Posts Tagged ‘mofilm’

VCN Sponsor Spotlight: 8/15/12

Posted by Beardy on August 15th, 2012

Right now VCN has three regular sponsors, Poptent, Mofilm and Tongal.  Whenever I’m feeling lazy I just head to one of those sites and whip up a post about one of their current or recent contests.  I try not to do that toooo much though because I don’t want VCN to feel like one big commercial.  But Tongal, Mofilm and Poptent are constantly generating a lot of interesting Video Contest News!  So I’ve decided to compromise with myself and start a new feature: The Sponsor Spotlight.  Every two weeks I’ll post the best recent results from Mofilm, Tongal and Poptent competitions OR I’ll highlight a new, notable contest from each site.  Just for the record, no one is paying for this column and all the contests and videos featured in the Sponsor Spotlight are chose solely by your boy Beardy.  In this installment of the Spotlight, I’ll be highlighting three REALLY fantastic new contests/assignments; two of them award trips to the winner and the the video that wins the third one will air on television!

Oh burn!

MOFILM’S BURN ENERGY DRINK CONTEST: There are five different brand categories in Mofilm’s current London-themed ad contest and I think the most attractive of those brands is Burn energy drink.  Burn doesn’t want a traditional commercial.  Instead they want “stories that illustrate the “Free State Of Crea4vity.” Consider what you know of the creative process and bring it to life in a short story. Creative expression can take many forms, though Burn is most prominent in the snow, skate, surf, electronic music, street art, and BMX communities, so stories about these passions are ideal.“  The brief for this contest says you don’t even need to show characters drinking Burn.  So this is a nice opportunity for filmmakers who want to make a wild, fun short film.  Top Prize:  $8,000 + a trip to London.  Due Date: 10/1/12  Click here for more info.

Marvel-ous! (get it?)

TONGAL’S MARVEL SUPER HEROES CONTEST:  Usually Tonal runs their video contests in different phases but right now the site is hosting two “straight to video” competitions.  Both contests are for Marvel and DC comic-themed LEGO playsets.  From Tongal: “Make all your favorite heroes and villains come alive in a 1 to 3 minute animated video, and you could be on your way to hang with fellow Comic-heads in the city that never sleeps. “  If you can’t come up with a fun idea for a short video about Lego superheroes you might want to get out of the video contest game. Oh and by the way, if you have a DSLR, Stop-Motion animation is actually pretty easy to do.  In fact, I think I’ll post a little tutorial on that topic next week.  Top Prize: $10,000 + a trip to the NYC Comicon.  Due Date: 9/14/12  Click here for more info.

drink me.

POPTENT’S BOLLA WINE ASSIGNMENT: This is a notable contest for two reasons. First off, the purchased ad will air on TV. Having your work air on television is almost better than any cash prize since since a TV credit can really help you get future work. But there’s another reason you should consider entering this contest…it’s for a wine company which means that a lot of Poptent members won’t be able to create ads since you have to be at least 21 to participate in the assignment. Here’s what the company is looking for: “Bolla is a well know Italian wine that is looking for a relevant consumer message to dialogue with its target consumer in a modern contemporary way.” Top Prize: One video purchased for $7,500. Due Date: 9/4/12 Click here for more info.

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Mofilm offers $49,000 in production grants in new Durex contest

Posted by Beardy on June 27th, 2012

Mofilm has already paid out close to half a million dollars in production grants this year but this week they announced that they’ve got $49,000 set aside for just one category in in their new 2012 London contest.  The product?  Durex Condoms.  I’ve never seen a video contest for condoms before so this is virgin territory (no pun intended) for crowdsourcers.  Plus the concept that Durex wants everyone to work off of is great.  Here are the details:

Durex is not only about great sex, importantly it’s also about great relationships. A global study revealed an interesting statistic, 69% of the times that respondents had sexual activity for the first time, it was planned. That means that 31% of first time sexual activity was unplanned or spontaneous. We would like you to make a film about these other 31% of times to remind people to ‘be prepared for the unexpected: Always carry a Durex’.

We want you to create either a 15 second, 30 second or 60 second film for a new Durex youth product, which is passionate, playful and a little provocative, funny, smart, inspiring & open-minded. Please be very cautious about the tone, manner and mandatories in the brief. Most importantly, it must not be pornographic, be politically driven or explicit in nature.

I’m guessing that you already have a funny idea in mind, right?  There’s like a billion different ways to work with the “prepare for the unexpected” angle.  I’d probably want to enter this category even if Mofilm & Durex weren’t offering to front some of the production costs.  In all, 35 grants will be paid out.  But different amounts are being offered depending on how long your film is going to be:

15 second films: $1,000 x 14 grants
30 second films: $1,500 x 14 grants
60 second films: $2,000 x 7 grants

 
If you have an idea for a short film about Durex condoms you can apply for a production grant to help pay for your submission right here:  http://www.mofilm.com/competitions/london-2012/durex.html  You will have to fill out a Non-Disclosure Agreement though before you can even read the brief.  (I haven’t done that yet.  I figured I should write this post before I promised not to reveal any details of the contest.)  Once you submit your NDA you’ll have until July 13 to submit a script. And oh yeah…if you actually win the contest you’ll get $8,000 and a trip for 2 to London. There are a bunch of runner up prizes too but you can head to the contest page if you want the full story.
 

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Filmmakers can now license music for their Mofilm and Tongal entries for FREE thanks to AudioSocket

Posted by Beardy on April 11th, 2012

About a year ago, the CEO of Poptent was visiting Chicago and the company set up a dinner where he could meet some site members.  I got to go and the CEO was a super nice guy.  He went around and asked everybody what they thought about Poptent and he listened to everyone’s suggestions and ideas. My suggestion was that Poptent should team up with a website that licenses music for commercial use.  I had been licensing music for my Poptent submissions from a site named PremiumBeat.com and having professional music really made my entries seem a lot slicker.  I said maybe PremiumBeat would want to licensee tracks for free or at a discount if Poptent officially partnered up with them.  The CEO seemed pretty interested in the idea and I think we even exchanged e-mails about it later.

But I guess I was just ahead of my time!  Poptent never teamed up with a music site but yesterday I got a press release announcing a new partnership between Mofilm and the music licensing site AudioSocket.  The details of the arrangement are extraordinary; Filmmakers can now license music for use in their Mofilm entries for free.  When I first read about this I figured there might be 50 or 100 special tracks that AudioSocket set aside for Mofilm members.  But naw….there are more than 33,000 songs available in AudioSocket’s Mofilm Music Storefront.  All you have to do is pick your track and add it to your cart.  But don’t let words like “storefront” and “checkout” fool you.  When you go to check out, you don’t actually have to pay.  To peruse AudioSocket’s Mofilm catalog, head here.

And guess what else I just learned….the video contest site Tongal ALSO has partnered up with AudioSocket!  So filmmakers can also license music for free for their Tongal entries.  Here’s some more info about that:

Tongal has partnered with Audiosocket, a boutique music licensing agency representing more than 1,400 emerging bands, composers and record labels. Audiosocket tracks will be available to Tongal members at no charge solely for their incorporation into Tongal members’ submissions to the Nespresso project. Tongal members are encouraged to browse the Audiosocket catalog, available at http://audiosocket.com. If you are interested in using a track from the Audiosocket catalog, as described above, please email  for account and password info, which will allow for the download of up to three tracks.

I think these partnerships are a HUGE deal.  Every contest site should be doing something like this.  When you shoot a video on spec or for a contest you feel the sting of every dollar you spend because there’s a very good chance that you’re not going to make that money back.  Every time I license a track from PremiumBeat it costs me $30.  And that 30 bucks can be a factor in whether or not I actually shoot an entry for a video contest/assignment.  I usually try and keep my budgets around $150 so if licensing music is going to push a project over that number, I might just scrap the idea.  If filmmakers can gamble less money on their contest entries, they’ll probably wind up shooting more of them.  So in the long run, a partnership with a licensing company is going to pay off for site like Mofilm and Tongal in the long run.
 

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Chevy to air Mofilm-made commercial across Europe

Posted by Beardy on March 27th, 2012

Whenever a winning video contest entry winds up on TV it’s a big deal.  For the second time this year, Chevy has decided to start airing a commercial that won one of their Mofilm contests.  Last time it was “Happy Grad” which aired during the Super Bowl.  This time it’s the Chevy Volt commercial “Zombie Ride” by Josh Soskin.  The ad won first place, $8,000 and a trip for two to Spain in Mofilm’s Barcelona competition.  It looks like “Zombie Ride” was shot in Southern California but it definitely has a cool, European vibe to it.  The spot is scheduled to start airing as part of a “European-wide” campaign in a few weeks. Over the years I’ve probably seen hundreds of video contest entries that featured zombies but this one actually managed to feel totally unique and fresh.  I can’t embed the video so click the image to check it out:

Like I said, click this image to view

Pretty awesome, no?  Good thing that wasn’t Lori from the Walking Dead driving that Volt otherwise she would have flipped the car after going like 40 feet down the road.  If you don’t get that joke you need to watch a lot more TV.
 

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Happy #FollowFriday

Posted by Beardy on February 24th, 2012

Everyone loves a follower!

If you’re reading this post, chances are that you’re either a filmmaker or a Russian spammer who is going to try and leave a comment about where people can get a Microsoft Zune for cheap.  Either way, you probably have a twitter account that you use for online networking.  It took me a long time to get into Twitter but I now hate it a lot less than I used to.  Turns out twitter can actually be a helpful tool if you’re into video contests.  For example, I’ve learned that if you want to get a response from a contest sponsor, sometimes you should try sending them an @ message on twitter.  Most companies monitor their accounts closely and apparently they actively try to make it look like they’re friendly, responsive and easy to deal with.  Last summer I spent months and months trying to get one company to pay me a big contest prize they owed me.  I sent tons of e-mails and my contact just kept giving me the run around.  But then I sent a tweet asking why I hadn’t been paid my prize yet and BAM….the response was immediate.  My contact was unhappy that I made my “problem” public but it finally forced them to take care of the issue.

But of course, you can use Twitter for nice things too.  I follow a bunch of video contest companies on twitter and you know what?  You should too.  They tweet out a lot of good info.  Case in point: I’m shooting an entry for Mofilm’s Walmart competition this weekend and just yesterday Mofilm tweeted that new video assets had been added to the project.  I’ll use one of those clips for sure in my commercial and I wouldn’t have even know they were available if it wasn’t for twitter.

So for the first time ever, I thought I’d take part in the weekly twitter tradition known as #FollowFriday.  It’s where users tweet out suggestions of who to follow.  So here are my #FollowFriday suggestions:

ONLINEVIDEOCONTESTS.COM: 

FILMTHENEXT.COM: 

MOFILM: 

POPTENT: 

TONGAL: 

ZOOPPA: 

And of course, if you don’t already follow VCN on Twitter, you should add us too.  And because I’m feeling saucy today I’ll even follow back any new followers VCN gets this weekend.  Yarg…sentences like that are one of the reasons twitter still annoys me a little.

VCN: 
 

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How to apply for one of MOFILM’s production grants

Posted by Guest Author on February 17th, 2012

Beardy’s Note:  Today I’m happy to bring you folks a very special guest post that was written by a longtime friend of VCN; MOFILM’s director of social media, Kerry Gaffney.  Kerry’s going to let you you know how you can apply with Mofilm to get cash to pay for your Mofilm video contest entries.  It sort of sounds to good to be true but it’s legit; Mofilm is now paying out production grants to filmmakers left and right.  Need some money to hire actors or rent a nicer camera or build some outrageous prop or buy a new piece of editing software? Mofilm wants to help make any and all of that happen. Here’s how you can get a slice of their sweet, production grant pie:

______________________________

 
There are lots of reasons why people like to enter video contests.  And there are also lots of reasons why they don’t enter; usually it’s because they run out of time or because they don’t have the money to do their idea justice.  MOFILM can’t help with the time element but we’re now doing our best to help with the money side with the introduction of Production Grants.

When we were running the Chevrolet Super Bowl contest last year, we really encouraged filmmakers to make their entries as big and bold as possible.  The winning spot had the chance of being aired during the telecast of the Super Bowl LXVI.  So we wanted to make sure that all the entries were great enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with, or be even better than, the big agency ads. That’s why we launched the MOFILM Production Grant program.  Open to any filmmaker from anywhere around the world, all they had to do was apply; sharing their concepts and giving as much supporting material as they felt like.  We gave out over $100,000 last fall and the scheme was so successful we decided to include production grants for as many of our contests as we possible could.

So far in 2012 we’ve approved over $140,000 in grants for 14 different contests to over 100 filmmakers. That’s not a typo, just in January we’ve approved almost $150,000.  That’s in addition to the $300,000 in prizes across our Sydney, Barcelona and Texas contests.

So how does it work?  It’s easy; go check out the open contests on MOFILM and pick a brand.  If there are production grants available there will be a link to the application form right from that page.  You need to be quick though, the grants go fast so the sooner you get your application in the better.

For the application we want to know who you are, what your concept is, how much money you’d like (there’s usually a guide as to what’s available on the form) and what you plan to spend the money on.  A member of the MOFILM team will then review the applications and decides who gets what.  Anyone can apply but your odds of being successful are increased if you have a great idea (natch), have some supporting material like a script or a storyboard, and examples of previous work either with MOFILM or in a link to your showreel on your MOFILM profile.

Once you’ve been told you’ve been successful, you’ll be sent an approval form to fill in and sign.  Then you can get on and create. You can bounce ideas off the account manager or ask for advice and feedback.  Although, any filmmaker entering one of our contests can do that by asking on or with an email to .  Once you’re ready, and before the deadline, upload your video and all the relevant release forms.  One of the MOFILM team will then be in touch to ask for receipts and bank details. Once we have that we’re good to make payment and we’ll reimburse your approved expenses.  After that, all you have to do is wait to find out if you won!!
 

—- Guest Post by Kerry Gaffney.  Follow Kerry on Twitter   —-

 

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The video contest winners of Super Bowl XLVI!

Posted by Beardy on February 5th, 2012

Feb 6th UPDATE: USA Today just announced the top 5 ads of the Super Bowl and the doritos ad, Man’s Best Friend came in first! More info coming soon.

Well, Super Bowl XLVI is over and the winner is….Video Contest Nerds everywhere! On sunday night, four of the commercials that aired during the big game were originally shot for video contests or online spec assignments. Doritos aired (only) two Crash the Super Bowl ads, Chevy aired the commercial that won Mofilm’s “Route 66″ video contest and Dannon yogurt ran a commercial that was created for a Poptent assignment.  I’ll post all the winning ads below.  Let’s start with the Crash the Super Bowl winners:
 
CRASH THE SUPER BOWL WINNERS:
 
- Man’s Best Friend by Jon Friedman.  AD METER RANK:  #1
 

 
- Sling Baby by Kevin Willson.  AD METER RANK:  #4
 

 
Normally, USA Today would release the results of their annual “Super Bowl ad meter” poll a few hours after the game. But this year, the Crash the Super Bowl winners will have to wait until Wednesday to find out if they won any of Doritos’ bonus prize money. The reason for the delay is that this year, USA Today is running TWO ad meter polls. The first got its results from focus group polling. The people in those groups watched the Super Bowl commercials live and turned up little knobs to indicate when they saw something the liked. The second Ad Meter poll is open to the public and it’s still going on. From now until Tuesday, February 7 at 6:00 pm EST, Facebook users can visit http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/superbowl-admeter and vote for their favorite ad. If a Crash the Super Bowl commercial ranks in the top three on EITHER ad meter, Friotlay will pay out the traditional bonus prizes. First place is worth One Million Dollars, Second is worth $600,000 and Third place is worth $400,000. We will post the results of the “Facebook Ad Meter” as soon as they are announced on Wednesday morning.
 
And now, the other winning video contest entries of Super Bowl 46:
 
-Happy Grad for Chevy by Zach Borst:
 

 
Chevy aired a few commercials during the big game but I think Happy Grad was the best Chevy ad of the night. In my opinion it blew away the other Chevy commercials even though the other spots were big budget extravaganzas about skydiving cars and the Mayan apocalypse.
 
-The Tease for Oikos Yogurt by Remy Neymarc:
 

 
How the “The Tease” came to be is kind of an interesting story. Dannon ran a very special, private assignment on Poptent and asked members to create video “pitches” for a Oikos Greek Yogurt commercial that could feature John Stamos. 24 filmmakers shot their commercials using stand-ins for Stamos. The folks at Dannon picked their favorite and the chosen director got to re-shoot his idea. You can read the full story here.

Based on the quality of the ads we saw tonight, I think we’ll be seeing A LOT of “Crowdsourced” commercials during next year’s Superbowl. I watched the game in a crowded bar and all of the video contest entries went over pretty well. To my surprise, the Dannon yogurt ad made a lot of people laugh out loud. Chevy’s “Happy Grad” got a mild but positive reaction. “Sling baby” got some chuckles from one group of older women. One of them screamed with laughter but the men in the bar didn’t really react to that spot. The champ of the night though had to be “Man’s Best Friend.” People went bonkers for that one and most of my friends seemed to think it was the best commercial of the game. But like I said, all these ads did pretty well so all the winning filmmakers deserve a hearty “congratulations.” There’s still time for you to help make this year’s crop of Super Bowl video contest entries look good so to vote for them in USA Today’s Facebook ad meter poll.
 

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Mofilm announces the winner of Chevy’s “Route 66″ Super Bowl commercial contest!

Posted by Beardy on January 23rd, 2012

I love it when a great video wins a huge video contest!  Last week, Mofilm announced the winner of Chevy’s international “Route 66″ Super Bowl commercial contest.  The lucky filmmaker is Zack Borst of the god old USA.  His commercial, “Happy Grad” has won him $25,000 and a trip to one of Mofilm’s Super Bowl parties. (They’re hosting parties in NY, LA, London and Mumbai!)  The ad premiered last night during the Giants game but Happy Grad is also slated to air during SuperBowl 46.
 
WINNER:  Prize: $25,000 + ad will air during the Super Bowl:
 

 
The more times I watch that ad the more I like it.  I watched every finalist in this contest and I think the judges made the absolutely right choice. The actors in this spot really nailed their roles but the guy who really deserves the credit here is the writer.  60 seconds is a long time and the writer did an awesome job of topping each “gag” with an even funnier scenario.  But he was also smart enough not to get too crazy.  So to Zack and his crew I tip my beard and say “job well done.”  And a job well done also goes out to the folks at Chevy and Mofilm.  They ran a great contest and they picked a great winner. They easily could have blown this whole thing by letting “the public” pick the winner via an online vote but instead they decided to reward quality rather than popularity.

Now that I think about it, this commercial might actually have a decent shot of scoring well on the USA Today ad meter.  It’s very likable and the comedy keeps building and building so I bet it will get a really high score.  Wouldn’t it be funny if this consumer-made spot beat out all of Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl ads??

Besides the top winner, Chevy gave out a ton of prizes to finalists in different regions of the globe.  Actually, they wound up awarding even more prizes than promised.  You can see the full list of winners on Mofilm’s Facebook page:

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