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Poptent party at SXSW

Posted by Beardy on March 8th, 2011

If you’re a filmmaker you probably already know that March is South By Southwest season. The Film & Interactive portion of the fest starts this friday and the music portion begins on the 15th. I got to visit SXSW’s home base of Austin, TX last summer and it really was a great town. People talk it up so much that I thought the place would turn out to be overrated but no, it was straight up fun on a bun. And didn’t get to do half the things I had hoped to. (I did eat many a delicious taco though)

I’m kind of into film fests and I’ve always wanted to go to SXSW and dangit, I should have planned on going this year. Some musician friends are doing a showcase and some other friends are flying in from Amsterdam for the fest. So I had a few good reasons to go. Turns out I also could have gone to this party being sponsored by Poptent on the 14th:

Click on the poster for a little more info. It looks like a few of the Poptent staff will be at the event. So if you’re a member of the site it’ll be kind of cool to meet the people-versions of the photos that approve and “like” your submissions.

I know that the contest site Mofilm is also going to have some kind of presence at SXSW this year but I haven’t read anything specific. I saw that they picked some of their past winners and gave them free trips so they could document the fest. If anyone’s heard anything about other video contest entities doing anything at the fest this year, lemme know.

MOFILM wants to send you to Barcelona!

Posted by Beardy on January 15th, 2011

Great news folks, today we’re welcoming a new sponsor to VCN; the excellent contest site MOFILM.com. Though I’ve only entered one or two of their competitions in the past, I’ve always loved the concept behind MOFILM because they combine two of the most exciting things a filmmaker can experience; winning a video contest and getting accepted to a film festival.

Every MOFILM contest is connected to a different renowned International Film Festival or media event and the winning submissions are screening during the fest. There are categories for different well-known products and the top winners in each category win money AND a trip to the featured festival. Winning money is nice but winning money and being able to spend it in New York or India or London would obviously be extra sweet.

Interested in getting in on the globe-trotting, cash-winning action? Well if so you still have 17 days to submit to MOFILM’s current contest the “Barcelona : 2011 GSMA Film Competition.” The top winners in each category will win a lot of cash plus a trip for 2 to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. I have wanted to go to spain since I read Don Quixote and tasted my first tapas back in college. So I think I’m going to have to get my act together and submit something for this one.

There are lots of categories to choose from. Each MOFILM competition is like 8 video contests rolled into one. The big daddy of the contest is the special Pepsi “Refresh your World” project. Three filmmakers will each win $10,000 and then at the festival, Pepsi will announce one grand prize winner that will receive the opportunity to shoot a short film for Pepsi Spain. There are a bunch of runner-up prizes too. Take note: The Pepsi contest has an earlier deadline of Jan 22nd. MOFILM has a special relationship with Pepsi and this is the first of seven such competitions that will take place in 2011. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably already thinking about recycling your Pepsi Max Crash the Super Bowl entry, right? Well this time Pepsi isn’t really looking for commercials. They want short films that are based on one of several themes. You don’t even have to include Pepsi in your video and if you do, it doesn’t get you any extra points.

Most of the brands are different in each MOFILM contest. This time the featured brands are AT&T, Mountain Dew, Tropicana, American Red Cross, Findus and Young’s. Each of these categories have top cash prizes of $6,000 to $8,000 plus trips for 2 to Barcelona. Adobe and Motorola are also running a “short film and ad” contest that works a little differently than the other competitions. Check out the details here.

Like I said, there are still about 2 1/2 weeks to go before the January 31st deadline. So get filmin’. And if you do enter and win a prize, let me know and I’ll post about your good fortune. And if you win a trip to Barcelona, why not consider taking your e-pal Beardy as your +1? To read the full contest rules and to download the creatives briefs for the different brands, click here: http://www.mofilm.com/competitions/barcelona2011/

LG’s $100,000 HD film fest winner

Posted by Beardy on February 2nd, 2010

It seems like this contest started taking entries forever ago, but the “Life’s Good” HD film fest sponsored by LG has finally announced their grand prize winner. Contestants were supposed to submit films that were shot in HD and followed the theme of “Life’s Good.” There were several categories (sports, fashion etc) but it was a narrative film that took the top prize of $100,000.

The LG winner is called Nuit Blanche and was directed by Arev Manoukian. Here’s the official description:

“Nuit Blanche explores an experience many of us have lived before – a fleeting yet powerful connection with a perfect stranger. Set in a dark cobblestone street in the 1950’s, a man catches the gaze of a woman in a cafe across the street. This split-second moment becomes suspended in time, as the two gravitate towards each other in a hyper real fantasy where nothing can hold them back.”

I just watched all 3 minutes and 22 seconds of the short film and all I can say is “F*CK YES!” I have seen some amazing video contest entries before but this is hands down the most impressive one I’ve ever come across. It starts off slow but then gets awesome and finishes beautifully.

Grand Prize Winner. Prize: $100,000

That’s outrageous, isn’t it? My only grievance is that it seems like this was a pre-existing short film and that it wasn’t shot specifically for the contest like so many of the entries were. The credits say that the short was “made in part with the support of the National Film Board of Canada’s filmmaker assistance program.” In fact, it looks like the short was produced by the very successful production company, Spy Films. Oh well, it’s still fantastic. I mean, did you notice that the guy blew a piece of glass out of his way there at the end? All those fancy effects and expensive production values and that little moment is what made the short for me. It just goes to show that even in the CGI era we live in, the best films are those that use effects to express fundamentally human and universal ideas and emotions.

If you want to see just how much post-production work actually went into this short, click here to watch a video about the Making of Nuit Blance.

Famous Dave’s fan film festival winners

Posted by Beardy on January 26th, 2010

The BBQ restaurant chain and sauce maker Famous Dave’s just announced the winners of their first “Famous Fan Film Festival.” BBQ lovers were supposed to shoot a short movie parody that incorporated Famous Dave’s in some interesting way. The grand prize was only $1,000 but I was amazed by the amount of love that went into some of the 30 entries that were received. Here’s the first place winner:

First Place. Prize: $1,000

That was neat. But I the second place entry cracked me up:

Second Place. Prize: $300 in cash and gift cards

I wish I could grill you! The guy who delivered the long monologue deserves an extra gift card just for remembering all his lines. You know what, I think I’ll post the third place entry too. It’s worth watching simply because the girl playing Mrs. Robinson is hotter than…hold on, let me check the famous dave’s website for a metaphor….Got it, she’s hotter than a full bottle of Devil’s Spit!

Third Place. $250 in cash and gift cards.

Like I said, even though the prizes in this contest were small, the contestants went all out. Check out this Top Gun parody that got an honorable mention. It was disqualified because videos were supposed to parody a single scene and they did like a whole crazy trailer. But they, and everyone who entered, got some Famous Dave’s gift cards as a thank you. So why did so many people put so much work into their entries when only a thousand bucks was at stake? From the looks of the videos, no pros entered this contest; only real, hardcore Famous Dave’s fans. Plus the theme of the contest was a great one and probably inspired a lot of people. Hopefully famous Dave’s will see this contest as a successful test run and do something bigger down the road.

Posts Tagged ‘film’

Poptent party at SXSW

MOFILM wants to send you to Barcelona!

LG’s $100,000 HD film fest winner

Famous Dave’s fan film festival winners

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