Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Niagara University Video PSA Competition

High School and college students are invited to submit entries to the 2011 Media Awareness Student Video PSA Competition. The goal is to produce a 30- or 60-second Public Service Announcement promoting “Media Literacy”. See website for details.



Prizes

Winning entries will be screened at the Annual Media Awareness Day at Niagara University and may be posted on the Niagara University website. In addition, winners will receive the following cash awards in both the High School and College divisions:
  • First Prize — $100
  • Honorable Mention — $50
Deadline March 11, 2011
http://www.niagara.edu/mad-video-contest-2011/

This will be one of your choices for the upcoming PSA assignment.

Benjamin Moore Authentic Color Video Contest


Benjamin Moore wants you to create funny and irreverent 30-second videos designed to shine a light on the misconception that you can get Benjamin Moore color without using Benjamin Moore Paint. 
This project will be worth a total of $15,000 and consist of three phases so there’s a place for all of you to contribute, regardless of your skill set.
PHASE 1 – CONCEPT: In 250 characters or less, tell us your concept for the video. Remember, a concept is not a detailed script, it is a brief synopsis or distillation of what will happen in the commercial. As always, concepts should be clever, engaging, and fun. Winning concepts will receive a 5% residual payment of every winning video they are used to generate. Deadline December 28, 2010.
PHASE 2 – VIDEO: Select one of the 5 winning Concepts from phase 1 and make a 30-second video for Benjamin Moore based on it. Think of the concept as the central thesis that you should build your video around. As always, creativity and originality are king so make it interesting and have some fun with it.
We’ll be providing animated bumpers in the Project Files tab in the coming days.  Feel free to use them at the end of your submissions or as you see fit. Deadline: January 31, 2011
PHASE 3 – EXHIBITION: Using the five winning Videos from the previous phase, try to generate as many views of the videos as possible within a period of thirty (30) days.

Chevrolet : Barcelona 2011 : Video Contest

Make a video that embodies the passion and practicality designed into their new Volt car. The only electric car that can be your only car.

Grand Prize

$10,000 Bursary to travel Europe filming the story of SOS Kinderdorf foundation
$5,000 cash prize
A trip for two to the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona


Deadline: January 31


http://www.mofilm.com/competitions/barcelona2011/chevrolet

Drive Wise Video Contest

$7500 first place, plus several other cash prizes. 60 second video. Deadline January 18th. Easy extra credit, and maybe easy money. :-)

http://tongal.com/project/DriveWise

Friday, December 10, 2010

2011 Natural High Video Contest

http://www.naturalhigh.org/contest.html

Read the submission guidelines! http://www.naturalhigh.org/pdfs/nhcontest_submissionguidelines.pdf

Prize: $250
1-3 minutes in length
Deadline: March 31

This may be one of your choices in the upcoming PSA project.

Animation and Digital Effects Contest

http://www.fxmakers.com/?p=230

Open to 2D, 3D and Digital Effects (Motion, I'm talking to you.) 5 minutes or less.

Prizes:
$500, $250, $100

Deadline: March 1

Thursday, November 4, 2010

11 Second Club Animation Contest

Hey animation students looking for extra credit: the sound byte for November's 11 Second Club contest is great this year: http://www.11secondclub.com/

Feel free to participate and it will count as an extra credit project...

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

You Could Totally Win This

Very easy $250 up for grabs, but only if you are 18 or older. Deadline: November 30th.

http://www.holidayfoodsafety.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=305&Itemid=145

Animation Walk Cycle Resources

There are several tutorials available online to help you with the walk cycle exercise. The simplest tutorial, which you may want to start with, is here: 

Once you are comfortable with the technique, here are some others you may want to reference:
This is a great page with examples and tips on creating walk cycles:

Here is a link to scans of the original Animation book by Preston Blair, which is an excellent resource for animators, and has many examples of poses and techniques:

Monday, November 1, 2010

This is My Family Video Contest

http://www.pbs.org/pov/adoption/myfamily.php

Win an iPad or iPod Touch. Deadline November 15.

Allstate Contest

This contest seems like it would work for either video or animation, and there is also an opportunity to win just for writing. Three phases of the contest: idea, story, and video, that build upon each other. The idea phase closes tonight, but then the story phase begins based on the winning ideas. Yes, I know, it's about insurance, but the point is to be creative and make it interesting, AND there is lots of cash up for grabs! All for either a 500 character story or a 90 second video/animation. Easy money, people. Go get it.

http://tongal.com/project/allstate

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

La Cie Rugged Hard Drives

Here are the external hard drives I recommend:

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=11030

I always get the biggest one I can afford, as you can never have too much storage space, especially for video. This one has both USB and firewire, but you can get USB only versions as well (firewire is faster, but is Mac-only unless you install a firewire card on your PC).

www.newegg.com is a great place to shop for hard drives, but you can also check www.amazon.com, www.buy.com or www.bhphotovideo.com.

I would be happy to check the specs for you on any hard drive before you buy. :-)

Canon camera manuals (for Video students)

Here are the links to the manual pages for our Canon HD cameras. PDFs are available there for download and viewing.

Vixia HF S21 (SD Card)

Vixia HV30 (Mini DV)

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Another Video Contest

http://www.viralvideofilmcontest.com/


This one offers a $10,000 scholarship to the first place winner. That's not a bad day's work for a 2 minute video on safe driving. Serioously. Do it. Now. Is it done yet?


Go to the site and click on New York on the map to get the specifications for our region. READ and FOLLOW the specs CAREFULLY, or your video may not qualify because you didn't follow diections.


Deadline is December 31, 2010 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. 


This one would have to either be extra credit, or students who had me last year could choose to do this plus another project in place of the Documentary, if desired.

C-SPAN's StudentCam Contest

Attention Video Students: 

You may choose to do this contest as your documentary project, or on your own for extra credit if you wish, or students who had me last year could also do it in place of the short narrative project. First place is $5000! Do it. Read the requirements carefully, as you must include C-SPAN footage in the project.

http://www.studentcam.org/

Deadline: January 20, 2010

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Career Safety Video Contest

Attn Video Students: We WILL be doing this contest as a project after Christmas break. Nice scholarship prizes... so start thinking of your winning idea now. :-)

http://www.careersafeonline.com/index.k2?did=551601

Monday, October 4, 2010

Animation Class - For You - John K's Blog

The Creator of Ren and Stimpy, John Kricfalusi, has a some fantastic online resources.

His blog: http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/

His online "animation school": http://johnkcurriculum.blogspot.com/. This one is a collection of posts from his regular blog, but specifically discussing tips and techniques. Great stuff if you are serious about a career as an animator.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Updated Copyright-Free Media Source List

The list of media resources I gave you in class changes from time to time as some sites are phased out and others added. Here is the current list, so you can stay updated. Some of the audio sites, in particular, have changed.

Images

Audio
http://www.freeplaymusic.com (please note that you CANNOT use freeplaymusic if your project will be broadcast in any way or entered in a contest/festival)
http://www.freesound.org (sound effects)

Video

Multiple Media Types
http://search.creativecommons.org/ (check each file for CC info)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (check each file for copyright info)

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Moby Wait for Me Finalists

Thought you might want to see the finalists for the Moby video contest. The stop motion is my favorite, although the first one is also good and the video game one is too.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Group Project? Win a trip to Universal Orlando...

I'm up for doing this if we can think of some good ideas: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/35185063/ns/today-wild_about_harry//

3 minute or less video on why my class is extraordinary. This cries out for green screen and special effects... let me know if you want to do it and we can brainstorm ideas with the juniors, also...

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Monday, January 25, 2010

Natural High PSA Contest

You may choose to do this contest in place of the Story Behind the Still, if you wish. See the Google Cal for dates.

Story Behind the Still Contest

You will be working on this project in March/April, so it would be a good idea to follow the story as it is built and think of ideas. Keep checking the Google calendar for updated projects and due dates.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

2010 Save Your Friends Over the Airwaves Contest

http://www.nysatsb.com/contests.html

Create a 30 second video or audio PSA on one of the topics provided. You can enter as many as you want, but you each must complete at least one by March 10. For my grading purposes, each PSA would count as one tutorial grade. You have 3 tutorials due between now and March 10th, so you may do one for each tutorial grade, if you wish. You must hand in a script for each audio PSA and a storyboard for each video PSA.

One of my former students, Waylon Wilson, won this in 2008. You can hear his PSA on the web site. They don't mention a cash prize here, but he also received $200, and his PSA was played on radio stations throughout the state. Great portfolio piece!

Final Blog Post (Class Evaluation) for BOTH Classes Due 6/9/19

Please respond to the following questions (cut and paste into your post, then answer below each one). Please be honest. The grade will be ba...