West Miami International Film Festival

The West Miami International Film Festival (WMIFF) has rules designed to help all submissions be treated fairly. Although the contest is open to the general public, specific rules have been included to assist primary and secondary school students and teachers.

1. Please review all of the rules carefully and comply with each. If any of the rules have not been followed, in fairness to others, that film will not be judged as part of the film festival.
2. Films should be uploaded to https://filmfreeway.com/wmiff
3. The film must be the original work of the submitter. (See below for the use of media content taken from online.)
4. One of the goals of the festival is to help students better understand digital citizenship issues related to intellectual property. Therefore, anyone entering will need to follow the very specific rules related to sources and citations (see below). Any image or audio used in the film must be "copyright friendly". For festival purposes, this means all images and audio used must be made by the student(s), or Creative Commons-licensed content taken from specified websites (see the list of approved sites below). All video footage must be recorded by the student, teacher or submitter.
5. All media used must be properly cited in credits at the end. See below for more specific instructions for each type of media and a model format for citations.
6. You will need release forms for anyone identifiable appearing in the video. Release forms are not to be sent to WMIFF unless requested; students should give these to the teacher/sponsor, who will confirm in the online entry form that he or she has signed release forms for anyone identifiable appearing in the video. The committee will ask for scanned versions of all release forms for videos that make the finalist round for ALL STUDENT ENTRIES. You may use your own release forms or the release forms provided by Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) which are available at the links below, if your school does not already have something similar that parents approve related to content posted online.
(a) Release Form for a Minor (requires signature of parent/guardian) MDCPS FORM 7489 Available http://forms.dadeschools.net/webpdf/7489.pdf
(b) Release Form for an Adult (age 18 or older) MDCPS FORM 5974 http://forms.dadeschools.net/webpdf/5974.pdf
7. Films must have been created on or after January 1, 2018.
8. Films must be appropriate for viewing by the general public, including elementary students (as with a movie rating of "G").
9. One may enter as many films as one wishes, but each one will require a separate entry form. (STUDENT ENTRIES) We encourage the student(s) and teacher/adult sponsor to sit down together and carefully complete the entry form.
10. Films must be in English, or include English subtitles.

If we select your submission for festival presentation we are allowed in any case to theatrically present your submitted production for public exhibition during the 2018-2019 Festival without charge of any screening fees or royalties. This is also true in case you have sold your work to any distributors after your submission date. We do not deal with distributors in any case -- so it is your duty of rights clearance for our festivals use of your work as part of any distribution deal you may strike. This is also true in case you have hired a sales agent or sales agency. If selected, filmmaker authorizes the West Miami International Film Festival to conduct up to six (6) theatrical screenings including festival program repetitions of selected works in other cinemas after the festival run and/or to conduct even complete re-runs or tours of our entire festival program in other cities as a complete festival program repetition. Selected works from our festival program may also be invited to participate in additional exhibition opportunities after the original run of the festival. The rights for those additional public screenings of your work (after the original festival run) will also be free of charge of any licensing fees or royalties for the organizers and administration of those additional screenings, should you agree to participate in any tours. We use a server technology for festival presentations/screenings. You give us your allowance to let us copy your work by copying the data from your submitted media to our digital data storage system server plus back-up and fall-back systems. For legal documentation one copy of your submitted work has to remain in the archives of West Miami International Film Festival. With your submission you declare that you are authorized to submit the contribution, that you own all the rights necessary for public screenings and that public screenings of your movie at the West Miami International Film Festival (plus possible program repetitions) are free of charge for the festival administration. In case your submission is accepted to the festival we might publish your contact, personal and filmographic data you have entered into the FilmFreeway system. With your submission you declare to accept the fact that we are allowed to publish those data (e.g. in the festival catalog both in print and online, festival reference on disk, on the festival web site etc.).

STUDENT/TEACHER RESOURCES

Sources and Citations
Your credits should be a list of all the sources of your images and audio. Remember that for the West Miami International Film Festival (WMIFF), all film footage must be recorded by the student(s) submitting the film. For this contest, your material must be your own work or copyright-friendly content (media other than footage) taken from one of the following websites:
Music: AudionautiX.com, ccMixter, Incompetech, or the YouTube Audio Library. You may also use the music offered in your editing software, as long as there are no restrictions running counter to the rules of the WMIFF If using music from a video editor, include that in your credits as in the model below.
Sound Effects: Freesound.org
Images: Openclipart, Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay, Unsplash, Openclipart, or Flickr (note that images MUST be Creative Commons licensed - for Flickr, search.creativecommons.org and you can choose the tab for Flickr, as this simplifies getting Creative Commons-licensed search results).
Remember that any footage (film recordings) you use must have been recorded by you, and not taken from an online source.
Citation Models
Your closing credits should be a list of all the sources of your images and audio. These sample citations should help you decide how to plan your credits, an essential part of any successful film.
Music: List the name of the piece, the artist, and the site from which it was downloaded. If the piece is one you created or recorded yourself, you must also provide a citation listing the software you used to create it.
Follow these examples:
-Corporation Motivation by Jason Shaw from Audionautix.com
-My Angst by Your Name created in Garage Band
-Happy Jingle from the WeVideo music library

Sound Effects: List the name of the effect, artist, and site from which it was downloaded. If the effect is one you created or recorded yourself, you must also provide a citation listing the software you used to create it. Follow these examples for citing what you use:
-Crowd laugh.wav by Adam_N from Freesound.org
-Students Laughing by Your Name created using Soundtrap
Images: List the name of the image, the name of the person who uploaded it, and the site. Note that the reason for going through the Creative Commons page is to insure that what you use will be copyright-friendly. If the image is one you took or created yourself, you must also provide a citation listing the date you created it. Follow these examples:
- Lamanai, Belize by joiseyshowaa from Flickr.com
- fantasy-landscape-elephant-man-sun-2995326 by kellepics from Pixabay.com
- My Younger Brother Throwing a Tantrum by Your Name taken December 2017
This playlist of short videos can help you better understand Creative Commons as it relates to this festival.