• The Harmony Day Short Film Competition is open to school students in all schools in Australia. Entries are based on the student’s school year for 2024.

• Group works will be classified according to the oldest student in the group.

• Submitted film must be the student’s original creation! Making a copy of any pre-existing film is not acceptable. 

• Entries can be submitted in the following formats:

  • • XXX.mp4
    • XXX.mp4

• All entries must be audiovisual.

• Number of Entries: students may submit one individual entry and one joint entry with other students.

THE ENTRIES MUST

• be solely the work of the student(s). Teachers may provide guidance, practical assistance and skill development for their students

• be 90 to 120 second in length (anything shorter or longer will not proceed to judging).

THE ENTRIES MUST NOT

• Infringe copyright. Read the copyright link below. All winners will be required to complete copyright declarations including acknowledging the source of any materials incorporated in their work and permission to use it where applicable.

• Contain the full name of students in either the body of the entry, the title or the credits.

•  

Before you incorporate externally sourced copyright material in your entry please read the following guidelines and tips that will hopefully allow you to choose this material more carefully, so you can be confident that your project will not be disqualified due to a ‘copyright issue’.

Main points

1. Create your own instead of copying someone else’s.
2. Find material that is ‘free to use’ and allows you to use it in the way you wish.
3. Acknowledge/attribute the owner, creator and source of any copyright
   material you use.

Summary

• The best way of avoiding ‘copyright issues’ is to create the material yourself and you will be rewarded with automatic copyright protection of your material. Under Australian law there is no requirement for a copyright work to be registered
  before acquiring protection – it is the default. Also, there will not be any need to provide proof or evidence of permissions and approvals.
• Copyright law gives legal protection to material such as photographs, drawings, paintings etc (artistic works), music (musical works and sound recordings), text, articles, stories etc (literary works) and film and video (cinematograph films). You may only use (that is, reproduce & communicate or distribute) copyright material with the approval of the copyright owner. This approval may be in the form of a licence attached to the material (eg Creative Commons licence) or it may take the form of certain allowable uses as described in the ‘Terms and Conditions’ or ‘Terms of Use’ link on a website.
• If the material you wish to use does not have any of these types of approvals you may need to contact the copyright owner or the creator and seek permission directly.
• Try to find websites that have ‘free to use’ material and that allow you to use it in the way you intend to use it in your project.
• Any use of someone else’s copyright material should always be acknowledged in your project, with the name of the copyright owner and creator and the source of the material (eg url or website address).
• Copyright however, doesn’t last forever – if the creator of copyright material has been dead for more than 70 years it is likely that this material will now be ‘out of copyright’ and in the ‘public domain’ and freely useable by anyone.

There will be a prizes awarded for the winners in the following sections of the competition:

• • • Junior section 1 Years K – 2
    • Junior section 2 Years 3 – 6
    • Senior section 1 Years 7 – 9
    • Senior section 2 Years 10 – 12

In each section the winner will receive $250.

The following information describes how to enter the Harmony Day Multimedia Short Film Competition (‘Competition’). By entering the Competition each entrant agrees to be bound by these terms and conditions. 

Students should produce a creative short film that expresses and promotes the theme “Harmony Day – What Can We Do?”, though these words need not be used in the film.  The film can be fictional or documentary in style or even a personal story.  It could even take the form of an advertisement.  Use your imagination.  It may be an animated film or a film of real people, or both; or it may not contain any moving images or words at all. 

• Enter using the online entry form on our website https://movingforwardtogether.org.au

• Films must be loaded up to YouTube at the URL supplied on the entry form. Click this link for instructions on how to load the film up to YouTube and get its URL.

• Teachers should retain the original permission to publish and photograph/film/record form for all persons depicted in the film and the copyright declaration form. Moving Forward Together will request the original forms for any prize winners.  Both forms are available on our website at: www.movingforwardtogether.com.au   

• There is no entry fee.

• All entries must be received no later than 5pm on the 12 April 2024, or such later date as the judges may determine, to be eligible for judging in the Competition.

• All winners and, where appropriate their parents or guardian, are required to sign the forms  stating that the film is solely the work of the students and granting a license to the Harmony Day Multimedia Film Competition Committee to use the film.

In the case of multiple students entering a single poster the “Year of Study” will be determined from the student in the group with the highest “Year of Study”.

A panel of judges, consisting of educators, film and ICT specialists, will be appointed by the Harmony Day Competition Committee to judge the Competition.

The judges’ decisions on all matters in connection with the Competition will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.

The prize winners will be advised of their success once the judging has been completed and the prize winners, together with a limited number of guests, will be invited to the prize giving function that will be held in NSW Parliament House in June 2024.

The overall winners will be invited to talk about their short film at the prize giving function.

Entrants will retain all copyright and other intellectual property rights in any film entered by them in the Competition. Each entrant agrees that should his or her film be selected as a prize winner, the Harmony Day Competition Committee will be licensed to use the film as submitted and also have the right to make and publish a recording of the film for publicity purposes in connection with the Competition (or any future competition) without any compensation for a period of 12 months commencing from 12 April 2024.

By entering the Competition, the entrant agrees to comply with these rules and to be bound by them.

• The Contest organiser assumes no responsibility for lost, stolen, delayed, damaged, illegible, incomplete, postage due or misdirected entries, or for any problems with technical malfunction or any telephone network or lines, computer on-line systems, servers, access providers, computer equipment, software failure or any entry to be received or transmitted, congestion on the internet or at any website, or any combination thereof including any injury or damage to an entrants or any other person’s computer related to or resulting from using or downloading any material in the contest.

• By entering this Contest, entrants agree that MFT and its members, directors, and other groups supporting the competition, are not liable for any loss or damage of any kind to the entrant or any other person in connection with this Contest or participation in any Contest related activities, including but not limited to the use or misuse of a prize or any portion of a prize including personal injury or property damage.

• MFT reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to modify, cancel or suspend this Contest or any part of it should external circumstances arise which are beyond the reasonable control of the Contest Organiser.

• MFT is not responsible for any errors or omissions in printing or advertising this Contest. This Contest will run in accordance with these Contest Rules, subject to amendment by MFT.

Each entrant, by entering into the Competition, agrees to indemnify and hold the members of the Harmony Day Competition Committee and each of the judges harmless from and against any claims inconsistent with the film not being original and solely the work of the entrant(s). Each entrant also agrees to release, indemnify, and hold members of the Harmony Day Competition Committee and each of the judges harmless for any liability, damages, or claims for injury or loss to any person or property relating to, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, his or her participation in the Competition.

All enquiries related to the competition should be emailed to  

ernie@movingforwardtogether.org.au

Moving Forward Together is committed to a strict privacy policy. It will not share any personal data about entrants with any other party, without the consent of the parent, teacher, program manager or guardian. Moving Forward Together collects personal information for the purposes of registration, program evaluation and to keep you informed about the contest.

Try to find websites or other sources that provide ‘free to use’ content. Some sites may require registration and you should always check that the licence or terms of use allow you to use the material in the way you intend to use it in your project. If in doubt, don’t use it.

Video

Music

Photographs

Other graphics

GENERAL TIPS

Type of use

Remember that the copyright rules for any WeCreate project or submission are slightly different to the rules that apply at school. You cannot take advantage of the educational copying provisions of the Australian Copyright Act (Pt VB) which allows teachers and students to copy and use copyright material without obtaining permission from the rights holders. These provisions can only be used if the copied material is not shown or made available outside of the educational institution or the school community. As your project may be shown to a wider audience, these copying provisions are inapplicable in this context.

Fair use/fair dealing

When searching for material on the web you may come across the term ‘fair use’ that allows fair use of copyright material without the owners approval. Fair use is a feature of US copyright law and does not apply in Australia. Don’t confuse the US fair use provision with the Australian copyright concept of ‘fair dealing’ which is a lot more defined and limited in scope than the open nature of US fair use.

It is unlikely that you will be able to take advantage of the Australian ‘fair dealing’ provisions in your project so it is recommended that you find ‘free to use’ material or seek permission from the owner. 

Youtube videos

If you want to use a Youtube video in your project you will need to embed it as you are not able to download You Tube videos from the Youtube site. Embedding involves copying a piece of code to your webpage which results in that particular video being streamed directly through a window in the webpage. This approach neatly sidesteps copyright as there is no actual copying taking place.

Caution – there are several Youtube mirror sites that allow you to actually download the videos – DO NOT USE THESE SITES – they are illegal and could jeopardise your project.

General note of caution:

As wonderful as the worldwide web is, it can be a trap for players young and old … beware!

If an offer seems too good to be true, if a claim seems a bit too fantastic, if something just doesn’t seem right … then tread with caution, be sceptical and ask some else to check it out and see what they think.