1. Each entry should reflect this year’s theme:

    “Message to the President”
    What’s the most important issue the president should consider in 2013?

    Your documentary may focus on any issue that you believe the President of the United States should address in 2013, and explain why you believe the issue is of importance.

    The entry must be the original work of the student(s), hereafter referred to as "entrant(s)."

  2. Students in grades 6-8 will be considered "middle school" entrants; grades 9-12 will be considered "high school" entrants.

  3. The employees and officers of the National Cable Satellite Corporation and their immediate family members, and the Trustees of the C-SPAN Education Foundation and their immediate family members are not eligible to participate in the contest.

  4. The documentary must be between 5 and 8 minutes in length. End credits, if applicable, do not count towards the 8 minute time limit for your documentary and may run longer than the alotted 8 minutes.

  5. A small amount of C-SPAN programming must be used to enhance the video documentary. The content of the footage used should relate specifically to the chosen issue. You may use several short clips from multiple C-SPAN programs related to your topic, but the use of C-SPAN footage should not be excessive to the point that it detracts from the original production. A list of downloadable C-SPAN programming is available here.

  6. Limited use of copyrighted material will be permitted in the entry so long as it is a lawful or "fair" use, and so long as such use does not overwhelm the contribution of the student(s). Click here for a video explanation from C-SPAN's General Counsel, Bruce Collins, describing what constitutes "fair use."

  7. Entrants must credit all sources used to create the video documentary in the end credits of the documentary, or in a separately submitted works-cited list. Your works cited list may be submitted to educate@c-span.org

  8. Individuals or teams of students may create and submit entries. C-SPAN will recognize a maximum of 3 students per entry.

  9. Only one entry per person, whether individual or group participation.

  10. School staff and faculty may provide guidance and critiques but may not participate in conceiving and producing the video. Students are not required to have a teacher advisor in order to participate. If a teacher acts as an advisor, his or her name must be listed on the student's Entry Form in order for them to be eligible for the StudentCam advisor cash prize.

  11. Entries must be submitted online. Students must complete the online Entry Form, and then submit their documentaries via the Upload page on the StudentCam website. Please make sure that the finished documentary is under 1.5gb in size and that it is in one of the following video formats: .AVI .MOV .MPG .MPG2 .MPEG2 .MPEG4 .MP4 .WMV

  12. Entries must be successfully uploaded by midnight at the end of the day on January 18, 2013.

  13. All entries become the property of National Cable Satellite Corporation, d/b/a C-SPAN. Entrants, without any compensation from C-SPAN, grant permission to C-SPAN to use their names, likenesses and entries for promotional purposes related to C-SPAN and its activities. By submitting an entry, entrants (i) represent that their entries constitute original works of creativity that do not violate the property rights of any other person, and (ii) grant C-SPAN the right to exhibit, distribute, televise and otherwise use the entries in various media.

  14. Prize recipients will be determined by judges selected by C-SPAN and the judges' decisions will be final. If a team's entry wins, C-SPAN will divide the prize money equally among the team members. Prize recipients will be asked to provide a social security number and will be responsible for any taxes associated with the prizes. If you do not provide your social security number, you will still be recognized as a winner but will not receive your prize money. C-SPAN reserves the right not to award all prizes in all categories; and C-SPAN reserves the right to not televise a winning video.

  15. Prize recipients will be announced on C-SPAN and on www.studentcam.org on March 6, 2013.