If you’re a budding or veteran animator, psst: Andrews McMeel Universal/GoComics is sponsoring a short-short (a minute or less) animation contest. The prize? $25,000! Watch this video for the basics, then hit this link to get all the details, rules, and whatnot. The deadline for entries is July 27th, 2018 so…get animated!
Get Animated!
Monday, June 25th, 2018
Nice juicy grand prize. However, just by entering you potentially can lose more than the prize. Check out this part of the contest rules, which looks like an overreach to me:
“Entrants agree that the Sponsor shall have the unrestricted right to use any ideas or information contained in any Video that is submitted, or materials or ideas similar to them, in any medium, now and in the future, without notice, compensation or other obligation to Entrant or any other person. Entrants further release and waive all claims against Sponsor with respect to any intellectual property or other proprietary rights, rights of publicity and privacy, rights of attribution, or any other liability under the governing law of the United States or Canada (and of any province or territory therein). Entrants warrant and represent that: (a) he/she/they is/are the sole author(s) and owner(s) of the Video’s intellectual property rights.”
Good call, Joel. Juicy prize money with a big BUT…
Reading the Rules of this contest leads me to suspect the Sponsor may be fishing for intellectual properties without payment to the Entrants (Creators). It seems like Entrants are basically giving the Sponsor unlimited rights to use their work/ideas without any compensation. The single lucky Entrant who wins essentially sells their property for a lump sum with no guarantee of future earnings.
Worth it if you win? Maybe. Worth the risk to enter? Nope.
True, at least to a point. IF you read any similar sorts of contest rules, they’re virtually identical: corporations as a matter of course routinely try to indemnify themselves against spurious claims and litigation. Why do you think movie studios won’t look at unsolicited scripts or shorts? They don’t want people accusing them of stealing their ideas. The way of the world. However, if you do your research on Andrews McMeel Universal and GoComics, you’ll find they have a pretty sterling reputation for treating creators both ethically and morally. Gary Larson, Bill Watterson, Pat Oliphant, or Gary Trudeau were all unknowns when they hooked up with Andrews McMeel. In other words, they’re not fishing for opportunities to steal anything from anybody, they’re just trying to attract new creators for new opportunities. It seemed to me that a chance to win a pretty nice sum for something animators might otherwise load on YouTube or Vimeo for free themselves without expectation of anything was a good idea and couldn’t hurt. Don’t trust them? Don’t participate. But SOMEBODY is going to win the prize.
Arnie,
Perhaps fishing is too judgmental a term. The intentions of the Sponsor may be both generous and talent nurturing, especially given your report above. However, from simply watching the video and reading the rules I didn’t recognize that the Sponsor is looking to partner up with creators to develop IP’s together, but I did read in black and white that creators would be giving the Sponsor rights to their work, even if they didn’t win the contest.
Get The Divorce School for free videos and podcasts, expert advice, and advice that will make you feeling ready and much more educated during your divorce. Discover. divorce papes