I need to break the law!

Again Michael, your optimism about all this is very admirable. I agree that it is a really amazing site, and it’s awesome that we get to be a part of it. But it’s frustrating to me to see this happen to this great site. I think the general consensus suggests that these choices were poor.

and Nick, read my top paragraph. A focus group/ panel would be ideal. Clearly if it were up to voting, everyone would downgrade each other, and there would be synthetic voting.

But what about my top five selections? Anyone have any top five of their own?

What I didn’t like about Payback Time - and a few of the other videos that had fairly decent production values - is that it was scripted. XLNT wanted a raw road trip experience and these are basically sitcoms. In the case of Payback time, There wasn’t any road trip sequence at all. That right there probably didn’t land it.

I appreciate your comments about PAYBACK TIME, and I agree, Jamal’s character was….lacking. I wanted a Chris Tucker/Rush Hour type character, but his execution wasn’t even close and had no time to recast.

As a creator I tend to avoid being critical of other’s work. Since we are all working hard to develop our craft.

I’m not on the Brand side of things either so it’s not my place to critique either.

I believe XLNTADS is on to something that can be huge. Good for us, good for them. I hope they can make some sales off ROAD TRIP, it can only help us. But that’s their job, so I’m not in a position to disparage thier choices either.

When it comes to the work of other’s, my peers and co-horts in this industry, if I can’t say anything nice about their work, I avoid saying anything at all. But, that’s just me.

I hope you continue to post and make videos on XLNTADS Dave. And the growing pains comment really refers to XLNTADS/ALL CREATORS as they/we mature as a company/creative force.

Let me revise my top five:
Heading to Hollywood
James Lanman Tour
Upstate Abuse Road Trip
Payback Time
Start Spreading the News Road Trip

XLNT is just throwing their VC’s money in the trash. There were over 45 submissions, of which most were bad. But I could easily find 10 better than these. The audience should be more involved in the selection… WE ARE THE CONSUMER.

I liked Price of Admission…as a filmmaker… but that’s not mainstream at all. The music was awful too.

Now… “Leaving the farm for a road trip” was just terrible. There is no premise for the road trip. It’s 3 minutes of two cute chicks messing around.

I agree private critiques would be awesome. But I don’t expect that when they have 40 submissions. What they should be doing is choosing the top 5 and whittling it down with a voting on Youtube.

I would have chosen:
Heading to Hollywood
James Lanman Tour
Upstate Abuse Road Trip
Price of Admission
Start spreading the News Road Trip

That’s a wide range of content and each video was entertaining in and of itself.

I don’t have any growing pains because I didn’t get around to making a video in time… but I’m glad I didn’t because look at the winners, and look at the losers. The losers made better videos but still lost.

I would tend to disagree with you. Certainly the three selected cover a huge range of audiences, all were very different. Midlife was well executed, written and acted as far as I’m concerned.

And Searching for Santa was hilarious! That was some great outside the box thinking on their parts. The writers for levoyage are VERY good. And I’ve been writing material for 11 years, including 4 screenplays, one of which has been produced.

Obviously LeVoyage is onto something.
Obviously LeVoyage has raised the bar.
Obviously XLNTADS likes the creativity LeVoyage brings.
Study those two winners and learn what they did right!

I’m new to XLNTADS and sure, I wish PAYBACK TIME had won or been in the top three. But such is life. Go pitch your ideas to an ad agency, they may all be great, but they have to be what the client is looking for.

Most of the time, they don’t even know what they have in mind till they hear some pitches and then something will just ring true for them and boom, you got a contract.

This isn’t any different. Only XLNTADS is being a middle man and finding the clients for us. If you take a look at the staff, these guys know what they are doing with years of experience in the market. Nevertheless, your work, everyone’s work is being shown and introduced.

What I would like to see is private critiques on each of our submissions so we could LEARN.

This was a tough assignment since we lacked so much information, (which is why I probably limited my involvement to one shooting location).

Lastly, it behooves XLNTADS to pick the three ones THEY believe will be their best foot forward in selling the series.

We all have our own flavor, perspective and opinions, but none of that matters in the world of marketing - IT’S NOT PERSONAL.

Working in the Ad world requires a very thick skin. You pour your soul into a project only to see it spurned and disgarded. The day we stop learning is the day we stop being creative.

Consider this nothing more than growing pains!