Destination Yume Studios

Welcome to a completely different breed of AMV competition! You make it, we screen it, and the audience judges it! That’s right! You can be the judge of your AMV! Have an AMV you want to submit? Think you can win over the audience? Then submit your AMV and find out!

Rules and Regulations

If you’re interested in participating in Ancient City Con’s AMV Competition, please review all of the below information. Our rules are slightly different than what you might find with other AMV Competitions and we don’t want to disqualify anyone for a petty reason that could have been prevented.

Technical Specifications

Length Qualification:

All AMVs submitted must be at least one minute in length (excluding tags) and no longer than 6 minutes. If your AMV is shorter or longer we will still show it at another part of the convention or during judging but it will not be able to compete and will be separated by The Screeners before the convention ever starts.

File Types Supported:
We would prefer that you submit your AMVs in an AVI format. If you do not have a conversion program or do not know where or how to get one, contact us and we’ll recommend some (at low cost) for you.
We can also use WMA and MPEG formats if you are unable to convert to AVI. Please be aware that, if we have to convert the file, we’ll do our best to make sure that we retain the quality, but some quality may still be lost and you run the risk of the AMV not being shown.
All AMVs are going to be loaded onto a play-list for convention viewing. That way, we won’t have to worry about technical problems with certain files. If we can’t get your AMV to look right in the file type we need, we’ll let you know so that you have a chance to get us either a different AMV or an AVI of the AMV you submitted. We will contact you if we have any technical problems.

Resolution:
Please submit files in 720X480 format. If there’s any other resolution type submitted, your video may pixilate upon conversion. Again, we’ll contact you if we have any problems.

Size Limit:
Please do not submit any files larger than 250 Mbs. If you feel that this size will not do your work justice, feel free to mail us a CD. Contact us if you would rather mail your entry. Don’t feel comfortable with mail? Email us and we’ll see if we can work something out. You can also drop your entries off at any Destination Yume Studio event or booth. Please visit www.destinationyume.com for addition uploading information.

Tags:
Tags or credits before and after the AMV are not required to compete in this competition. We do, however, recommend using tags so that your AMV, when shown to our audience, will not look like it is part of someone else’s.
Destination Yume Studios will not place any tags or disclaimers on any AMVs (for competition or for show).
Opening and Closing tags should not be longer than 15 seconds respectively. We do not count tags as AMV run time. Please make sure that the actual AMV is at least one minute in length without the tags.
Disclaimers will be included with tag run time.

Suggestions

Some Friendly Recommendations:

• Edit your clips! If you’re submitting one ridiculously long, unedited clip, points will be deducted.
  • Example: Your AMV run time is 2 minutes 47 seconds and for 2 minutes of that AMV you showed (unedited) one fight scene from the Dark Tournament in Yu Yu Hakusho. Be careful if your AMV resembles this. You may want to do some editing and blending.
• Use good quality audio and video clips! If you’re using something that doesn’t sound right or look decent on your computer, it won’t sound or look any better on a big screen. If we can’t tell what it is, we can’t use it – no matter how awesome it is.
• Use Tags! We’re not tagging anyone’s AMV. If you want your name on it, make sure you run opening and closing credits. This can also help your AMV stand out from the others. Remember, the audience is voting so you want them to know that your AMV is different than the ones before and after yours.
• Take the subtitles off! Either get the “RAW” version or rip your DVDs without the subtitles. Some programs will even allow you to crop the video clip. Unless we can blatantly tell that they serve a purpose, we’re deducting points for subtitles. If you’re worried, submit your AMV and we’ll let you know if they’re distracting before we sort out what to show at Ancient City Con.
• Make sure your audio and video tracks are censored if they have 14+ content. Everything at this convention is rated age 13 and under. Please keep this in mind. If we think the content is too risqué, we will not show the video.
• Subtitle Songs In A Language Other Than English! So now we want subtitles? That’s right! We love Japanese songs and some members in the audience may speak Japanese, Spanish, or any number of languages. However, try to keep those of us in mind who may not be familiar with the language or the song. Putting subtitles on for the purpose of translation is fine with us! Just make sure that they’re legible and not distracting. Also, providing a tag at the beginning to alert us that the subtitles provide a translation would be greatly appreciated! We want to make sure your AMV has a fighting chance at competition.

Things We Don’t Mind, But Could Get Annoying. . .

• Watermarks. We don’t care if you used DivX or DVD Shrink or some other program. We don’t care if the person you downloaded the file from used a program that leaves a watermark. However, if your watermark is large, distracting, or inappropriate, we’ll ask you to either remove it, crop the video, or submit something else. If your watermark changes frequently and it’s noticeable, points will be deducted. We aren’t going to sit there and stare at your watermark, so if we notice it changing. . . that means it’s distracting.
• Feel free to take liberties with your tags. After all, they’re your thumbprint on your AMV. However, please make sure that tag content is appropriate for the convention.

Things We Don’t Recommend:

• Submitting Someone Else’s AMVs. This is a big no-no and equals disqualification.
• Subtitles (not for song translation)! (Did we mention that they’re distracting???)
• Linkin Park AMVs to Dragon Ball! It’s even getting old for Death Note! Just kidding! ^_^ They’re fine and you’re not going to get disqualified or have points deducted . . . but aren’t they a little overdone??? ^_^

Some Information About Screening and Judging

We Don’t Have All Day So We’re Screening In Advance!
Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we only have a certain amount of time to show AMVs at the convention. That means we can’t show every single AMV submitted to the competition during the panel. However, if you sent us an AMV and its content is appropriate, your AMV will be shown at the convention!

How Do We Screen AMVs?
We’re the most biased group of people you will ever meet when it comes to certain anime. That’s why we’ve created an unbiased screening criteria.
Five members of Destination Yume Studios will sit down and watch every single AMV multiple times in order to assign it a fair score. We’re all about being fair, honest, and unbiased when it comes to judging AMVs. At the end of the competition, we’ll even hand you the score sheet we used on your video. Again, please keep in mind that the audience is judging the AMVs – NOT Destination Yume Studios
So why do we have a judging criteria if we aren’t the judges? Ancient City Con is only allowing us “X” amount of time to screen the AMVs for the competition. Because there’s a time limit, we have to figure out which AMVs to show without being biased or unfair by randomly selecting what to screen. Like we said before, all AMVs will be shown at some point during the convention. The “screening criteria” we use is to help us select which AMVs to show during the AMV competition without allowing us to be biased based on our own personal preferences. Trust me, you want it this way! ^_^

What Are The Screening Criteria?
At the end of this form you can find a copy of the actual “screening” sheet we’re using to screen the AMVs. The following is a list of categories and definitions. Please do not let this discourage you from submitting an AMV. Remember, the audience is judging your work – not us.

• 1. Category
  Each AMV belongs in a different category: Action, Drama, or Comedy. The creator of the AMV is responsible for providing the category to Destination Yume Studios on the entry form. Destination Yume Studios will not be assigning categories to any AMVs. We wouldn’t want to misunderstand the purpose of your AMV and cause it to bomb at competition. There is another award given for “Best In Show” but that AMV will be selected from the entire batch and will have a separate spot on the audience’s ballot.

• 2. Special Programs
  While we are not awarding or subtracting any points for using a special technical editing program, we are taking notes on it. Basically, if you’re using a composite program or photo-shopping video clips or pictures for the AMV, we’ll keep that in mind.

• 3. Base Points
  Each entry will be awarded a base amount of points. That’s right, everyone will start off with 10 points regardless! Lucky!

• 4. Overall
  Does the AMV make sense? In other words, well. . . does it? What we’re looking for here is if the AMV is understandable. This category focuses on the flow of the video, song choice, and consistency. We take into consideration someone’s point of view who’s a die hard fan of that series as well as someone who may not be familiar with that particular anime. Why? Because the audience is judging. We, again, want to be fair and would like everyone to enjoy the show.

• 5. Tech. +
  We basically award points if the AMV is well edited and clean. We also award points if you used some kind of awesome effect that was appropriate for the AMV.

• 6. Tech. –
  On the same note. . . we also deduct points for poor editing, ridiculously long (unedited) clips, poor timing, subtitles, distracting watermarks, etc. You get the idea.

• 7. Special
  How well did the AMV fit it’s category? In other words, did the comedy AMV make us ROFL for endless hours at which point we had no choice but to re-watch it? Or did it leave us staring blankly at a screen in an awkward silence wondering if we were supposed to be laughing?

• 8. Wow!
  Did this AMV have that extra special something that made us watch it over and over, want to send it to every anime fan we know, and drool over it for hours and hours? This could be just because the content was that incredible or because it was uncannily perfect for the song or really any other thing that made our jaws drop while viewing it.

• 9. Total
  After reviewing your AMV, each member will add up the totals from each category and come up with their individual total. After all five members have rated the AMV, we’ll add up all the points and screen the ones with the highest scores.

That’s basically it!

We’re still trying to come up with awards for the competition. If there’s something you’d like to be given as a prize (that’s reasonable – this does come out of MY pocket), please let us know and we’ll see what we can do.

If you’re still interested in participating, please complete the attached form and email it to destination_yume@hotmail.com. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. You can also find our forums and website at www.destinationyume.com. We look forward to seeing you at the convention!

JADE
Director
Destination Yume Studios