Content Policy

Who sees your screen

Kids ride the Midnight Line too. The wall is seen by all ages, so we judge every screen at about a 12A level. That is not a strict standard: we would rather ask a person than turn a fair video away.

What we welcome

Animated videos that are beautiful, artistic or tell a story. A video that is just a flashing ad, such as rapid flashing text or price-slash cards without a scene, waits for human review. We aim to review it the same day. Dangerous photosensitive flashing stays off the wall pending review.

• Mild peril and action: a chase, a storm, a cliff edge, cartoon or stylised action without gore, and spooky-but-friendly scenes.
• Mild language, such as “damn” or “hell”.
• Romance, kissing and swimwear.
• People drinking alcohol, bars, pubs, toasting, wine with dinner, alcohol brands, bottles, glasses and pours.
• People smoking cigarettes, pipes or cigars, and vaping depictions, including when central to the scene.
• Weapons in a story, action or fantasy scene.

What we keep off the line

• Nudity or sexual content, including stylised or animated.
• Strong or graphic violence, gore, self-harm, or horror meant to scare.
• Illegal drugs and illegal drug use.
• Promotion of smoking or vaping aimed at young people.
• Gambling.
• Hate.

We also keep off strong language beyond 12A in a video’s text, title or subtitle, and promotion of excessive drinking aimed at young people. Ordinary drinking, smoking and vaping depictions are allowed.

Prohibited

Do not submit or link to illegal goods or services, adult sexual content, gambling, selling or promoting weapons, illegal drugs, hate or extremist content, exploitation, fraud, impersonation, misleading claims, malware, phishing, intellectual-property infringement, or unlicensed regulated services.

Creative fit

Videos must be square, muted, and five or ten seconds long. Any animated story is welcome, in any animation style: pixel art, 2D, 3D, anime, painted, claymation, stop-motion, cut-out and more. Live action is not accepted: that means camera footage of real people, places or objects, including filtered footage. A brief live-action logo or title card (about a second in total) is fine. Avoid strobing or rapid flashes, hard white frames, excessive brightness, tiny interface text, prices or sales banners, deceptive controls, unreadable clutter and garish conventional-ad treatments. Prefer one clear idea, large readable forms and a night-friendly palette. Your own logo or brand name is welcome, including as a large title or end card, as long as it doesn’t flash. Big text is fine; lots of different text (captions, lists, several slogans or text slides) or text on a white or light background is flagged for review.

If an otherwise eligible upload is live action, you can upload an animated version or, when available, choose pixel-art conversion, which remakes it as pixel-art animation. Conversion uses five or ten seconds of your video allowance to match the video’s length. Your original stays saved, and the converted version still needs review before publication. Videos made with pixel-art conversion can’t go in the Midnight Cinema.

Review outcomes

• Clear: may publish automatically.
• Quality advisory: may publish while we flag improvements or schedule a manual check.
• Hold: remains unpublished while a person takes a look. We use this whenever a reasonable viewer could disagree.
• Reject: prohibited or high-confidence unsafe content will not publish.

Your first generated video goes live automatically once it passes review. If a generation request is refused, its reserved video credit is returned, including 10 seconds for a ten-second request. This is not a refund of your screen payment.

We may later pause content following reports or newly discovered violations.

Rights

Upload only what you own or have permission to use: the visuals, any music and any sound. That applies to five- and ten-second wall videos and to full-length videos for the Midnight Cinema. We may remove any video, full-length film or public copy after a credible rights complaint.

To report one, email takedown@midnightscreens.com with the screen number and what you own.

Report a screen

Send the screen number, destination and reason to ethan@midnightscreens.com. Intellectual-property reports should identify the protected work, the disputed listing and your authority to act.