Here's an idea

[George Butterfield]

The "RED Owners Awards"
We have an annual contest for short films.
The film must be shot with a RED Camera.
They are shown on a dedicated web site or forum.
Only registered RED Owners (or a subset of same) can vote for best Film.
The winner gets world wide publicity.

 

[Joe D'Arcy]

The "RED Owners Awards"
We have an annual contest for short films.
The film must be shot with a RED Camera.
They are shown on a dedicated web site or forum.
Only registered RED Owners (or a subset of same) can vote for best Film.
The winner gets world wide publicity.

Great idea George. You could host it on vimeo. Although, how would you categorise it? Given that the range of films shot on Red range from 'the Hobbit, Pirates, Spiderman to low budget indies.'

 

[Lewis-M Soucy]

Nice idea! :emote_hippie:

 

[Meryem Ersoz]

Running contests is a lot of work, more than most people realize. There have been several which have floated through these forums over the years already, the 4K Challenge, OpenCut... It takes a real level of commitment to make these have any lasting power at all, beyond the first effort or so. When you're running contests, you aren't shooting.

I ran this online production contest for 3 years - http://www.uwolchallenge.com

over 400 films made in that time, from every corner of the world (including the Arctic Circle, Norway, Australia, Taiwan, Chile, Germany - you name it), before I finally had to give it up. It was a lot of fun, rewarding in that time frame, and I met some of the greatest people on the face of the planet.

One of the players won a Panda this year at Wildscreen and is now shooting for some major broadcasters. Many of the other original players turned from amateurs to professional jobs as well.

It was a highly effective contest. Many great things happened as a result of it, for myself and others. But at the end of the day, I spent a lot of time doing clerical tasks and functioning as an educator, not a shooter. You need someone willing to make that commitment.

Not trying to drop a bucket on your idea - I'm just trying to give you an idea of what it takes to make these things fly past the "good idea" stage. I've seen many of these ideas come and go quickly, because of the time required away from shooting by the leader.

It is satisfying in other ways, though.

 

[George Butterfield]

I spent a lot of time doing clerical tasks and functioning as an educator, not a shooter. You need someone willing to make that commitment.

Well, maybe there would have to be an entry fee to pay a person, non-shooter,full time. An One Hundred dollar entry fee is actually considered high, by me, but maybe that is what it would take to maintain a high quality annual event on the web. How do the Academy awards raise money? How could such a "film fest" be financed? Maybe just a thread here mentioning "RED" productions which have won awards. Maybe RDC could produce BD discs with collections of submitted shorts.

 

[Meryem Ersoz]

No one pays entry fees for web-based contests (there are too many free ones) unless there is some sort of large pay-out at the end.

Mike Burton did a great job of running the 4K Challenge, and he received immediate interest from reduser sponsors (then, of course, you get in the business of managing sponsors...). You would have to ask him and I don't want to put words in his mouth, but I believe his shooting took him away from his contest-running after the first one, which was quite successful. Even though it was already and immediately supported, because there is a user base in place here, it didn't have staying power, because he wants to shoot, not manage. You give up your passion, to enable others' passion. Unless your passion is managing and educating.

(I have a Ph.D. and used to teach at our local university, so it fed something else in me, besides scratching the shooter's itch. I received a huge amount of gratification from watching the players improve - so much better than teaching resistant teenagers!!)

People jumped all over that first 4K Challenge contest and some good films and friendships were made. I participated in it myself, just to meet some more local RED owners. Again, don't mistake my advice for me saying "don't" or "can't" - I would actually like to see one of these succeed. I think it would be good for the community.

I'm just offering up all the caveats for things that go wrong - and I have seen it happen many times, and I have done it successfully myself over a period of years, on an international scale - so I know a little bit about why these things work and why they don't...

a little preventative medicine, if you will...

 

[Shawn Nelson]

Or Red could do like Panasonic and pay $3,000+ a short film for demo purposes...

 

[Zakaree Sandberg]

I wish we had little fest's like dvx user has..

it keeps people motivated to shoot when they arent working professionally.

Have themes... everyone posts their project.. prizes to be had

 

[Wayne Beck]

I don't think DVXUser has banned use of RED Cameras in their festivals. Besides they are kinda kin IMHo. They have a festival going on right now --FictionFest I think. They do an outstanding job and participants share about equipment, experiences and just have a great time in general.

It might not be a bad idea for RED Users to enter some shorts with DVXUsers and let those not familiar with RED footage see the difference a RED makes. That is if there is anyone not familiar with RED footage.