MOO.com | MOO’s MOOvie Mania Competition!

May 29, 2009 at 3:13 pm (GMT) by Denise | 34 Comments Latest by Geoff

We’re having a movie competition! And never one to miss out on a good pun, we’ve decided of course, to call it MOOvie Mania. It should be lots of fun - and more to the point, we’ve got some great prizes and some wonderful judges. So… Lets get down to business.

What’s the competition about?

We’ve been spotting great little movies featuring MOO products for a while now. Un-boxings, tutorials - like this, and this, funky animations, and of course, the infamous Hugo, the Cat of 1000 Faces.

So, we thought, why not make it more official? Have a competition, let these budding film makers enter – and ask everyone else if they’d like to enter too. We’ll provide some great prizes and hopefully everyone will have some fun along the way.

What can you win?

We’ll be giving 2 GRAND prizes (one for each category) and smaller prizes too for the 2nd and 3rd on the podium.

The grand prize winners will be awarded a prize pack worth over £700 or approximately $1200:

• 1 Flip Mino HD (donated by Firebox)

• 1 Corel Video Studio X2 Ultimate (donated by Corel)

• £450 (GBP - or the equivalent in $USD i.e. $700)

• MOO Prize pack: 200 Business Cards, 1 Business Card Holder in leather, 1 pack of MiniCards, 1 Cobu MiniCard holder, 1 pack of 20 Postcards, ($157.95)

• 1 Flickr Pro

2nd prize:
• 1 Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate (donated by Corel)
• 200 Business Cards
• 1 Flickr Pro

3rd prize:
• 200 Business Cards
• 1 Flickr Pro
• 50 iStockphoto Credits

How do you enter?

We thought we’d keep it simple. We’d like you to:

1.

Create a short (:15 seconds to 15 minutes) video which fits either in one of the two following categories:

Story Time:
Any MOOvie that amuses, entertains, delights or even scares. The only rule is that there must be one reference to MOO (e.g. an exchange of a card, a sticker on a laptop, a starring role, anything as long as MOO has at least a cameo)

Helping Others: Tutorials & How Tos.
These MOOvies should help others to use MOO.COM or make something with our products. It could even explain how to create something with our api.

2.

Post your MOOvie to one or all of the following MOOvie sites, before July 31, 2009. We’ve chosen three different sites in order that you can choose the one that suits you best.
Flickr.com
YouTube.com
www.dailymotion.com

3.

Include the following tags when you upload to the site:
MOOvie Mania
Business Cards

4.

Let us know about your MOOvie by posting a link here in the comments of this post - or any others about the MOOvie competition.

And that’s it, you’re done!

Who are the judges?

We have 5 esteemed independent judges who will make the final selection of winners. The judges are:
Heather Champ, www.Flickr.com
Joel Veitch, www.Rathergood.com
Jim Goertz, www.iStockphoto.com
Christian Robinson, www.firebox.co.uk
James Phillips, Corel

Is there anything else to know?

Not really - just have some fun making a MOOvie about MOO, upload it and tell us where it is, before July 31, 2009! You should probably read our terms and conditions too - just so you know what’s what.

Any questions? Ask us here on the blog, we’d be happy to help!

Jamie Kennerley

Come on guys, this is pathetic. I’m a fan of your products, but this is the most cynical kind of ‘competition’ you could have come up with.

You prey on the eagerness of filmmakers to get their work out there to get a bunch of adverts for your products costing next-to-nothing.

There’s been a lot of debate about this kind of scam on Shooting People and the like before, and I’ll be keen to know what the networks think of yet another ploy for cheap advertising.

As someone that’s worked to provide an open screen to filmmakers for over 4 years (filmonik.com & kinolondon.com) this kind of cynical competition makes me pretty angry.

Get your act together and offer prizes that reflect the cost of the commercial value of what will be produced in your name.

It’s a shame that company that hitherto seemed to know what it’s customers might want now seeks to exploit those customers for it’s own commercial benefit.

Regards,

Denise

Hi Jaime,

thanks for your post and letting us know what you think. We read all the comments posted here, and we like to think they help us make things better for everyone.

I’m really sorry you’re not happy with the general feeling of the competition. Essentially, it’s not really a competition for professional film makers - although of course the competition is open to everyone.

As a print company, it IS a bit odd that we’re doing a ‘film’ competition - but it’s come about as the community are making these videos anyway. We’ve seen lots of unboxing videos, stop frame animations, product reviews and some tutorials like the ones linked above.

We like to celebrate our customers here - and as you’ll no doubt know, the blog is full of beautiful photos people have taken of their products, or great ideas out in the MOO community. We always credit people and we’ve had nothing but positive responses from the people whose work we’ve shown.

The feeling behind the competition is an extension of that. If people are making videos anyway, we’d like to showcase them. It’s the reason we’re letting people submit videos they made ages ago - be they on a mobile phone or more high end software.

We’re really sorry to hear your views - and do understand your position as a professional, but hope that in some way you can see the competition in the genuine community spirit it was intended.

Hey Denise,

At first I thought the competition was like, really cool and stuff?

But then I like, read Jamie’s post and stuff, and thought that it–the competition–maybe wasn’t quite so cool?

And then I thought, wouldn’t it be neat if Denise just laid like 200 Moo cards on Jamie as a gesture of good will and stuff?

That’d be like, totally chilled, and it’d say to Jamie, I know where you’re coming from and we totally like, reject that exploitative assertion and stuff–everyone is cool here, but hey, you know, we’re all cool, you too: so like, take this–no hard ones, mmkay … ?

You know what I’m saying … ?

Ed, thanks for your comments, I do know what you’re saying :)

But I also understand where Jamie - and his professional film making community - is coming from. While I’m sure they would all love some free cards, I think for now they’d rather address those points directly, which I hope I’ve gone some way towards, in the comments above.

(Hopefully he’ll take advantage of the free holder offered especially to newsletter subscribers though.)

In the meantime, even if this has made you think a bit more around the competition, I hope it hasn’t put you off, and you can still see it in the way it was intended.

Ener Hax

well, unlike some peeps . . . i think this is rather brilliant!

and since i don’t have to do this, it’s fine that it has product placement in it. after all, Moo is a business and your flexibility in how it is placed includes very subtle options

for those put off by commercialism, i suggest you run your own contest, get your own prizes, and be altruistic. in fact, nothing stops you from putting your proverbial money where your mouth is (it’s so much easier to criticise than create) o_O

i love mini Moos, they are a great value and have added tangible value to my endeavors =)

now to come up with something clever? leaning towards a tutorial . . . :)

the challenge of adding a clear product shot makes this a great test of how creative someone can be

thanks for the neato contest! XD

les

Wow, Astonished at Jamie’s comment. I am sorry but with all due respect, I think you are taking yourself way too seriously. Denise’s points are valid and I am going to have fun (fun = a pleasant feeling, you should try to have it) with this competition. I love the product too and if my video ‘advertises’ it - so what. I am not a budding filmmaker, but I am an artist and I don’t mind plugging moo cards every chance I get. I am sure I would not be jumping on doing a video about any random soulless gadget. You don’t need to send me a free anything either.

Andy Piper

Oooh, do I get to be first entry?

Well, since you called out my video in the first place, I’m hoping it’s OK to enter to the howto category - I might have to think of something new if I have time, too :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V1CXZZG7Tg&fmt=18

Andy - you do indeed get to be the first! Thanks for entering - we’ve been loving your video for ages :)

Marina

I get to be the second…. I love moo products and thought this was a fun contest… coincidentally at the same time, I was creating a little video about my life as a graphic designer and then the moo contest email came in, so I threw in a little moo mini card cameo at the 2:24 - 2:30 mark…. I tried to get the little one to say something, however his attention span is zilch to none!

Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZED_Jph6Y8k

Marina, that’s wonderful! I laughed outloud when I saw the page of examples the ‘client’ was drawing :)
(Also - that little laptop is great.)
Really lovely- thank you for entering!

Alicia

@Marina
I love that video. It is adorable! What a tough client. I hope that if he ever orders MOO cards he finds them to his liking ;-)

website design

The best thing about your website blog is that your tips are working!
very very useful! Thank u!

Shahab Zargari

Thank you for such a fabulous contest! Making this video was a blast!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeBdj0sONFY

James Alliban

Hi Denise, thanks for letting me know about the competition. Here is a link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qoucBw60jM

More info here:

http://jamesalliban.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/ar-business-card/

I should be uploading a live demo of the application tonight.

Andrew

Hi Denise, and all of you out there. My team are busy working on our entry to your competition and it was interesting to read the various thoughts and ideas coming out here. Jamie - you’ve caused the most controversy, but I have to disagree with you - I have also worked really hard for the amateur youth-filmmaking industry, and have personally helped to create and shape a niche in the international film market for projects from young people. As a sixteen-year-old now, I spent the last two years financing my own feature film, and the experiences I had were great. I think that MOO’s idea to get more people making films is a good one - unless of course you’re worried about the competition you’ll get? By the way, my video’ll be uploaded soon, so check it out!

Hi again! Sorry, I’m back for more before you’ve even replied! Just wanted to let everyone know that I’m not a professional, just a professional person! And no, my surname isn’t Spielberg!

Stu

Sounds like a lot of people aren’t going to enter this, that means there’s more chance of me winning. So I’m definately going to do one.

John Arnold

Just released a show all about decorating a netbook with your own photograph using moo stickers. Full version on my website. Shortened version on YouTube for the competition:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gk-kUHvZos

Mark Bethune

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxi_mJ4w0gs

from the heart…. a song about Moo Cards !!!

Have a listen !!

I was inspired again.

This is a passionate ballad inspired by moo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYovH140Ttk

Vincent Lee

Here’s my entry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IApReb3VXxw

Thanks Vincent - that’s great!