About Director's Cut

WHAT IS THE DIRECTOR'S CUT CHANNEL?

The Director's Cut is a viewer-nominated, editor-approved channel that honors the art of storytelling and the craft of filmmaking. We're inviting registered users to nominate or submit their own favorite original videos for inclusion in the Director's Cut channel.

To ensure that the channel stays true to its mission, our editors will review your nominations and help fit them to their most appropriate categories.

WHAT DO WE WANT?

Here's what we mean by honoring the art of storytelling and the craft of filmmaking:

Tell A Story: The Director's Cut is reserved for filmmakers who have a story to tell and have taken the time to script, stage and edit a tightly crafted narrative – whether fictional or documentary-style.

Know Your Medium: As a medium, short video has its own unique set of rules. Rule number one: "Trim the fat." We want videos that are made for the web, not repurposed clips created for other mediums and edited down.

Engage the Imagination: A talented director creates a world and wraps you up in it, transporting you to another time or place. Director's Cut videos should reflect some real effort in making that world through tight editing, meticulously planned shots, high production values and clear audio and visuals.

Keep it Clean: The Director's Cut is approved for all audiences, so keep your submissions and nominations family-friendly. No sexual imagery. No off-color language. No gratuitous violence.

Be Original: As with our Producer Rewards™ and Producer programs, we will only accept videos that are wholly owned by their submitters. That means no infringing music, images, video footage or text.

CATEGORIES:

Storytelling takes on a number of different forms, which is why we've included several distinct categories in the Director's Cut.

Comedy: Director's Cut is for original sketches or any other scripted comedy, but not pranks and bloopers.

Action & Drama: This category is for pulse-pounding or tear-jerking works of fiction that keep you riveted with top-notch storylines.

Animation: Whether it's traditional cartoons, 3D computer graphics or stop-motion animation…if you've got it, we want it.

Documentary: This category is for storytellers who work with reality, rather than fiction, and includes anything from short documentary films to "citizen journalism" reports.

NOMINATING AND SUBMITTING:

There are two ways to get involved and make sure that Director's Cut shows what you want to see:

The "Nominate for Director's Cut" button on the video pages of Producer Rewards videos and candidates - this button lets any registered user nominate a video for a specific category in the Director's Cut channel.

Submitting a video directly by going into the Director's Cut channel and submitting it to one of the categories. Once uploaded, this video will appear in your user channel and will be considered as a Director's Cut nominee.

The Director's Cut editorial committee will meet weekly to assess as many nominated videos as possible. The committee will begin by reviewing the most nominated videos of the week, determining each video's eligibility for the Director's Cut and assigning it to a category when necessary. Eligibility is based on the objective criteria listed above.