This is a contest sponsored by Moving Bricks.

Update: This contest is now closed - see bottom of post for entries!

= Description =

In this contest, entrants are asked to make a thirty second advertisement for a product (real or fictitious). The choice of product is up to the entrant. Anything (while keeping in good taste - this is a family friendly site!) can be the subject - a website, a drink, clothing, a book - pretty much anything. Want to make an Ad for a magic item? Go for it! An Ad for the Crystal Skull Indy found? No problem.

PSA's (Public Service Announcements) and "Anti-ads" (such as a political "don't vote for that guy") are also allowed.

Let your imagination run wild.

= Conditions =

1 - Entrants will need to create a brick film. The following stipulations apply:

    A: The film must not exceed 30 seconds in length [See Below]
    B: Special Copyright Rules apply [See Below]

2 - Length: The final film, being a commercial, must have the "body" of the film not exceed 30 seconds (as one would see on tv). You can have a short intro and/or outro (for example, a black screen with some text on it for the credits, such as stating what music you used). The note being SHORT. The total film (including intro and outro) should not exceed 40 seconds. This is plenty of time to put additional information without pushing the length excessively.

3 - Copyright: When making brickfilms for contests, we generally have some fairly standard rules for what copyrighted media is allowed. Since this contest is aimed more "for the fun of it", these restrictions are not being enforced - but only for the audio. You can use any sound that you have available (music, sound effects, voices, etc) but you should credit where they came from. All the visuals are to be created by the entrant.

4 - Entering the contest:

    A: Change: Films being entered into this contest must not have been publicly available before the 17th of February 2009. (See 14 below)
    B: Completed films should be uploaded to the internet on or after the 21st of March. Video hosting sites (YouTube, Google Video, Vimeo, etc) are preferred though hosting it on your site (if you have one) is also allowed. Popular formats preferred - Quicktime, WMV, RM or AVI and so on.
    C: Update: Send an email to [email protected] with the following information:
        1: Put [Ad Contest] and your forum name in the subject.
        2: Include the link to your film (do not send films as attachments!).
        3: Any additional information that the entrant feels is pertinent.

5 - Entries need to be submitted between the 15th and 22nd of March. Entries close Midnight, GMT Sunday night on the 22nd.

Judging will take approximately one week (unless there are loads of entries). A winners chat is pencilled in for Monday morning (the 30th) at approximately 6am WDST Australia (approx ten pm GMT Sunday night).

Following the chat, the final results will be posted in this thread. The winners will be contacted via the email they made their submission on to get a mailing address for the prizes to be sent to.

6 - Disqualifications: Although we want to keep this contest as light-hearted and easy as possible, there are a few simple rules that will be enforced and form part of the entry conditions. A film that has been entered will be disqualified if the length of the commercial itself (not counting intro & outro) exceeds 32 seconds. A film that is made in poor taste or advertising something that, if it were discussed in a post would get that post deleted, will also be disqualified. This is to ensure that this contest (and by extension, this site) remain family friendly.

7 - Judging: The organisers will appoint three non-affiliated Judges* (to avoid bias) who will watch the entries. Each entry will be judged on the following criteria:

    A: Entertainment value (score out of ten) [How much fun it is to watch]
    B: Product Promotion (score out of ten) [How well the product was "sold"]
    C: Technical Quality (score out of ten) [How good did the film look/sound]

This will give all entrants a score between 0 and 30 from each judge and the judges scores being added together for a total score between 0 and 90, with the highest scoring film being determined the winner.

* The judges will be people who are not members of any LEGO related website and who, in all probability, won't even have seen a brickfilm before. In order to remove "first viewed" syndrome (where all entries are compared to the first film seen) the Judges will be shown two films from old Ad contests from a few years ago first (probably from the old Boinx Stop-Motion software contest).

8 - This is a contest of skill and chance plays no part.

9 - Prizes: Finally! The bit everyone wanted to read.

For this contest, there will be only one prize on offer. A Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 - winner takes all. I would love to offer a swag of different prizes but my funds are limited. This contest is hoping to boost the participation of new members who might not have made a film yet.

Members who already have a good camera but want to "compete" against the new people have the option of submitting a non-competition entry. This means that a member who might have loads of experience and can consistently make excellent films might want to enter to "show them how it's done" without "stealing" the prize from people who are new. Should any member wish to do this, they should add "non competition entry" in their email. This is entirely optional.

Update: In addition, a Bonus Prize, consisting of Set 8401 will be awarded to the entry other than the winner that I like the best. See this post for more details.

10- Entrants can enter more than once if they wish, though each entry should be submitted on a separate email.

11- Judges' decisions are final and no correspondence will be entered into.

Suggestions:

• What you choose to advertise can be anything, but you should choose something that is easily recognisable. Remember that the judges will be from Australia and might not be familiar with local customs, schools, parks, comedians and other things which might not be as well known outside your local area.

• Feel free to add additional information to the email, but keep in mind that in all probability, this information will not be passed on to the judges. Your film should stand on its own merit. Relevant information could be something like a password if you uploaded your film to a secure site or something like that.

• Films can be up to 32 sec, so you don't have to stress about making sure that your film is 29 seconds and 24 frames long. But you should be aiming at 30 seconds, not 32.

• Remember that the Judges will not be avid brickfilmers. You do not need to aim for perfect walk cycles, zero light flicker, totally static sets with no bumps and so on. It is really good if you can make your film to a very high technical standard, but the Judges will be looking more at creativity and entertainment rather than technical perfection.

• Be creative and have fun.

12- Important! As the organiser, I will be paying the cost of both purchasing the camera (already done) and the cost of shipping and packaging. However, there is a slight chance that the receiver might have to pay customs duty or import taxes. The camera will be marked as "gift" with a value of AUD$50. Members might want to take a moment to check customs requirements in their home country to avoid any nasty surprises before entering.

13- Any questions should be posted below

14 - Due to member requests, the entries for this contest can now be shared on the internet before the submission date. Entrants can now upload and share their films any  time between now and the close of submission deadline (22nd March). Should an entrant wish to change their film between the time they release it and the time they make their submission, they are free to do so. However, the version that they link to in their submission email will be considered their "official" entry.

Update, 22nd of March: This contest is now closed, here are the people from whom entries have been received:

• DarthVincentPrice

• Blobstudios

• EmmaExecute

• Bodville

• 1Shifty89

• davidude34

• FilmGuy & T.G.Tom

• DoubleVstudios

• TimothyR

• davidude34 - second entry

• CheesyBricks

• Riley

• Riley - second entry

• fallentomato

Fourteen entries from twelve people. judging will take place during this week!

Edit: And now we have the winners! The awards chat went well, a transcript will be available soon.
In third place, with a score of 69 is: Green: A better colour.
In second place, with a score of 70 is: Handcar.
In first place, with a score 72 and recipient of the QCP9K is ... James Bond: Weapons of Destruction!

In addition, the bonus prize consisting of Set 8401 is awarded to ... Stalkers R Us!

Congratulations to the winners, we will be contacting you soon so you can claim your prizes.

Edit: My host is playing up at the moment, the winners transcript and the judges scores will be up later today, hopefully.

Last edited by Dr Neo Lao (March 29, 2009 (03:41pm))