FAQ and RULES

• To be accepted into competition, your short film has to adhere to the rules. Read them carefully!
• The team leader is responsible for registering the team, paying the registration fee and signing the Final Report before turning in the film.
• Uneton48 reserves the right to make changes to the rules before the competition weekend. The participants will be informed of any changes via email.

Download paperwork (release forms & Final Report)

To take part in Uneton48, you need to register a team. The competition is open for everyone.

The competition begins at 7pm on Friday. The film has to be handed in by 7.30pm exactly the following Sunday. This makes the competition time 48,5 hours. The extra half an hour is allowed for transport / uploading of the film. The official time can be checked on the Uneton48 website; whatever you use as a watch, please make sure it is set in the same time. Please allow time for parking, traffic congestion and public transportation delays, internet connection issues, etc..

Your Uneton48 short film can be in any language. If it’s in anything other than Finnish, Swedish or English, subtitles in English or Finnish are required. Subtitles must be embedded in the movie file, as we cannot use external subtitle files in the theatre screenings. NOTE: Save a non-subtitled version of your film for possible TV screening / other uses.

Your film should be between 2 and 7 minutes in length. This has to include the end credits. The length of the film is measured from the end of the opening slate to the end of credits. For more information on the opening slate, see the File Formats section below.

Uneton48 launch event is held in Helsinki, at 6pm on the Friday of the competition weekend. Everyone representing a team is asked to arrive already at 5.30pm. If your team for one reason or another can't make it to the launch event, don't worry: you can also check your genre and other information from the Uneton48 Facebook page (information will also be sent via email + available on Uneton website) after the launch.

During the competition launch, we reveal the final genre selection and the compulsory elements which have to appear in each film. Every team is also told which genre was assigned for their short film through a lottery. You may not swap genres with other teams. Creative interpretations and genre combinations are accepted. However, the original genre has to be clearly evident in your film.

If the team so wishes, their original genre may be swapped for the so-called “Black Horse” genre by asking the organisers to do so before Friday 21pm (email info@uneton48.com). A word of caution: the “Black Horse” genre is meant to be a difficult one, and you shouldn’t trade your original genre for it without a good reason. The “Black Horse” cannot be traded back for the original one after it has been requested.

Everyone involved in your film has to be a volunteer – no paid workers. Rewarding crew and cast members with food and drinks is recommended. The makeup of your team may change even during the weekend, as long as the names appearing in your end credits and paperwork are correct.

All creative work has to happen within the given 48 hours, including brainstorming, screenwriting, rehearsals, set dressing, makeup, camera work, editing, and sound editing. Certain preparations can be can done beforehand: assembling the team, securing gear, scouting locations, sourcing music and sorting out music copyrights.

All video material used in your short film must be filmed/created within the 48,5 hours. No previously shot video footage should be included. Because of copyright issues, you should also avoid having a TV or a radio on when filming, even in the background. Using animated footage is okay, as long as it’s also created within the timeframe. Previously taken still photos may be used, as long as the copyright is cleared. A previously created still or animated logo of your production company can be used in the beginning of your film.

Animation Uneton48 accepts animations. In this case, all animation (whether made by computer or by hand) have to be done within the 48,5 hours. Models used for stop motion animation can be created beforehand. With digital animation, you can use characters that are created beforehand. Otherwise, the same rules apply – the compulsory elements have to be included and the film must be in the given genre. Talent releases must be filled out for any voice actors and other paperwork submitted where applicable.

We recommend that teams work with local musicians and composers. Any personal connections come in handy, as the rights-managed music with its royalties is often too expensive. There are also many websites with royalty-free music and sound effects. The music does not need to be made within the competition weekend. In fact, we recommend you source possible songs and sound effects in advance.

Whatever the origin of your music, each song used in your movie has to be listed in your Music Release form (scroll up to download all forms). With royalty-free music, it’s good to mention the channel (website) it was downloaded from. When sourcing royalty-free music, make sure you get all distribution rights without any geographical, time or channel specific restrictions.

Beware of “student licenses”, “web licenses” etc. Royalty-free sound effects don’t need to be listed on the release forms. In the end, the producer of your film is accountable when it comes to music copyrights. More about music on Uneton48 HELPDESK.

Team members can be minors, as long as there is at least one adult involved. The adult has to be appointed as the team leader / producer, who is responsible for registering the team and signing the final report.

Good taste Uneton48 is not adult entertainment. Minors can take part in the filmmaking and the movie theatre screenings have an R-12 rating. So, to be in the competition, your film must adhere to the R-12 rating. More information on the ratings can be found on MEKU website (in Finnish).

While it’s possible to take part in Uneton48 from anywhere in the world, we recommend you to send a team representative to the competition launch in Helsinki. When this is not possible, you can check all the information relevant to your team (genre, compulsory elements, etc.) from the Uneton48 Facebook page (and email + Uneton48 website) after the launch event.

When turning in your movie, the team also needs to deliver a Final Report. In addition, the teams need to deliver documents containing details of everyone contributing to the film as well as all locations and music used. All of this can be delivered online. The documents need to be signed – if you are delivering your movie online, you can just scan or take a picture of the documents and sent them to us as well.

Drop-off Instructions You can deliver your film in two ways:

1. Online. Read instructions here. 
2. On a USB stick to our drop off location. Tape / carve / write your team name on the USB stick. Place it in a C5 envelope and write your team name and film title on it. Deliver it to Uneton48 drop off location, before 7.30pm on Sunday of the competition weekend. Which ever way you drop off your film, you must also fill out and send the online WRAP UP FORM.

When using the online drop off, this form must be received by us before 7.30pm on Sunday of the competition weekend.

Technical specs:

• Max. resolution 1920 x 1080 px. (HD) Minimum resolution: 1280 x 720 px
• If your aspect ratio is 4:3, pillar box the image within a 16:9 screen (black bars on sides)
• Accepted codecs are h264 and .mp4
• Your file size should be less than 2Gb. To ensure this, check that the combined bit rate of your audio and video is no more than 30mb/s (30 000kbit/s) (Please note that 10mbit/s is perfectly adequate for 1080p)
• Audio 16 / 24 bit and 44.100/48kHz – depending on the codec
• Your frame rate should be the Finnish standard 25fps.
• File names cannot include special characters. Spaces to replaced by _
• Your finished video should be delivered AS A FILE on a memory stick or by uploading it online.
• Sound will not be compressed for theatre screenings, but peaks are adjusted on the same level.
• Keep a copy of the original / master for yourself.
• Use an empty memory stick which contains no other files.
• Label your memory stick with your team name and place it in a C5 envelope that has your team name and the name of your film. In the beginning of your film, insert 2 seconds of black, followed by 5 seconds of this slate: TEAM NAME FILM NAME GENRE [competition year] White text on black background. Use sans serif font (such as Arial / Helvetica) so that the text covers appr. 3/4 of the frame. In the end of the film, please add the text “This short film was made as part of Uneton48 Festival 2017″

If you’ve secured sponsors for your production – great! However, we can’t allow “ad breaks” anywhere in your film and you may not add any company logos to your ending credits, as this may conflict with the official sponsor deals of Uneton48. You can mention your sponsors in the special thanks -section of your ending credits just like you would thank your mother and the guy who borrowed your team his car.

All films and end credits must adhere to the regulations on product placement and sponsorship: Advertising, sponsorship and product placement.

For cancellations made prior to 14 days from the event start date, the refund given is 80%. For cancellations made from 14 days prior to the event, the refunded amount is 50%.

Yes 🙂

Yes 🙂

Short answer is yes (your film needs to meet the requirements in the rules. See below).