what if there is 2 perfectly tied for first place

That, was pure, unedited,(actually most likely heavily edited) genius.

Russ is my new falling-face-first-on-concrete god. As such, I have a few questions concerning said falling-face-first-on-concrete god.

Where did you get your degree in face-to-concrete acting?

How do you maintain such an amazing level of awesomeness?

And finally, have you lost weight?

Yeah, check me out. I haven't even entered yet, and I'm already sucking ****.

Hi there;
Mr Bennett touched on this is a previous post, but I wanted to clarify about age. To submit a film you say working age, I'm 17 in Melbourne, so I'm able to get myself a job but technically not 'of age'(18). Also, it mentions in the rules about no actors being under age and to that I ask under the same conditions as above would a 17 year old be able to appear as an actor? If not, are waivers able to be signed in order to make that possible?

Thank you for your time

smallharmlesskitten:
what if there is 2 perfectly tied for first place

Ties will be decided by a pie eating contest. Or a vote by the office staff. One of those.

Aries_Split:
Where did you get your degree in face-to-concrete acting?

The school of hard knocks.

How do you maintain such an amazing level of awesomeness?

Diet and exercise. And bourbon.

And finally, have you lost weight?

I go up and down. But thanks!

Timtimfed:
Hi there;
Mr Bennett touched on this is a previous post, but I wanted to clarify about age. To submit a film you say working age, I'm 17 in Melbourne, so I'm able to get myself a job but technically not 'of age'(18). Also, it mentions in the rules about no actors being under age and to that I ask under the same conditions as above would a 17 year old be able to appear as an actor? If not, are waivers able to be signed in order to make that possible?

Thank you for your time

To answer this and all remaining age-related questions: If there is any doubt in your mind whether you, as video producer, or any of your on-screen participants are "of legal age" then get a signed waiver from that person's legal guardian. Better to be on the safe side. And chances are, if you're asking, you need one.

Have had to use those waivers in the past so there shouldn't be a problem.
Thanks for the snappy response.

What does the escapist content deal entail exactly? just fame? or is money involved?

Poyer:
What does the escapist content deal entail exactly? just fame? or is money involved?

Monies, fame, the works. Basically, we'll pay you to make more videos. Exact terms are TBD, of course.

Poyer:
What does the escapist content deal entail exactly? just fame? or is money involved?

Chris Slack already covered this in the video. Company benefits here are amazing.

Where the hell does all the money come from? Do you get that much from advertisers? I can't quite figure it out.

brice85:

Poyer:
What does the escapist content deal entail exactly? just fame? or is money involved?

Chris Slack already covered this in the video. Company benefits here are amazing.

The benefits are definitely worth it. Besides, if you just close your eyes and let 'em finish, it's not nearly as bad. Even if you don't stick around forever, you'll learn a valuable skill you can take with you and get a job just about anywhere. My advice to those who take this route: invest in a decent pair of kneepads. The benefits don't cover knee injuries related to "getting paid".

Break:
Where the hell does all the money come from? Do you get that much from advertisers? I can't quite figure it out.

From all the people who don't block our ads. ;) There's a reason we run ads, it pays for things like this.

You get enough money from ads to pay the staff and hand out full-time contracts? Jesus. I didn't think there were that many adverts. I guess a bit of space on the Escapist must have quite a price tag.

You guys are aware we pay our writers, too, right? ;) This is a fully professional outfit, I assure you.

Also, for those asking about legal age requirements and consent, we've prepared a generic consent form for you use. It should be self explanatory. If there are under-age folks working with you on your video, please ask them to sign that form and then be sure you keep a copy in case anyone should ask for it.

Russ Pitts:
You guys are aware we pay our writers, too, right? ;) This is a fully professional outfit, I assure you.

Zero Punctuation:
Outside...10 minutes...Pufferfish

;)

Ok, I wasn't going to, but after seeing that I think I need to show SOME appreciation, so I'll see if I can think of something. It was awesome!

Are you guys seriously going to watch everything that is submitted? That's gonna be a lot of work.

Thank you Tim, you mentioned something that I doubt anyone here was sure about, and as a result we not only know the answer to your question, we now have a waiver form, which I will be giving to ALL of my staff simply because I don't know enough people of age who are interested in this sort of thing. So that's clarified, but I'd like to mention one thing: it's Ms. Bennett. Anyway, I look forward to submitting something, and I will be looking into this writing thing.

Couple of questions for Mr Pitts,

1. Are you primarily looking to give a contract to an individual, or would you hire a partnership or trio? Obviously this would require negotiation in terms of finances, because you probably don't want to end up spending twice as much money on a video series compared to others. :)

2. Where does using in-game footage (captured directly from the game or recorder on a camera) stand in terms of it being copyrighted material? Does the fair use policy kick in anywhere? I'll also note that the first de-rez video (last year's winner) has a notice on fair use right at the end of the video.
I raise this point because most of the videos/series currently on The Escapist are primarily 'original' content, and so it would appear that a series that contained actual game footage would fit nicely into the mix. Alternatively, you could be looking for a series similar to what is currently on offer in that it contains all 'original' content.

Thanks

Already working fulltime on a video, only problem is my partners' laziness. Hopefully we get it done in time.

Anyway 2 questions, to the Russ (or anyone else):

1 - Does everything have to be strictly gaming related.

2 - Erhm, forgotten what is was already, nevermind.

almost got my script written, just one quick question.

Whats the standpoint on swearing? I know Yahtzee does it quite a lot, and like his, mine is intended to be purposeful in showing emotion, mainly pissed-offedness.

Quick question about one part of the "Legal Stuff" that is worrisome. The part that states "Entrants surrender copyright and all interests therein of their submissions to The Escapist with the understanding that the materials may be used for promotional purposes." Does this apply just to the winning video, or to all entries that are submitted?

Looks interesting. I missed out on last years, but this years will shall not be missed.

I look forward to seeing all the interesting entries and arguing when my favorite doesn't get picked for the contract.

Sorry guys. Been in meetings all day. Some quick answers:

Braininator:
1. Are you primarily looking to give a contract to an individual, or would you hire a partnership or trio?

We're primarily looking for talented video creators. Individuals, groups or other. The details of the potential contract arrangement are a bridge we'll cross later.

Where does using in-game footage (captured directly from the game or recorder on a camera) stand in terms of it being copyrighted material? Does the fair use policy kick in anywhere?

If you're reviewing a game or parodying it in some way, you're fairly safe using reasonable amounts of in-game footage. The definition of "reasonable" however, is what legal scholars have been arguing over for years. It's a very grey area, and subject to interpretation, but if we have an objection on those grounds we'll try to give you a chance to revise your video before we judge it.

Scypemonk:
1 - Does everything have to be strictly gaming related.

No. But it'd be helpful if your video was interesting to folks who are also interested in games.

MattyboyJ:
Whats the standpoint on swearing? I know Yahtzee does it quite a lot, and like his, mine is intended to be purposeful in showing emotion, mainly pissed-offedness.

Try to avoid swearing or lewdness, please. You're not Yahtzee. Yet.

GameUJosh:
Quick question about one part of the "Legal Stuff" that is worrisome. The part that states "Entrants surrender copyright and all interests therein of their submissions to The Escapist with the understanding that the materials may be used for promotional purposes." Does this apply just to the winning video, or to all entries that are submitted?

The simple answer is that we'll retain non-exclusive rights to all videos submitted to us to use for promotional purposes, etc. Meaning, if you do not win the contest, we will retain rights to use your video in various ways to promote our site or the contest, but you may also re-publish the video somewhere else if you like. So, while we retain some rights to use your video, you retain all rights to use it anywhere else, however you see fit up to entering into an exclusive use arrangment with another site.

If we decide to publish your video, whether you win the contest or not, you will be compensated and we will retain exclusive rights to the video. Meaning, it will then belong to us completely, for a certain amount of time, up to forever.

But - AND THIS IS IMPORTANT - we will not assume exclusive rights to any video without prior notification and/or conversation with the video creator. In other words, you're not dropping your work into a black hole here.

We've been doing this for a long time. And we're first and foremost a freelance friendly organization. We work with a small and select group of people, and we take care of them. We wouldn't be able to continue operating if we screwed people over by stealing their content. It just doesn't work that way.

Russ Pitts:

MattyboyJ:
Whats the standpoint on swearing? I know Yahtzee does it quite a lot, and like his, mine is intended to be purposeful in showing emotion, mainly pissed-offedness.

Try to avoid swearing or lewdness, please. You're not Yahtzee. Yet.

Damn my illusions are shattered. Hmm altho it has given me a slightly funnier idea now, cheers Russ

Thanks russ i was wondering about that.

Shooting later this week. Again.

Is it possible to win, but not have to be paid?

Hey Guys,

If you are submitting/uploading your videos for the contest, please make sure you get all the way to through the second step. First you input your title/descsription/tags, then you get sent to another page where you are asked to upload the video. Don't close your browser or do anything until you have the confirmation that it has uploaded. It very well could take awhile! Don't be alarmed if it sits there for quite a bit of time.

I just cleared out a bunch of entries that didn't get videos uploaded to them. If yours didn't get submitted, I can double check for you, but if you aren't sure about it in the first place, go ahead and submit it again and make sure you get all the way through the process.

Thanks!

To follow on that, you're looking for this message after you upload the video:

Thank you! Your video has been submitted! Once the site staff have approved your video, it will appear in our video gallery.

If your video file is large, it will take a long time to upload. For the purposes of the contest, you may want to consider uploading a 400x300 MP4 or WMV regardless of what source video resolution you're actually working in - if you win, we can always make other transfer arrangements for a larger version.

Hello Everyone! I accidentally posted this question in the wrong section, but I'll repost here in the proper thread. (Sorry for that admins! I'm new!) I've started the process of making a pilot for you, but there are a few things not clarified on the Film Festival's in-site page I'd like to know about before beginning the filming process.

1) What is the file upload limit? Is it roughly 100MB like Youtube?

2) Is standard definition (640 by 480 NTSC) the preferred format?

3) What file formats are accepted/desired? (AVI, MOV, MP4, WMV)

Thank you for reading and responding!

(Shameless plug: If anyone has a second, I'm rather proud of my latest video I made recently for the Pretzel Time Pretzel Dog Kick Bun contest. You can see it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d87wEgifobQ )

InventiveHero:

1) What is the file upload limit? Is it roughly 100MB like Youtube?

2) Is standard definition (640 by 480 NTSC) the preferred format?

These are a couple of questions I had myself, I got the MP4 format preference, and the 400x300 but I work in NTSC standard definition myself (I am just blue screening my vid this week so I can change formatting still if it is important) and I want to keep an appropriate memory size in mind.

On another note, my little brother is working on a video project independent of all this and I'm encouraging him to complete it and enter it into this competition. It is his own work but he's using an editorial I wrote, if he does enter will this be a problem / conflict? I am fully willing to sign over rights of the script to my brother. If he comes in at the time limit, I'd like to see him participate.

On a completely different note I also want to extend my thanks to the Escapist for bringing this virtual film festival to the fray. I have been wanting to start a video editorial series that will let me hit the streets and interview some of my heavy hitter contacts in the game's industry. Whether I win or not, just having this contest sets the fire to get all the start up work done. It pushes us people who want to be more involved in gaming culture forward and that means a lot.

sirdanrhodes:
Is it possible to win, but not have to be paid?

While it's entirely possible we would consider awarding First Place to someone who either doesn't desire to be paid, or can't legally enter into a contract, our many years experience in the media business tells us we should avoid doing business with either type. Obviously exceptions are possible, but the circumstances would have to be truly exceptional for us to consider it.

InventiveHero:
1) What is the file upload limit? Is it roughly 100MB like Youtube?

Let's call it 100MB.

2) Is standard definition (640 by 480 NTSC) the preferred format?

Yes.

3) What file formats are accepted/desired? (AVI, MOV, MP4, WMV)

WMV and MP4 are preferred, in that order.

mark_n_b:
On another note, my little brother is working on a video project independent of all this and I'm encouraging him to complete it and enter it into this competition. It is his own work but he's using an editorial I wrote, if he does enter will this be a problem / conflict?

That wouldn't be a problem for us, but it might be for you. If your brother wins the contest (and you don't) I imagine that'd make for some serious negative energy around the foosball table.

Hey, me and my friend are making a video and would like to enter the contest, but are both 16. Can we still enter if our parents fill out the consent form?