The Proliferation of Video Contests

Posted on October 26, 2006
Filed Under What's New |

There’s something tacky about competing to get a video made or shown. Film festivals, which are all about competition, are part of the old fashioned business of exposing new talent. Not healthy to my mind. But still competition seems to be the chosen way for TV companies on the web.

Itsyourtvshow is a case in point. This kind of junk could have been lifted off a regular TV channel. It’s the total no risk element that angers me. Get a few thousand people to make videos, get them all to critique each others - guaranteed audience.

“We’re here to help push the viral video world to the next level. You guys are great at creating and have inspired us to step up our game… What if we throw down challenges and give out cash for inspiration? What if we give you guys music, video clips, sound effects and theme songs? Well we’re doing it! We know you like to mix it up so we’re giving out some ingredients. Now we’re gonna sit back and watch the madness. ”

It’s a lazy response to what’s happening in content production. Here’s a better way. “One of Hollywood’s top five talent agencies has created an online unit devoted to scouting out up-and-coming creators of Internet content….The goal this time around, executives say, is not only to recruit the next generation of television and film writers and directors from the relative obscurity of sites like YouTube and Revver. It is also to help the major Web portals that are hungry for original content to find the creative people they need.”

That’s more like it.

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