The British band 'Hiding in Public' is inviting animators to create a music video for two of their new songs. The first prize is $1000 $2000, submission deadline is november 30th december 31st (prize and deadline updated after the band read some of the comments below - thanks guys!).
Here's the press release of the contest:
ANIMATED MUSIC VIDEO CONTEST LAUNCHED
Fans to Generate Content for Two New Songs
“Their sound is majestic and otherworldly … in the same vein as late career Eric Clapton, Hiding in Public manages to deliver a great tune after another great tune.†- Smother Magazine, Editor's Pick
London - London pop rock project Hiding in Public is inviting talented fans and friends to come out of hiding and create animated videos for two new songs on the band's upcoming third album – due out in early '09.
Fans can download the two songs in contention, She Was Mine and/or Worlds Away, Yards Apart over the coming month by going to the Hiding in Public website and clicking www.hidinginpublic.com/user .
The band has also released a “prompt†photo that fans can use as a visual/thematic platform when developing their video content. In the photo by photographer Steve Bingham, a female mannequin stands posed before a decrepit suburban home with broken windows and peeling paint. “The picture reminds me of the black humour in Worlds Away, Yards Apart and amplifies the tragedy of a trophy wife and expensive life sliding into a broken home,†says songwriter David Holland. “Fans can choose the decadent fun of She Was Mine or the existential twists of Worlds Away, Yards Apart.â€
The grand prize winner will receive $1,000 with a second place prize (if selected) of $250. Animators, videographers, directors, and music fans across the planet are invited to submit a link to their video(s) to [email protected].
The Contest is now underway with all submissions due to the band by November 30, 11:59 pm (midnight) GMT. Hiding in Public will make the final decision and declare a winner on December 15.
There is no limit to the number of submissions that can be entered. This is a global contest, so anyone from anywhere can enter. All entries must be the creator's original work, and entrants must be at least 18 years of age to participate.
For those fans who can't produce video, the band is also kicking off a fan photo contest in which fans are asked to locate cool mannequins and photograph themselves with the model – then send the photos to [email protected]. Band members will randomly select favourite photos and dispense band swag/prizes for creativity. (They do ask that fans “keep it clean†as photos will be posted online.)
Hiding in Public's new CD will be the band's third studio album in four years, and is already garnering strong reviews from fans taking advantage of free pre-release downloads on web and social sites. It is set to be released digitally on iTunes with physical distribution through CDBaby.
Hiding in Public is driven by the songs of David Holland, and features legendary live and session guitarist Jamie Moses. Moses is on tour this fall with Queen + Paul Rodgers, and has played with such luminaries as Mike & The Mechanics, Brian May Band, Paul Young and Bob Geldof. Hiding in Public is backed by John Tonks on drums and Kevin Poree on bass/keyboards.
Hiding in Public (l-r): John Tonks, Jamie Moses, David Holland, Kevin Poree.
Questions, comments, concerns, or any additional inquiry can be directed to [email protected].
For press information, please contact David Holland at [email protected] or Deb Walsh at [email protected].
33 Comments
AWESOME!! I will try (and fail)
They are asking a lot for $1000, at least make it £1000. Nevertheless I'll give this some thought over the next few days.
Hey, I've got an idea: How about I create an animation, and hold a contest for bands to create a soundtrack for it? The prize is they get to be my official soundtrack! I get the rights to all their entries, of course.
Seriously, though, I always cringe a bit at these contests where what you're entering would normally be something the people holding the contest would have to pay for. Think about it - for $1000 they're getting a heap of animations that they might have had to pay five to ten times more for, each, in a professional arrangement.
It's not as bad as the design industry, and it might help a starting animator get some recognition, but the band's not exactly U2, either.
Consider carefully what you're getting out of this before you enter.
Some articles from the aforementioned design industry:
http://freelanceswitch.com/designer/design-contests-devaluing-design-and-is-it-ever-ok/
http://www.creativelatitude.com/articles/articles_fisher_dcontest.html
Of course, there's dissenting opinions:
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/richard-scott-design-contests/
Aye... many, many of these competitions about the traps and you're making more than a little sense there, Thornae. Thanks for the links re/ design industry- a good read.
another spec work here, no?
chek : http://www.no-spec.com/
for me a contest have to be a no commercial stuff after it...
After listening to their songs i think i will have a go at it, even if only to hone my skills. Best of luck to any others that decide to have a go at this contest :-)
site says end of submissions is nov. 15
less than 10 days
zomg.to.think.create.synch.n.render.for.1k.maybe.
thx Thornae,
the links are very appropriate for this issue!
Maybe this Band can create a whole Album in 15 Days.
At least I couldn't do quality animations of the demanded length in the same time.
I just forget it.
What a ripoff, seriously.
A Music Video takes a lot of work. Unless you keep it all minimal, this will probably take you the entire month right up before the subissio deadline.
Trust me when I say this, they are getting a Video EXTREMELY cheap.
I've done music videos before (not entirely 3D), and to do it properly takes a moutain of effort, and even the simplest videos cost around 10,000-20,0000 Euros. Most of the time they cost more. And thats not even a entirely digital one.
With live action you can do a Music Video in a week or so. But completely 3D, thats another story.
In essence these guys are getting the chance to select the cream of the crop and pay next to nothing for it. Trust me, in this industry, a 1000$ for a music video is next to nothing.
My suggestion is, if you don't have anything better to do, go for it, otherwise spend your time on more (personally) rewarding projects.
Don't expect people to come knocking on your door with lucrative job offers.
Just consider it an addition to your portfolio.
What are bands thinking these days?
An animated music video? for a $1000. No, these people are taking advantage of us now. They are taking advantage of this "user-generated content" trend. Every band has a music video contest. Win: "a chance to meet the band and hang out".
I am sick of it.
I am doing a completely 3D music video for some dude, for free and guess what? its torture. even though its really done. No matter how much this dude says "thank you", "oh, wow". it will never amount to the work i put in. Sure i am a paying my dues but this is that last due i am prepared to "pay"
Do a music video for us and u might win. How about pop out some cash and hire Partizan Labs or Black heart Gang?
Money talks from now on. especially in these of times financial crisis. You better pay me. I paid my dues now talk money.
and these contests are bringing down the music video industry.
the quality now is very low.
These fan videos are bad for serious movie makers.
blender people should check out this interview of Harlan Ellison. Pay the the writer.
But it applies to all entertainment industry.
Do not miss this interview.
By all means do not miss this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE
I have downloaded one sound file. Its 3.1 minute long
You have to render 2,79000 frames ?
Theme, character design? Isnt time too little?
$1000 for a 3.5 minute music video is pretty cheap indeed. I charged EUR 2500 for one minute of various animations of an internal combustion engine. And believe me, that was dead cheap.
I can understand kinduun´s point of view and agree with him.
If the guys want this video in this timegoal, we need quickly the " ...render me an nice animation all inclusive" button. Maybe we asking Ton that he develop this night this new small function for 100 bugs ?
In my job as painter we call an offer like that above simple: dumping !
H O U S E B U I L D I N G C O M P E T I T I O N
Attention all house builders. This is your chance to build me my dream home.
You could win a fantastic $1000 cash prize.
Plus I will tell all my freinds what a gret house builder you are.
All entries must be completed by December 1st. So you'd better make it snappy.
Remeber, only the best houses stand a chance of winning.
No get to work you lucky building shmucks.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The NO!SPEC campaign: Serves as a vehicle to unite those who support the notion that spec work devalues the potential of design and ultimately does a disservice to the client.
http://www.no-spec.com/
They better hide in public now ;)
Just hope everybody that is complaining about this contest aren't the same ones that are always asking about when we will get a new ui for Blender or when their favorite new feature will finally make it into an official release.
@ Tesla, i don't really need a new blender ui, but features i want and guess what?
I buy stuff from the foundation.
i bought the mancandy and Ess. Blender, i want to buy Yo, Frankie! (i could take a picture at your request for proof if u like and post it on flickr)
What's worse is i am a computer science drop out. i am into the hacker culture, i am relearning python and believe you me, you'll get a blender script from me in the future. This is the hacker culture. i don't mind spending time improving blender and buying from the foundation.
But now you have to think about one truth of the hacker culture: Computer Science is indeed a science, solutions should be shared like mathematics. hence we have the opensource philosophy.
but creative ideas for a music video are yet to be defined as a science.
pi = 3.14... is a scientific solution that should be shared but when you use the pi solution to design an aerodynamic wing for a bike, hell, charge money if you want to.
Plainly speaking, Tesla, your idea doesn't stick.
you will get my blender script. the foundation gets my money. "hiding in public" wants slave labour.
And yes i wont stop asking the developers for features, i participate in this community.
Define advertising as a science then your idea will stick. right now i got bills to pay.
Kinduun and tesla, wtf are you talking about?
Great, you like being a part of the hacker culture, so hack away. There are also a lot of people that like to make 3d creations for fun. Cruising around the internet you can find all kinds of works that took a whole lot of time. Things that where done to learn a program, a new technique, whatever, and there was no compensation for it, at all. If somebody out there is wanting to try there hand at coming up with a concept for a music video, why not give it a shot with an outside chance at winning $1000?
Slave labor is something you are forced into. The band isn't forcing anybody to do anything. Just offering a chance to win some money doing something you would want to do anyway. If it's not worth your time skip it.
It is ok to lighten up a little bit.
i'll concede that you win. tesla. u got me.
but please read the links posted by Thornae above in the comments section.
and find out a little about the no-spec thing.
Atleast u might find reasons.
other than that you win: i'll lighten up. i'll take a chill pill.
Hey kinduun,
I did just go check out all those links. Made some interesting points. I didn't realize there was such an outcry from the design community about these kinds of contests. I can definately see why a design professional would get upset about these kinds of things. Won't say that I think contests are completely bad, but my stance has softened. ;)
lol @ Thornae
great idea.
Just for contrast, have a look at the Radiohead "Create a filmclip" competition, which is referenced in the "Related Posts" links: http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/03/radiohead-in-ra.html
This is a competition I think is worthwhile and fair. There's some fairly important differences here.
1) It's Radiohead. One of the biggest bands on Earth. If you win, you *will* be noticed.
2) Entries are in the form of an animatic. Nothing polished or finished - they select 10 finalists on their concept, and give them each $1000 to make their final version. It won't cost you significantly to enter.
3) Winner gets $10K. That's a prize worth competing for, as well as the Radiohead name factor.
See the difference?
At the other end of the "good "spectrum is Trent Reznor: http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/03/trent-reznor-ca.html
You could argue that this one's a bit more of a grey area, but there's no prize money, no real deadline, and no greed. Basically, he's saying "If you make a film clip to our music* and we like it, we'll feature it."
*Which they gave away, entirely free.
It may be a fine distinction, but it smacks less of exploitation to me.
OTOH, if you're a fan of the band and were thinking of making a film clip anyway, and now you could win money, go for it.
Gah, posted a longer comment on comparative competitions, but got marked as spam.
Hopefully some nice admin will restore it...
I don't believe what I see! Slickers, huh? I hope no one makes more than a moving cube (no rotation and no scaling ... ops, no material and no more than a light too)...I'd like not to see posts like this on blendernation anymore, where "contest" is not a contest.
Difficult to win $1000, I prefer to make a free video clip for some band of friends of mine who needs to grow.
If I had a video laying around that was ready to go, ill send it.
But to bust my ass to create something from scrach in 24 days and hava a 'chance' to win 1000 buks...
thats a littlebit too much for too little reward.
I might just go back to work on my personal animations that are just for fun. And then if someone writes a competition for a moving cube, ill submit it.
Yeah sure, coz we need them more then they need us. :rolleyes:
I absolutely hate this attitude. This band needs to get off their high horses and realise that very few people have heard of them and that for any half decent animators to even consider this they need to times the reward and the deadline by AT LEAST ten.
We did not appreciate the time and effort required for animation but are now better informed. Our thoughts were more low-tech and black humour in line with the songs' themes. We are more than happy to change the rules, description and deadline to make the contest more equitable and artist friendly.
What would you suggest we change in our description? We will gladly change the deadline to 15 or 31 Dec. We appreciate your help and guidance.
Thanks,
David from Hiding in Public
Hi David,
thanks for your reaction! I've emphasized it so people will be sure to read it.
Cheers,
Bart (editor)
Thanks Bart! We will send you an updated presse release. Here is what we decided to do based on the above posts and in the spirit of independent artists supporting each other:
+ Grand prize has been doubled to $2,000
+ The deadline has been extended to December 31
+ All forms of video will be accepted. Here's how we worded it in the updated release:
"The band’s preference is for animated video, but all forms of video will be accepted. Originality and thematic content are the most important factors, so don’t be afraid of keeping it low-tech and witty."
+ We encourage talented amateurs to enter. Top drawer professionals who can command top dollar are dissuaded from entering unless their attraction to the songs is very strong.
We want to help promote talented video artists as much as we want to promote our new songs. We are happy to post the best videos for all the world to see. We welcome any further suggestions.
Thanks,
David from Hiding in Public