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Video Showcase: CHI 2009 Call for Participation

Quick Facts

  • Submission: Register intent by 3 October 2008 (5:00pm PDT), Upload Video by 10 Oct 2008.
  • Peer-Review Notification: 28 November 2008
  • Final Video Ready: 12 January 2009
  • Submission Format: a digital video file in a required format described below.
  • At the Conference: CHI fame in showing your video at the special Video Showcase session as well as prominent continuous loop videos in the conference venue. BEST VIDEO Golden Mouse Awards will be given in Oscar-ceremony style.
  • Archives: DVD and ACM Digital Library

Message from the Video Showcase Co-Chairs:

Submit your work to this new exciting category to create a high-standard for next year's videos! Challenge your colleagues to best your video!

Video Showcase will be a high-visibility program that showcases the best new UI techniques and methods, as well as the visions of the future of HCI. By engaging the audience in a video storytelling format, attendees will be able to get exposed to a wide variety of ideas in a short period of time. The analog of this program at SIGGRAPH is the "electronic and animation theater." Just as in that venue, you will show your video in front of a large CHI audience.

Through the video, you can show a working prototype in action, a ubicomp device in the real world, or bring the audience into the actual working environment in which the tool was designed for. Your imagination is the limit! Show us your creativity!

Ed H. Chi, Palo Alto Research Center
Elizabeth Dykstra-Erickson, ACM
Contact us: videoshowcase@chi2009.org

What is CHI Video Showcase?

CHI Video Showcase provides a venue for researchers and practitioners to demonstrate prototypes and systems in a video storytelling format. We will show your video in front of a large audience. The video could tell the story of a new design, a new vision, or a new interactive technique, or even an interesting failure, or whatever is in your imagination. THe video could demonstrate prototypes, systems, design concepts, visions of HCI, uses of technology in novel contexts or extreme environments, telling the story of how technology is used by a community. For example, in addition to prototype and research system demonstrations, we are also interested in submissions of compelling videos and human interest stories with a technological twist coming from ethnographic studies, technologies in the developing world, etc. The key here is to tell a story that is engaging or spark the imagination of the viewer. The video content is up to you.

Preparing and Submitting your CHI Video Showcase Video

Originality: The requirements for originality are less strict for the Video Showcase than for papers and notes - therefore it is possible to submit work that has already been published elsewhere, as long as you make this clear in the submission. We also encourage creative Video Showcase submissions that complement a CHI 2008 Paper or Note submission, so that attendees can get a direct experience of your work in addition to the technical presentation.

Submission method: The Video Showcase submission must be submitted as via the PCS submission system. Submitted videos are for review purpose only and will not be published. However, successful submissions will have be included on the CHI 2008 Conference DVD.

Length: The video submission should be no bigger than 75MB. There is no set time limit for the videos, but submissions will be weighed in terms of length versus the referees' perception of the video's quality, value, excitement, and contribution. We realize that making shorter films is more difficult, but shorter films allow more programming flexibility, and can be shown more often. The showcase will mostly consist of pieces shorter than 5 minutes but longer pieces that are exceptional will also be selected.

Please make sure that your video is playable on standard PC and Macintosh computers.

  • The total time for titles and credits together must be no longer than seven seconds. For example, a three-second title card and four seconds of credits falls within this limit. Your complete credits list will be documented in the printed program.
  • The movie file should use a square pixel aspect ratio with a horizontal resolution of at least 640 pixels and at most 1280 pixels. Examples of acceptable pixel resolutions are 640 x 360 pixels, 640 x 480 pixels, 720 x 540 pixels, 1024 x 576 pixels, and 1280 x 720 pixels. If your piece is 720 x 480 pixels with an NTSC 0.9 anamorphic pixel-aspect ratio, please resize it to 640 x 480 pixels or 720 x 540 pixels to avoid your film being screened wider than it should appear.
  • The preferred movie file frame rates are 24fps and 30fps.
  • Valid container file formats are Windows .avi, QuickTime.mov, and .mp4.
  • Valid video codecs are DivX, H.264, Sorenson, MPEG-4, and WMV.
  • Valid audio codecs are uncompressed, AAC, AC3, and MP3.
  • Total compressed file size must be at most 75 MB.
  • Make sure the Total Run Time (TRT) listed on your online submission form is accurate.
  • Make sure the video has an ACM copyright notice as part of the video.

Finally, you will need to fill out a submission form on the PCS website, including a short abstract and uploading a still image that represents your work. The image is required for publications and pre-conference publicity, and it is used as a visual icon for your video during the jurying process.

Your still image must be submitted digitally via the online submission system, one image per entry. Send the highest quality possible, at least 300 dpi at 5 inches wide x 4 inches tall (pixel resolution of at least 1500 x 1200), in a standard graphics file format.

CHI Video Showcase Review Process

All submissions are juried together, and there are no strict rules for acceptance. All submissions will be reviewed by at least 3 independent reviewers. The jury primarily looks for a combination of innovation and excellence. A longer list of traits the jury typically looks for includes originality, artistic achievement, technical accomplishment, technical innovation, production value, creativity, resolution, narrative quality, design, entertainment value, and advancement of interactivity.

The running time limitation of the venue makes it impossible for it to include all of pieces chosen by the jury for the showcase. While the selections will be the "best of the best," other factors such as balance of categories, film run times, and film resolution also affect where pieces are presented.

Third-party material and copyright

It is very important that you have the rights to use all the material that is contained in your submission, including music, video, images, etc. Attaining permissions to use video, audio, or pictures of identifiable people or proprietary content rests with the author, not the ACM or the CHI conference.

Submissions will not be published or shown at the conference without a signed form releasing publishing copyright to the ACM.

In addition, you will be allowing ACM and SIGCHI to upload your video into the ACM Digital Library and YouTube or equivalent video-sharing sites as a CHI2008 Video Showcase collection.

FAQ about submissions

Is there a time limit or general suggested length that will help my submission's chances for acceptance?

There is no fixed or ideal time limit for submitted projects, and exceptional work will not be rejected because of its duration. Ultimately, innovation and excellence are the deciding factors. The jury might ask submitters of longer pieces to edit for time.

I will not have my work finished by the submission deadline. Is it possible to submit a teaser or a trailer or promo piece as a placeholder until the actual footage is complete?

No. The jury reviews the quality of the work actually submitted.

May I submit my unfinished work as a "work in progress" if it is not complete by the submission deadline?

A work in progress may be submitted if it reasonably represents at least 80 percent of the final piece.

My piece makes use of commercially recorded music. Is this OK? What if I use my own rendition of someone else's song?

Using commercially recorded music in an video is only acceptable if you acquire synchronization rights for the recording you are using, or performance rights if you use your own rendition of someone else's song. Such rights are your responsibility, and CHI will not purchase these rights for you. While in many cases music rights can be obtained inexpensively, well-known popular music is frequently difficult to license.

Synchronization licenses must be secured for inclusion of copyrighted musical compositions in film or video presentations. Securing synchronization rights involves approvals from both the music publisher and the record label that owns the original master recording. This process is sometimes straightforward, sometimes painful, and sometimes, often for well-known popular recording artists, impossible. All submitters are encouraged to secure music rights for their films as early as possible in the production. For more information on music licensing, and to find the necessary contacts for the recording you would like to use, see the ASCAP and BMI web sites.

I'm trying to upload my film through the electronic submission system, and I can't tell if it's working. It's been going for over an hour since I clicked the Submit button.

Uploading a large movie file takes a significant amount of time even on a fast network connection. Even if it does not look like anything is happening, your movie file very likely is still uploading. Please test the system (and ideally, upload your final film) many days in advance of the deadline to gauge the upload time required for your material. Note that network performance may decrease close to the deadline due to the large number of submissions. Once your material is uploaded, a web page will indicate the successful upload, and you can return to the electronic submission page to re-download your material to verify that it uploaded properly.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality of submissions is maintained during the review process. All rejected submissions will be kept confidential in perpetuity. All submitted materials for accepted submissions will be kept confidential until the start of the conference.

Upon Acceptance of your CHI Video Showcase

Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection on 28 Nov 2008 or shortly after.

At the Conference

Video Showcase at CHI consists of two parts: Videos are shown during a special conference session in a party-like atmosphere, and the videos will also be shown in a continous loop at a high traffic area of the conference venue.

After the Conference

Accepted Videos will be distributed in the CHI Conference DVD. They will also be placed in the ACM Digital Library, where they will remain accessible to thousands of researchers and practitioners worldwide.