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 Coordinator (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 a limit to the number of entries you may submit. You can submit up to three videos per entrant.
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?
Videos can be entered electronically via public file transfer websites that do not require a membership to download the files or through your own web hosting site. Please forward the download link to the VAST Coordinator along with your entry form.
As the contest will be judged prior to the convention, no ‘in person’ entries can be accepted at Kawaii Kon .
When can I enter?
Video submissions will be accepted starting NOW!
Entries will be accepted until February 1st, 2013
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!
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 Coordinator. All prizes and awards have a negligible cash value.
How do I enter?
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 the same order, 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 in the File Naming Convention section below.
Uploaded Files:
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 Coordinator (see contact info at the very end of the rules section).
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 48 kHz, stereo audio only, 224 kbps or higher, no variable audio bit rates
Video: 8000 kbit/s max, progressive
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 Showcase Theater (VAST) Contest title. 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 Coordinator.
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 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 Coordinator?
If you have any questions or concerns on any of the above, please feel free to contact the VAST Coordinator:
Kelly Ann Webb (aka Shana)
vast@kawaii-kon.org
Thank you for participating!