Frequently-asked-questions

WHAT IS GENERO.TV?

Check out the About page for a bit of info on who we are and what we’re about.

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WHAT DOES ‘GENERO’ MEAN?

It’s a latin word meaning to create or produce.

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WHAT KIND OF MUSIC VIDEOS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?

We’re all about creativity and pushing the boundaries in terms of what music video is and what it can be. There are no real guidelines on what we’re looking for, but make it creative, innovative, high quality and entertaining. The winning video becomes the official music video for the song so keep that in mind when making your video.

We can only accept high quality videos that have the potential to become official videos. We don't want lip syncing videos or travel/family/stock footage set to music, in fact we probably won't publish them. Make sure your video is also shot in 16:9 or wider so it can be used across all of today's media platforms.

We moderate every video to check not only for appropriateness, but also for quality of concept, creativity and film making. We apologise in advance if your video isn't published because it isn't deemed of sufficient quality to potentially be used as an official music video, but we have a responsibility to each of the artists and labels we work with to make sure the videos being made for their music and published on our site are of a high quality.

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I’VE GOT A GREAT VIDEO OF ME LIP-SYNCING TO ONE OF THE FEATURED SONGS. WHAT ARE MY CHANCES OF WINNING?

Even though your friends would probably find it funny to watch you, basic lip-syncing videos aren’t what we’re looking for. So apart from not winning it probably wouldn’t make it past our moderators because we’re really focused on quality videos, not quantity.

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WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I’M HAVING PROBLEMS AND NEED HELP?

Firstly, have a read through these FAQ to see if we’ve already covered it here. If not, Contact Us and we’ll get back to you to help sort it out.

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WHY SHOULD I REGISTER?

There are some things we only allow registered users to do like upload videos, comment on videos and download our featured tracks - so if you want to do any of those things then you'll need to register. Even if you don't want to register, feel free to have a look around, watch some videos and enjoy Genero.tv!

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HOW CAN I KEEP UP TO DATE ON ALL THE STUFF HAPPENING WITH GENERO.TV?

The short answer is to come back often - hell, why ever leave? But if you do have other stuff going on in your life the best way is to join Genero and opt in to emails - we'll send you a short email whenever a new competition launches.

Already a Genero member but don't get the emails? Just go to your profile page, click 'edit profile', and opt in to our update emails.

Of course we're on your social network of choice too! Follow us on: Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest.

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WHAT IS HD?

HD stands for "high definition" which gives a richer, clearer, and more life-like picture than standard TV.

Please note we no longer allow SD video entries - this is because they cannot be used as an official music video in today's media.

For competition entries please upload an HD version that has a minimum resolution of 1280x720, or even better if it has a resolution of 1920x1080.

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WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH FILMING IN PUBLIC? DO I NEED A PERMIT?

The laws for filming in public differ between countries and even cities so we can't give you a complete answer on this. You'll need to check with your local film commission or similar body. Here are a few resources though that might help as a starting point.

• UK Film Council: http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/publicspaces
• Paris Film Office (in English): http://www.parisfilm.fr/uk/guidelines.html
• Australian Copyright Council: Filmmakers and Copyright infosheet
• New York: http://www.nyc.gov/html/film/html/permits/shooting_home.shtml
• California: http://www.film.ca.gov/Permits/index.html
• Seattle: http://www.seattle.gov/filmoffice/film_permits.htm

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WHAT BROADCAST SPECS WILL I NEED TO SUPPLY IF I AM A WINNER OR FINALIST?

ALL winners, and some finalists are required to upload a broadcast quality version of their file, usually via FTP. If you are unable to supply a broadcast quality file to the client's specifications (see below as a guide), you will be disqualified from winning or being a finalist. The current specs which most of our clients require are as follows;

Codecs: Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) [preferred], Avid DNxHD or DVCPro HD
Scaling: Content may NOT be upscaled from SD
Frame size & rate: 1920x1080 (Progressive) [23.98, 29.97 or 25], or 1920x1080 (Interlaced) [29.97 or 25]
Color space: ITU-R BT.709
Audio: Stereo LPCM in either Big Endian or Little Endian, 16-bit or 24-bit, at 48kHz (Audio levels should remain constant at -6db as much as possible. Please prevent audio levels going below -12db.)

Top 10 reasons (of many!) for immediate rejection of a broadcast file;

1. All text must be TITLESAFE regardless if it is for online use only or not. (See below for details)
2. “Apple ProRes 422 (HQ)” is NOT “Apple ProRes 422”, if ProRes, must supply (HQ)
3. H.264, MPEG2 and MPEG4 are NOT supported file codecs.
4. Audio must be in STEREO. If both the L and R audio are identical, it is TWO CHANNEL MONO and will fail. (See below for details)
5. Audio as 44.1k is NOT supported; it must be 48k. AAC is NOT supported, it must be LPCM,
6. When delivering 5.1 AUDIO, the channels must be clearly named and labeled (either on the tape or the filenames).
7. 4:1 CADENCE is a failure point for Long Form content. (See below for details)
8. Content cannot be PILLARBOXED.
9. Audio and video must be properly SYNCED on all video content.
10. FIELD DOMINANCE issues resulting from reversing the wrong field (upper/lower) first.

Title Safe
Title Safe is a term that refers to the zone of a video frame where all of the titles and graphics applied are completely visible without being cut off. Videos need to be Title Safe in order for all text and graphics to be displayed completely within the viewing frame of a video. All content must be in title safe to be considered archive-worthy, REGARDLESS of the current intentions for its use. It may be meant for online use presently, but that can easily change in the future.

Two Channel Mono
This occurs when both the Left and Right channels are identical to each other. The audio coming from the Left and Right channels must NOT be identical. This should be checked on a stereo-meter as Final Cut will falsely define anything with two audio channels as stereo.

Mixed Frame Rates
Mixed Frame Rate issues occur when different types of source footage recorded using different frame rates are edited together before they are converted to a single, unified frame rate.

4:1 Cadence ( Long Form Content: Immediate Failure)
4:1 Cadence means you have 4 progressive frames of video, and every 5th frame is a repeat of the 4th frame. There should be no repeated frames at all. This issue is often the result of a 23.98 frame video being converted to 29.97 incorrectly. When done correctly, you will see 3 unique progressive frames followed by 2 interlaced frames. Content should be kept native to the frame rate at which it was shot. This also can occur when interlaced content is tagged as progressive.

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