Love Fest 2008 - Submission Info

[Larry Rutledge]

http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/913/1195185574.jpg (http://www.dvxfest.com/upload)


We are happy to officially open the Love Fest 2008 Film Submission.

As stated in the original rules, the deadline for this festival will be February 10, 2008. The upload form will be deactivated at 11:59PM (Midnight) Pacific Time, Sunday, February 10. No films nor revisions will be accepted after that time.

Eligibility Requirements:
The festival category is a short film, of any genre, with the theme of LOVE.
All films must be no longer than 6 (six) minutes total. The following format must be followed. Film Title (any format), body of film, maximum of 15 seconds of credits (which must clearly acknowledge dvxuser.com).
Required Element: All films must include a camera in at least one scene.
All cameras are eligible to participate and for prizes.
All films must be in English or be subtitled in English.
Delivered film must be formatted as 16:9 or 2.35:1.
Delivered film must not exceed 50 MB.
Delivered film must be provided as an h.264 compressed file (either .mov or .mp4).
Film must be an "R" rating, or lower.
Filmmaker must have proper copyright clearance for all material contained in the entry.
Films must be made between November 12, 2007 and February 10, 2008 and must not be publicly screened prior to entry.
Films must not have been promoted anywhere, other than DVXUser, prior to completion of festival screening.
Entrants must grant DVXuser.com and its agents non-exclusive rights for their films to appear on a potential DVXFest DVD or for DVXuser-sanctioned public screenings.
Films may be entered in other festivals provided they don't screen prior to February 14, 2008.How To Submit
Create an h.264 compressed file, 50MB or less.
Name the file as follows: <DVXuser_name>_<film_name>.mov (e.g. LarryR_MyLoveFestFilm.mov).
<Optional> Create a poster - preferably a PNG or JPG file, named the same as the film.
Point your browser to: http://www.dvxfest.com/upload
Fill out the form.
There are two file fields, one for the film (required) and one for the poster (optional).
Click "Begin Upload".If you need to submit a revised version of your film, please send it via the upload form and then send me a PM to let me know it's coming. The system takes care of marking the new version so I know which one it is, even if you re-upload multiple times. Just be aware that once the cutoff occurs you can no longer send newer versions of your film.

(Note: There is no need to submit an MPEG DVD version of the film at this time. When we are ready to start work on the DVD we will make arrangements to receive the expanded films)

Other Info
All submitted films will undergo review by the DVX Festival board for adherence to the posted rules.
Any films not in 100% compliance will be rejected and the filmmaker will be notified.
Rejected films will be allowed the opportunity to re-submit a revised film that meets the requirements up to the posted deadline.
Important All winning entrants will have their prize shipped to them via the address provided on the upload form, so please be sure to include your correct address!Any further questions or comments, please contact myself (Larry R (http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/private.php?do=newpm&u=501)) or Barry (Barry_S (http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/private.php?do=newpm&u=913)).

Thanks,
Larry

[Zak Forsman]

Larry, you are a prince!

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

woohoo!

[Robbie Comeau]

Thanks!

[Robert Eldon]

Larry,

Just for clarification, if we submit early, and then discover a change that we would like to make, can we re-submit again using the same method, before the deadline?

Will the new submission over-ride the earlier upload?

Thanks,

Robert

[Jason Ramsey]

yes. It is my understanding that you have until the deadline to upload your "finished" film. Once the deadline closes no more submissions will be accepted.

The best thing to do if you decide to make a change, or something is wrong with your film (before the deadline) would be to shoot a pm over to Larry and give him a heads up that you are going to re-up.

Later,
Jason

[Larry Rutledge]

Yes, as long as the uploads are still open you can submit a replacement entry. But as Jason mentioned, it's best to shoot me a PM to give me a head's up that the replacement file is coming.

[Wild Imagination Films]

Larry,
Not wanting to be thick or anything, but the title of the film, body, credit formula is still a little unclear.
If the film starts and then over the picture I do the "so and so with so and so present such and such" and at the end I have an 8 second speed reading scroll...am I safe? I won't have time to resubmit.

[Larry Rutledge]

What's not clear about "...maximum of 15 seconds of credits"? If you have 8 seconds, that's within 15 seconds and will be fine.

[Wild Imagination Films]

Just wanted to make absolutely certain, without a doubt, positive, sure.
Thanks.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Exciting stuff... I hope to upload a day or so early.

Who am I kidding... I'll be last minute as usual. :D

[totitefilms]

Larry/Barry,

What is the correct way to acknowledge dvxuser.com? Can you guys provide an example so we can just put it in :-)?

[Jason Ramsey]

"For DVXuser.com"
"For DVXFest"
"Thanks to DVXuser"
"DVXuser is the bestest"
"For DVXuser's LoveFest"

etc, etc, etc, etc. :)

You just need to acknowledge dvxuser and that the film was for dvxuser in your credits. Just make sure you clearly acknowledge and you will be gravy.

Later,
Jason

[totitefilms]

Thanks Jason :thumbsup:

[Brian Parker]

Quick question guys and I'm sorry if this has been answered before but my brain is fried from that post production crunch.

I have two midi tracks of classical music that I wanted to use in my film that I downloaded from a royalty free midi music site. I guess the answer should be obvious but I wanted to make absolutely sure that it would be ok to include these in my film. Better safe than sorry. Thanks!

[Zak Forsman]

do you have documentation from that site? if not, can you get it? royalty free doesn't necessarily mean public domain. just means that you pay for it once and can use it as often as you like. there is still a licensing agreement in place.

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

The short answer is probably ok.

The long answer is that depends on the terms of the site from which you downloaded.

You have to have rights to anything you submit. Just read their licensing agreement to be on the safe side and not a bad idea to make sure you have it on hand as Zak mentioned.

[andreww]

Okay quick question that might sound dumb.

Is this due midnight of the 10th, aka SATURDAY 11:59 or The 10th at 11:59 aka SUNDAY.

Basically is this due saturday night or sunday night?

[Brian Parker]

Thanks Zak and Jack.

I checked with the two sites (classicalarchives.com and musopen.com) and both of the tracks are public domain as they were composed before 1923 and were both performed by college orchestras for public domain usage.

I don't have any official paperwork or anything but links to the sites should be ok, right?

Again, thanks for your help guys.

[Larry Rutledge]

Okay quick question that might sound dumb.

Is this due midnight of the 10th, aka SATURDAY 11:59 or The 10th at 11:59 aka SUNDAY.

Basically is this due saturday night or sunday night?

Read the first post in this thread ... clearly states:

The upload form will be deactivated at 11:59PM (Midnight) Pacific Time, Sunday, February 10.

[mikkowilson]

So to extrapolate that deadline to other timezones:

JST: 17:00 Monday 11th
EET: 10:00 Monday 11th
CET: 09:00 Monday 11th
GMT/UTC: 08:00 Monday 11th
EST: 03:00 Monday 11th
CST: 02:00 Monday 11th
MST: 01:00 Monday 11th
PST: 00:00 Monday 11th (24:00 Sunday 10th [23:59:59])
AKST: 23:00 Sunday 10th
HST: 22:00 Sunday 10th

- Mikko

[smashedburrito]

Thanks that clears things up for us.

[Dustin R. Rogan]

To whom it may concern,
after re watching my file i uploaded i wasn't happy with some of the shots, so I redid it and I am reuploading I dont know where to tell someone so I chose here, if not someone please point me in the right direction....and use the newer version please and thank you

Dustin R. Rogan

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

I would PM Larry just to let him know. Just check the first post...

Mike

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

woohooo ... just uploaded ... a new record for me ... amazing since I was doing RED ONE post workflow for the first time.

[RyanT]

How closely do we have to follow the title/body of film/credits rule? I mean, I have 10 seconds of my film, then the title, then the body, then credits. Can I get away with that?

[Larry Rutledge]

Ryan, yes, that's fine.

[RyanT]

Thank you for not destroying my creative vision....and the quick response too!

[pmark23]

A quick question about formats:

Is it mandatory that files be playable by Quicktime? Or does it just have to be H.264 encoded?

I encode to h.264 from Vegas using the awesome ffdshow encoder, and the resulting file is playable in any viewer EXCEPT Quicktime (which is likely acting pissy because I didn't use their h.264 encoder.)

[dvpixl]

woohooo ... just uploaded ... a new record for me ... amazing since I was doing RED ONE post workflow for the first time.

yeah, how was that?

[Zak Forsman]

yeah, how was that?
i'm willing to bet Jack would say it's simply a dream. here, we had to downgrade our bays' quicktime to 7.3 but from there it has been pretty straightforward. transcoding 4K to 1080p ProRes HQ takes forever. but I can see Matt Garrett taking great pleasure in implementing the Red workflow for 6" 45rpm EP.

[dvpixl]

sigh...

[Zak Forsman]

how do you think i feel? i'm within arm's reach, sitting here, watching them have all the fun.

[Slimothy]

Hey, has there been a determination that the old "last frame of film is your credits" is kosher or not here? I seem to remember some discussion that you have to have a minimum length of closing credits. Was I dreaming?

[mikkowilson]

Hey, has there been a determination that the old "last frame of film is your credits" is kosher or not here? I seem to remember some discussion that you have to have a minimum length of closing credits. Was I dreaming?

I don't believe this has been specified for this particular fest. In some past fests I think it was against the rules.

Generally a "last frame flash" of credits is frowned upon, if for no other reason than it's hardly a "clearly acknowledging" anything if they flash past in one frame. (Yes I know *most* players will pause on that last frame at the end, but film is a motion format, not a "stop it at the right moment" format.)


For specific rule clarification we'll need a ruling from Barry or Larry. But I would strongly advise against last-frame-only credits.

- Mikko

[Larry Rutledge]

Yes, we prefer an actual rolling credit, but the rule says maximum 15 seconds which does allow for a single frame credit.

[dvpixl]

titles well placed within the picture shows me that the filmmaker cares.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

I put in 15 seconds worth but to catch all of it (the third page of credits) I'm glad that it pauses at the end. :)

[connorfilm]

my footage size is 640 x 480.

What size would I make that to export that as 2.35:1 ?

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Yes.

[connorfilm]

um... that wasn't a yes question. :huh:

I need to know what size I would export my footage as in order to get it to the 2.35:1 without any uprezing or streching.


I already shot cropped it with black bars. Im just trying to get rid of the black bars and have only the footage left.

[connorfilm]

does it even matter if we have the black on top on bottom, as long as the actual video is either 16x9 or 2.35:1?

[Jason Ramsey]

yeah. letterbox is fine.

640 across would be around 272 high. It's actually 272.xxxx... for 2.35 aspect.

But, you can letterbox it to frame however you like and just export a 16:9 file that is letterboxed down to 2.35 or 2.4 or 2:1, or whatever aspect ratio it is that you want. That would be the easiest way anyways.

later,
Jason

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

um... that wasn't a yes question. :huh:

I need to know what size I would export my footage as in order to get it to the 2.35:1 without any uprezing or streching.


I already shot cropped it with black bars. Im just trying to get rid of the black bars and have only the footage left.
Ummm... Your original post mentioned black bars before you quickly edited it. That's what the "yes" was for. :)

I responded within a minute of your post, that's probably why.

[connorfilm]

oh ok.
Thanks guys! I got it figured out.