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e-MOTE Digital Storytelling Competition

Rules and Guidelines

  1. The competition is open to groups of students currently enrolled in secondary or international schools in Singapore. A school can send maximum of 5 entries of a digital story.
  2. Each participating group must consist of at least 2 and no more than 3 students with one teacher as your facilitator.
  3. The digital story must include at least 2 of these components: music, photographs, drawings and video footage. The digital story must contain original visual and aural material produced by the team and they must be copyright free. You are allowed to use Creative Commons music (royalty free) for your digital story and videos. You may refer to dig.ccmixter.org and the Creative Commons website. The text for any narration must be original and written by the storytellers themselves.
  4. The digital story must be about the theme — When I Get to Know You.
  5. themeThe digital story should not be shorter than 1 minute, but no longer than 3 minutes. Most digital video formats will be accepted including (but not limited to) avi, wmv, mov. mp4, m4v, mpg, dv and flv. The film file must not exceed 2GB in size.
  6. Contestants can fill in an online application form and submit their entries at [email protected].
  7. Sections of the digital story that are not in English must be accompanied by subtitles.
  8. The digital story must be an original work by secondary school students. The teacher facilitator can advise but not have any direct hand in the creation of the digital stories, which includes but is not limited to researching, scripting, storyboarding, filming, editing and other post-production work.
  9. The content created must be original works by student participants of this competition and not extracted from any online references. The entrant must own all rights to all of the material in the Content, which must not have been previously publicly displayed or disseminated.
  10. The content must not include material that:
    1. is unlawful violent, threatening to any person, place, business, or group, or contains words or symbols that are widely considered offensive to individuals of a certain race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or socioeconomic group;
    2. is libelous or defamatory;
    3. is sexually explicit, indecent, obscene, vulgar, pornographic or profane;
    4. violates the intellectual property, privacy or other rights of third parties; or
    5. violates these Official Rules in whole or in part. The Content must not contain any visible logos, paintings, photographs or other artwork.
  11. themeSelected finalists may be required to submit a higher resolution of the video. Official CD/DVD submissions must be labeled with the title of the film, school, duration of film and the contact information of the teacher in charge
  12. All entries must be postmarked no later than 30 November 2012. The organisers will not be responsible for entries that are late, stolen, lost or damaged in the process of sending.
  13. Entries will be evaluated by a panel of selectors appointed by Ngee Ann Polytechnic. These selectors will determine the 10 finalists and judged by a separate panel of judges also to be appointed by Ngee Ann Polytechnic. The judging criteria are as follows:
    Story
    • themeIs the story absorbingly and convincingly told?
    • Are the characters / voices believable?
    • Is the story well structured?
    • Does the story fit the competition theme?
    • Language / Grammar
    Style
    • Is there effective use of visuals to complement the story?
    • Is there effective use of sound / music to complement the story?
    • Are emotions expressed effectively in the final product?
    • Polish of visual effects (if any).
    • Oral skills (Pronunciation / Enunciation).
  14. themeThe panel of judges invited by the organisers will determine the Finalists that will qualify for the top prizes to be awarded in January at Shaw House. All participating schools will be notified of the results of the qualifying rounds by email on December 7th 2012. The decision of the judges is final, binding and may not be contested.
  15. All submitted entries will become the sole property of the National Book Development Council of Singapore and Ngee Ann Polytechnic. The two organisations reserve the right to promote, edit, screen, and use otherwise, said entries without permission from and notice and compensation to the authors at any given time.
  16. By submitting entry/entries to the competition, the participating school agrees to abide by the rules and guidelines stated herein.