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Emma Bull
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« on: August 07, 2008, 08:34:17 pm » |
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Remember how your mom told you you should play outside while the weather was nice?
We are so not your mom.
No, we're encouraging you to stay right there at your computers, except for maybe a few field trips with video or still camera in hand. Because it's time for another Shadow Unit contest!
Here's the plan: make a 1.46-minute* or shorter video promo trailer or credit sequence for Shadow Unit. (One minute is the optimum length, really. Extra credit for brevity!) First, second, and third place prize winners to be determined by the Shadow Unit writing room and a panel of very cool celebrity judges. The first-place winner's video will be linked on the SU home page as the Official Video Clip of second season, of course. There'll also be a page of links on the SU site for all the videos entered in the contest.
But wait! There's more! First, second, and third-place winners also get a Choose Your Own Prize. It has to be legal, possible, affordable, and agreeable for/to the Powers That Be. But within those constraints, if you win, you name your reward. Want to appear in a story as a cop or a witness--or even a victim? Want a gamma named after you? Want the staff to write you a date with one of the characters--your very own DVD extra? Or an IM date? Would you like Chaz to plan you a dinner, with recipes and instructions? Want a signed copy of a work from some or all of the staff writers? Ask (for something we deem reasonable and possible, anyway), and you shall, as they say, receive. (Just don't ask for Dinner with Chaz. You've seen how that turns out.)
The writing staff reserves the right to determine if any plot-related prizes will be considered canon or fanfic. Any efforts to freak or gross us out will get you Frowned At. (It's like asking the genie for three more wishes: the answer is, "Yeah, everybody tries that. No dice. Ask something else.")
Because, like Hafidha, we're open-source types, we'll be starting a new section on the BBS for those of you who want to work on video for the contest. It will be a place to share info on tools and techniques, video, sound, and animation softwear and gear, troubleshooting and tips...and just generally to egg each other on. Because we think the toys you use aren't nearly as important to the finished product as the ideas you use them on.
Plenty of lead time on this one, so if you've wanted an excuse to learn about digital video, this is a good time to start from scratch. Entries are due on December 31, 2008. Please include only images and sound that you have copyright to, have permission to use, or that are in the public domain. Members of the Shadow Unit creative team and their families are not eligible to enter the contest. (Which doesn't mean they can't make videos. They just don't get to win.)
*1.46 minutes is the length of our opening-credits music clip, in case you want to use it. But you don't have to.
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Falkner to Worth: "'Competent'" is not an insult."
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MadGastronomer
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« Reply #1 on: August 07, 2008, 09:50:03 pm » |
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I have to say, some part of me wants to do a set of opening credits using foodporn images...
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Emma Bull
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« Reply #2 on: August 07, 2008, 09:52:31 pm » |
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*snicker*
*dark with almonds*
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Falkner to Worth: "'Competent'" is not an insult."
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Edmund Schweppe
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« Reply #3 on: August 07, 2008, 09:58:25 pm » |
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*snicker*
*dark with almonds*
Pbbbt. Snickers have peanuts, not almonds. Silly PTB. |
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"Suddenly one of my great satisfactions in life is knowing I'm not a character in an Anne Rice novel." - Hafidha |
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Elizabeth Bear
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« Reply #4 on: August 07, 2008, 10:03:28 pm » |
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*snicker*
*dark with almonds*
Pbbbt. Snickers have peanuts, not almonds. Silly PTB. Actually, you can get almond Snickers now. Chaz likes them. |
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chaz: "As if puberty weren't stressful enough."
Todd: "See? That's why we're better than all those other law enforcement agencies. Correct use of the subjunctive."
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Emma Bull
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« Reply #5 on: August 07, 2008, 10:09:24 pm » |
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Sadly, you can't get an almond Snickers with dark chocolate yet. But I am a patient hunter, and continue to lurk beside the candy bar water hole.
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Falkner to Worth: "'Competent'" is not an insult."
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Joe Sherry
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« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2008, 06:37:05 am » |
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What a cool contest and awesome prize!! Since I can't even comprehend on how to put together something like that or how I'd want to design the credit sequence, what I would have wanted as a prize would be to be the relative of a victim...that way the team gets to come to my house to interview me and I'd get a mini extended sequence in a story.  |
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CJ
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« Reply #7 on: August 08, 2008, 11:41:35 am » |
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Oh, dear. I may have to learn about digital video just to enter this!
Like I need more distractions!
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"We all ended up somewhere with our various uncertain lives flapping about us in tatters and our pockets full of foreign coins."
K. E. Gordon - The Transitive Vampire: A Handbook of Grammar for the Eager, the Innocent and the Doomed
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mocknot
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« Reply #8 on: August 08, 2008, 12:40:07 pm » |
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Oh, sweet! Not that I own a video camera, know anything about video, and my first thought was 'hey, I could do an animation!' which would be just a tad insane. Still, cool idea  . |
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txanne
Laser Snark
Hero Member
Posts: 2701
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« Reply #9 on: August 08, 2008, 04:28:38 pm » |
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Hey, mocknot--let's talk.
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Emma Bull
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« Reply #10 on: August 08, 2008, 04:53:18 pm » |
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I've added a board under "Fanfiction" for threads about making videos for the contest. Have fun, gang!
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Falkner to Worth: "'Competent'" is not an insult."
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Alena
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« Reply #11 on: August 08, 2008, 05:08:39 pm » |
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Clearly, owning a video camera is the easy way to enter this contest.
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jeffy
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« Reply #12 on: August 08, 2008, 06:50:00 pm » |
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Almost any modern digital still camera will take sufficiently good video for online/tv viewing. We're not talking IMAX here. For the subject matter, the grittiness of low rez could actually be a plus. I've got cameras galore, but the last thing I need is another project...  Nasty wicked PTBs. |
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Emma Bull
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« Reply #13 on: August 08, 2008, 07:22:25 pm » |
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Not to mention that you can do some pretty neat video using still images, too. I can imagine a video made to look like a sped-up slide show of police photos/case documents/weird images combined with text.
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Falkner to Worth: "'Competent'" is not an insult."
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MadGastronomer
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« Reply #14 on: August 08, 2008, 11:01:33 pm » |
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Um, would it be cheating if I got a friend of mine who just happens to be a TV producer (she does documentaries, good ones) hooked on SU, and lured her into working with me on one?
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