It's time for the Eighteenth Annual South Dakota Student Media Fair!

Sponsored by the South Dakota Association for Communications and Technology (SDACT), a section of the South Dakota Library Association and the Northern Plains AECT, affiliated with the National Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT).
Below please find information about the 2009 Student Media Fair, including general rules and a link to the official entry form.
Here are the important dates:

• Entries must be postmarked by March 15, 2009
• Winners will be notified by email by March 30, 2009
• The Media Fair will be held at the TIE Conference in Rapid City on April 19-21, 2009.
• Additional information about the show and the awards ceremony will be available later.
• Direct questions and concerns to:
  Elizabeth Simmons
  (605) 677-5844
  esimmons@usd.edu

Please encourage students in your school to explore the possibilities of communications through audiovisual media productions.

GOOD LUCK!
PLEASE PASS THIS INFORMATION TO INTERESTED PERSONS.
 

GENERAL RULES

1. The contest period for this Media Fair runs for a full calendar year from one contest due date to the next. Student projects completed after the TIE conference last spring are eligible for this competition. However, entries submitted to this Media Fair may not have been entered in any prior competition.
   
2. The media categories in this contest are: studio video, home video, commercial print authoring design program, computer presentation with sound, animation, computer generated art, and digital photography. Productions in these categories may be entered on any topic or theme that student producers select. There are four separate grade classifications in each of the media formats. Please check the age category on the entry blank carefully so that student producers will be competing against other producers approximately their own age. Entries that are the work of more than one student should be entered in the category of the oldest member of the group.
   
3. All entrants must give SDACT/NPAECT approval to make copies of their entry to be used for future promotion.
   
4. All entries must register online at http://soe.usd.edu/elizabethsimmons/Media_Fair/media_fair.htm and be accompanied by an official entry form or photocopy of the same. All information requested on the form must be completed or the entry will not be considered in the competition. All entries must portray language and subjects appropriate to the school setting. Entries will be judged by a panel of media professionals and returned.
   
5. Faculty or parent guidance is recommended, especially at the lower grade levels; but selection of subject matter, planning and production must be accomplished by the student(s).  All entries must be completely generated by students; and may be part of the regular academic program, or may be a creative endeavor that is student-initiated.
   
6. Participants may enter as many times as they wish, but prizes to any producer will be limited to one.  Awards for first place and honorable mention will be given within each media category and grade classification. The Award of Merit (a cash prize!) will be awarded to the most outstanding entry of all media. Each participant will receive a certificate of participation.
   
7. Entries should comply with the copyright law. This includes music. Copyright free images and music may be found online. Contents of productions should be original in nature.  For example, scanning illustrations from a book as the pictorial content of a computer art or authoring production is discouraged as not being original and is, undoubtedly, copyright infringement.
   
8. Each entries should be sent in a plastic bag, with the printed results page from the online entry form, the student certification form.
   
9. All entries must be completely labeled. Entries must include the correct entry fee:
   • $7.00 for individual (for a project developed by one person - to be judged individually)
   • $12.00 for each entry from a group (2-10 people worked on the project -and it is judged as ONE entry)
   • $27.00 for each entry from a class (over 10 people worked on the project - and it is judged as ONE entry
10. This fee is to cover part of the costs of the Media Fair.  Please make checks payable to NPAECT. All entries will be judged in three areas: content and organization, technical quality, and general effectiveness. Professionally qualified judges will evaluate entries.
11. All entries must be accompanied by two copies of the results page of the online completed entry form and postmarked by March 15, 2009. Entries must be sent to:
                  Elizabeth Simmons
                  Curriculum and Instruction
                  University of South Dakota
                  414 E. Clark Street
                  Vermillion, SD  57069-2390
    
12. All entries will be on display at the TIE Conference in Rapid City, April 19 - 21, 2009.  Students, parents, and advisors are encouraged to come and view the entries. Specific information about the show and exhibit hours will be available later.

SPECIFIC FORMAT RULES

VIDEO

1. Entries must be submitted ONLY on half-inch VHS videocassette or in DVD format.  A dubbed program from another format is acceptable. One entry per disc. Each entry must be submitted on an individual videocassette or disc.
   
2. The use of slides or films on the video should augment the video script and not be the basis of it.
   
3. Video entries must be identified with the producers name and school on both the cassette and storage box.
   
4. Entries will be divided into four categories:
   1. Studio Single Concept:  2 (two) minutes or less
      
   2. Studio Feature video:  10 (ten) minutes or less
      
   3. Home Single Concept:  2 (two) minutes or less
      
   4. Home Feature video:  10 (ten) minutes or less
5. All entries must comply with general rule #5.

ANIMATION

1. Entries must be submitted ONLY on half-inch VHS videocassette or in DVD format.  A dubbed program from another format is acceptable.  Each entry must be submitted on an individual videocassette or disc.
   
2. The animation may either be stop action, or from a computer animation program like Flash, or Photoshop.
   
3. Video entries must be identified with the producers name and school on both the cassette and storage box.
   
4. Entries will be divided into two categories:
   1. Single Concept:  2 (two) minutes or less
      
   2. Feature video:  10 (ten) minutes or less

PHOTOGRAPHY

1. Entries may be entered as individual color, black and white, or digital (black and white or color) pictures; no photo essays please.
   
2. Entries should be mounted and properly packaged to avoid postal damage.
   
3. The photograph may range in size from 5" x 7" to 11" x 14".
   
4. A title or caption may be used.
   
5. Full documentation for exposure, film type, lens, light source, and printing data should be provided if available.
   
6. Entries must have proper identification on the back.
   
7. Digital photographs may have no other manipulation other than minor exposure correction.  Manipulated images should be entered under Computer art.
   
8. All entries must comply with general rule #5.

COMMERCIAL PRINT AUTHORING PROGRAM

1. Entries for this category include computer-generated projects that communicate a central idea.  These projects have been created using a commercial print and design authoring program and are completely original in text and artistic content.  Examples of appropriate projects include: a local history project, a combined creative writing and art project, or a class document covering an environmental project in the community (including text and graphics).
   
2. Entries must include documentation including the computer model, level of operating system, and the version of the program used.  All documentation must be identified with the producer's name and school.
   
3. Entries should be submitted in a printed version only.
   
4. School yearbooks, newspapers, and newsletters have their own competition via journalism departments.  Please do not submit those types of productions to this contest.
   
5. All entries must comply with general rule #5.

COMMERCIAL PRESENTATION AUTHORING PROGRAM

1. Entries for this category include computer-generated projects that communicate a central idea.  These projects have been created using a commercial presentation authoring program, such as PowerPoint  and are completely original in text and artistic content.  They must be automatically progressing and include both sound and text. Examples of appropriate projects include: a local history project, a combined creative writing and art project, or a class document covering an environmental project in the community (including text and graphics).
   
2. Entries must include documentation including the computer model, level of operating system, and the version of the program used.  All documentation must be identified with the producer's name and school.
   
3. Entries should be submitted in a printed version only.
   
4. All entries must comply with general rule #5.

COMPUTER GENERATED ART

1. Entries should be submitted in a printed version only.
   
2. Entries must include documentation identifying the computer model, level of operating system, name of software and version used.  All documentation must be identified with the producer's name and school.
   
3. The nature of the project may be instruction or entertainment.
   
4. Entries should be mounted and properly packaged to avoid postal damage.
   
5. All entries must comply with general rule #5.