Video Submission Guidelines
The following guidelines are derived from nearly five years of experience submitting videos, and are written in order to provide prospective contributors with the information they need to produce and submit high-quality contributions with a minimum of uncertainty and anxiety. They are neither foolproof nor ironclad.
Formats and Settings
Basics
File Types
- wmv, mov or mp4
Maximum submission sizes and settings
- File size: 50 mb (give or take a few)
- Bit rate: 548 kbps
- Frame rate: 30 fps
- Frame ratio: 4x3
- Image size: 640x480 pixels
Minimum sizes and settings
- Output size: 320x240
- Frame rate: 15fps
- Length: 20 seconds
Video Length
There is currently no maximum length, although submissions rarely seem to run more than twenty minutes. Using the maximum settings, you can get nearly 13 minutes of video in a 50mb file. Although going below these settings will enable you to submit a longer video, the sacrifice in video quality will be substantial and not generally worth the tradeoff.
Processing
Regardless of file size, if you submit something with higher settings (bit rate, frame rate, output size) than those listed above, VW will compress it to those settings. It is arguably worthwhile to do it yourself (see below), as the VW compression process sometimes degrades the image quality. If your submission is not in 4x3 format (e.g., if it is widescreen), they will process it as 4x3 and there will be a black band at the top and bottom of the visible video image, and the image itself will display as correspondingly smaller.
Publishing Formats
Submissions are published as a flash preview on the contri page and for download in Windows/WMV and Mac/Quicktime formats, with a high-quality and medium-quality version for each format. The original quality levels are only preserved in the high-quality versions, while the others are faster to download.
Content Restrictions
- All persons displayed must be of legal age. VW discourages pedophile content by prohibiting scenes that mimic such content (schoolgirl scenes, etc.)
- Content must be original, non-copyrighted, and previously unpublished
- VW does not accept submissions from professionals or commercial sites
- VW does not allow any advertising, email addresses, or outside site urls in the video or accompanying text. However, if you want to provide your aficionados with a way to communicate with you directly, it is easy to establish a <a href="/wiki/Playground" title="Playground">Playground</a> page (which will show up as a link on the Comments pages for everything you submit under your contributor account), where you may provide contact information.
Other Elements and Publishing Process
Story
Along with your submission, a descriptive story or engaging text that tells viewers something about yourself/selves or how the events occurred will tend to earn you more and possibly more positive comments. If you are a new contributor, saying so will usually generate a lot of encouragement, assuming your clip shows promise, and advice for improvement (some helpful, some not). Beware mishaps that may stem from writing text in a word processing program and then pasting it into the story submission window – many special characters will turn into something else, resulting in g&rbl#d t@xt.
The site managers will select a frame capture to use for the clip on rankings pages, which you may or may not like, but if you ask them to use a particular frame (give them a time marker) they will oblige. If you do not want a segment of you clip to appear on the publicly accessible VW home page as an example of what VW has to offer, say “not for teaser” in your submission instructions.
Time to Publication
Processing has been relatively speedy over the past few years—a submission will generally post ca. three days after it is submitted (except Sundays); possibly two days if you opt for “Post ASAP” on the submission page. You can check the status of a submitted contri in your contributor’s account, under “List Contris.” Opening a specific contri (double-click) will give a bit more information, including scheduled posting date once it is ready to publish.
Mistakes and Regrets
If you discover after submission that you’ve made a mistake, VW is generally responsive about pulling a clip before it publishes. For this, and any other Voyeurweb questions, write to webmaster@voyeurweb.com. If you are unhappy about something, take a tactful tone if you want to get a helpful response.
Comments
Be aware that commenting is not restricted or moderated on VW. Virtually every submission attracts a few nasty comments, and some attract more. Steel yourself for this in advance and try to ignore them. There is a “flag this post as inappropriate” button next to each comment for the nastiest ones, but multiple viewers have to flag a post in order to attract the attention of site administrators. There is also a computerized censor called “Sharky” (although it often seems to remove entirely inoffensive and even positive comments while finding nasty ones indigestible). The upside of unlimited (and often voluminous) commenting on voyeurweb is that if you submit reasonably high-quality videos you will get some pretty lavish gratitude and adulation.
Filmmaking and Technical Tips
There are many factors and considerations here, but these are a few:
Lighting
- If your setting is poorly lighted, the video quality will suffer, although some camcorders can handle low-light conditions better than others. Avoid back-lighting.
Audio and music
- Make sure your microphone is turned on -- silent sex is pretty boring.
- The inclusion of music (whether played while recording or added later) is often disliked by viewers. If you want music as part of your fun, make it tasteful and subtle, at low volume, and you may get a more positive response. Make sure the sounds of pleasure are not drowned out or obscured.
Tripod
- A good, full-sized tripod will provide much greater flexibility and produce better video, since most people have trouble shooting straight (with a camera) during amorous exertions. Using a tripod will also help reduce seasickness among your viewers.
Faces
- Some people want to post on this site but conceal their identities by hiding their faces, for obvious reasons. This can either be done by carefully avoiding direct facial visibility while filming, by cropping the footage to remove faces, or by wearing something like a mask. Blacking out or blurring faces in editing tends to produce an unpleasant effect.
- One way to show a little bit of what the participants look like without too much risk of recognition is to film faces from oblique angles (below or above) or to show only parts of a face at any one time. Anyway, if someone recognizes you on this site, it is because they have paid to look at amateurs doing this sort of thing, so they should be grateful to you for having the guts to do it!
Compression
- Windows Media Encoder (a free download) works well, although there are probably better options if you’re willing to pay for it. The main drawback with WME is that figuring out how to use it can be time-consuming and aggravating. The advantage is their two-pass encoding, which seems to leave more of the original quality intact than other software. Most editing software will also do compression, but I haven’t been happy with the results of this in either Windows Movie Maker or Sony Vegas Platinum, which I’ve used for editing.
