Submissions For Machinima Expo 2010 Are Now Open

The third annual Machinima Expo (2010) is now accepting submissions for it’s juried competition. The jury, which is still being assembled, will select five Machinima films which will be screened and honored at the Expo in November. There will also be a Grand Prize winner for the festival. We are currently negotiating for prizes and hope to make an announcement soon.

Please note that the submission period will be from June 1st to August 31st, 2010. We will no longer accept submissions after 11:59 P.M., August 31, 2010.

The exact date, time and locations of this year’s Expo festival are currently being worked out. We will post that information as soon as it has been determined. This year’s Expo promises to be quite challenging as we are combining both the web and the virtual world of Second Life as the locations for our screenings and events.

As part of our continuing commitment to support machinima from other countries, there will also be an award for the best Latin American machinima films submitted. Filmmakers from Central and South America are eligible for this special recognition this year. Please note that the films you submit are NOT required to have English subtitles, although it is encouraged.

On the sidebar to the right of this blog, you will see links to download the Expo 2010 Submission form and Submission Guidelines. (Or you can download them here.)

Quick link: Machinima Expo 2010 Submission Form

Machinima Expo 2010 Submission Guidelines

1. The Machinima Expo welcomes machinima films of any style and has no category / genre restrictions. Each work will be juried solely on its own merits, at the sole discretion of the Expo Screening Committee. The Expo seeks films which are bold, creative, and vital, films which represent the very best of what machinima has to offer.
2. Machinima films of any duration are welcome for submission; both short and long-form works are encouraged.
3. Submitted works do not need to be pure (100%) machinima. Films incorporating machinima in combination with other media are both welcome and encouraged. As a general rule, approximately 50% of the film should consist of machinima footage.
4. Non-English language films may be submitted with or without subtitles, at the filmmaker’s discretion. (English subtitles for non-English films are encouraged but not required).
5. Submission to the Machinima Expo is open to filmmakers of all ages, from any country in the world. Filmmakers from Latin America (Central and South America) are eligible to be considered for a Special Jury Prize. See #11 below for more information.
6. Year of production of the machinima film does not matter.
7. Films which were submitted to a prior year Machinima Expo (2008 or 2009) are not eligible for submission again this year.
8. A “2010 MachinExpo Film Submission Form” must be completed for each film being submitted to the Expo. A filmmaker may submit as many of his/her own films as they wish.
9. Films are submitted by uploading to video sharing site, Vimeo, and sharing the video URL in the Expo submission form. If you do not yet have an account at Vimeo, you will need to create one prior to submission (the account is free). We encourage submitters to upload in the best quality they have available, according to Vimeo’s recommended specs. HD resolution is both welcome and encouraged, if available.

   Films must meet the Vimeo content guidelines in order to be submitted for the Expo. These guidelines are available at: http://www.vimeo.com/guidelines#uploading_guidelines

   Other helpful links related to Vimeo:

   • Compression Guidelines: http://www.vimeo.com/help/compression
   • Vimeo HD FAQ: http://www.vimeo.com/help/faq/hd#hd_encoding_settings
   • Upload Tutorial: http://www.vimeo.com/339189

   NOTE: It is important that your Vimeo video be marked to “Allow other people to download the source video.” on the Privacy tab of the video properties. This is to enable the Expo to encode your video for streaming (see #10 below) should it be selected for the festival.

   NOTE: If you wish to submit your film for the Expo, but do not wish it to be released to the public at this time, you should protect your video with a password in the Privacy tab of the video properties in Vimeo, and then share that password in your Expo submission form. This will ensure that only authorized Expo Screening Committee members will have access to your video during the screening process.

10. Films which are nominated as Screening Selections or for Jury Prize Consideration will have their films re-encoded by Expo personnel for inclusion in some live streaming events at the TMU Theater website. In most cases, the source video for this encoding process will be pulled from your Vimeo submission. If, however, a source video of sufficient quality is not able to be grabbed from Vimeo, then the filmmaker may be contacted and given the opportunity to provide a high quality download of their film. Most submitters, however, will not have to perform this extra step. If you would like to help ensure you do not have to do this extra step, it is recommended that you upload your video to Vimeo no more than one day before submitting your Expo Submission Form so your downloadable source file is still available on Vimeo. If your video is already on Vimeo, consider uploading another copy specifically for the Expo. If you are a Vimeo Plus member, your downloadable source files do not expire so you will likely not need to worry about any of this.
11. All submitted films will be reviewed by the Expo Screening Committee, and selected works will be put before a jury. Five (5) of these films will be selected for a Jury Prize, and one (1) additional film will be awarded a Special Jury Prize for Best Latin American Film. The Special Jury Prize is open to machinima filmmakers from South and Central America only.
12. In addition to films which are deemed eligible for either of the Jury Prizes, as many as several hours of additional machinima films will be made Official Screening Selections, all of which will be shown to the Expo audience. Selected films for screening or for jury prize eligibility will be notified on or close to September 30, 2010.
13. All submissions for the Expo must be received by 11:59 P.M. Pacific Standard Time (GMT -08:00) on August 31, 2010.

By submitting their film to the Expo, a user will be asked to acknowledge having read this document, and agreeing to the following terms herein:

I, the submitter of this film, do hereby affirm:
A) I have the full right to submit this film to the Expo.
B) I acknowledge and agree that I cannot submit any TV shows, music videos, music
concerts, or commercials without permission unless they consist entirely of content I have created myself.
C) I hereby grant The Machinima Expo a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free right to use, reproduce, capture still images from, display, transmit, stream, and broadcast my Submission in association with and during the 2010 Machinima Expo, with venues including but not limited to www.machinima-expo.com, www.tmutheater.com, www.vimeo.com, and the virtual world of Second Life, for a period of 12 months from the submission date, and thereafter unless otherwise revoked in writing by me.
D) I understand that The Machinima Expo will not commercially exploit my work in any
way whatsoever, and will not distribute my submission outside of Internet venues without my advanced expressed permission. I understand that The Machinima Expo may use images from my film as part of the Expo Program, on the Expo website, and in efforts to promote the Expo event and organization.
E) I acknowledge that The Machinima Expo makes no claim to any of my rights as creator of the submitted work, other than the non-exclusive rights mentioned above.
F) I have read, and agree to, the TMU Theater Terms of Service at: http://www.tmutheater.com/home/terms
G) In order to submit your film to Vimeo (mandatory for submission to the Expo), I will
agree to and abide by their terms, presented at the Vimeo upload screen.

Any questions related to the submission process should be directed to:
exposubmit [at] machiniplex [dot] net