Filed under: Multimedia, Video, Apple
Apple Modest Mouse video contest

This is a pretty nifty video competition from Apple and the band "Modest Mouse". The later wants a video for their new song "Missed the Boat," so they have placed online 12 videos of the band performing the song in front of a green screen with different angles and camera shots. They are inviting people to download these videos and edit them together into a music video (you can use your own footage as well). Once you're done with your masterpiece (all rights to which you forfeit), upload it back to Apple for judging. The contest ends May 22, 2007.
Obviously this is a publicity stunt designed to promote Final Cut Studio and Logic, but it's a pretty darn cool publicity stunt. The contest page with the videos is live, so all of you wanna-be video directors get started!
Thanks, Chris!

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
The Jerk said 10:32AM on 4-23-2007
Yikes! Apple ripping off Colbert? I'm sure we'll hear about this tonight! Or maybe we already did... I haven't been watching lately.
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Kyle said 10:35AM on 4-23-2007
hmm yea.. stephen colbert is going to eat this up.
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aga said 10:56AM on 4-23-2007
Must be me, I don't see the videos when i load them. can hear the music though. Any ideas? maybe it's Leopard.
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Rae Whitlock said 11:09AM on 4-23-2007
The headline had me fearing that Apple was coming out with a new mouse named after the band.
*wipes brow*
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Thomas said 11:18AM on 4-23-2007
What a great product that would be. "If you want something better than the might mouse... well this might be, it prefers not to talk about itself though."
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Britonius said 11:50AM on 4-23-2007
So what does the winner receive, just bragging rights? I don't see anything on the page that states what the winner receives, after all it is a contest right?
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JeffDM said 11:59AM on 4-23-2007
Did Colbert or Decemberists give much for their awards? I guess it's possible to get good submissions despite being stingy on the awards.
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smithers said 12:06PM on 4-23-2007
Iv'e been downloading the footage files all night.... there are 12 videos, all about 1 GB each. I'm bout half way thru sicne my 6 meg per second cable connection decided to quit on me overnight while 7 videos were streaming simultaneously. Talk about an inefficient way to distribute the source files.
To clear up some things.... you DO get a prize if you win, prizes include a Sony HD camcorder and new iMac for the winner, and iPods for all the runner ups.
Also, in order to see the video, you have to have Apple's Intermediate Codec Installed. Ive been told this comes with Quicktime Pro (which you need anyway, because the just stream the vids and QT movies, and you have to download them when theyre done which is only possible with QT Pro). All people with Final Cut studio, which they suggest you do the creation with... should have QT pro, and thus the codec to view it.
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aga said 12:15PM on 4-23-2007
Well, there are other ways of downloading without quicktime pro...
say applescript (can be shortened to one line and/or run in terminal too)
tell application "QuickTime Player"
save front window as self contained in file "disk:Users:theo:Desktop:mm_01.mov"
end tell
but guess you answered my question about playing without QT Pro
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fungible said 1:17PM on 4-23-2007
Yeah, as a guy who works in film and videos, I'm getting sick of these green screen contests. First the Decemberists, then the Klaxons, then Modest Mouse and I hear Bjork's got one too. I'm sure I'm forgetting some.
Really, these are just attempts to get something for little to nothing. The tools are getting cheaper and cheaper, true - but talent still counts for something. So I spend a month doing serious animation work on this video, and I get an iMac and a Handycam? Oooh. Yeah, I'd rather get paid.
Here's my humorous take on the Decemberists video. Hope you like it, it took me all of 45 minutes:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3XsJv1oxBmo
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Colincsl said 5:35PM on 4-23-2007
There is another green screen contest for Modest Mouse just like this on MTVu. The only difference is that it is for "We've Got Everything."
http://www.bestfilmoncampus.com/contests/modestmouse/start.aspx
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south said 7:04PM on 4-23-2007
#10, if you can get people to pay you for your work, then great. but if you can't, then the attention you get from winning a contest like this might put you on the way. this is the real new economy -- you keep giving your stuff away until people realize its value and start paying you money for it.
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Liam said 10:27AM on 4-24-2007
#10, i don't know if you noticed but its on the education page.. as in for students so a iMac and a handycam for students moving into this field is as good as cash. Its not really ment for pro's. Shame im in the UK, means i can't enter :-(
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smeg said 1:17AM on 5-06-2007
every single one of these videos will take 3 hours to get the first 3 seconds, then just stop downloading completely. my wireless connection is fine... i mean, it's a little slower out here than most, but we live on a farm. but i can usually get full movie torrents in a day. this is just 3-4 min. high res. clips that can't go over 3 seconds an hour then timeout?
something is nutzy.
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