Press Release from Zeitgeist Films

Make your own stop-motion film and win a chance to have it featured on the A TOWN CALLED PANIC DVD!

Visit www.atowncalledpanic.com to find out all about A TOWN CALLED PANIC, a brilliant new stop-motion animation feature film opening at New York’s Film Forum on December 16 before playing around the country.

The contest: Make a stop-motion animation film, no longer than three minutes in length, on the theme of “panic.” The film will be judged as a piece of entertainment, not just on the sophistication of its animation techniques, and the competition is open to all ages.

The judges: A Town Called Panic filmmakers Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar will select their favorite from a shortlist of 10 films selected by Zeitgeist Films.

The prize: The winning film will be included on the US edition of the A Town Called Panic DVD to be released in 2010 and the winning filmmaker will receive five copies of the DVD when it is released. Nine runners-up will also receive a copy of the DVD and a poster and their films will be featured on the A Town Called Panic YouTube Channel.

The deadline: March 1, 2010. The winner will be announced on April 1, 2010.

How to make a stop-motion film: If you need tips on making stop-motion films visit: http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/stop-motion-digital-camera or http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Stop-Motion-Animation

The finished film, no longer than three minutes in length, must be made into a .mov, .mp4, .wmv, or .avi file no larger than 100MB. The film can be submitted on a disc or uploaded to our FTP site. Please keep all the files you used to create the film. The winner will need to output it at the highest resolution possible for inclusion on the DVD.

Guidelines: While we encourage the use of toys in the animation—in keeping with the style of A Town Called Panic—please do not use any recognizable, trademarked toys such as Mr Potato Head or Barbie Dolls or Lego. Hand-made objects or toys are preferable, as are non trademarked objects. The theme of “panic” can be treated loosely but it must be evident at some point in the film. Do not use any non-original music in your film and do not have characters sing any copyrighted songs (including “Happy Birthday”). If there is dialogue in the film it should be in English or clearly subtitled in English.

The film cannot exceed three minutes in length, but any length shorter than that is permissable.

Rules:

The film must be completely original work. It must not have appeared previously at film festivals, on television or on DVD. It can be something that you might have started previously but it must be loosely based on the theme of “panic.”

Zeitgeist retains non-exclusive right to distribute the films submitted in all media. Any of the submissions may be included on our A Town Called Panic YouTube page, but only until December 31, 2010. Zeitgeist Films will have the non-exclusive right to include the winning film on our DVD for the life of the DVD, and for as long as Zeitgeist Films is the US distributor of A Town Called Panic.

Zeitgeist will post a selection of the films on the A Town Called Panic YouTube channel, both prior to and after the March 1st deadline (at our discretion). The nine runners-up will all be included on the YouTube channel until the end of 2010.

Filmmakers can be any age and the filmmaker’s age, if below 18, will be posted with their video unless otherwise requested.

The film can be a group effort but one person will need to be designated as the “filmmaker” for legal purposes. The contest is open to USA residents only. Employees of Zeitgeist Films and their families are not permitted to enter the competition. Zeitgeist reserves the right to not award a prize if the quality of the entries is not suitable for inclusion on our DVD.

Please see the complete rules and regulations on our entry form. All rules subject to the official terms and conditions of the “A Town Called Panic Stop-Motion Animation Contest.”

How to submit your film: