2011 April | Video Contest News - Featuring News about Video Contests!

Fidelity’s Be the Green Line winner…from last spring!

Posted by Dan L. on April 27th, 2011

Back in March of 2010 I was one of the finalists in Fidelity Investment’s “Be the Green Line” video contest. For that one, filmmakers were supposed to show someone actually acting like the “green line” you see in Fidelity commercials. I was up against a handful of crappy videos and one excellent, very well made entry. I never mind losing a video contest as long as I lose to a decent video. And this was one of those cases. I lost but the winning video was great so I just kind of forgot about the contest.

But before the winners were selected, I mentioned the fact that I made the finals here on this blog. Man…I guess that was 13 months ago now. I’m able to keep track of what web pages people visit when they look at this site and for some weird reason, my post about the Fidelity contest is one of the most popular posts I’ve ever done on VCN. I can also tell what google search terms visitors use to find this site and “Be the Green Line winner” pops up at least twice a week. I don’t know why people are interested in a video contest that ended more than a year ago but I bet that Fidelity still has some kind of promo for the contest up on some forgotten web page. People see the promo and realize by now the winners would have been picked long ago so they go searching for the results. But I don’t think the results exist anywhere except in the minds of the contestants. So for the sake of posterity, here is the winner of Fidelity Investment’s 2010 “Be The Green Line” video contest. Oh and also the winning video is worth watching because the girl in it looks ridiculously hot in the first scene.

“Be the Green Line” Winner. Prize: $5,000:

Binaca’s “Yes We Can Stop Bad Breath” winner

Posted by Dan L. on April 25th, 2011

Man, did Binaca get lucky on this one. They just ran a really bizarre video contest called “Yes We Can Stop Bad Breath” on Tongal. They offered a tiny cash prize but asked for something that only a few people in the world could give them. They wanted “screen tests” from guys who look and sound like President Obama. Against all odds, they wound up with a freaking fantastic winner even though it looks like they only got FIVE entries!

The premise of the contest is hard to describe so I’ll just cut and paste from the brief:

It’s no secret that our Commander-In-Chief is a smoker, but recently it appears that he’s been keeping it under wraps. His secret weapon? Binaca breath drops. Create a series of 30-second viral videos that feature President Obama smoking cigarettes and covering it up with Binaca Breath Drops.

Submit a video of your best Obama impersonation. The best impersonator will receive $1,000 cash plus travel to Los Angeles / accommodations and star in five viral videos produced by previous Binaca winners, Team Tiger Awesome.

Don’t be confused; this contest wasn’t about creating 30 second videos. It was about finding an Obama impersonator for the videos. Since the prize was only $1,000 and a trip to LA, this contest seemed like it was doomed to fail. But like I said, Binaca got incredibly lucky. Check out the winning “screen test:”

Winner. Prize: $1,000 ~~and a trip to LA~~:

That dude is for sure the best Obama impersonator a thousand bucks can buy!! And to get his $1,000 he’s got to star in FIVE 30 second videos?? If Binaca had just hired an actor for this they would have had to pay him a whole lot more than a thousand bucks.

But you want to know the weirdest thing about this contest? President Obama doesn’t smoke any more! The first Lady announced months ago that her husband hasn’t had a cigarette in a year. And that news was public before this contest was announced. So it’s kind of offensive to create a series of videos that depict the president as a smoker when he isn’t one any more. (Imagine the backlash if Bud Light had depicted recovering alcoholic George W. Bush drinking beer in the white house ) Tongal also ran a concept phase of this contest where users could suggest ideas for some of the videos. This suggestion won $200:

Before delivering a speech at a school, Obama craves a cigarette. After smoking in the school bathroom, he uses the drops to hide his guilty pleasure. The teachers outside the bathroom are thrown off by his fresh breath and blame a nearby student.

And this idea won $100:

President Obama off stage a cigarette in one hand and 3×5 cards in the other. Rehearsing his lines; In between drags saying “Yes We Can” in every way imaginable. Happy, Somber, like a ballerina, Serious…Pops in a Binaca breath drop & goes on.

Now that every one knows Obama doesn’t smoke any more, aren’t these videos going to come off as dishonest and disrespectful? I don’t know…I just think that the whole idea should have been scrapped before the contest even launched.

The RNC launches the shittiest video contest ever

Posted by Dan L. on April 19th, 2011

Let me tell you something folks; never trust a national political party that can’t afford an HD camera in the year 2011. I don’t usually blog about new contests but I came across one of such incredible shittiness that I just had to share it. On tax day, the chairman of the Republican National committee Reince Priebus announced a new video contest where you can help the GOP make Barack Obama a “one-term president!” Here’s his intro video that explains the details:

You see, those Green Bay Packer helmets in the background show that Reince Priebus is just an average joe like you and me….and not a Harvard-educated, secret Indonesian Muslim elitist like someone else you may know. Anyways, did you catch the premise of this contest? Reince explains that “since Obama’s entered the White House” our deficits have gone up, gas prices have gone up and jobs have “gone down” and he wants you to explain why you can no longer afford to have Barack Obama as your President.

This contest is a perfect example of why I’ve gone from being a libertarian to a conservative-hating liberal. The RNC has decided that since the truth makes them look bad, they need to just make up their own truth. If you know a single thing about economics and politics you understand WHY the economy is in the tank and WHY deficts have gone up. The three major reasons for this are:

1. 10 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan

2. De-regulation that let banks make billions while almost shatterig the global economy.

3. Lost revenue because of the Bush tax cuts.

And all that crap happened back when Barack a freaking state senator. But this Orwellian re-write of history isn’t the only thing that makes this contest so terrible. The cherry on this crap sunday is the prize. The first place winner receives….$100 gift certificate to GOPStore.com!! Man, that should really fire up the base! With $100 gift certificate you could buy 1/4th of this $400 photo of Ronald Regan’s inauguration!

Sorry to get a little political on you folks but conservative-themed videos contests are a pet peeve of mine. I’ve been seeing more and more of them out there and they’re always creepy and terribly conceived. For instance, check out this contest run buy ultra right-wing nutbag radio host, Alex Jones. It’s called The Answer to 1984 is 1776. Here’s the video that won:

First Place winner. Prize: $7,000:

WTF was that? I guess in distant future of 6 years from now, America will have collapsed because of girls in panda hats and bucket drummers. 20 years ago, conservatives like President G.H. Bush were up in arms over Ice-T’s song “Cop Killer.” Man has the pendulum swung far on this issue. Today conservatives are making films about heroes who assault police officers and other conservatives are rewarding this behavior with big cash prizes.

I’ve noticed that some of these right-wing run video contests don’t always show up on the normal contest-listing sites like onlinevideocontests.com. If you ever find a crazy one, let me know. I’d kind of like to try and win one of these and then give all the prize money to the ACLU or NPR.

DSLR FRIDAY: Clap Sync!

Posted by Dan L. on April 15th, 2011

Oh snap!

A few weeks back I announced the start of a new, reoccurring feature here on Video Contest News; DSLR FRIDAY. Since a huge percentage of video contest filmmakers are now shooting their entries with DSLRs I figured our readers might be interested in hearing the occasional DSLR tip. So does this mean you can expect to see a fresh camera tip here every friday? Heh…no. I just announced the feature and already it’s been a few weeks since the first installment. So think of DSLR Friday as being like a haunted pirate ship that sometimes appears in the harbor when there’s a full moon. You’ll never know when you can expect to see DSLR FRIDAY but I swear by Poseidon’s beard your best chance of catching a glimpse of it will be on a friday. Or…a few days after since my posts just get pushed down the page whenever a new one is added.

Today’s tip is going to be simple but sweet. If you shoot with a DSLR then you know that getting good audio with one of those cameras is a bitch and a half. My Canon T2i (like all DSLRs) has a built in auto-gain function that is famously terrible. Even if you plug an external mic into the camera, the auto-gain is really gonna cramp your style. So if you want good audio you can either hack your DSLR and turn off the auto-gain (we’ll save that for a future post) or you can record audio to an external device.

Zooma, zoom zoom

From my family’s VHS camcorder to to my Mini-DV DVX-100B, every video camera I’ve ever used was able to record acceptable audio. So recording audio and video separately was a totally foreign exercise to me. Like a lot of DSLR users I bought a audio recorder. The thing cost me about 300 bucks and does a pretty nice job. But using an external audio recorder will leave you with a new problem. How do you sync up the audio and the video?

I’ve asked a few filmmaker friends about this and some of them say they use software to sync up their clips. This program called PluralEyes seems to be pretty popular but it costs a $150. And it only works in Final Cut Pro so if you use imovie or Final Cut Express you’re out of luck. Plus it just seems like kind of an unnecessary hassle to me. When I sit down to edit I want to get into it as quickly as possible. If I’m doing a simple project I don’t want to wait for 60 minutes of audio and video to sync up before I can get to work.

So I sync up my clips the old fashioned way; with a clapper! You know…one of those clapboard things you always see in movies about movies? Actual “Filmmakers” have been recording sound and picture separately since the birth of the talkies. And the way they’ve always synced the two up in post is with a clap sync. In film they used to have to match the “clap” on the audio track to the visual clap on the screen. But since your DSLR actually records sound you’ll have it a lot easier then those old-timers did.

Last fall I bought myself and even though the board part fell off the first time I used it, I totally love it. I actually like it much better without the board since I can can keep the “sticks” in my pocket. Just using the sticks also helps you keep a lower profile if you’re doing some guerrilla-style filming on the street. If cops or security guard see a professional-looking clapboard they may be more inclined to ask you what the hell you’re doing.

So here’s how you use your sticks; when you’re on set, after the camera starts rolling you just need to do something that will feel incredibly cliche. You need to stick the clapper in front of the actors and give it a snap. You can even yell “Take two” or whatever if that will help you keep track of the clips later. But if you’re using a ZOOM recorder it will tell you what track you are recording. So I’ve found that saying the audio track number is INCREDIBLY helpful in post.

Once you start editing you open up the video clip you want to use and right at the start of it you’ll hear yourself announcing which audio clip goes with it. Once you open that clip up you’ll see a huge audio spike. That’s your clapper. And if you look at the audio on the video clip, you’ll see the exact same spike.

If you’re a decent editor I don’t really need to tell you what to do next. (But I will anyway) Inch along the track until you get to the spike and you hear the first hint of the “Clack” sound. Mark that spot as the start of your clip. Then go to the video clip and do the same thing. Place the video on the timeline and then stick the audio clip right underneath it. The audio on both should line up perfectly. Since I figured out that you should make your first cut one frame after you hear the start of the clap, my clips have been syncing up perfectly 100% of the time.

Of course, you could also cheap out and just clap your hands at the start of each take. But the sound of a hand clap just isn’t as clean and perfect as the sound of a clapboard. Also people who do that look like assholes who are to cheap to buy pair of fucking sticks. So yeah, don’t be that guy.

Goodbye student loan payments!!

Posted by Dan L. on April 10th, 2011

BOOSH!!! On Friday, UniversityDecisions.com announced the winner of their Success Yearbook video contest and guess what? The winner is me, baby…ME!

The $10,000 prize is going to be paid directly to the institution that holds my student loan. $10,000 in cash would have been nice but I would’ve just blown that money on stupid stuff like tacos and credit card bills. So I feel like I’m being forced (in a good way) to spend 100% of my winnings responsibly. And I’ll tell you, that 10K is going to take a massive, humongous chunk out of my student loan debt. It won’t obliterate it completely but it will get me pretty close to the finish line. And that means this prize is worth way more than $10,000. It’s going to save me about SEVEN YEARS of student loan payments and thousands of dollars in interest.

Grand Prize Winner. Prize: $10,000 towards my student loan:

So this is one of the sweetest victories of my life and it’s significant for me in a few ways. For one thing, $10,000 is actually the largest video contest prize I’ve ever won. In all the years I’ve been entering these contests I’ve never been able to win a prize bigger than $5,000. So now that I’ve been able to break that $5K barrier I feel like I finally have a shot at winning some major contests. This win is also a big deal for me since it pushes my lifetime contest winnings well past the $50,000 mark. I bet there are at least a dozen other filmmakers out there that have won more doing contests than me but if there was a ranking of the top video contest winners of all time I feel like I’d finally be creeping my way up the list.

But the icing on the cake is that I almost didn’t enter this contest. At least not this time around. You see originally the sponsor was supposed to run this contest every three months and give out $10,000 four times this year. I started working on my entry just a week or so before the deadline and votes were supposed to count towards a contestant’s score. But the rules didn’t say just how important votes were. Some of the other entries had been up for months so I had to assume they had already gotten a ton of votes. I put a lot of work into my entry and I didn’t want to lose just because I submitted so late. So I was thinking maybe I should wait until the next submission period so I could be the first person to upload an entry. That way I could rack up three months worth of votes by the time the next deadline passed.

But I decided to take a gamble and submit now rather than later. And wouldn’t you know it, after the deadline passed the sponsor canceled the quarterly contest!! They said that because of the success of the contest they were making it a monthly thing. But instead of $10,000 they’d only be paying $2,500 towards the monthly winner’s student loan. I actually think that’s great and a smaller monthly contest is a better idea than a big, quarterly contest. But if I had waited to enter I would have felt like a freaking moron. So this win was a real close call.

I still don’t know how important votes were but I think promoting my video on VCN did get me a lot of them. I could tell from my web traffic logs that a lot of people clicked on the link I posted. So if you voted for me, thanks! This win really means a lot to me and I appreciate the support.

If you have some student loan debt you should really check this contest out. You can submit a short essay or a video and very few people are actually shooting videos. So if you shoot something creative you might have a good shot at winning:

http://www.universitydecisions.com/success-yearbook/Default.aspx

What’s it like to be a Mofilm winner?

Posted by Dan L. on April 9th, 2011

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?