Image ganked from Time.com. In your face, Time!

The other day I was up way too early and I was watching the only thing on TV that wasn’t Yu-Gi-Oh or an infomercial; Morning Joe on MSNBC.  Anyway, I’ve got it playing in the background while I’m on the computer (probably watching Doritos entries) when I notice that Kevin Spacey is a guest.  So I turn up the volume and guess what he’s talking about?  A video contest.  Specifically, one of the biggest video contests of the year; The Stella Artois Film Project.  But I just barely consider this one a video contest.  It was really more of a short film competition.  In my tiny mind, the only things that qualify this as a video contest are the facts that the films had to be submitted on-line and that there was a specific theme that each filmmaker needed to try and fulfill.  The theme was “perfection” because as any hipster can tell you, Stella Artois is the perfect beer.

Kevin Spacey explained that a winner had finally been announced and that they had a big party to celebrate the night before.  Here’s the winning entry by Jason Musante Klein.  I can’t embed so click on the photo below to view it.

First Place. Prize: $50,000

All the finalists in this contest where super slick.  Seriously, there were some major productions submitted.  The judges were pretty top notch too.  The winner was picked by Kevin Spacey, Sasha Baron Cohen, Lawrence Fishburn, James Blunt and Judy Dench.  Seriously, holy Sh&*%, man.  That’s an insane jury.  Wowza.  Those big names all probably agreed to participate because of Kevin Spacey.  His company, TriggerStreet co-founded the competition with Stella Artois.  TriggerStreet by the way is a really awesome  company/website/concept thing he and producer Dana Brunetti created to help emerging talent sneak through the gates of the Hollywood system.  It’s a great idea and the ‘A’ list celebrities who acted as judges this time around and the huge cash prize should tell you that TriggerStreet Films means business.  Check out their website here: http://www.triggerstreet.com.  Hmmm, Triggerstreet.com has a little box on it that flashes a “quote of the day.”  Below is today’s quote. Could there possibly be a better motto to sum up what video contests are all about?

“Ability is of little account without opportunity.”  – Napoleon Bonaparte