In the Spotlight

From music, dance, theatre, mime, comedy, poetry and acting, you can choose any type of artistic performance that will best show off your talents. Just remember your performance can’t be longer than three minutes but can be less. Photographers and video makers will have the same three-minute constraint, but the quality of the video and images will be judged as your entry (and you do not have to appear in the content). However, for performers who are featured in their own video (singers, bands, actors, dancers etc), the technical quality of the video isn’t so important so long as judges can get a clear idea of your work. Musicians and singers are advised to use a microphone separate from their recording device to give better quality audio, but performers are not going to be judged on technical quality of the video. Bands – please remember that your entry may be part of a more complex show so your sound mix needs to be simple to set up in advance – you may need to strip down your sound into the basics.

Think about where to shoot your content. Consider using interesting locations to form your backdrop and add a style and flair to your performance. A simple method would be to film on a phone or tablet (and remember you can get attachments to mount your phone on a tripod). More sophisticated methods using video cameras with separate microphones will help if you have access and know how to use them. What is more important though (with the exception of video makers and photographers) is to give a fresh and lively performance no matter how you record it. There are a number of helpful videos available with tips on how to create your video. We like these:

• How to create youtube channel on a computer
• How to create youtube channel if you only have a phone
• How to film on Android phone
• How to film on iphone

If your performance includes music, please compose your own soundtrack or use royalty free music to set your performance to and enhance your entry.  

Please do not use a commercial or copyrighted track, there are plenty of royalty-free online music libraries for you to choose from, giving you access to a wide variety of genres – some example sites include:

• https://www.free-stock-music.com
• http://dig.ccmixter.org
• https://audionautix.com

When using video material please use only original footage shot by you (no mash-ups!)

Upload your entry video on YouTube and then email the url link to the video to uhallspotlight@gmail.com for your chance to win. Remember the competition is open between 25^th March 2022 – 10^th June 2022.

Sharon Took-Zozaya has choreographed, performed and taught in the USA, across Scotland and abroad in a wide variety of professional, higher education and community contexts with both able-bodied and disabled dancers. She is passionate about the transformational power of art to enrich the lives of audiences, participants and performers, as well as expanding the concept of who can participate in art making. Her most recent projects include Shadows and Dappled Light, presented at Citymoves’ DanceLive festival in 2021, and Finding Petunia LittleTree, a bittersweet environment themed piece she’s currently developing, supported by a Creative Scotland Open Fund grant.

Lîla Senior is a classically-trained musician and award-winning composer, a
songwriter, music producer, orchestrator, arranger, musical director, educator and
conductor. She’s performed, recorded and composed for film, TV, animation, dance,
theatre, classical ensembles, orchestras, ceilidhs and weddings. She also writes
Celtic, jazz and contemporary music. Based in Forres, in her local community Lîla has
written songs for The Culbin Singers, Heather Hatch’s Rising Stars and Too Many
Kooks; and is musical director of the Inverness Singers who also perform her choral
works. Composer awards include her orchestral piece, The Boat of Mananan, for The
Scottish Centres of Excellence in Music; and instrumental winner of the UK Songwriting Contest for her piece, The Summer Isles. With more than thirty years’ experience in the music industry, Lîla has an honours degree in music and a master’s degree in soundtrack production & composing for the screen. Her affinity with nature and her Celtic-classical roots permeate her music, which you can listen to here: soundcloud.com/lilasenior.

Laura Pasetti is a theatre director, playwright and acting coach. She graduated with Giorgio Strehler at Piccolo Teatro di Milano – National Theatre of Italy in 1990.  She has always considered theatre a mission more than a profession and seen herself as “an artist on a quest”. Despite a very successful acting career she never stopped searching and training to enrich her knowledge and understanding of humanity. In 2005, after a pivotal encounter with Russian pedagogue Anatolji Vassilev, she founded Charioteer Theatre in Scotland. She taught at the Piccolo Teatro of Milan Acting school for 10 years before deciding to focus on the development of her own methodology. Since 2016 she has been combining theatre and ecology; using theatre as an instrument to reconnect humans to the environment and re-develop their sense of belonging, as she does with her educational organisation Theatre of the 7 Directions. In 2021 she began her studies in Engaged Ecology at Schumacher College/Plymouth University. She lives in Scotland, in the Findhorn Ecovillage Community.

By entering this competition described below (the “Competition”) you (the “Participant”) agree to be bound by these terms and conditions (the “Terms and Conditions”). Any information or instructions published by the Promoter about the Competition form part of these Terms and Conditions.

The Promoter:

1.The Promoter of this Competition is Universal Hall Promotions, The Park, Findhorn, Moray IV36 3TZ.

Eligibility:

2. The Competition is open to residents aged 16 and over who live in the North of Scotland.
3. Employees or agents of the Promoter or their families or households or anyone professionally connected to this Competition are not eligible to enter.
4. No purchase is necessary to enter.

Competition Period:

5. The Competition will open on 25^th March 2022 and close on 10^th June 2022 (“the Competition Period”).

Prize:

6. Winners will be chosen for mentoring from a team of professional artists and will then create a new work intended as part of a live theatre show.
7. The Promoter reserves all rights to disqualify Participants if their conduct or content is defamatory, offensive or contrary to the spirit or intention of the prize competition.

Entry:

8. To enter, Participants must post a film of their own original work and composition of up to 3 minutes length via a YouTube video in order to showcase their artistic talent (e.g., dance, dramatic performance or singing). The url link to the video must then be sent by email to uhallspotlight@gmail.com. Entries may be shot on any device. Participants must be available after the middle of March for professional mentoring (by Zoom, if restrictions are still in place – in person if not).
9. Each Participant may submit a maximum of one (1) video entry. If multiple entries are received, all additional entries will be disregarded.
10. The criteria for determining chosen entries is:  artistic performance, with an emphasis on creativity, uniqueness, and talent (the “Winning Criteria”). For photographers and video makers the artistic and technical quality of submitted pieces will be the criteria.
11. Any text, videos, images or any other content (the “Content”) which are submitted by the Participant as part of the Entry must adhere strictly to the following content guidelines (the “Content Guidelines”) for the Competition:
    1. The Content must not display the image or likeness of any person or any information about any person unless the Participant has obtained that person’s permission.
    2. The Content must not display any cruelty to any animal or person.
    3. The Content must not infringe any third-party intellectual property (including music copyright).
    4. The Content must not infringe the rights of or be defamatory or libellous about any person.
    5. The Content must be suitable for a person of any age to view and must fully comply with the law and all regulations.
    6. The Content must not contain or display any words or images which are considered, at the Promoter’s sole discretion, to be offensive, sexually explicit, rude, disparaging or otherwise inappropriate.
12. FOR SAFETY REASONS it is important that Participants do not include or reveal any personal information (e.g. name, contact details, etc.) in any video. These can be included in the email at your discretion. The promoter will use the email the video is sent from to contact the winners
13. Entries containing any Content that does not comply with the Content Guidelines will not be entered into the Competition and the associated submission will be deemed invalid.
14. Entries that are incomplete or damaged will be deemed invalid. No responsibility is accepted by the Promoter for lost, delayed or damaged data which occurs during any communication or transmission of Entries.
15. The Promoter reserves the right at its absolute discretion to disqualify Entries which it considers do not comply with these terms and conditions or any Participant who it reasonably believes has interfered with the fair running of this Competition.
16. The Promoter shall have the right, where necessary, to undertake all such action as is reasonable to protect itself against fraudulent or invalid claims including, without limitation, to require further verification as to the identity, age, and other relevant details of a Participant.
17. Entries must be made by the Participant and must not be made through agents or third parties.
18. Fully completed Entries must be sent to be received no later than the end of the Competition Period. Entries received after the Competition Period will not be eligible for Selection
19. Following the end of the Competition, Entries will be reviewed and shortlisted by the Promoter team and a panel of professional judges. The panel of judges shall review the Entries to determine the entries which, in the panel of judges’ view, best meet the chosen criteria.
20. The decision of the judges shall be final. No correspondence or negotiation will be entered into by the Promoter concerning either the decision or the result.
21. The chosen entries will be notified via the email address used to send the video link.
22. Winners will have three (3) days from the date of notification to acknowledge their winning status and to agree to the next phase of the project.
23. Winners names, and their entries will be published in order to show a valid award took place.
24. In the event a winner is unreachable or fails to permit for content to be reshot in order to claim the Prize in the time required, the winner shall forfeit their Prize and it will be awarded to a substitute winner, selected in accordance with these Terms and Conditions.

Use of the Entries / Content by the Promoter:

25. The Promoter may, but is not required to, publish Content produced by the winners and any and all Content received by it in connection with this Competition at any time and for any reason on its website www.universalhall.co.uk, across its social media channels including YouTube, newsletter, for internal use, public relations and editorial reporting of the In the Spotlight campaign, and any other media, whether now known or invented in the future, and in connection with any publicity of the Competition.
26. By submitting your competition entry and any accompanying material, you agree to:
    1. Provide the Promoter with a non-exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual, transferable licence to use display, publish, transit, store, re-format and sub-licence your Entry and all your intellectual property rights contained therein for any purpose, including without limitation for promotional use of the competition and to showcase your talent; and
    2. waive all moral rights, in and to your competition entry and otherwise arising in connection with your entry to which you may now or at any time in the future be entitled under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 as amended from time to time and under all similar legislation from time to time in force anywhere in the world.
27. Each Participant warrants that they are the person who created the Content submitted to this Competition and that all Content adheres to the Content Guidelines. The Participant shall indemnify the Promoter and hold it harmless from and against any losses, damages, liabilities, obligations, claims, actions and demands, including without limitation reasonable legal fees, arising directly or indirectly from any breach of warranty set out in this clause.
28. The Promoter may stage a live or online show of winning entries and box office takings will be used to subsidise the project. The Promoter is a not-for-profit social enterprise and will not use box office income for any projects outside of this contest. Entrants will not be offered a share of the box office for their entry.

Privacy and Data Protection:

29. Other than as set out in these Terms and Conditions or for the purposes of operating the Promotion, the details and information provided by the Participant when entering the Competition or claiming the Prize will not be used for any promotional purpose, nor shall they be passed to any third party.
30. The Participant hereby consents to such personal information being used for this purpose and confirms they agree with the Promoter’s privacy policy available at www.universalhall.co.uk. The Participant may withdraw consent to such use of personal information by writing to the Promoter or by using the opt-out process outlined in the privacy policy.

General:

31. Insofar as is permitted by law, the Promoter, its agents or distributors will not in any circumstances be responsible or liable to compensate the winner or accept any liability for any loss, damage, personal injury or death occurring as a result of taking part in the competition or taking up the prize except where it is caused by the negligence of the Promoter, its agents or distributors or that of their employees. Your statutory rights are not affected.
32. The Promoter will not be responsible or liable for:
    1. any failure to receive Entries due to transmission failures and other conditions beyond its reasonable control;
    2. any late, lost, misrouted, or damaged transmissions or entries;
    3. any computer or communications related malfunctions or failures;
    4. any disruptions, losses or damages caused by events beyond the control of the Promoter; or (e) any printing or typographical errors in any materials associated with the Prize Draw.
33. The Promoter shall not be liable for any interruption to this Prize Draw whether due to force majeure or other factors beyond the Promoter’s control.
34. Entry into the Competition signifies acceptance of these Terms and Conditions.
35. The Promoter reserves the right, acting reasonably and in accordance with all relevant legislation and codes of practice, to amend the Terms and Conditions at any time.
36. This Competition will be governed by Scottish law.