$100,000 in 140 Seconds

I can’t help but think that somebody forgot to dot an i or cross a t somewhere, because yours truly has just been asked to give away $100,000 of somebody else’s money. Yep you read that correctly. 100. LARGE.

That somebody is Nikon, and I’m not alone in this endeavor. I’ve got some accomplices: Rainn Wilson (from ‘The Office’) and Justine Ezarik (iJustine). The three of us have been charged with choosing one winner in the Nikon Festival: a short form video contest that was the impetus for my creating the short film above – check it out! Love your feedback… But I’m not entered in the contest – that’s YOUR job. Create a 140 second video that simply shows a day through your lens.

Details about the contest, when you can pickup your 100 grand, more about my film, and a debut of Rainn Wilson’s short film after the jump… [click the ‘continue reading’ link below] —

My Film: First of all, it was a blast making this little shortie. I hope you enjoyed. I never really named it, although the working title is Dancing with Bachzi. And it chronicles my day collaborating with 3 close friends: the amazing prodigy cellist, Joshua Roman; the slickest DJ producer I know, Sabzi, of Blue Scholars and Common Market; and the most elegant and arresting dancer I know, Ellie Sandstrom. We had a blast with this–I’ll show some behind the scenes stuff in a future post.

The Contest: I’m psyched that Nikon has stepped up like this and is legitimately backing us creatives! Props to them. They’re letting Rainn, Justine and me choose one filmmaker to hand 100 grand cash AND letting you pick a second winner who will receive $25,000–the people’s choice award. And both winners also get a Nikon camera kit.

What would you do with the winnings? Whatever you want, of course. Wouldn’t it be killer if the winner of either prize (but especially the biggie) would take a year off and do something creative with the money, something that they loved?

The basic guidelines for the contest are simple. Between now and December 15th you create and submit a 140 second film. Starting on December 16th, us judges begin sorting through all the submissions and announce a winner in January.

I shot my little flick on the Nikon D300s, but you can use ANY camera. That’s right. Nikon is cool enough to recognize that not everyone uses Nikon. In truth, it’s one of the reasons I’m psyched about this contest. Nikon has created an environment that supports ALL photographers and filmmakers, regardless of equipment or format.

The thought of getting to drop a huge pile of cash into the lap of someone from this community has me beside myself. I’ll be keeping tabs on the submissions and stuff through the course of the festival. You can do so via the contest site, @nikonfestival, or via it’s Facebook page.

In the meantime get out there at build a movie around YOUR DAY. Be it serious, funny, emotional or otherwise, just go for it. As a parting nod, I just had to embed my fellow judge funnyman Rainn Wilson’s vid. It’s simultaneously hysterical, bizarre and smart.

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