TMUnderground

As part of the celebrations in regard to the first birthday of TMU, we are looking to see which movies the "viewing public" loved over the last twelve months, in our 1st Annual Ollies!

The process is simple; we are looking for everyone (for indeed YOU, as the viewing public, will be the "members of the Academy" in these awards) to place their votes for the award categories below; everyone gets a vote and the winners will be chosen based on the total number of votes tallied for each category. This way, the community speaks, and the winners will be those voted for BY the community as a whole.

Procedure
1) Copy and paste the list below into a PM.

2) List your vote for each category against the category name.

3) Send the completed list to Killian via PM on the boards here, with a subject line of " CA Nominations". The votes will be tallied after the deadline, and the nominees and winners will be listed at a later date.

Any questions please feel free to ask Mr Tom Foster, who will be happy to field any queries you have (provided they’re not the ones about where babies come from, how many beans make five, or two trains start from New York and Chicago…).

Please note that both Tom and I have exempted ourselves from nomination for any of these awards to ensure fair play, so DON'T vote for either of us.

Rules
1) One vote per registered TMU member (you must include your screen-name at the top of your voting form).

2) You must complete every category on the list (i.e. no voting for “Best Picture” and leaving the rest blank, for example; partially completed forms will be disqualified from the final tally).

3) To qualify for nomination, the listed movie(s) must have been released on TMU between 22 July 2008 and 22 July 2009 (either via direct upload or embedding from another hosting site). Movies hosted/uploaded to other sites, which have NOT been embedded on the movie site, do not qualify (i.e. forum posts pointing to movies hosted off-site, for example).

As the Movie site lists movies by days since it was uploaded, the cut off point is: any movie uploaded 18 days ago OR MORE (correct as of Sunday 8 August 2009).

The last acceptable movie that could be voted on this year would therefore be Sanction27’s Mod Showcase movie for July 09; anything later than this would be acceptable for the 2010 Awards, but not this year’s.

3) All completed lists must be back by 31 August 2009.

4) You CANNOT vote for yourself or your own movies; you can only vote for ANOTHER community member.

5) No canvassing for votes will be allowed; anyone caught doing so will be DISQUALIFIED from nomination.

The votes cast will be tallied, and the top three in each category will go forward to the final stage. A list of the top three will be posted.

At that point, a second round of voting will be taken for the nominees; the movie or individual in each category with the highest number of votes cast will be judged the winner.

PRIZES
Prizes to be confirmed.

THE TMU MOVIE AWARDS
1. Best Picture (Best overall movie released on TMU in the last twelve months)

2. Best Director (Best overall director of movies in the last twelve months)

3. Best Actor (Best Male Voice over artist in a movie released in the last twelve months)

4. Best Actress (Best Female Voice over artist in a movie released in the last twelve months)

5. Best Newcomer (overall best new filmmaker, writer, voice artist, etc, to come into the community in the last twelve months)

6. Best Writer (for the writer who has shown consistently good scriptwriting ability over the last twelve months)

MOVIE AND SERIES INDIVIDUAL CATEGORY AWARDS (any length)
7. Best Drama

8. Best Comedy

9. Best Western

10. Best Romance

11. Best Sci-Fi

12. Best Action

13. Best Arthouse

14. Best Fantasy

15. Best Horror

16. Best Musical

17. Best War

18. Best Mystery

19. Best Trailer

TECHNICAL AWARDS
20.Best Soundtrack (Best music for a machinima movie; whether or not this music was composed especially for the movie or not)

21. Best Composer (the creator of the music soundtrack, NOT the film in which it was featured)

22. Best Sound Editing (best ambient and/or atmospheric sound use)

23. Best Sound Design (best use of sound effects, ambient sound, music and voice tracks overall)

24. Best Set Use in a Machinima Movie (modded sets or best use of existing sets)

25. Best Costume or Makeup in a Machinima Movie (best use of existing costume or makeup, or new costume/makeup)

26. Best Special Effects (outside edited using a third party program or particle effects from within the parent software)

26a. Best Prop for a Machinima Movie (custom mod for any engine)

TMU FILM AWARDS
27. Best Short Form Film (under 10 minutes) (any genre; total running time including credits must be under 10 minutes in length)

28. Best Long Form Film (over 10 minutes) (any genre; total running time including credits must be over 10 minutes in length)

29. Best The Movies Film (using The Movies engine; no length limit)

30. Best Moviestorm Film (using the Moviestorm engine; no length limit)

31. Best iClone Film (using the iClone engine; no length limit)

32. Best Other Machinima Movie (using any engine that does not have its own category (i.e. Sims1, 2 or 3, Poser, Antics, game engines, etc))

33. Best "Mash-up" Movie (using one or more software engines to produce)

34. Best Screenplay (the best SINGLE script for a movie; collaborations are allowed)

35. Best Subtitled Film (must NOT contain a vocal track, but can contain music or sound effects)

36. Best Non-English Movie Award (for the best Non-English machinima film on TMU (any engine))

37. Best Live Action Movie (live action film created by, shot by and/or starring a TMU community member)


THE "FILMIC COLLECTIVE" AWARDS
38. Best PR Campaign (posters, threads, teasers and trailers combined)

39. Best Movie Poster (self explanatory; the award is for the ARTIST who created the poster, not for the film or series for which it was produced)

40. Most Helpful Community Member (overall, including movie site commentary, forum posting and radio show appearances)

41. Funniest Comment on a Movie (must be derived from the movie page itself, not from the forums)

42. Best Comment on a Movie (must be derived from the movie page itself, not from the forums)

43. Most Entertaining Guest (for ANY TMOA Radio Show; this can be for the funniest, most informative, etc; the person you enjoyed hearing interviewed the most)

44. The Thong De Roger Award for Outstanding Contribution to TMU (the director/voice artist/writer/modder, etc that YOU think has epitomised TMU in the last twelve months)


If you are not sure of names (i.e. for things like the Composer category, for example), contact the filmmaker in question for the name (this is one reason why you should always use proper crediting for mods, VOs and music, folks!)

Please note neither categories nor rules are subject to negotiation.

And remember: these are YOUR awards; vote for the films, directors, writers, etc, who YOU think best encapsulate the spirit of the community.

You have until 12:00 midnight GMT on 31 August 2009 (3 full weeks, people!) to get the first round nominations in. Once these are in and tallied, we will produce the final nominees for the second round votes; submission guidelines for this will be posted after Round One.

Looking forward to seeing how the voting turns out!

Now, enough blather; get your thinking caps on and let’s have those votes in!