The God in America: Open Call is open to legal residents of the United States, who are at the time of submitting, ages 13 and up (participants ages 13–17 must have parental/legal guardian permission to submit). Only one entry per person will be accepted.

God In America: Open Call is not open to employees, officers, directors, trustees, and members or their respective immediate families or households of WGBH.

All participants must complete a registration form in order to submit. Submissions must be original, limited to a 3 min. maximum time, and must be cleared for use by The WGBH Lab. You must also be able to grant WGBH, American Experience, FRONTLINE, and their distributors, permission to distribute your completed short in all manner and media, including: television, radio, cassettes, internet, and DVDs, and their packaging.

DEADLINES: All submissions must be submitted by October 31st, 2010.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: The WGBH Lab encourages that your submissions be complete, personal, fresh, and within the respected time of 3 minutes. Feel free to explore new genres of filmmaking, original concepts, alternative points of view, visually driven story lines, and other less conventional story forms.

Be funny, provocative, and educational. Most import – be creative, and have fun!

For additional questions, please contact The WGBH Lab at wgbhlab@wgbh.org.

HOW TO SUBMIT:

Step #1: You have the theme – now it’s time to create your video. There are many mediums that you can use to create your video, including: your digital camera, your phone, your home video camera, or even your computer! We recommend using the medium that will best express your point of view, and showcase your story appropriately. We welcome graphics, animation, special effects… you name it. The key here is creativity, so feel free to express yourself as you see fit!

Step #2: Your video is done – now what? Time to upload it to the site. The WGBH Lab has created an easy uploading process that will take a few minutes of your time, and very little information.

You will need to visit The WGBH Lab, click “Submit Your Video”, fill in the required information, attach your video file (accepted file formats include: .mov, .mp4), and you’re done! Now it’s time to get people to engage…

Please note, if you are between the ages of 13- 17, check with your parent(s) or legal guardian(s) before you send anything to us. You must have a parent or legal guardian's permission before you submit. By sending in your video, you are telling us it's ok to post it on our website, edit it and we can use it in any way we want, anywhere, forever and ever and we don’t owe you anything for that use. You are also telling us that your entry is your original work, you own or have permission to use every person, place or thing in your video, and that The WGBH Lab's use of the video will not infringe upon or violate rights of any third party.

Step #3: After you’ve submitted your video, it will be posted in The WGBH Lab library, and shared with a community that will view, vote, rank, and share thoughts on your submission.

We encourage you to create videos that engage other storytellers and viewers, while capturing our attention and helping us decide what’s great, through voting, rating, and commenting within the site.

Not only is this your opportunity to tell your story, The WGBH Lab is also your community, and your voice.

Here are some tips for gathering comments for your video short:

You see the pattern.

Good luck! We look forward to watching your submissions.