sure the video is UNLOCKED, and use high bitrates for better quality. Better still would be to output to DV-AVI and submit this instead (or use this to convert to MPEG2 yourself).
MP4 – with the growing popularity of the MP4 container and the very good quality to file-size ratio, we will be continuing our acceptance of MP4 (h264 or x264) files for this year’s contest. The main problem with it in the past has been the re-encoding of it into an MPEG-2 format but we have been having good luck with it so far (fingers crossed). However, please be prepared to submit in another format if problems arise during the conversion process.
Final Notes
By submitting your video to this contest you authorize Kawaii Kon staff to screen and distribute it under the Kawaii Kon Video Art Showcast Theater (VAST) Contest title. Any physical media that entries are submitted on becomes the property of Kawaii Kon and will not be returned. Kawaii Kon staff reserves the right to disqualify entries for any reason deemed necessary to protect the overall quality and integrity of the event. Entries may be disqualified for any of the following reasons: objectionable content, low quality video / audio, failure to adhere to the contest rules, and / or at the discretion of the staff of Kawaii Kon / VAST Director.
KK-VAST contest forum:
Information about this year’s KK-VAST contest, programming, and other related topics can be found and discussed on the Kawaii Kon forums under the topic KK Video Art Showcase Theater Contest Rules & Info.
Entry Checklist:
Video has NOT been entered into a previous KK-AMV Contests?
Does your video meet the video profile requirements?
Did you include 2 seconds of black video / no audio both before and after your video?
Did you fill out your entry form?
Are your video and entry form named in the following format?
Creator – title – music artist – music title – anime source . file type
Did you email your entry form to the VAST Director?
Mail-in entries sub-section:
Did you burn your video and entry form to your disc as simple computer files?
Did you write (with a sharpie) your disc with your name, video title, and email address (and disc number, if applicable)?
Did you print out your entry form and include it with your entry disc?
Electronically submitted entry sub-section:
Did you compress as a ZIP or RAR file your video and entry form (one entry per file)?
Did you upload the compressed file to a public file-serving site and email the link to the VAST Director?
Whew! Long rules are long… Again, if you have any questions on any of the above, please feel free to contact the VAST Director:
Roy Bann (AKA ‘buma’)
kk.vast@gmail.com
Thanks!