First, always remember WTM is a movie quiz. It's not a place you just come to upload movie snapshots. It's a place where most users just come to answer one question (over and over again): What movie is that shot taken from?
Second, there are 5 Golden Rules of Uploading (you can see them when you start the upload process). If you don't go by those rules, your shots will most likely be deleted. And after repeat offenses you might even get banned from uploading for a while.
Now, here are a few tips and recommendations on how to pick the snapshots you plan to submit to our community:
-1- Make sure your shots are quiz material This is more tricky than it may seem. All movie quiz buffs are welcome on WTM. But they all have their own level of movie knowledge. Which means we need shots for the occasional movie lover as much as for the movie expert, because the quiz must stay fun for both of them (and for the average solver too). This is why difficulty must be well balanced, to keep the quiz attractive to everyone. Of course, it’s not always simple to assess a shot’s difficulty before uploading it. Is it obvious? Will it stay unsolved? Both those extreme cases should remain exceptions.
-2- Make sure your shots are, somehow, interesting Here’s a quick (updated) summary of the original FAQ (posted by one of WTM’s creators), which you can still read here: http://forum.whatthemovie.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=17 “Try to search the whole movie for the real best snapshot”: Don’t just fast-forward a random movie to see if something catches your eye. As a matter of fact, it’s also suggested in the WTM’s current FAQ: “We believe that it's best to take a new snapshot, right after watching a movie”. “Shots which display the main characters of a movie are often rejected, because you can easily look for their names on IMDb, and simply enter every movie”: This is why the Characters section was created. Many “character shots” are not interesting enough, quiz-wise, and are therefore rated low by users. But of course, some are quite good-looking and/or important too, and totally deserve to be our Feature Films section. “Don't post shots with people waving guns in front of the camera. We already have plenty of those”: It means "Don't post the same kind of shots over and over again, whether it be people waving guns in front of the camera, topless women, spaceships, or anything we have lots of already". When too many similar shots are uploaded over and over again, it gets quite boring. But it can also be fun once in a while to have a bunch of similar shots together; that’s why we occasionally have special themed contests. If you want to do a series of similar shots, you can also consider using some awesome uploads, to make sure the shots stay together in FF. “Try to focus on a distinct "feature" which describes the film”: Now that’s the most important part. Back then, naut listed four things your shots should focus on: crucial point in the film, funny moment, the story, the visual aspect. Later on, one of our early users, LePaposaure, also tried to define “awesomeness”. It’s worth reading too: http://forum.whatthemovie.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=334
-3- Combine all those criteria wisely Of course, a shot can be intriguing, visually stunning and a crucial point in the film at the same time. The more of those attributes the shot has, the better. But don’t forget the quiz angle. If you intend to upload a shot from an obscure movie, make sure the shot looks interesting enough, for someone who hasn’t seen the movie. If it doesn’t look stunning nor intriguing nor funny, if it presents no clue that can be used to figure out what movie it’s from, it’ll most likely get low ratings, even if it’s a crucial point of the film. As for the mods’ magic wand, it’s unlikely they will use it if they can’t guess the movie nor realize how crucial the shot is. On the other hand, if you intend to upload a shot from a famous movie, make sure your shot is actually needed on WTM. Many shots from that famous movie are most likely already uploaded on WTM... Is the one you’re thinking of *really* something new? And it goes on and on: If you plan to upload a shot because you consider it to be nicely composed: is it actually relevant, in the movie? or is it just some basic geolocation shot, most likely filmed by the second unit? If your shot focuses on an important element of the story: does it look interesting for people who haven’t seen the movie? is it important enough for the movie to come up if users look into it on the IMDb or elsewhere? ... Always try, when you’re about to upload a shot, to put yourself in the shoes of somebody who hasn’t seen the movie. And try to imagine what people who don’t care much about animation, B/W movies, CGI, science-fiction, nudity, gore, … will think of it.
Additionally, you must keep in mind the criteria listed above are taken into account when mods pick the NS shots worth being saved (= magically accepted). And users are expected to take them into account as well, when they rate shots in NS. As you can see none of these criteria is about the quality of the movie itself. That’s what "Do not rate the movie. Rate the awesomeness of the snapshot" means. Shots from all movies are welcome on WTM, good and bad movies. Users must rate shots regardless of whether they liked the movie or not. Also, as exposed above, the “awesomeness” of a shot does *not* exclusively rely on its visual qualities. And it certainly has nothing to do with who uploaded it.