On the morning of July 12th, filmmaker and self-professed “video contest junkie,” John Scaletta received a surprising e-mail from Mofilm.com. Mofilm just wanted to let him know that his 2nd place winning Chevy entry from the Mofilm Tribeca competition would be airing on FOX that night….in the middle of the MLB All-Star Game.
John, his producing partner Craig Bass and his family and friends were left in shock. At no point had Chevy or Mofilm ever mentioned that something like this might happen. But sure enough, their ad played right in the middle of one of the biggest sporting events of the year. Here is is:
2nd Place winner, Mofilm’s Tribeca Competition. Prize: $4,000
It’s really an excellent short film and I can’t believe it didn’t take first place. But John and Craig have done several fantastic video contest entries in the last year and a half. Maybe you remember this ad they created for last year’s big Godaddy contest. It won an honorable mention spot, $15,000 and also aired on TV:
And the duo also won a 2nd Honorable mention in the 2nd installment of Godaddy’s contest with this commercial. Except the prize for that one was $25,000! And yes…this ad also ran on TV for a while.
So that’s three national commercials in about 18 months. That’s pretty damn impressive. I saw those 2 Godaddy ads run a bunch of times on cable. And this year, 11 Million people watched the MLB Allstar game! If you want to learn more about how these guys operate, here’s a neat (but long) news story about John and Craig’s video contest adventures. Watch it if you like to feel jealous!
The start of this year’s NFL season is still 3 months away but this morning at the Cannes Lions advertising festival, Chevrolet announced they would be airing 5 commercials during Super Bowl XLVI in February…and one of those ads will be a 30 to 60 second long, consumer-generated “short film” about the spirit of the open road. So get ready folks because Chevy is “Crashing” the 2012 Super Bowl!
But unlike Doritos’ annual “Crash the Superbowl” contest, Chevy will not be running this promotion themselves. Instead, the Chevy competition will be hosted and run by the video contest website, Mofilm. In fact, this morning’s big announcement was made at the Mofilm seminar in Cannes.
Surprisingly, this is going to be a GLOBAL video contest so you don’t need to be a US citizen to enter. The contest will be run in two stages; the Script phase and the Video phase. You have the option of submitting to either or both phases. So if you don’t submit a script, you can still shoot a video. Here’s what Mofilm and Chevy are asking screenwriters to do:
The script for your film should be an epic road trip story or adventure that captures the spirit of Route 66 and Chevrolet! The top five scripts will win serious cash. We will provide feedback on all scripts which will give you a jump start should you decide to produce a video in Round Two.
Yes, you read that correctly. The sponsors will give feedback on ALL scripts that are submitted. That’s huge! It means that anyone who submits to the script phase will have a tremendous advantage when it comes time to shoot their video. There are 5 cash prizes in the script competition ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. Once the script competition ends, a new contest brief for the Video Phase will be launched on September 1st.
If your entry is selected as the winner of the Video Phase, your short will air during the Super Bowl and you’ll receive $25,000. And while this hasn’t been officially announced yet, the folks at Mofilm tell me that the winner will also get a trip to the Big Game.
So how the heck do you win? Well, the winners will be picked by a mix of public voting and judge’s decisions. However, Joel Ewanick, global chief marketing officer at General Motors told The New York Times that while votes will “have a great deal of influence,” the “final say” will be his. So I think we need to wait for the official rules before we know how the winners will actually be chosen. But I’m very glad to hear that votes alone will not determine the winner.
All of this is really exciting news. Last year, Pepsi Max and Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl contest recived more than 5,000 entries and they aired 6 user-made ads. Getting something to air during the SuperBowl would be an amazing accomplishment but a 6 in 5,000 shot aren’t very appealing odds. So if you’re going to enter one HUGE video contest this year, “Route 66″ might be your best bet. I personally am going to make the Chevy Super Bowl contest my top priority for the second half of 2011. The deadline to enter is December 1st but I think I’m going to get to work on this ASAP. The contest was literally just announced like an hour ago so not all of the pertinent info is up on the site yet. But if you want to get a jump on the competition, follow the link below:
When it comes to video contests, I’m a “cash prize” kind of guy. I almost never go after contests that offer free trips or cars or ipads. (which is kind of weird since I love to travel and I could really use an ipad) But about two years ago a tech company hooked me and some friends up with a free trip to Amsterdam so we could hold a screening and party for a documentary I directed. And I’ll tell you, going on a free trip so that you can attend a screening of a film you made is like the most pimp-tastic thing in the world. You get to stay at a fancy hotel and everyone keeps telling you how much they like your work and the sponsors set up tours for you and they take you to great restaurants and they get you drunk and by the end of the trip you’ve made a bunch of great new friends for life. It’s a pretty awesome experience.
If I sound a little nostalgic it’s because I just watched this video that was shot by some of the winners of Mofilm’s Barcelona competition. If you’re not familiar with how Mofilm works they set up video contests in conjunction with major film festivals or media events and all the top winners get trips to the festival as well as cash prizes. The Mofilm experience looks pretty crazy and I think for sure I’ll have to do a submission or two for one of their new contests this summer. Check it out:
Mofilm HQ is in the UK which explains why that one dude got a call at 3AM. But they had to realize they’d be calling the US in the middle of the night. Couldn’t they have waited a few hours to tell that guy the good news?
Last week, 10 lucky filmmakers from around the world met in Spain for the Mobile World Congress after winning the top spots in Mofilm’s Barcelona competition. Each winning filmmaker received a trip for two to the MWC for placing first in different brand categories. If you’re not familiar with how Mofilm works, basically they run 10 or so video contests for big-name companies at a time in conjunction with well known, international film festivals or media events. They offer some pretty big prizes and perhaps even better, they offer a bunch of smaller prizes. Winning 1st place, $8,000 and a trip to Spain would be pretty sweet, but winning $1,000 for 5th place ain’t too shabby either.
At the Mobile World Conference, Mofilm picked one first place video as the “overall winner” of the entire competition. The winning ad was created for the Mountain Dew category and if I were a Mofilm judge, I would have picked it too. It’s pretty good and really captures the “high-energy” spirit the sponsor was looking for. I can’t embed Mofilm videos so click on the images below to watch that ad on the Mofilm site.
Overall Winner. Prize: $10,000 + a trip for 2 to Barcelona
I’ve watched all the winners and I think this one, which took first in the Adobe competition might be the most creative. It features stop motion papercraft which is something I don’t think I’ve ever seen done for a video contest before.
Adobe Winner. Prize: $5,000 + a trip for 2 to Barcelona
Mofilm runs competitions all year long and right now they have two that are currently active; The Goafest Competition and the New York Film Festival Competition. A special note about Goafest; Goa is in India and apparently it takes a while to apply for a visa to travel there. If you enter and win the Goafest competition, you won’t have time to apply for a visa. So only folks who already can travel to India get to go on the trip. So…you might want to set your sites on New York. But either way, you can see all of Mofilm’s current competitions here: http://www.mofilm.com/competitions/
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/
Well, Beardy is back from his road trip across the south and apparently, a lot of stuff happened in the video contest world while I was off line. For instance, here’s a story I first read about on the forums at Poptent.net. Check out the video that won the “critic’s choice” award in the Nokia Mini Mo contest. It was a contest for students in the UK and was run by Mofilm. The goal of the contest was to shoot a film parody with a mobile device in under 2 minutes. The filmmaker that shot this entry was named Jemma Lyon and she won a trip to Cannes for her ingenious little film.
Click image to view
Yeah that was cute. Too bad it was a word for word rip off of a pre-existing viral video. Here is the much, much better original:
I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a blatant and despicable act of plagiarism in my life. But please, hold your hatred to the end because this story is about to get weird.
As soon as “Forest Chump” was announced as one of the winners in this contest, some keen viewer contacted the creator of the original Forest Gump in 60 seconds video (Will Tribble) and told him he had been ripped off. He (and lots of other Mofilm users) complained and to their credit, Mofilm reacted quickly. Here is the official statement they put out:
MOFILM would like to issue a direct apology to community involved with the recent Nokia MiniMo contest and Will Tribble.
It has come to our attention that the Critics Award winner “Forrest Chump” was not an original creation, as required by the terms and conditions of the competition but had been copied from Will’s Tribble’s “Forrest Gump in One Minute, in One Take“ This issue should have been dealt with as soon as it was flagged however it was not. We will be holding a full review of the administration of this competition.
We would like apologise unreservedly once more for this error. We didn’t realise that the film that we chose was a copy, we would have instantly removed the submission from the competition if we had. As it stands, the original winner has now had their prizes revoked and we will be announcing a new winner soon.
Will Tribble has also been invited to the London Film Festival as the guest of MOFILM and the One Minute One Take film will be shown during the MOFILM London Film Festival ceremony.
Though Mofilm said that Ms. Lyon’s prize had been “revoked,” it seems that they may have made this announcement AFTER she already got her free trip to Cannes. So did she get to go on the trip or didn’t she? I’ve done some checking at it looks like Ms. Lyon was in Cannes when Mofilm/Nokia decided to revoke her prizes. They then made that girl get on a plane and go home early. Damn….that’s cold.
But that girl is a despicable little plagiarist, right! So she got what she deserved! Well, maybe not. Check out this statement that Ms. Lyon sent to the website Adrants (among others) after they covered this whole debacle:
“I would like to make a statement regarding the alleged plagiarism accusations from the Nokia Minimo movie competition.
I was approached by a Nokia representative who asked me to remake any video in under two minutes for his Nokia assignment. I was unaware that this was a competition at the time and did not receive a brief. The representative also promised to give me a mobile phone in exchange for assisting him with his project. I never received the phone.
The Nokia representative was present during the filming of my video and after being asked several times if the film was OK to submit he insisted it was and persisted to show the actors the original video to direct them where to stand and what to do. At no point did the representative inform any of the people involved that the film was breaching the terms and conditions and I was led to believe that the entry was valid.
Further to this, Nokia became aware that my entry was based on another video three days prior to sending me on the trip to Cannes, but they still sent me on the trip and refused to act until the public outcry.
My name has been tarnished by this event. I have been branded a cheater amongst many other things too awful to write and I have yet to be informed of how Nokia aim to rectify this. I aspire to pursue a career in the creative media industry and this libel is a great hindrance to my progress to achieving the career I want. My efforts to expose the truth have been greatly subdued by Nokia and the rule of law seems not to apply to large powerful corporations in certain instances.
In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that basing my video on Mr Tribble’s creative work was done in ignorance. I was not aware that I was breaking any rules and the Nokia representative never informed me that I was doing so. I previously had no interest in submitting an entry but I was misled into thinking that I was merely helping the Nokia representative, he has since personally apologised to me for the way I have been treated.
Nokia has allowed my name to be dragged through the mud by shrouding the situation with half truths and even some out right lies in order to save their own reputation.”
If you’re a regular reader of this website you’ll know that when it comes to video contests, there is nothing I find more reprehensible than plagiarism. But this girl gets a pass. I believe what she said in her statement. If it wasn’t for a rep from Nokia egging her on I don’t think she would have copied the original video or even submitted it to the contest. Nokia has even confirmed that one of their employees was involved in the creation of “Forest Chump.”
Having continued to investigate the original minimo Critics Choice Award, it appears that one of our student team assisted in the making of the video, including offering their Nokia handset to shoot the short film and suggesting that the film was okay to submit to the competition. We are obviously very disappointed to discover that this has happened. While we believe that the original winner did not intentionally break the terms and conditions of the competition, the submission remains disqualified.
I have seen this “student team” member also referred to as being a member of a Nokia Street team. So…what exactly do we have here? A case of plagiarism? Yes, of course. But the big question is this; WHY WAS A REPRESENTATIVE OF NOKIA HELPING A FILMMAKER CREATE A SUBMISSION FOR THEIR VIDEO CONTEST? Did Nokia/Mofilm feel like there weren’t enough entries being submitted so they sent out a “street team” of students to encourage their friends to make entries? If these student reps were under pressure to increase the number of entries, is it any wonder that something like this happened? In fact the plagiarized film, Forest Gump in One Minute in One Take fits the concept of this contest (remake a film in under 2 minutes) so well that it almost seems like it could have been the inspiration for the whole competition! At the very least, Nokia/Mofilm had to have known about it since it seems they may have sent it to their street team members as an example of what their ideal entry would be like.
I’ve seen some contest sponsors try and pull some shady shit before but secretly helping filmmakers create entries, encouraging and ignoring a hardcore act of plagiarism and then passing all the blame and shame on to a seemingly innocent young filmmaker might just take the cake.
If you’ve never heard of Mofilm, it’s….well, it’s hard to describe. If a film festival and an online video contest could have a baby, it’d look like Mofilm. It’s a website/organization that runs big online video contests in conjunction with top tier, international film festivals. But unlike a typical video contest, sometimes the sponsors want to see creative entries that have nothing to do with their products. But then again, some sponsors are looking for straight up commercials or shorts that incorporate their stuff in unique ways.
The Barcelona Film Festival competition is the perfect example of a Mofilm contest. It was made up of two parts; one was the Pepsi “60 seconds to Refresh Your World” Movie Competition and the other was the Barcelona 2010: Make An Ad Video Competition.
Entries for the Pepsi contest were supposed to have nothing to do with Pepsi. Filmmakers were instructed to make awesome short films that were relevant to the themes of the contest. 700 videos from 112 countries (what!?) were submitted and it’s no wonder. Five 1st place winners each won trips to the 2010 Barcelona Film Fest. I can’t embed videos from Mofilm so click here to view the Pepsi winners:
I recommend “GPS” and “No Vegetables.” At the Barcelona fest, one entry will be selected as the Grand Prize winner. The filmmaker will receive $10,000 and $20,000 to shoot a commercial that Pepsi will air on TV.
The other half of the contest was the more familiar, Make an Ad competition. Five brads: Best Buy, AT&T, Yoplait, Chevy and Samsung all participated and gave out more trips to Barcelona and other big prizes. You can see the winner for each of the brands here:
I recommend “Changing Lives” shot for Samsung. It starts out slow but gets very creative as it goes on.
The funny thing about Mofilm is that if you win a trip to one of their sponsor film festivals you don’t get much notice. The Barcelona winners were just told on Monday that they had won. But the Barcelona film fest starts on February 15th! Hope the winners all had passports already or they’re outta luck.
