One of our loyal videomakers here at XLNTads is Zack Scott. He’s a great guy, a funny fella and one smart videomaker. He recently earned some cash from us for his hilarious barfing mailbox for ProQuo and he’s written a great guest post for Nalts’ blog Will Video for Food about how he went about making his winning video.

Here are some of his main thoughts on how he did it:

• Parody - The main humor throughout the video is based on the fact the video is a parody without being a parody of the product. That way both the audience and the company executives can enjoy it. But who knows, maybe directly trashing the product is a better approach? I’ll try it next time.
• Bizarreness – Frankly, I think the talking mailbox is both creepy and bizarre (and maybe even cheesy), but it is essential for setting up ProQuo as something to treat various ailments. Although the first half of the video feels different from the second half, I think it worked out great. Samuel did a great job with computer effects and stop-motion.
• Randomness – I think random humor can be really funny when there can be a true connection to the topic. The scenes of Samuel looking cool, me being inept at sports, Samuel stumbling out of a portable toilet, and me pulling a huge weed out of the ground appear to be random. But if you look at any pharmaceutical commercial, there are always clips of people doing random activities from the mundane to the extreme. So why not just have us performing weird activities? It allows for some slapstick humor and a way to keep the video exciting while the voiceover discusses some important aspects of ProQuo.
• Punchline – Since XLNTads and ProQuo wanted funny, I felt there had to be a “punchline” of sorts. I don’t want to spoil it, but it is funny due to the parody aspect and the much-needed self-depreciating humor. Plus, it is true. I guess the main lesson here is that once you have an idea or a full concept, figure out how you can utilize it to its full potential.

Definitely head over and read the whole article. Zack’s a smart guy and certainly knows what he’s talking about.

Tags: zack scott, nalts, video, contest, how to

My friend Dave has this great new blog about the start-up business environment in Philadelphia called Phillypreneurs. He did a short interview with me the other day over video iChat. We talked about some cool points in there, viral vids, business, and more. Have a look!

Tags: phillypreneurs, xlntads, startup, video, interview

Amazing. ProQuo was absolutely floored by how awesome your videos are. In fact, I heard they had a company party, brought in pizza and beer, and watched through all the videos and chose their favorites democracy-style. Fun! Apparently, it was a pretty wild party. LOL! Well, okay, that last part I made up, but I can imagine. Viral videos always get people amped up.

Okay, lemme cut to the chase. Here are their Top Ten favorites! Congratulations to all these folks who are banking $1500 each! Stay tuned for the viral run-off to see which one gets seen the most out there in the videoland wilds. (note: they’re all embeded, so give them a second to load)

ZackScott’s Sick Mailbox

ej6inmiami’s Junk Mail Attacks

kevhdigital’s Medieval Junk Mail

JamesDierx’s Do Not Kill the Messenger

cydog’s Unsolicited

sakinnuso’s Devil Deal

MattyGahan’s Dirty Mail Lady

SlatersGarage’s ProQuo Poor Eddie

ThreeVolts’ Too Much Junk 3

kahit1227’s ProQuo ID Theft

Tags: xlntads, video, proquo, advertising, viral, commercial

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

Just in case you hadn’t noticed the wee lil’ list on the side bar over on the right, XLNTads is all over the place on the interwebs. Why not head on over and share a little love and friend us up? We’re on MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and more.

Oh, and in case you were looking for a little more social media humor, check this out:

[thanks, adpulp!]

Tags: social networks, xlntads, friending, video, humor

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

Hey gang, just a heads up - we’ve been having some wonky encoder problems up in this joint. We’re working hard on getting all your ProQuo videos through, but some of them hit a snag and we’ve got our tools out and we’re greasin’ her up. Don’t worry, we’ll get all your videos in that are under the deadline. Hang tight!

Thanks. Give me an email if you’re still not seeing anything after today.

In the meantime, why not go watch some of the great videos that are up already? Wow. Impressive stuff, people! Y’all are getting better every time. I can’t wait to see the vids for Searching for Love.

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:

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

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.

Tags: xlntads, blogs, community

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