Home

The 2009 Multimedia Contest is on!

SHORTCUTS ON THIS PAGE:

Let the 6th Annual Citizens for Global Solutions Multimedia Contest Begin!

$4,000 is up for grabs!

Citizens for Global Solutions is once again holding a contest for artists, webmasters, graphic designers, poets, video artists and creative activists who are interested in creating some unique digital art on the Web!

This year's theme is: "Choose Your Global Solution". The top contenders will be published on our website and the winners will get cold hard cash!


(You can follow this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or the Multimedia Blog)

ABOUT THE 'CHOOSE YOUR GLOBAL SOLUTION' THEME:

Did you ever read those interactive books when you were little, called CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE, where YOU, the reader, assumed the role of the main character and the story was told in second-person (i.e. "You walk into the cave and find a treasure chest...")? Those stories let you make choices every so often about where to go or what to do next until you made it to one of several possible endings.

Same concept, new spin.

The basic idea is called Interactive storytelling. It's actually been around for a long time. All interactive fiction has a couple of commonalities: 1) The stories or games must branch and 2) the viewer/player gets to make choices.

That's it. That's the concept.

 
Now for our spin:

We're asking YOU to create
a submission for this contest
where YOUR VIEWER gets to
make choices about GLOBAL ISSUES.
 

CONTEST FORMAT (What to create for this contest)

CONTEST FORMAT: This is our most experimental competition to date because we are leaving the format completely up to you!

  • If you are a video artist, create your video in segments so that the viewer can choose where the story should go.
  • If you are a poet or a rapper, break your spoken-word piece into parts to give the listener a choice about the next verses.
  • If you are a superstar-code-monkey, create an interactive website or a web-module with buttons and re-direct pages to tell your tale. 
  • If you are a Flash movie or game animator...um, you probably already know what to do because Flash animators are seriously hard core (p.s. YES - you ARE allowed to borrow flash code and action script to your heart's content as long as the resulting movie or game is YOURS and does not infringe on the rights of anyone else).
  • If you are a writer, buddy up with a graphic artist to give your on-line story some image pizazzz (yep, that's a word.....our contest, our rules). 
  • If you are a digital artist in a format we haven't mentioned, it's because we are not nearly as cool as you and our brains are still operating in version 1.0, but we invite you to surprise us with your creation!

In researching on the web to prepare for this project, we found that interactive story-telling can get quite complex.  But it doesn't have to. THAT's totally up to YOU!

A simple narrative might only have a couple of intersections.  If mapped out, it could look something like this:

If this type of story-telling is brand new to you and you need a little help fitting your ideas into this contest, feel free to contact us: contest[at]globalsolutions.org

GLOBAL ISSUES CONTENT

How to Choose Your Topic:

At Citizens for Global Solutions we work on behalf of A LOT of issues. All of our issues have one thing in common: they concern the whole world. We cover nuclear weapons, climate change, the rights of women, war crimes, support for the United Nations, human rights, and peacekeeping to name a few. Don’t go crazy! Pick ONE or TWO of these or other global issues, read about them, and work them into your adventure.

Make your main character interesting. He or She could be making choices on these issues from the standpoint of a world leader, a student, or even an alien - it's totally up to you!

Do not shy away from using humor. Do not shy away from sarcasm. Or, if you prefer, don’t be afraid to be very serious. Don’t worry!  If you have an interesting idea, but are stuck on something, we can help -- just drop us a line!

The resources on each of these issues are practically endless- we work full time to keep track of all of them. We don’t expect you to go in to great detail, but we expect you to learn a little about the issues that you talk about in your story. Our website has detailed pages on all of the issues. 

To get you started, take a look at these web links:

Nuclear weapons

1. CGS's Nuclear Weapons Page
2. Facts about U.S. nuclear weapons
3. Arms Control

Women’s Rights

1. CGS's Women’s Rights Page
2. International Violence Against Women
3. The U.N. Women’s Treaty

Human Rights

1. CGS's Human Rights Page
2. The Work of Human Rights Watch
3. The Work of Amnesty International  

Climate Change

1. CGS's Climate Change Page
1. Building a sustainable world
2. The Copenhagen Conference

International Peacekeeping

1. CGS's Peacekeeping Page
2. Benefits of Investing in U.N. Peacekeeping
3. Refugees International's Work on Peacekeeping

The United Nations

1. CGS's United Nations Page
2. The Work of the United Nations Foundation
3.  The United Nations Home Page

Crimes Against Humanity

1. CGS's International Criminal Court Page
2. Human Rights First’s Crimes Against Humanity Page 
3. The International Criminal Court


OTHER GLOBAL ISSUES:

Start here: www.globalissues.org

CONTEST RULES

Please read through ALL of the rules...we'll try not to hurt your brain too much:

  1. ELIGIBILITY: The Citizens for Global Solutions' 2009 Multimedia Contest (the "Contest") is open to:
    • All people, U.S. and Non-U.S. residents alike; Non-U.S. contestants will be subject to a 30 per cent reduction in any awarded prize money as required by applicable U.S. tax law. Any entrant under 18 years of age must have his or her entry co-signed by an authorized parent or guardian.
    • All entrants must have Internet access, an Email address and be a registered participant in order to compete in the Contest. Registration is available here: http://multimedia.globalsolutions.org/2009
      #
  2. ORIGINALITY: All entries must be original pieces that do not infringe on the work of any third party. Entrants must own all rights to his/her submission, without limitation of 3rd party copyrights in any written content, recordings, lyrics and performances contained in the submission. In other words, give us something new, and don’t rip off someone else’s work! The use of copyrighted material will automatically disqualify your entry.

    Entries may contain musical accompaniment. However, the musical component and/or accompaniment of any video entry must be: royalty-free music or in the public domain or entirely original (created and performed by you).  Google "royalty free music" and you will be able to access all kinds of websites that offer music that is free and legal to use, such as: http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/
    Flash movies/games, websites, and other code-based entries may contain non-proprietary 3rd party source code, action script, html, integrated platform modules, and other web-development objects as long as they are "open-source" or freely and publically distributed, and as long as the entrant has modified their submission to represent an original customized entry.
    #
  3. SUBMISSION RELEASE: All submissions must be available to Citizens for Global Solutions for unlimited use, in whole or in part, for any purpose (including website promotion of future Multimedia Contests, future DVD distribution, educational use, film festivals, and theatrical distribution) without notification or compensation beyond the cash prizes given during the life of the Contest.
    #
  4. FORMAT & TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS: Entries in this contest will NOT be limited to specific file types. However the maximum file size for any audio or video file submission is 100MB.

    You must include the following information viewable at the beginning of your entry:
  5. OFFENSIVE CONTENT: Submissions must not contain racial and/or religious slurs and must not promote the imagery of physical violence or sexual violence. In terms of other language, we here at the national office do not support censorship; however, anything that we post on our website is going to be seen by all of our members and thousands, if not millions of other people. So, we ask you to carefully consider the language you use. Citizens for Global Solutions reserves the right to disqualify any entry that is deemed overly offensive, which is subject to the opinion of staff at the national office. If you’re not sure, ask us at contest[at]globalsolutions.org

IMPORTANT CONTEST DATES:

 

September 21st: Contest Begins

December 1st: Submission Deadline

December 17th: Winners Announced

CASH PRIZES

 

The 2009 contest's First, Second and Third Place winners will be determined by a judging panel (judging panel bios coming soon).

The 2009 People's Choice Award will be determined by viewer voting on this website.

The cash award amounts will be as follows:

1st Place Award: $2,000

2nd Place Award: $1,000

3rd Place Award: $500

People's Choice Award: $500

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY

No matter what format you have created your entry, you will be able to use our on-line submission form to submit your entry.


+ CLICK HERE TO USE OUR ONLINE SUBMISSION FORM

 

If you have any trouble with this form, let us know!

If you need to submit your entry in a different way, you can use YouSendIt.com or another method of your choice. Use the contact form on this site to let us know about your alternative submission needs.

CONTACT US

Questions? Need Help?

Use our CONTACT page. We are monitoring the contact page messages everyday and will respond to your question(s) ASAP.

You can also call us at: 202-546-3950 x107