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Rules
FAQ
Categories
Judging
About
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1. Music videos for all TV and movie fandoms are accepted.
2. You may only submit your own work.
3. You may only submit ONE video per round.
4. NO CLIP THEFT. If your vid is found to contain clip theft, you will be permanently banned from submitting to the site.
5. I like watching high quality vids, so there is no size limit. All file formats are accepted (however, if you submit a vid in Real or Quicktime format and it wins Best Video, Best Video RU, or Judge's Choice, your award will not contain an animation from your vid). Zipped files are fine.
6. No streaming links, your vid must be downloadable. You can either link directly to your vid, or just link to the page on your site where the direct link can be found. If you do not have your own site, free hosting sites are fine, just be sure to provide a valid email address in case your link expires. If I email you about a broken link you will have 48 hours to respond with an updated link before your entry is removed.
7. Once you have submitted a video, it CANNOT be resubmitted in a later round, regardless of whether it won anything or not. If you are unsure as to whether or not you have already submitted a particular vid, you can take a look at the nominees pages from past rounds in the archive.
8. Language, violence, and nudity are all fine. However, if your video contains extreme amounts of any of these things, please put a warning in your description. Slash or incest pairings are also fine.
9. Categories will be chosen by me. If you wish to suggest a category, you can do so in the Notes section of the submission form, but this will be seen as a suggestion only.
10. If you have your own website, please link back to this site.
If you have any questions about the rules, feel free to email me or leave a message on the tagboard. I will do my best to get back to you as soon as I can.
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So, every fandom is allowed?
Yes. I like to watch a wide variety of vids and can recognize quality editing even if I am not familiar with all of the details of the show or movie. That being said, if you are submitting a vid from a fandom I am not familiar with (you can take a look at the About section for the list of shows I watch) and you feel that knowing some of the context is essential for understanding the vid (especially if the vid is AU), feel free to put in a brief explanation in the Notes section of the submission form.
Can I get a review of my vid?
Every round I will be writing a short review for the winners of Best Video, Best Video Runner-Up, and Judge's Choice. Time permitting, I may also write reviews for the other category winners, or, if I'm feeling especially ambitious, all of the winning vids. This will be determined on a round-by-round basis, probably after the submission period is over. These will be mainly positive reviews as, if you won an award, you can pretty much guarantee that I really liked your video. But there is always the possibility that there may be a little bit of constructive criticism in the review as well.
If you did not win anything and want to know why your video was cut, feel free to email me and I will explain the reasons behind my decision. I will not, however, be able to give you an in-depth review of your video.
Can you save me a spot in the next round?
No. Rounds will open as soon as awards are posted for the previous round, and will remain open until the 15th of every month (unless otherwise noted on the updates page) and there is no limit to the number of entries accepted each round. I will do my best to have awards posted by the 1st of the following month. This should give you plenty of time to submit, so please do not ask me to save a spot for you.
Can we be affiliates?
Definitely! If you have a site related to vidding, please submit a request via email or on the tagboard. Go here for buttons to link back here.
If you have any questions that have not been answered here, please drop me a line through email or on the tagboard!
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Best Video -- The video that contains the best combination of editing skills, concept, use of music, entertainment value, and emotional impact.
Best Editing -- The most technically impressive vid. This video must be in sync with the music, and, if special effects are used, they must be used in a way that enhances the overall impact of the vid.
Best Music Use -- The video that makes the best use of the music. This vid should flow perfectly with the song and acknowledge shifts in the timing or mood of the music. Not only should the cuts and motion be in sync with the music, but the style and lyrics of the song should sound like they were made for the vid.
Best Drama -- The most well put together video about a dramatic subject. The video's overall mood and emotional impact will play a big role in choosing the winner of this category.
Best Mood -- The video that best conveys a particular mood or atmosphere. This will be awarded to videos that really draw the viewer in and immerse them in the world being explored in the vid. If your video can really make me feel something, it will be a contender for this award.
Best Relationship -- The best video focusing on the relationship between two characters, romantic or otherwise. Romantic relationships between more than two characters, or videos focusing on love triangles or multiple romantic relationships may be included in this category too.
Best Action -- This will be awarded to the video that makes the best use of action sequences, and is fast paced and exciting to watch.
Best Character -- The best video focusing on a particular character.
Best Overview -- The video that best illustrates all of the major aspects of the characters, themes, and storylines of the fandom.
Best Comedy -- The video that makes me laugh the most. This video must have extremely good timing and clever clip-to-lyric matches. Just using a funny song or funny subject matter won't cut it.
Best Narrative -- This will be awarded to the best video that tells a coherent story, be it canon or constructed reality.
Best Other -- The best video that is a crossover, alternate universe, trailer, or anything that may not fit into the conventional categories.
Best Effects -- The video that makes the best use of special effects.
Most Unique -- This will be awarded to videos with the best execution of a unique concept. This award is not only for AU vids or crossovers. Vidders who explore a unique editing style or a new take on a character, relationship, comedy, or drama vid will also be considered for this award.
Award of Excellence -- Awarded to videos that did not win in any of the categories (mainly due to too much competition) but were still extremely well-done and deserving of a special award.
Honorable Mention -- Awarded to videos that were perhaps not quite as technically or thematically impressive as the videos that won awards in the main categories, but were still entertaining and well put together.
Judge's Choice -- Awarded to my favorite video of the round (provided it did not already win the Best Video award).
All of the main categories will also have Runner-Up awards.
Depending on the amount of submissions and overall calibre of entries, the number of Excellence and Honorable Mention awards given out will vary per round.
If your video does not win an award, please do not get discouraged. It doesn't mean your video was bad or that I didn't like it. It's much more likely that it did not win simply because of heavy competition in the round. I want it to be a challenge to win an award from this site, so I will have to cut quite a few videos per round to make that possible.
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The following will not be taken into consideration:
- picture quality of source material (unless it's so bad that I cannot make out what is happening)
- fandom preference (good editing will always win out over fandom)
- whether or not I personally like the song you chose
- mixed or incorrect aspect ratio
- DIVX or station logos
Having any of the following in your vid will probably decrease your chances of winning an award:
- Talky face. This is a big one and regardless of how great the rest of your vid is, talky face will greatly decrease your chances of winning anything but an honorable mention. That said, a bit of lip movement in a scene where other action is meant to be the focus (such as a battle scene, or someone screaming and yelling as something very important happens) likely won't hurt your chances of winning (because sometimes a little talky face cannot be avoided), but scenes that are essentially just talking heads will absolutely count against you.
- stray frames
- ignoring beats or major changes in the music
- overly literal clip-to-lyric matches (except in comedy vids)
- clips that appear random and have little to do with the lyrics or overall story of the vid
- use of songs that really do not fit with the subject matter
- use of a song that has already been vidded to death
- excessive use of slowed down or sped up clips
- use of cheesy transitions and effects
- overly long clips
- credits or subtitles from the original source - I find them distracting.
If your vid contains most or all of the following, your chances of winning an award will be significantly higher:
- good attention to beats and changes in the music
- clips and motion that flow with the song (good use of music is the most important thing I will be looking for, as matching up music with source material is pretty much the whole point of vidding, IMHO)
- clever clip-to-lyric matches
- coherent storytelling
- good visual connections between clips
- use of effects and transitions that serve to enhance the overall vid
- originality of concept and execution
Judging Process:
Before judging begins, I will watch every video (this is generally done as videos come in) and sort them into categories. No videos will be cut at this stage. But I will start taking notes on which videos really stand out.
After the round closes, I will watch every video again. This time I will evaluate them on technique, theme, and overall entertainment value (see criteria above). As I go along, I will make a preliminary list of which videos are most deserving of the main awards. I will start cutting videos at this stage. As I want awards from this site to be somewhat challenging to win, I'll try to cut at least 1/3 of the videos at this stage. Of course, that number will vary depending on the number and quality of entries in a particular round.
The last stage is by far the most difficult, as I now have a list of videos that are, essentially, all quite good for one reason or another. There will be more cuts at this stage, as I aim to have less than half of the videos submitted winning awards (though there is always the possibility that it may end up being more than that, as I'm not going to deny someone an award solely based on numbers, if I feel they truly deserve it). Videos will be watched as many times as necessary to determine which ones should win which awards. I will try to have only one winner and one runner up in each category, but there will be the possibility of ties, especially in categories with a lot of eligible videos. Any videos that were strong contenders for the main categories but, ultimately, did not win, will be given Awards of Excellence, and any videos that may not have been in the running for the main awards but were still, overall, very well done and enjoyable, will be given Honorable Mentions.
If you have any specific questions about the judging process, please feel free to email me and I will be happy to clarify.
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About me:
My screenname is Ringwench (website / livejournal / email). I'm
female, 27, I live in Ontario, Canada, and I work in internet tech support.
I've been vidding for about 5 or 6 years, I started off in Buffy fandom, did a couple of vids for Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, moved on to Lost for a bit, before getting very involved in Supernatural fandom. I currently use Sony Vegas 6.0 to make my vids.
My fandoms include
Supenatural, Heroes, Firefly, Veronica Mars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Dexter, Six Feet Under, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Grey's Anatomy, Prison Break, Queer as Folk, The L-Word, The Office, Newsradio, Ugly Betty, X-Files, Dark Angel, Velvet Goldmine.
I'm also familiar with but not completely caught up on the following: Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate Atlantis, Doctor Who.
I like a wide variety of music, but I'm mainly into rock, especially alternative and indie. Favorite artists include Matthew Good, Death Cab for Cutie, Something Corporate, Imogen Heap, Our Lady Peace, Bif Naked, Radiohead, Barenaked Ladies, and Coldplay.
About this site:
I started this site because I'm always looking for new videos to watch. I love vidding, I love vidders, and I wanted to be able to give a little something back to the vidding community.
The site was put together using Macromedia Dreamweaver 8, it is hosted by Dreamhost. The name Villainous Imagination comes from the Barenaked Ladies song "Take It Back".
The layout, along with the theme for award banners, will change every round. All images used are properties of their original owners, no copyright infringement is intended.
Current layout features actors Adam Baldwin, Nathan Fillion, and Gina Torres .
Layout/Awards for Round Three featured actors Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles.
Layout/Awards for Round Two featured musician Matthew Good.
Layout/Awards for Round One featured actor Michael C. Hall.
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