Goals and Guidelines

Our goals for this contest are to have fun and showcase the stories Christians are telling today.

(Guidelines revised April 25th, 2011)

This contest will start Friday, May 27, 2011 at 9 AM, Central Standard Time and end 36 hours later (9 PM Saturday the 29th).

Required Elements

1. At 9:00 AM CST on May 27, 2011, on this web site, a list of required elements - props, dialogue, settings, etc - will be revealed. Your job is to include any three of these in your video.

2. You need to do a good job weaving these required elements into your video in a way that clearly demonstrates that your video was produced (filmed) in these 36 hours. We need to know you didn’t cheat. Otherwise, the judges may disqualify your video.

3. Pre-production work - including writing, storyboards, animated character design, music and sound - can be done before these 36 hours.

Submission Guidelines

4. Sometime during the 36 hours, you must (1) upload your video entry to YouTube, (2) submit your entry at http://www.christianfilmmakers.org/contest/submit with all required information, and (3) pay your entry fee of $25 (Pro Entry) or $5 (Amateur Entry) via the PayPal entry submission page. You must finish these three tasks before the contest deadline.

5. Once your video has been submitted, we will not accept revisions or corrections.

6. If you experience a YouTube processing delay, a PayPal payment delay, or any delay in our submission form, you are responsible for providing evidence of this to the administrator’s satisfaction.

Production Guidelines

7. Your video must be appropriate for a general audience, including children, and support the goals of this contest and web site.

8. Any category of video is allowed. (Live-action narrative, animation, documentary, etc.)

9. Your video should be designed and edited with YouTube distribution in mind. You may wish to research what makes a good Web video.

10. Your video must be no longer than three minutes (180 seconds). If YouTube indicates that your video is over 3:00 in length, it will be disqualified. (We suggest you display minimum credits.)

11. Only original videos made for this contest are accepted.

12. Pre-recorded stock footage may not be used.

13. You must have the right to use all parts of your video, including music. If you use copyrighted material, you may be asked to document your right to use this material.

14. Entry teams may be any size. But prize money will be given to only one person. This is the member of Christian Filmmakers.org responsible for submitting the winning video. It will be that person’s responsibility to divide the prize.

15. Multiple entries are allowed.

16. Production budgets may be any size.

17. Entries from the contest sponsors are allowed.

Prizes and Awards

18. When you submit a video to this contest you will select one of two categories (a) Prize Entry and (b) Amateur Entry.

19. Money from Prize Entries goes into a pool and this pool will be divided by percentage into First (60%) and Second (40%) place prizes ($5 is used for administrative costs). The scores from the top ten scoring Prize Entries will be displayed online.

20. Amateur Entries will be scored and the video with the top score in each scoring category will receive awards recognition for (1) Best Story, (2) Best Cinematography, (3) Best Sound, (4) Best Performance and (5) Best Editing. Amateur Entries will receive no prize money, but each entry will receive an educational critique from the judges about the strengths and weaknesses of that video.

21. Our judges will score each video in five categories: Story (20 points), Cinematography (10 points), Sound (10 points), Performance (10 points) and Editing (10 points).

22. If the scores of two or more videos tie, a tie-breaker will be decided by the judges. All decisions are final.

23. The judges’ scores will be published at http://www.christianfilmmakers.org/contest.

24. The judges are not required to explain their scores or answer questions.

Disclaimer

25. The views expressed in the videos submitted to this contest, or in the winning video, are not necessarily those of the contest sponsors, administrator, the judges, or the members of this web site.

26. The contest administrator may update or change these rules at any time.