The New York Hall of Science is hosting a Master Magician Contest in anticipation of the opening of the blockbuster exhibition Magic: The Science of Illusion on June 28.
Content: create a video of yourself performing your favorite magic trick to illustrate the connection between science and magic. Max 2 min. Deadline of video contest submission: June 9 2008 Eligibility: Adult (15 and older) and Kids (14 and younger) categories (of the USA?) Prize: The title “Master Magician of the New York Hall of Science,” along with a Magic Prize Package including a $50 gift certificate to the Hall, will be awarded to the producer of the top video in both adult (15 and older) and kids (14 and younger) categories. The three top finalists in each category will receive New York Hall of Science t-shirts. Rules of video contest: NYScience.org
Here’s Card Science as an example for the contest by Elizabeth Wade
Make your favorite original mango recipe and record it on a video, then participate in the contest and win a trip to Gotham city.
“Calling all aspiring chefs ages 8-14! Here’s your chance to win a trip to New York City and be among the three finalists in a mango recipe cook-off at The Institute of Culinary Education. Grab your video camera and have a family member or a friend capture your skills in the kitchen as you whip up your favorite original mango recipe. The grand prize winner will get to cook alongside Simply Delicioso star Ingrid Hoffmann on television’s video magazine Health & Home Report.”
Content: submit videos of your mango recipe, creation, cooking art, or something edible mango dish Deadline of video contest submission: from May 7 to July 7 2008 Eligibility: between 8 and 14 years old residents of the USA Prize: There will be One (1) Grand Prize awarded. The Grand Prize consists solely of the opportunity for the Grand Prize Winner to appear on a television broadcast with National Mango Board spokesperson Ingrid Hoffmann; a trip for two to the final judging in New York City, N.Y., including round-trip coach air transportation for two between major airports in the United States nearest to winner’s residence and New York City, N.Y.; There will be Two (2) Runners-Up prizes awarded. Each Runners-Up Prize consists solely of a trip for two to the final judging in New York City, N.Y., including round-trip coach air transportation for two between major airports in the United States nearest to winner’s residence and New York City, N.Y.; Rules of video contest: http://www.mango.org/risingstar/rules.php
Here’s a video on how you can cut a mango professionally:
Choose a surprising fact and make a video for the contest to give a chance to yourself to win $10,000 in the Mountain Dew Video Contest. Max 1 minute, plus include the logo or the image or both. Content: submit videos of surprising facts Deadline of video contest submission: from March 06 to June 05 2008 Eligibility: over 18 years old residents of the USA, “you must be a legal resident of the U.S. residing in one of the fifty (50) United States or the District of Columbia who is 18 years of age or older (19 in NE and AL)” Prize: $10,000 is the grand prize Rules of video contest: surprising facts TV
Dockers Livemercial Video Contest 2008 – more details on NBC.
Content: submit videos of Dockers commercials, max 30 sec. Deadline of video contest submission: May 29 2008 Eligibility: over 18 years old residents of the USA Prize: The Grand Prize winning Submission will be submitted for consideration to NBC as a commercial to be aired once during the June 13, 2008 broadcast of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Grand Prize has no cash value. Under no circumstances will the Grand Prize Winner be entitled to receive anything other than NBC’s consideration for air time. Rules of video contest: NBC.com
ForRent.com, which seeks to help young people find apartments, is using this contest as a means to connect with the upcoming generation, which is the company’s main demographic. This is the first contest they have hosted.
“Judging by the success of Web sites like Myspace.com and Facebook.com, it is obvious that social media is huge,” Mobley said. “Our company has embraced social media as another way to deliver our message to apartment seekers. … We are really excited and can’t wait to see the videos that people submit.”
Content: submit a max two-minute original video explaining, through the eyes of their furniture, why you should win the money, then submit your videos to WinApartmentFurniture.com. Deadline of video contest submission: June 15 2008 Eligibility: over 18 years old US residents Prize: the winner will receive $10,000 towards the purchase of new apartment furniture. The top ten finalists will each take home an iPod Shuffle. Rules of video contest: Win Apartment Furniture
Unfortunately the winning videos are not on youtube, so instead of embedding them here, you can watch them on PWC TV here
PricewaterhouseCoopers announced today the five winners of its inaugural Leadership Adventure Video Contest, which asked undergraduate business students nationwide to submit two-minute videos answering the question, “What makes a great leader?” Each winner receives a $3,000 scholarship and will be invited to attend the 2008 PwC Leadership Adventure, a program for high-achieving college students interested in accounting or information technology careers.
Europeskate is organizing a King of Skate (skateboarding)video contest where you are expected to reproduce challenging skate figures and record them on video. The contest is a bit complicated regarding its procedure, I’m afraid (you need to send in videos several times to stay among the potential winners), but it is about skating and if you love it, it might be a good practice and a great challenge to win some money.
Content: “Well, you probably have heard of Alex Mizurov, the German tech skater who won the eS Game Of Skate 2006 finals. Him and some friends will be doing some tricks and it’s up to anybody entering the contest to imitate the tricks the best they can.”
Prize: 2,500 euros
Deadline for registration: May 12 2008
Further info on the skating video contest: EuropeSkate
Here’s a footage of Alex Mizurov:
And another one to get a feel for the flat tricks:
Gasping for air at the sight of a video contest prize of your annual income (or more) of $57,000 and all going to a guy, a high school graduate, Matt Cozza? That’s when huge brands realize how cost-effective it is to crowdsource their commercials and engage the audience from top to bottom, from tomato to ketchup.
From Suburban Chicago News:
Ketchup Kid Matt Cozza’s commercial conquered the competition and landed him a cool $57,000. Cozza, a Shorewood native and graduate of Joliet West High School, won the grand prize in the Top This TV challenge for best Heinz Ketchup commercial. Cozza, along with a crew of friends from high school, filmed the spot on a Sunday afternoon in Joliet’s Chicago Street Bar & Grill.
Matt Cozza pointed out that they managed to overcome the celebrity network effect:
“We were up against good competition, and there was no way to tell how the voting was going,” Cozza said. “Some of the people had large existing networks. One guy had a lot of fans because he’s a country music singer. It was a tough four days of trying not to think about it.”
Here are is the winning video entry, the Heinz Ketchup commercial:
If it makes you think that you could have done it too, buy a camcorder and check out the current online video contests.
Travel video contests are always a great success, and the You and Europe competition must be a great let-out for your creative energy. Maybe you could revamp a video that you just made for your family and friends and win another trip to a European destination, like Budapest, Hungary or Prague, Rome, Krakow, Berlin, London, Amsterdam, Riga, etc.
Content: Have you been to Europe lately and recorded your travels? “It can be funny, poignant, romantic, serious or silly. Catch an aspect of the culture, whatever captures your imagination and tell that story in your own voice and in your own style. Max 3 minutes in length. Eligibility: over 18 years old US residents Prize: win a trip to Europe for 2 (it’s a 7-day package to one of the 38 countries of the European Travel Commission) Deadline: Sept 30 2008
This is the promo video of Compulsive Traveler on YouTube:
According to the organizers, some tips for making a travel video for the contest may help you to find your inspiring narrative perspective for your European story.
I like the idea of having a video contest centering around remix culture, and the first video that comes to my mind is that of Michael Wesch, anthropology professor who made a video of what the Web looks like today, and became a viral video success reaching about a million viewers.
Now your task is to show what our culture looks like today, I guess. Even though we knew that our culture is basically remix, it is even more visible thanks to the web, and more easily remixable at the same time. Total Recut ( a video remix community website) has managed to get great judges for this touchy and blurry challenge: Lawrence Lessig, Henry Jenkins, Kembrew McLeod, Pat Aufderheide, JD Lasica and Mark Hosler Content: make a video answering the question ‘What is Remix Culture?’ You can you use any footage you can find, including Public Domain and Creative Commons work, max. 3 minutes – min 30 seconds long. Don’t forget you “must remix previously published video footage” and can use your own too.
Prizes: laptop computer loaded with video editing and conversion software, a digital camcorder, a digital media player, as well as Special Edition Total Recut T-Shirts, books, DVDs and CDs.
Deadline: June 1 2008
Eligibility: Contest is open to natural persons of any age, from any country.
And here’s the video made by Michael Wesch, anthropology professor: The Machine Is Us/ing Us This is a slightly revised and cleaned up version of the video that was featured on YouTube in February 2007.
Video Contests that Rock 