Our buddy Brett, video maker extraordinaire, winner of several assignments here at XLNTads, a devout Mainer posted a fantastic list of tips for people who want to make videos for contests.

1) Thou shalt be brief. This is one for Advertisers to bear in mind as well as Creators, and to me, it’s the most important. With the internet cultivating such short attention spans in its users, you gotta make your point, then wrap it up, especially when you’re making an ad. 60 seconds is plenty. 30 is better.

2) Thou shalt play by the rules. This one’s simple. Read the creative brief, contest rules, instructions, etc., and follow ‘em to the letter. If they ask for an .mpg, don’t send an .avi. If they say “no more than 3 minutes,” don’t submit a video that’s 3:45. Don’t give contest administrators any reason to disqualify your entry before it even gets viewed.

3) Honor thy target demo. Is the advertiser trying to reach women 35-54? Men 40+? Pet owners? Gamers? Make your video a mirror of that target viewer, so when they watch, they see themselves.

4) Remember thy deadline, and keep it holy. Don’t be late with your submission, and don’t ask for an extension. It’s not fair to the people who were on time.

5) Thou shalt not be a poor sport. Be humble when you win, and gracious when you don’t. Congratulate the winner(s) sincerely and affably, or don’t say anything. You may not agree with the judges’ decisions, but they were made for a reason. Besides, if you hit the target every time, it’s either too close or too big, right? Get ‘em next time.

6) Thou shalt get involved in the community. As creators, we all strive to be original and unique, but we do have at least one thing in common: each other. Interact. Read and subscribe to related blogs. Comment and ask questions of other creators. Learn as much as you can, and offer help to those who ask it of you. We’re at the forefront of this burgeoning advertising medium, and in a few years’ time, we’re going to be the seasoned experts, so we’re gonna have to know what the hell we’re talkin’ about.

And finally,

7) Thou shalt not enter a contest in which I am also competing. Because face it: I don’t need the competition, and neither do you.

Obviously, I’m kidding about the last one. I actually welcome the competition, and quite enjoy it. There are a TON of outstanding video creators online, and when I see a good video, it always makes me want to step up my game a little more.

The couple I would add to this list are:

8.) Thou shalt use the highest possible video production standards. I know not everyone can shoot in HD or has a pro audio guy hangin’ around, but boy some of those techy things makes video go from fun to Pro in 0.83 seconds. But you don’t have to be rich. Just holding the camera well, framing up your shots and using lights wisely will vastly improve your video.

9.) Thou shalt be creative. No one wants to watch the same ol’ tired ideas. We get so excited when we see that someone really put some time and energy into planning out their video. Really making it something witty and smart and tight. You’ll stand out. Especially when Liza and I have to go through and review 200+ videos in an assignment.

Tags: video, contests, xlntads, brett slater, how to

Way back before XLNTads even launched, we ventured up to New York City to participate in the 07/07/07 YouTube Gathering. We had a blast, so we’re excited to have another meet up in our hometown this summer! We’re going to be sure to attend on July 12, 2008 at Independence Park here in Philly!

We hope those of you in the near vicinity will come and join us for good times, new friends and great video. It’s always nice to meet folks in person after seeing their mugs on a tiny box on the computer screen. Can’t wait to see ya!

(by the way, while we do like the word, we don’t say Yo! that much in Philly… haha)

Tags: philly, youtube, meetup, gathering, philadelphia

One of our awesome creators, Bill Pouty of ThreeVolts (makers of one of the great finalists on the ProQuo assignment) was interviewed on the all-video-contest blog VidOpp.com today. He’s got some great pointers about the video contest world and his take on production. Recommended reading, to be sure. And by the way, while you’re there, subscribe! - VidOpp is a great resource.

Here’s a quote from the piece:

Q. What advice do you have for future video contest entrants?

I would say shoot a lot, do something novel, that’s original, or just don’t do anything. Do comedy, it’s a brave new world, and there are lots of new ways to make money.

Thanks for the shout out, guys!

Tags: xlntads, vidopp, threevolts, interview

Our friend and awesome creator Zack Scott suggested we ask you, the community members, about how you felt about different award amounts for our assignments. We’ve been mixing it up, and we would love to get your feedback.

Tags: awards, video, xlntads, assignments

Today, one of the biggest and best blogs on Earth (and one of my daily reads) Read/Write Web posted a long piece on YouTube ’stars’ and how they, and others, can parlay their fame and video skills into business. It’s a pretty basic primer on the things we know, but the writer did include a long bit at the end about prosumer video makers doing the commercial thing. They didn’t mention us by name, unfortunately, but I wrote this response:

We’ve built a whole business around the idea that there is a huge (and growing) market of semi-pro and freelance video makers who are more than talented enough to tell brand stories. We’re putting their work in front of our major brand clients like Anheuser-Busch and Nestle to great praise. I definitely believe that this kind of content has great potential because people have a thirst for creation. And they’re only going to get better.

I believe in the future, you will see a creative class of videographers who make money from several revenue streams. They’ll make video ads for their neighbor’s restaurant, commercials for Nestle through sites like ours, video blog segments for their friend’s band and comedy skits for their YouTube Partner channel - making money at all of them.

It’s the rise of the multi-faceted media maker.

What are your thoughts? Can it be done? Are we heading in the right direction?

Tags: video, xlntads, commercials, business

We had an awesome time at the Philadelphia 48 Hour Film Project. Got to meet tons of new folks, great video makers all. There were 44 teams in this year’s event and since I was one of the judges, I got to watch them all. Pretty rad, huh?

XLNTads wanted to sponsor some top awards for the show, so we handed out these cash awards to the best films of the weekend:

$750 Best Film - “Kitchen Aide” by No Right Return
$500 Best Directing - “Dirty Dishes” by Psynema
$250 Best Writing - “Dancing with Myself” by Spoonfullofpoo

Congratulations to all of you who participated in this fun event. You’ll be able to watch all of the videos from this festival as well as those from the other 48 Hour Film Project events around the globe at their new video channel 48.tv. Also, they’ve got some blog action themselves. Check it out!

See you next year in Philly. And heck, we had such a great time, we’ll probably come to more events around the world!

Tags: 48 hour film project, xlntads, news, events, filmmakers, video

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

[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.

Tags: xlntads, blogs, community

We’re so proud! Famous ad critic Bob Garfield featured one of our amazing creators, MuggleSam in a new article about XLNTads. Sam made a really great video for our client Slim-Fast, and Mr. Garfield agrees. He calls her spot “extremely interesting on a variety of scores and also pretty damn good.” Wow!

We were lucky enough to meet MuggleSam in person way back at the 07/07/07 YouTube Meetup in New York, where she first learned about us. I can tell ya, she’s awesome! She has a very popular YouTube channel (subscribe!), a beautiful and talented daughter and a super attitude about making video. We’re so happy to see her get this wonderful recognition for her work. And we’re even happier that she’s an XLNTads creator! Here’s a look at her spot:

Don’t forget, you’ve got until January 31st to try your hand at making a viral video for Slim-Fast. Get shootin’!

Tags: mugglesam, bob garfield, ad age, video, advertising, xlntads

The Amazing Pitch was a call out for pilots and trailers for great webisode series ideas. Even with a short, couple-week window, a bunch of people entered their creative vision into the pool. And they were truly fabulous! And then, we had a great opportunity to show these videos to big advertisers at an ad agency conference.

We’ve got winners! The Grand Prize of $2500 for best Amazing Pitch pilot goes to: “Ultra Niche: Circuit Bending” by Woodshop Films!

Click To Play

Pretty awesome, huh? But, wait, there’s more! We had a ton of great entries, and the 5 runners up won an Sanyo Xacti E1 waterproof video camera. Congrats to you folks! Great work. Some of the vids are super wacky, others are down right cool. Watch all the entries, but make sure to watch the winners:

“Reality Rocks: Mom’s Boyfriend” by SlatersGarage
“Photography by Jared” by jaredcicon
“Slikster: Rob’s First Day at Work” by neovids
“Solar Water Distiller” by ZackScott
“The Florist Underground” by Nomadic

And, while I’m talking about Amazing Pitch, we had so much fun with these, we’re going to go ahead and roll out The Amazing Pitch II (coming soon)! Get on over and send us your best pilot for an online series here.

Tags: news, video, xlntads, the amazing pitch, winner, contest, webisodes

We’re getting a lot of Nalts Love this week! He mentions us a couple times over on his blog Will Video For Food. First, he calls this very blog as one of the ‘must read‘ blogs about video on the web. Thanks, Nalts!

Then, in a post detailing “The Advertising Agency’s Five Stages of ‘Online Video’ Grief“, he took some time to write up a great summary of the panel discussion he lead with Neil at the ad:tech conference last week. Here’s a list of five simple steps to getting up to speed on viral video advertising:

1. Pay attention to social media, industry changes and viral videos that help market. There’s a lot you can learn from positive and negative example. If you catch your agency staff watching online videos at work, don’t stop them (unless it’s porn). Find out what they’re watching and why.
2. Hire someone who understands this medium. At first it might not feel like headcount you can justify, and you may want to find a subcontractor or consultant. But as a product director myself (yeah I’ve got a day job) I’m going to look elsewhere if I don’t believe your agency has a clue about the impact of online video. Nothing makes me giggle like an agency that boasts that they are pioneers because they made a brand page on MySpace or Friendster, or had a viral video that got viewed ten thousand times.
3. Begin to experiment with lower cost and adaptive forms of video content. The next time you do that “big shoot,” get some footage you can use in other forms. It could be as simple as footage from a decent high definition camera, but be sure to arrange the rights with your models and the shoot’s director (who will probably grow quite irate at this prospect).
4. Pitch your client on doing something experimental online — before they find someone else with a more robust and compelling story. Don’t stop with online-video ads — try creating entertaining content that subtly markets. There is no shortage of inventory for paid promotion, but that’s just one arrow in your online-video quiver.
5. Partner with amateurs who have existing audiences and online “street cred,” and they’ll keep you from doing anything that will be repulsive to skeptical online viewers who have ADHD and love the power of stopping ads and lambasting blatant promotion. If you’re brave, approach some online-video “weblebrities,” (like top YouTubers or amateurs that have had success on other sites). This is a lot of work, so if you want a more turnkey approach hire a specialist to manage it (xlntads, for example, is brokering relationships between big brands and promising amateurs).

Of course, we’d emphasize #5!

Tags: nalts, advertising, xlntads, video, viral, blogging, adtech

Our buddies (and super XLNTads creators) Nalts and Brett Slater of Slater’s Garage got to try out a couple of Google’s new ‘gPhones’. Here’s the awesome vid they made about the experience:

Tags: android, slater’s garage, nalts, gphone, google, phone, video, funny

With the launch of Facebook Pages, we went ahead and signed up for one. Come add us! Be our fan!

And don’t forget, we’ve got a Facebook Group and we’re on MySpace and YouTube. Make sure to subscribe! We promise to return the favor.

Tags: facebook, xlntads, myspace, youtube, pages, social networking

Alan, the wicked awesome creative talent behind fallofautumndistro just won a prize for his video “Most Viewed“. He was so stoked, he went ahead and showed us some love on his YouTube vlog. Thanks, Alan! We love you, too!

Got a I [heart] XLNTads vid you want us to post? Send me the links, kids!

Tags: love, xlntads, fallofautumndistro, video, contests

There’s a long thread on the Yahoo! Videoblogging Group today about what they are calling the rise of the ‘Middle Class’ of video creators. The discussion arose from this ArsTechnica blog post about independent musicians in the Web 2.0 era. Video blogger Jay Dedman wonders, is it now the time for independent video makers to stake their claim in the middle of the visual media industry?

At XLNTads, we answer with a resounding YES! We believe that the ready access to professional-grade digital media tools allows a very low barrier to entry into the video industry. We’re banking on it. The core principal of our business is that creative people live everywhere and that those people can utilize their skills to make amazing creative advertising for brands while putting money in their pockets. Whether they use the XLNTads community as a launching pad to a career in creative, or they just want to make fun videos and take home some money doing it, this market is big and getting bigger by the day.

XLNTads is guided by our videomakers. We understand how this medium works. That’s why we actively seek great videobloggers and prolific YouTubers to be involved with our community. We know they’ve got production chops, they’ve got built in audiences, they’ve got the power to start viral trends, and they are super self-motivated and creative. We believe the best of these creators will come up with grand slam ideas for our brands and deliver current, relevant and smart video creative. The creators win, the brands win, we win.

Tags: videoblogging, arstechnica, jaydedman, community, xlntads, web2.0, media, prosumer, creative, advertising, making money