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Who doesn’t love a good musical? And a bit of family drama. Well, if Meat Loaf is in it, you can’t go wrong! That dude’s a barrel of laughs. But if you can’t get him, the musical-cum-commercial is always a hit.
[Thanks for the tip, Leah!]
Tags: creative inspiration, commercial, advertising, meat loaf, go phone
We’re delving into the world of the webisode again! Come check out our newest assignment, Searching for Love. Oh, and check out my super nerdy intro video:
This is how we feel sometimes at XLNTads:
Tags: funny, south park, internet
If you’re looking for a good time next week and you live in the Philadelphia area (we do!), then you might want to come down to the 48 Hour Film Festival. Here are the details from organizer Scott Johnston:
Come On out THIS Tuesday and Wed to INTERNATIONAL HOUSE, 3701 Chestnut street to see 48 local films WORLD PREMIERE!
48 teams
have 48 hours
to complete 48 films
Given a random genre from a hat (including) mystery, superhero, comedy, horror and film noir (to name a few) the filmmakers must also include a line of dialogue, a character, and a prop in their 7 minute short film. BUT the entire project (including musical score, and credits) MUST be finished within 48 hours of the kick-off (friday April 25th) and handed in on Sunday (April 27th) the screenings (in front of audiences of friends and foes) come 48 hours later (see below) and this year - the awards and prizes are bigger than ever:
to the victor goes $750 (then $500) and $250 for 3rd! Awards sponsored by XLNTads!
BUT the real winners are the folk who finish the challenge at all. late films DO screen but do NOT get to compete for the awards. Will this year be the year Philly Returns to the International 12 ‘Best’ picks? “can a team of filmmaking friends actually draw the genre of Sci-Fi/Musical/Superhero spoof and lose their actors (than have to ‘act’ themselves) lose their music files, THEN just ‘wing it’ into a mic on their iMac - rush the film in at the last minute (presume its gonna be awful) then WIN “BEST” of Philly?”
yes, and much, much weirder things happen. Like YOUR VOTE actually making a difference in selecting the WINNERS (oh, i said it)
For a complete listing of the 48 teams and their screening times please click onto: http://www.48hourfilm.com/philadelphia SEE what the hell happens when Philly Filmmakers attempt to create magic in under 48 hours!
The 48 Hour Film Project Philadelphia Screenings are at:
INTERNATIONAL HOUSE 3701 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Box Office opens at 6pm each night. This series will sell-out fast, so get there early!
Screening times are Tuesday April 29th at 7pm and 9:15pm and Wed. April 30th at 7pm and 9:15pm
Each program has 12 short films created exclusively for the 48 hour film project. Tickets are $10 and include free admission to both post-parties:
*Tuesday Post-Party will be at
N.3RD BAR and RESTAURANT (3rd and Brown streets) Home to Fancypants Cinema a free open-screening for local filmmakers to show short-films every Tuesday night in the Lounge. DVD and VHS only!
*Wed. Post-Party and Awards (including cash awards) will be held at SILK CITY (5th and SpringGarden) Free to all ticket-holders ($5 otherwise) 21 and Over! Doors at 9pm, awards begin at Midnite. DJ Travis 3000 will be spinning!
Sponsored and supported by The Philadelphia Film Society, Silk City, XLNTads, N.3RD, Panasonic and Viewers like you!
questions can be sent to
Philadelphia Producer of the
48 Hour Film Project
Scott R. Johnston
evilolive3000@hotmail.com
Tags: events, philadelphia, 48 hour film, film, xlntads
Man, I’m a huge fan of stop motion animation. Especially the pixilation (or ‘live action’) videos made with a still camera. Using a digital camera for this effect is super easy, though setting it up and making the final product look smooth is something else.
Check out Nokia’s new ‘viral’ ad. It’s a really great example of the form (but no, this one was not easy to make):
[hat tip, NewTeeVee]
Tags: nokia, xlntads, creative inspiration, stop motion, animation, commercial, viral
Congratulations to the following videos and their makers! In no particular order, here are the Top Ten videos as chosen by New Line Cinemas. Don’t forget to go see the film when it opens next weekend!
samadej – WWNPHD
onespartan – Obey The Master
jenneluedtke – Crazy Characters
desertcity – Patriot or Terrorist
Whitlash – A Subconscious Endorsement
saw138 – Ask Correctional Carl
GreenSkyMedia – Inspired
JeremiahRa - Save Us
bluecomedytv - Bush Won’t Stop Calling
bigboyco - 420 National Holiday Campaign
Tags: harold and kumar, commercials, advertising
We’re sponsoring this year’s 48 Hour Film Festival in Philadelphia, happening this weekend (click the link to get the full schedule). I get to be on the judges panel, which I’m pretty excited about. If you’re in the area and want to come say hi or be a part of the festivities, please do! Maybe we’ll take some video of the fun and festivities to share with y’all. As always, stay tuned.
Tags: xlntads, 48 hour film, news
I’m excited to announce that Anheuser-Busch bought a second video from our creative community, after first buying Ant Dudes. This time the honor goes to cybel7 for their hilarious Hockey Dude video! Congratulations, Viviana and Gato Productions! Fantastic work.
The folks at Anheuser-Bucsh are still reviewing videos and we should have more news very soon. Thanks for your patience, everyone.
Tags: advertising, commercial, bud light, dude, xlntads
[t-shirt design by Ilias Karim]
I’ve been working on updating the sidebar of our blog today, and I wanted to point out that we try to link to our creator’s blogs and sites. If you’ve got one, let us know and we’ll link to you. I’d love to add your blog to our site. And just so you know, I’m an avid blog reader and will probably subscribe to yours, too. Yay! Blog love. Just shoot me an email with your link to mark at xlntads dot com with the subject heading: BLOG LOVE.
A couple of updates.
First, we love all your videos for Harold & Kumar! You all did a fantastic job, thanks for participating. I’ve been LMAO over here. We gathered a big selection of our favorite videos and have forwarded them on to New Line Cinema for review. They will be choosing the Top Ten in the next couple of days, and we’ll announce their choices here. Stay tuned.
Second, we’ve noticed a few of you have already uploaded your videos to YouTube. We just wanted to remind you that it’s against the assignment rules to do so before the assignment is over. I know you’re excited to share your work, but you’ll just have to wait a little bit longer. I promise it’ll be very soon - after all, the film comes out on April 25th!
Got questions? Feel free to post your thoughts in the comments below. We’ll answer your questions as best we can.
Tags: harold and kumar, xlntads, video, advertising, news
I just came across this pretty awesome website that I think could be really valuable to all you videomakers out there. It’s called Soundsnap.com. From their about us section:
Soundsnap is the best platform to find and share free sound effects and loops- legally. It is a collection of original sounds made or recorded by its users, and not songs or sound FX found on commercial libraries or sample CD’s.
According to the popular social media blog, Mashable:
Soundsnap is an online resource that promises to share “pro-quality” sounds, samples and loops with the world of audio experimentalists and songsmiths without any cost to the end user. Yes, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sublicense-transferable and high-fidelity recordings are what the site is advertising, and having given it a good once-over, I’ve concluded that for those of you out there who like to dabble and like to assemble lots of little things into larger, interesting things, the site is a real pleasure to use.
Pretty awesome, yeah? I know I’ll be using their service - both to share my own samples and to download some to use in my videos.
We just got a fancy new office in beautiful Wynnewood, PA (see cute, but cloudy photo above). It’s just a hop, skip and a jump from our old office in Conshohocken, PA.
Please note, we have a new fax number!
XLNTads
23 E. Wynnewood Road
Wynnewood, PA 19096
NEW FAX number: (610) 649-2559
Same office phone number: (610) 832-1234
Okay, not really their money, silly. They’re just characters in a couple movies. But we’re coming in quick to the deadline for our Harold & Kumar assignment, and all ten of those $1500 prizes are still up for grabs. Get your video in soon. We’ll start picking the top entries a week from today.
Just for kicks, I wanted to share a great one with you guys. (No, this doesn’t mean they’ve won anything, or that New Line has picked their video, or that they are guaranteed to win. It’s just that I like it and wanted to share because it made me laugh and they did a good job.)
Featured: onespartan’s Obey the Master:
Tags: harold and kumar, new line cinema, xlntads, video, advertising
[This is a message from our acting CEO Neil Perry about our first round of big assignments that have recently wrapped up. Please feel free to comment below!]
At last, we’re able to announce the finalists from our Beta contests on XLNTads. It’s been quite a journey. Congratulations to the five selected creators for ZorbEEZ, the five for Nestle’s 100 Grand Bar, and for the three selected creators from the Unilever Slim-Fast assignment.
The outstanding creative that was submitted during these Beta campaigns has helped us secure assignments with Bud Light, Net 10, New Line Cinema and ProQuo – and many more are in the final stages of contract negotiations. Thank you all for your great work.
It was not easy getting here, and we’ve learned a lot from those Beta programs. For example, we are still waiting for our brands to make a final decision on using creative for advertising purposes. This is frustrating to all of us, for you and for all of us here at XLNTads. We are not even sure when the brands will make their final decision.
But we’ve learned from these challenges. They have truly helped us refine how our assignments play out, both for you our creators and for our clients. In all future programs, there will be a guarantee on the number of creative units that will be selected. We’ve already implemented this: Bud Light has a minimum of three, New Line Cinema and ProQuo have guaranteed to select ten pieces each.
We are insisting that all decisions on selecting creative be made in a timely fashion, less than 30 days from the end of the program. These requirements are being built into the contract we have with all our brands moving forward.
In the coming assignments, we will offer a larger number of ‘seed’ budgets – money paid directly to our top performing creators to get assignments rolling. We will require brands to put up at least $2500 in video budget money spread between select creators upon the launch of a new assignment in addition to the money for selected ads.
Last but not least, we are also testing out a unique added feature to many of our assignments. We will be offering bonus money to selected creators to post and promote their videos on YouTube and other video sites, with the highest views getting paid. We currently have this component included in the ProQuo and the New Line Cinema Harold and Kumar movie assignment.
The message is clear. You folks are producing some wonderful, compelling video creative, and XLNTads is doing all it can to insure that you have the greatest opportunity to earn cash and prizes by participating in our brand-sponsored programs. Please leave any feedback, suggestions or ideas in a comment below, or feel free to email me or one of our Community Managers with your thoughts.
Thanks!
I really wish I had a short answer for you, but this one is going to take a few sentences. Sorry. 
The Beer industry is one of the most heavily regulated and scrutinized industries in the U.S., second only to pharmaceuticals. As a result, our friends at Anheuser-Busch must review each submission carefully before it can be shown anywhere, even in our Gallery. In addition to copyright issues, there are the challenges with having approved, checked out releases; actors that are 25+ years of age; directors that are at least 21 years of age; nothing that can be construed as inappropriate drinking practices; and more.
Add to that the extremely large number of submissions, and the fact that the largest number of those submissions came in on the last two days, and you can see the challenge facing A-B.
Rest assured that every single commercial that has been submitted is being reviewed and evaluated for potential purchase by Bud Light’s legal and brand team. They have completed the purchase process for one, and are reviewing releases on a second purchase, and have a potential list of nearly ten spots that could make it as assignment winners.
Typically, we like to have all our submissions on display during a program, but the upside potential for all of us in appreciating A-B’s concerns and issues huge. Potentially, we can be providing creative support for any number of A-B brands over the coming months. So while I understand your desire to see your work posted, we all need to recognize what’s most important … that a top US brand is buying our creative and probably will do more work with us in the future.
