If video contests have an off-season, I guess it would be the summer time. There hasn’t been much news for me to report so for the last few months contests and this website have taken a back seat to other projects. For example…if you look to the right of the screen you’ll see an ad for the documentary I directed. It finally just got released on DVD so if you feel like seeing a crazy movie about self-professed nerds rapping about comic books and video games, check it out.

Anyways like I said, my focus has been elsewhere lately so a few days ago a reader had to clue me it to an especially big piece of news that I had somehow managed to totally miss. Godaddy is holding ANOTHER video contest and it’s already up and running! That’s kind of shocking when you consider that their first video contest ever just ended about 2 ½ months ago. (winners were announced on May 31st) Well Godaddy must have been really pleased with the results of their consumer-generated experiment because not only are they running a “summer” installment of the contest it will officially be the BIGGEST video contest in history with a guaranteed payout of $600,000 in prizes! First place gets you $250,000, second gets 150,000 and third place is good for 75,000. And if that wasn’t enough, FIVE runners-up will receive $25,000 each. That is seriously amazing. Plus, Godaddy won’t commit to airing the winning ads on TV but they imply on the contest website that they probably will do just that.

But extraordinary prizes require and extraordinary effort. Last time, all you needed to do was submit a 30 second commercial for the contest. This time, here’s what you need to do to enter:

• Create a 30 second commercial for godaddy.com. The last 5 seconds of the ad though must be a video supplied by godaddy that says “See more now at Godaddy.com.”
• Create a 60-90 second follow-up to your commercial (featuring the same characters) that will be featured on Godaddy.com
• This one is optional: If you are really feeling ambitious you can attempt to make THREE commercials and THREE web-only shorts. If you win, and if godaddy wants to use your “campaign” you will receive an additional $100,000.

Even if you skip the “campaign” stuff you’re looking at creating about TWO MINUTES of content with zero guarantee it will pay off. Wow. That is a huge gamble and I don’t think a ton of filmmakers have the nerve to try and pull it off.

Once you get past the basics, the requirements get even more interesting. Check out this instructional video godaddy posted about entering the contest. I can’t embed it so click the image to watch it on the godaddy site.

If you didn’t watch the video and just continued reading, let me recap what that hot blonde girl had to say. Right off the bat, godaddy wants to make it clear that this contest is for “aspiring or actual TV commercial makers.” Later in the video, they say something that I have never, ever seen a video contest sponsor say before. They explain that your video must be TV quality and if you are planning on shooting your ad with your cell phone or your dad’s old camera, you need to come up with a new game plan.

In most contests (Crash the Superbowl being the most obvious example) tons of people enter who have no chance in hell of winning because they don’t understand that the sponsor will only pick winners that look like real TV commercials. So godaddy seems to be intentionally discouraging novices from entering. I think that’s very big of them. Most contest sponsors are happy to let people waste time and money making entries that could never win because of technical reasons. I guess they do this because later they can boast about how many entries they got.

Last time, Godaddy received a little more than 500 submissions for their commercial contest. I’m really interested to see how many they get this time around. I’m thinking maybe 100? But of that 100, most of them will be pretty damn good.  So the big question remains: Should you enter? It’s a tough call. To help you decide, try taking this little questionnaire:

1. Do you have access to an HD camera that can shot TV-quality video?
2. Are you willing to spend at least a few hundred dollars shooting your submission?
3. Do you have the talent, time and energy to create 2 minutes of video content between now and September 30th.
4. Do have access to pro-level lighting and audio gear?
5. Do you know people who can use pro-level lighting and audio gear?
6. Do you have a really, really, REALLY good idea for an ad?
7. Are you crazy?

If you answered NO to any of the above questions you should probably sit this one out. Me, I think I’m going to go for it. I have what I think is a very good idea and in fact, I might even go for the “campaign.” If I do though, it’ll probably be the only video contest entry I’ll be working on for the next 2 months. In fact, if I do godaddy I’ll probably have to skip the Crash the Superbowl contest.

Speaking of…the timing of this contest and the prizes offered really make it seem like Godaddy has decided to make their contest THE user-generated video contest of the year. Doritos usually announces the start of the Crash the Superbowl contest in September so Godddy has managed to beat them to the punch. And last year, Doritos gave each finalist $25,000. Isn’t that money going to look like chump change now that Godaddy has raised the states so astronomically high?

Oh, one more important thing to note. ALL winners in the Godaddy contests will be picked by judges. Last time, Goddy let the “community” pick some of the winners and of course, most of the videos that won the “popular vote” weren’t great. You’ll be able to rate videos on the contest site but votes and ratings have zero effect on the final outcome. Nice.

For all the details about the contest, click here:  http://videos.godaddy.com/godaddy-commercial-contest.aspx