Christian Filmmakers

Goals and Guidelines

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

(Guidelines revised April 13, 2010)

This contest will start Friday, April 23, 2010 at 12:00 PM (noon) Central Standard Time and end 36 hours later (April 25 at 12:00 AM midnight, Sunday morning).

Required Elements

1. At 12:00 PM CST on April 23, 2010, 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 film.

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

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 film entry to YouTube, (2) submit your entry at http://www.christianfilmmakers.org/contest/submit with all required information, and (3) pay $20 via the PayPal entry submission page. You should budget adequate time to get this done.

5. Once your film 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 film must be appropriate for a general audience, including children, and support the goals of this contest and web site.

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

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

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

11. Only original films 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 film, 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 the prize will be given to only one person. This is the person responsible for uploading 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.

Judging and Prizes

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

19. The films with the highest total scores will receive the contest prizes. If two or more films tie, a tie-breaker will be decided by the judges. All decisions are final.

20. The judges’ score for the top ten films will be published at http://www.christianfilmmakers.org/contest.

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

Disclaimer

22. 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.

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