Eligibility –
Anyone can enter the Unnecessary Sequels contest. There are no age restrictions and entry is open to amateurs and professionals alike. No one working on the film, however, can be paid. The screenings and award ceremonies will be held at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, TX, but you can still participate even if you aren’t an ATX local. If you don’t live in Austin and still want to participate, just make sure your movie is mailed and in our hands by Tuesday, May 22

What Happens When You Sign Up –
After registering for the Unnecessary Sequels filmmaking challenge, you will see your team name and the movie you signed up to make a sequel for listed on our FILMS page spreadsheet. You will also receive a confirmation email letting you know if you are in Group A (screening May 22) or Group B (screening May 23). Your email will also include a username and password to the Unnecessary Sequels Flickr account, which you will use to upload the poster for your sequel. You’ll also receive a .pdf attachment of the official Screening Sheet, which you will use when you are handing in your film for the screening.

Film Content –
There are no restrictions to the content of the film except for these basic guidelines:

1. All films must be trailers for an as-yet-unmade sequel to a major motion picture.

2. All films must be between 45 seconds and 5 minutes long, including credits. Credits should be listed on one screen at the end, trailer-style, and not rolling for minutes like they would at the end of a feature.

3. All films must contain a shot with the assigned prop (a saint prayer candle, like the one pictured here) being utilized by one of the main characters.

4. The films can contain violence or nudity, but in keeping with Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission regulations, we cannot allow anything that would be deemed pornography. You may not harm real animals or unwilling people in the making of your video.

Poster Content –
In addition to completing a movie by the night of your screening, you must also create a poster for your movie and upload it to our Unnecessary Sequels Flickr account by 5pm on Tuesday, May 15. There are no restrictions to the content of the poster, and you can use any images you like.

Turning in Finished Movies and Finished Film Format –
Finished movies will be handed in at the pre-screening meet each night (location TBA). Filmmakers will bring a completed Screening Sheet along with a copy of their movie on DVD or mini-DV as well as a VHS BACK UP. This is important, guys - because we won’t be compiling a master DVD of this show before the screening, we won’t have an opportunity to let you know if there are playback issues with your movie. This gives you the added advantage of letting you tweak your edit until hours before showtime, but it also means that if there are any problems with playing back your movie on our system, WE CAN’T BE HELD RESPONSIBLE. DVDs and mini-DVs are both notorious formats for playing on one machine and not on another (especially mini-DVs). Hence the VHS back up. We know it isn’t as pretty, but it’ll play every time. If you don’t bring a copy on VHS and your movie doesn’t play, all we will be able to do is say we are sorry. If for some reason you can’t provide a DVD and a VHS, contact us ahead of time to let us know what you will need in order to get smooth playback and we will do what we can to work something out for you.

After the screening, we will be keeping those copies of the movies so we can compile a DVD for the Awards Ceremony, so don’t turn in your only copy of the movie and keep one for yourself.

Ownership of Movies –
The filmmakers maintain the rights to their finished videos. However, Unnecessary Sequels reserves the right to broadcast the videos, include scenes from videos in future promotional materials, and include videos in DVD compilations.

Online Distribution –
NO MOVIES MAY BE POSTED ONLINE PRIOR TO THE SCREENINGS. If we find your movie on YouTube before your group screens, you will be ineligible for the competition. After the screening, however, we will have a web interface set up so that everyone can upload their movie to YouTube and send us the URL and then all the films will be included, along with the filmmaking team and the poster, on one page on the Unnecessary Sequels website. Ideally, films should be uploaded to YouTube after the initial screening and before the Awards Ceremony.

Judging –
The main prizes will be determined by a panel of 3-5 jurors (names to be announced), who will be present at the screenings and provide commentary after the films. They will be scoring each film on a 0-100 GPA scale, and the top ten rated films will be honored in the Awards Ceremony. At the end of the Awards Ceremony we will announce the first and second place winners, as well as the winner of the Audience Award.

In the event of a tie in the jury scores, the audience votes will determine the Grand Prize Winner as well.

Prizes –
Thanks to the generous support of our sponsors, AMD and ME-TV, we've got fantastic prizes for this filmmaking frenzy. First place will receive $1,000 in cash AND a brand new AMD AthlonT-powered Dell PC. Second place will receive $750 cash, and the Audience Award winner will receive $250 cash. In addition to those prizes, the first place team will also receive a special VIP pass to the Alamo Drafthouse for all of the sequels of 2007!

Missing the Time Limit –
Films have to be turned in two hours before the screening and will be judged at the screening itself. If you can’t finish your movie by the time it’s supposed to be onscreen, we will only be able to say sorry. But please feel free to upload your movie online and then post a blog comment about how you sooooo would have won, if only your computer hadn’t given you those annoying export problems right at the last minute.

Screenings –
Your registration as a filmmaking team for this contest does not include any tickets to the screenings. If you plan on attending a screening, please purchase your tickets in advance on this page or on the Alamo Drafthouse’s main purchase page.

Best of and Awards Ceremony –
The Best of screening will be held at the Alamo Downtown on Tuesday, May 29. Every filmmaking team will be notified of the top ten films to be included in the Awards Ceremony by Friday, May 25, at 3pm. At the screening itself we will show all of the top ten films in random order, then announce the first, second and third place winners after the screening. Someone from each team must be present to claim their prize and make a stirring acceptance speech. The speech should inspire us all to look towards the future, while simultaneously making us slightly nostalgic for a simpler time and place.