If you're still confused about this rule, try this: before submitting, look at the entry form and check off EVERY single category that you think your video might possibly fall into. Then do it again with your second and/or third video(s). If you are checking off more than 3 of the same categories for different entries, please stop and reconsider. There is always next round.
Using Jaidan's work, here is an example of what we would consider ideal multiple entries from a single editor within the same round:
Dearly Disturbed - Music Video, Character Study, Horror, Atmosphere, Lyrical Matching, Music Use
Keep Trekkin' - Editing, Action, Epic, Overview, Visual Use
Denny's Song - Storyvid, Character Recap, Drama, Narrative, Relationship, Romance, Sound Editing
Notice how these are all extremely different as far as style and subject matter, and how they can be classified in almost none of the same categories. When you enter multiple videos, that's what you should be going for.
That said, don't stress it too much. The most we'll do is email you and ask you to re-enter one of the overlapping entries in a future round. However, it makes our lives much easier and wastes less time if people follow this rule.
If someone has three music videos in the round, only one will be considered for best music video. If they have an action music video and an action trailer, only one will be considered for best action, and so on. No one will ever have the advantage within a particular category.
Yes, but we don't usually recommend it. If a video didn't get an award the first time around, we encourage you to give some of your other work a chance.
As long as they are diverse enough as explained above, absolutely.
No, large HQ videos are preferable. If you can compress, great. But we can handle bigger files too.
If you've got 5-6 seconds of text, a vidder icon or credits, that's fine. But if you've got a whole mini music video before the actual video begins, please cut it out and reupload it. We watch these videos over and over, especially when it gets down to the contenders. And it's absolutely maddening to keep skipping through lengthy intro sequences, which are incredibly distracting.
If you are shortlisted, it means that out of all of the entries, you either tied for first place or were a very close runner-up. We encourage people who receive multiple contender mentions to re-enter that video in a future round. As of round 3, we are limiting the contenders to a maximum of three per category. Depending on our schedule, we may not include a short list for all rounds.
One, we don't want people to base their submissions on what others have sent in. We want you to enter what you believe to be your best, without worrying about everyone else. And two, given the number of initial entries, it's simply too much work. The entries that people need to reference are those that will be judged for specific categories in the final round, so those are what we list.
We can recognize good editing and creativity even if the program used to make the video was subpar. If it's nicely structured and generally well edited, we aren't too concerned if it's a bit rough around the edges.
All of the judges here are full time editors actively working in the industry, who have been cutting film, TV, music videos, trailers and promos professionally for many years. There are some extremely impressive fan works out there and we run this competition as a convenient way of discovering and drawing attention to them.
"Winners" refers to the number of individual videos that received awards. So if one video wins in three different categories, it is only counted once.
We will try on occasion to give brief reviews for the winners but cannot guarantee it. We would love to give feedback to everyone, but that would be far too time consuming given the number of entries.