Zooppa USA - Blog

TMZ on TV Ad Contest Lets You Go Hollywood

zooppastaff — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:40:16 +0000

Time to roll out the red carpet for our TMZ on TV ad competition!

We’re entering the last leg of its run with about 2 weeks left to go (contest ends 8/9/10), and anticipation for your forthcoming video commercials is running high. This contest is shaping up to be one of our most fun and irrepressibly energetic yet, much like the client. Who doesn’t get a kick out of following the highs and lows of Hollywood?

A fascination with celebrity culture is pretty much integrated into our nature, and in today’s world we can’t imagine what that landscape would look like without TMZ. They’re fun, they’re brazen, they’re the men and women about town, and they’re there first. When it comes to breaking news on today’s pop culture list, you’ll likely see TMZ hanging around the area, ready to deliver the freshest footage on the menu. While they admit that advertising for themselves can be complicated, TMZ on TV always says what they think, and viewers love them for it. And so, TMZ on TV is handing over the camera and ready to put its image in your capable hands for this exciting new ad campaign.

Your goal, in summary, is to “capture and convey the humor and attitude of the show” with your 12 or 27 second video ad. Since this creative brief is fairly open, you can look forward to a particularly playful, colorful competition with space for creative freedom. Requirements, among others listed in the competition creative brief, are to create a convincing, professionally executed video ad that does not use any footage from the show—a challenge for your imagination indeed, but definitely an opportunity to showcase your originality!—and include a particular message: “We Love Hollywood. We just have a funny way of showing it.” The tagline serves as your guide for this competition, with a little dose of pun fun if you choose to take it literally.

As always, read through the creative brief carefully to get an idea of what the client is looking for from your work. For this one in particular, take a good look at the “Additional Creative Considerations” at the bottom of the page, as they should put you on the right track as you think about why TMZ on TV is so fun to watch—why we love gawking at Hollywood, and how TMZ on TV helps us channel that affection. In addition to the $15,000 in total awards, remember that your ad might broadcast in a coveted spot on national television, so keep a high-res copy of your work!

This one’s a game changer: you get to shine those bright lights on the channel that’s usually in charge of the spotlighting. Hope to see your ‘take’ on Hollywood soon!

Share Your ‘Ville with Johnsonville’s Contest

zooppastaff — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:03:03 +0000

We are so excited for our Johnsonville Share Your Ville contest—after all, what better way to kick off the summer than with a product that grills are practically made for? Of course, Johnsonville isn’t just about the summer barbecue, even if the summer sizzle is definitely on our minds during these more sultry months. You can smell and taste their signature flavors all over your vacations, festivals, warm winter meals, tailgating weekends, and more.

Really, though, it’s about the atmosphere of which delicious Johnsonville sausages can remind you and be an integral part. And that’s what the competition is about: the Ville! If it takes a village to raise a child, then these food babies are part of this village’s long tradition of “casual, comfortable, genuine, fun” excellence. Which is why the creative brief for Johnsonville’s challenge reads like a list of the good times and the people and places that have made those moments happen. Your ads are raising their tongs and skillets to the Friends, Family, Events, and/or Locations which hold the best memories, ones which wouldn’t quite be complete without the Johnsonville sausages bringing their mouthwatering flavors to the table (or napkins, or bare hands, or however you roll).

Johnsonville has been able to provide a ton of resources for you to look up and be inspired by. The following links should give you an idea of what kind of sentiments people have about Johnsonville, which you might want to think about as you create your ad. You can check them out on the Johnsonville Competition Page.

As you know, we’ve partnered with Johnsonville on this competition so they’re hosting their own competition over on their website for the grand prize of $10,000. But remember that any video submitted to Johnsonville is also up for the $3,000 in Zooppa awards, so make sure to submit your work to both pages!

In some ways the Johnsonville contest is pretty layered, because there are a lot of elements at work in combining food and the moment without getting too “warm and cuddly”, i.e. overly sentimental. There’s some spice here, after all! But in other ways this competition is simple in the best sense of the word. It’s all about the ’ville. Show us yours, hilarious or heartwarming, sassy and sincere, bring it all—because Johnsonville’s Big Flavor definitely does. We can’t wait to see them!

Masters In Business Program For Creatives – The Berlin School

zooppastaff — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:27:17 +0000

We know you’re creative. But are you a leader? A new graduate school program from the Berlin School of Creative Leadership offers a masters in business administration (MBA) degree that is specifically geared towards people who want to make a living in creative industries.

The below is a notice about the program, announcing the “Godfather” of the program. If you’re thinking seriously about a career in the creative industries, it might make a lot of sense to check out this program. Through the Berlin School of Creative Leadership, you can earn this MBA degree attending school part-time, in Berlin, or at other campus locations, such as Chicago, New York, London, Shanghai and Tokyo.

If you’re ready to take your creative leadership to the next level — to transform yourself & your company — apply for the next Berlin School Executive MBA program by July 15.

We are excited to announce that Sir John Hegarty, Chairman & Worldwide Creative Director of BartleBogleHegarty, will serve as “Godfather” of the next Berlin School Executive MBA class starting September 5th 2010 in Berlin.

Sir John will attend select EMBA module sessions over the coming year and mentor participants eager to learn from the man who helped build his London-based company into one of the world’s leading creative agencies, with nearly 1.000 employees and offices in 6 countries.

“Having been involved with the Berlin School since its creation, I am looking forward to becoming even more directly involved with the EMBA program as a class mentor. I hope to learn as much from the participants as they will learn from me,” says Hegarty, who has appeared often as a speaker at the Berlin School, holding master classes with three different EMBA cohorts.

“Coming from a creative background myself, it quickly became clear to me once I entered the industry that having a better understanding of business and leadership skills brings tremendous value to creative companies as well as their clients,” says Hegarty.

Hegarty joins other previous “Godfathers” before him who have donated their time and energy, such as Berlin School President Michael Conrad (Leo Burnett Worldwide), as well as John Gough (Distraction Formats), Keith Reinhard (DDB Worldwide), and Seymour Stein (Sire Records).

Find out what our alumni have to say about the EMBA’s life-changing impact in this here (video).

Learn more about our unique Executive MBA program in Creative Leadership here.

Privacy in the Digital Age Winners Featured at Cannes

zooppastaff — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:25:16 +0000

A team from Razorfish crossed the pond two weeks ago to present a seminar on privacy at the Cannes Lions Advertising festival, and the winners of Zooppa’s Privacy in the Digital Age Competition took center stage.

The Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival is the world’s global meeting place for professionals in the communications industry. Thousands of delegates from around the world attend the festival to view shortlisted work and attend seminars, workshops and master classes. The biggest names in advertising are there every year, to celebrate creativity and effectiveness in advertising communications.

This year, members of Zooppa joined the ranks of this prestigious community through a presentation that executives from the Razorfish digital agency gave. You can see the presentation they gave below. The Grand Prize winners of the Privacy in the Digital Age competition were specifically featured in the presentation, and Razorfish executives commmented on each winner’s work.

Razorfish winners presentation_june24_3

View more presentations from zooppausa1.

Here are the winners of the Razorfish Privacy in the Digital Age competition on Zooppa:

Grand Prize Winners

ootb, Les Voyeuer

srfilms, Are You Oversharing?

quackfoo54, The Day After

Jimmydagget, You Never Know Who’s Watching

pedrosanguine, Napoleon

svitto, A Click May Change Your Future

brunorodsilva, Does Privacy Really Exist in the Digital Age?

Zooppa Prize Winners

mokaproductions, Privacy? Don’t Overshare

SebaSera, Secret Agent – Hacking

RenanMoura, Who Am I Going to Be Today?!

Congratulations to all the winners, and everyone who participated in this contest. Zooppa is very proud of having its members featured at Cannes.

Feedback on some Zinio Videos

zooppastaff — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:48:08 +0000

Zinio is ecstatic about their Zooppa competition. They called it “One of their best creative/marketing spends ever”, and now I’ve gotten a little more feedback surrounding some of the videos. I’m trying to get them to expand on their enthusiasm for the print work as well (which I think is some of the best work the community has done).

It can be good to get feedback on Zooppa submissions – even if they are not your own. This is a chance to get inside one of our clients’ heads, and see what they’re thinking about when they’re creating an advertising campaign.

In any event, here is a bit of feedback about six of Zinio’s favorite Zooppa video ads.

rpgamer2003, Space and Air

Yes:

originality, beauty & subtlety
general art quality, polish, and production value
exceedingly well-selected typography
film score, the quality of, and notably the elegant syncopation of events and hits in the score
the cleverly placed umlaut atop the long O in “global”–a well-timed wink, but not a petty “gotcha” moment
the pop to clarity on “a completely new way to read”
Intuitive introduction of colors, motion
the sparse and effective copy throughout

No:
Smokestacks: Bad for people, bad for brands.

reellance, At My Side

Cumbersome piles of print magazines were the most frequently used objects in both the video and print collateral produced for this contest, but little else can be said ill of this entry.

Comprehensively, the video has a whimsical quality, both for the magic-realist towers of magazines and for the Yann Tiersenn (esque?) score. The video is casted with well-chosen location shoots, with a great diversity of readers young and old, in comically diverse reading environments—the wagon, the airport bathroom, the marital bed. This video was the most successful of all entries in expressing Zinio’s explicit value proposition to audiences by showing and not telling outright…wordlessly, and with some imagination and buoyancy.

The production quality seems to dip if only slightly at 17 seconds, with the introduction of the stills, and a few shots of the device / application that seem less polished than the fixed-cam shots early on. This is referenced with my appreciation of the tight editing in the end sequence, and my sympathies for the difficulty of shooting LCDs, mobile devices, applications in general.

Yes:

great scene to logo transition / animation
worldess but informative
showing not telling
witty but not funny ha-ha
warm, on-location lifestyle themes
cultural anthropology / broad demographics, broad appeal

No:

still shots as filler
mixed-quality device shots

drumbum, Trying Too Hard

This was a favorite at Zinio mostly for its humor and originality. It’s funny, but not in the slightest bit cynical or ironic, which is an achievement. Equally, the video plays right to a core demographic for digital media brands like Zinio—young, urban males. The two leads seem believable, with good faces for comedy.

Some camera work is a bit novice, moving between what might be handheld, and might be a shaky tripod—a shame, because the POV / steady cam work in the closing sequence is one of the better device shots from the competition (38 seconds).

The “Aha!” moment at 30 seconds moves cleverly from the tense Classical swell to a well-timed guitar change-up that somehow isn’t quaint or over-familiar. As with our other favorites, this is a less-obvious way of looking at our digital product in an analog world.

JesseLopez, We’ve Got You Covered

Another fun concept, and an appeal towards the young, urban male (with whom it resonated at Zinio). This video has in imagination what it lacks, only modestly, in production value.

Yes:

a great concept, with good execution overall.
a good “brand story”–the idea of our user experience being composed by a reader’s environment and influences.

No:

the poor blond girl, trapped forever in a dystopian pre-3G iPhone, à la 1982’s Tron, or A-Ha’s “Take On Me” video. The simulated iPhone application experience is convenient for purposes of the video, but not ideal for Zinio.

bigT, Awaken Your Mind

We give this video credit for creating an unusual aesthetic, and using lots of motion. We were fond of the single, broad pan left, that differentiates a anxious, confounded and disorganized print reader from a relaxed and confident digital reader. The letter scatter / fake anagram is well-executed. The video says something without saying too much.

Yes:

brief, punchy
interesting aesthetic

No:

logo treatment at the finale

San Diego Asian Film Foundation “Reel in the Vote” PSA Contest

zooppastaff — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:21:20 +0000

Our friends at the San Diego Asian Film Foundation want you to join their “Reel in the Vote” campaign, to promote and increase voting among Asian Pacific Islanders (APIs). All you have to do is come up with a creative, 30-second video that helps encourage APIs to go to the polls in November.

“Reel in the Vote” is a non-partisan PSA contest and offers more than $2000 in prizes for the top three winning entries, plus travel and lodging expenses to the 11th San Diego Asian Film Festival in October.

The competition is free and open to anyone!
Deadline is August 31.

For more information, visit the Reel in the Vote contest page.
Or feel free to contact them at 858-565-1264 or info@sdaff.org.

Watch an example PSA below:

Good luck to all!

Ten Irritating, Nail-biting Problems on Set

zooppastaff — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:53:55 +0000

Sean K Berry is a casting director and videographer in Toronto. He is the host of Casting Couch Radio, a radio blog for entertainment industry pros, independents, amateurs and everyone in between. Sean has contributed to the Zooppa blog before with his post, “Want Corporate Clients to see you as a Pro? Dress Like It.”

Now, he addresses the top ten things that bug him on set and even shares hidden tips on how to prevent some major set disasters.

1. People who are late
Not the client – they can be as late as they want because it’s their show. But an actor or crew member who is late, without a good reason, probably won’t get another phone call.

2. Not enough plugs in the walls
This happens a lot. Most of the time, the best shot is over there, while the wall outlets are over here. Extension cords solve the problem, but you have to tape them down like crazy or else someone is guaranteed to trip over them.

3. Actors that flub a line at the end of the script
It isn’t their fault. Long scripts can be a hassle, especially when you know that you can’t hide some cuts with b-roll. This pressure, along with the subconscious thought of “I’m almost home,” usually leads an actor to stumble on the last paragraph.

4. The sun
If there’s not any drapes on a window, the sun can make you paranoid. “Where’s the sun right now? Where will it be in an hour? Where will it be in two hours?” Wherever it will be, your actor will be standing in it when the time comes.

5. Teleprompters
It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve used the same teleprompter with the same computer. When you plug it in at the beginning of the day, the teleprompter doesn’t work. You check the connection, reboot the computer, use the “find displays” option in the menu, on and on. And still the computer won’t talk to the prompter. Then the client shows up, and you’re sweating bullets. Finally, as if by magic, it works! You’ve done nothing differently – it just works.

I remember one shoot from a while back. Someone else was running the prompter and he brought his own gear. I was working camera that day. When the guy plugged in the prompter, I left for a cup of coffee and came back a half-hour later. The producer said, “You missed all the excitement. We couldn’t get the prompter working and we were flipping out.”

That was the whole reason I went to get a coffee in the first place. I didn’t want to be there for the nail biting.

6. Air conditioners
They keep the place cool, but they can play hell with your audio. If you’re in an office building, you might have a hard time turning the AC off because not every room has a thermostat. Sometimes you just have to live with it and take the sound out in post, which leads me to…

7. “We’ll fix it in post”
Those five words can lead to disaster, not to mention a whole bunch of extra time sweating away in post-production with the deadline looming over your head. I like, “Let’s do it right, while we’re here.”

8. Construction crews
Having a shoot on the second floor of an office? They’ll be putting in a new sidewalk outside.

9. Too many directors
This happens when you’re on one of those, “We’re not in this for the money” shoots, like a short film. Suddenly everyone’s got a great idea for a shot, and nobody wants to smack someone down in case free ham sandwiches aren’t enough to keep them from quitting.

10. Being unprepared
Not being prepared is what leads to all sorts of problems, including all of the ones listed above. And it sounds great to say, “Be prepared,” but unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do about it.

On fast shoots, there isn’t time to do a lot of scouting, and someone may not know how many plugs there are in a room, or whether an office is having a new door put in that day. You just have to go with it, and use the number one rule of production: do the best you can do at any given moment, and things will work out fine.

Zinio Winners Announcement

zooppastaff — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 23:17:19 +0000

Congratulations Zooppa community. Once again, you’ve totally blown us away.

And it’s not just us. The client was absolutely floored by the amazing prints and videos you guys came up with.

This wasn’t an easy competition. Some Zooppa competitions are more specific about what they’re looking to get, some are more open to interpretation. Zinio was pretty open to interpretation. That – coupled with the fact that Zinio’s product is absolutely brand new – makes for a pretty tough creative assignment.

Well, like I said, the client was totally blown away. Great job. Here are the winners.

Client Video Awards

Client Video Award 1st

rpgamer2003, Space and Air

Client Video Award 2nd

reellance, At My Side

Client Video Award 3rd

drumbum, Trying Too Hard

Zooppa Video Award

bishoff, Inside Zinio

Community Video Awards

Community Video 1st

niccolo, Zinio Express Reading

Community Video 2nd

asleivs, It’s Preferred Reading in One Place

Community Video 3rd

gianky, Zinio: Just More Choice

Client Print Awards

Client Print Award 1st

Moxemo, Capitulation of the Printed Paper

Client Print Award 2nd

el_gae, Zinio

Client Print Award 3rd

lacerat, In the Smallest Place

Zooppa Print Award

fmadv, The Metamorphosis

Community Print Awards

Community Print Award 1st

umbrellaman, Boundless Curiosity

Community Print Award 2nd

PIKNIK, READ(Y) FOR THE FUTURE

Community Print Award 3rd

cauthier, World Made of Paper

Congrats to everyone who created something for this awesome contest, and congrats to the winners.

Want Your Work Shown at Cannes? Submit to the Razorfish Contest! (Ends Monday 6/21!)

zooppastaff — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:07:44 +0000

Razorfish Contest is Great Opportunity to Get Your Work Seen at Cannes (ends Monday, 6/21!)

When you are a filmmaker or graphic designer, you struggle with thousands of other creatives to catch that one opportunity to get your work noticed and praised. There are countless sketches strewn across your room, hours of footage of the same scene waiting to be edited, endless programs all up on your computer screen full of graphics and ideas that all seem to blend into one after six hours of staring at them.

All that energy and talent can be rewarded if you find the right kind of opportunity…

Razorfish, the acclaimed digital advertising agency, is hosting an exhibit at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, the most prestigious event in the advertising world, with their exhibition on the subject of “Privacy in the Digital Age.” If you are chosen as the winning member, your opportunity can start at Cannes Lions where your work will be on display and gain exposure. Zooppa is also offering you something that we haven’t before….

*Be Included in Razorfish’s freelancer pool for consideration for creative work

*Have the chance to meet with a Razorfish creative director who will review your portfolio

*Have a link posted on the Razorfish contest page

*Get a private briefing on some of Razorfish’s biggest client initiatives and pitch ideas to them

Plus, this is a really fun topic to create for – internet privacy is THE topic du jour. Check out the Razorfish contest brief, and submit your video or print by Monday, June 21 for the opportunity of a lifetime.

Can’t Afford Top Tier Video or Camera Equipment? Try Renting!

zooppastaff — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:32:26 +0000

Need to upgrade your camera? Need other equipment? Like a boom mic? A dolly? A lighting cabinet?

Well, you may not have to buy them. You may be able to rent filmmaking & print making equipment. Take a look around your community to see if there is a camera & film equipment rental shop like Professional Video and Tape in Portland, Oregon.

Eric Petrie is here today to talk about some equipment to drool over, and to rent.

TThe world of independent film production is a continually changing landscape. As technology moves forwards quality goes up and costs go down. The democratization of film production with affordable equipment has never been more apparent then right now. The boarders keeping small budget production from achieving a big budget look have never been thinner. Indeed consumer electronics products can now be used to make a film makers vision come true. If you have a vision, and you have the skill, it can happen.

One of the largest factors in the modern evolution of independent film production has been the advent of digital SLR still photo cameras that can record high quality video. About 18 months ago Canon, almost unknowingly, changed the face of independent production by introducing the Canon EOS 5D (mkII) still photo camera with H.D. video capability. While there are many limitations to these kind of cameras when used for video they do offer one very compelling factor. The 5D has a full frame 35mm size image sensor. This means that your images look much more like they were shot with 35mm film then a traditional video camera. This sensor is over 4 times larger then the 2/3” sensors you find in those very large and expensive Panasonic or Sony camcorders. The best part is that you can buy this camera right now at Professional Video and Tape for $2,489! This makes for a very appealing option for independent production.

The first question that comes up when looking into these cameras is “Does it really work for pro level productions?”. The answer is a definitive “Yes”. Recently the award winning FOX prime-time drama “House” shot an entire episode using nothing but this camera and Canon photo lenses. The results were a spectacular success. The benefits included slicing the budged of production and allowing them to shoot in conditions that traditional video cameras wouldn’t have been able to go. These conditions included tight spaces in low light.

But of course there is more to film production than just the camera. You will need lenses to go with the camera. If you have time to change prime fixed focal length lenses a 28mm, 50mm, and 85mm lens kit will give you a great deal of flexibility. For quicker shooting opt for a 24-105mm lens. For cinema style control of your camera a matte box and follow focus system from Chrosziel are essential tools. For audio the best option is to use a separate recording system such as the Zoom H4n. This offers professional balanced XLR audio inputs. Connect this to a high quality shotgun microphone such as the Sennheiser ME66/K6 for top quality sound. The whole thing can be rigged to a Gitzo carbon fiber boom pole. You will need a way to monitor you images on-set. Ikan makes a line of high quality and affordable compact H.D. LCD monitors designed for pros to use in the field. All of these products and much more are available from Professional Video and Tape. PVT can get you completely set up for independent cinema production for under $10k. The result will be an equipment set-up that will open up the possibilities as far as your skill and creativity can take them.

If you’re in Portland, check out Professional Video and Tape, and say hi to Eric!