Welcome to Colortape International Film Festival!

Subliminal Advertising Competition

Sbliminal Advertising Competition Entrants must make either a film or promo which must contain a subliminal advertisement. The filmmaker must explain which footage or segment (ref: timecode) refers to subliminal advertising and what does it mean.

Tip! More information on subliminal advertising can be found below on this page.

To register in this category participants must register through Withoutabox.

All participants or registered members please note, that all terms and conditions outlined by Withoutabox must be reviewed and agreed to

ENTRIES CAN BE REGISTERED HERE:

Subliminal Advertising: The Secret Sales Pitch Advertising is any paid form of nonpersonal presentation or promotion of goods, services or ideas by an identified sponsor. It is one part of the marketing cycle which begins and ends with the consumer.

ENTRIES CAN BE REGISTERED HERE:

Subliminal Advertising: The Secret Sales Pitch
Advertising is any paid form of nonpersonal presentation or promotion of goods, services or ideas by an identified sponsor. It is one part of the marketing cycle which begins and ends with the consumer.

Subliminal message
A subliminal message is a signal or message embedded in another medium, designed to pass below the normal limits of the human mind's perception. These messages are unrecognizable by the conscious mind, but in certain situations can affect the subconscious mind and importantly, the unconscious mind, and can negatively or positively influence subsequent later thoughts, behaviors, actions, attitudes, belief systems and value systems. The term subliminal means "beneath a limen" (sensory threshold). This is derived from the Latin words sub, meaning under, and limen, meaning threshold.

Subliminal message
A subliminal message is a signal or message embedded in another medium, designed to pass below the normal limits of the human mind's perception. These messages are unrecognizable by the conscious mind, but in certain situations can affect the subconscious mind and importantly, the unconscious mind, and can negatively or positively influence subsequent later thoughts, behaviors, actions, attitudes, belief systems and value systems. The term subliminal means "beneath a limen" (sensory threshold). This is derived from the Latin words sub, meaning under, and limen, meaning threshold.

Background
The use and placement of subliminal messages are often based upon negatively influencing human minds using the principle of psychological sublimation (psychology), in which the use of baseless and labeling innuendo, inferences, allusions, propaganda, etc. is intended to negatively influence the mind of unsuspecting recipients of subliminal messages to act in manners that are habituated. Subliminal techniques have occasionally been used in advertising and propaganda; the purpose, the effectiveness, and the frequency of the application of such techniques is debated. The injection of subliminal signals at a rate that is undetectable to the human eye into advertising was outlawed by the FCC.

How does advertising serve business?
-> Lowers cost of most consumer goods by promoting more sales.
-> Encourages the development of new and improved products.
-> Helps assure new product availability at the retail level.
-> Helps ensure consistent product quality.
-> Supports free media.
4 requirements for a successful ad campaign:
-> The formulation of a persuasive idea
-> Design of a message to convey the idea
-> A series of ads embodying the message
-> Means of transmitting the ads

 

How to do a story board for a subliminal advertisement
-> Create ATTENTION immediately in the first frame or two - the frames should contain the visual story.

-> Build INTEREST on the part of the consumer by appealing to their interests, needs or wants with emotional or psychological appeals: emotional security, ego gratification, reassurance of worth, creative outlets, love objects sense of roots, sense of power, immortality, vitality, family, humor, success, intimacy, good health. Use BUZZ WORDS such as New, Improved, Real, Fat-free, Lower cholesterol

-> Ceate DESIRE for the product in a logical way - consider nonverbals messages in the visuals

-> Call for ACTION on the part of the consumer. BUY NOW, Don't wait, This deal will only last

-> Present memorable messages, on target. This might be a slogan or a theme. It might contain a spokesperson or a spokes-animal like Tony the Tiger or the duck in the AFLAC commercials

-> Use emotional or psychological APPEALS - with one of the appeals we have discussed in class or in the handout

-> Break the clutter. What is the product's position and Unique Selling Proposition? Examples of USP include Goldfish in colors and Quaker Oats for Women in oldert commercials. The latter is also a positioning technique to increase the sale of the product to a specific target group

-> Feature consumer BENEFITS. Don't sell the steak, sell the sizzle; don't sell furniture, sell the appeal of comfortable family get togethers

-> Write the way people talk: conversational, even colloquial at times. This means to use contractions, phrases, single words. No need to write in complete sentences. That's not the way people speak. Is it?

-> Place copy below the rectangular space which contains the visual. Type it or print it neatly

-> Use ALL CAPS to identify who is talking in the commercial, and place these below the rectangular shape in which it will appear. VOICE OVER, ANNOUNCER, ETC.

-> Then, place what the person is saying in caps and lower case

The eight emotional/psychological appeals are found in TV, newspaper, magazine, radio, direct mail, outdoor or point of purchase, and they represent emotional or psychological appeals to the prospective buyer's basic emotions.

These are the subconscious messages. Conscious messages are the plain, unvarnished facts about a product: price, size, capacity, weight, etc., without any outside appeals.

Need for Reassurance of worth By using the product, I will be a better (mother, wife, provider, grandma, etc..)

Need for Emotional security By using the product, I will not have to worry about (body odor, halitosis, the frizzies, etc.,) or by NOT using the product I will have a problem with these conditions

Need for Ego gratification By using the product, I will be happier, warmer, etc., even though it may cost more. (L'Oreal products, name brands, etc.)

Need for Creative outlets By using the product, I will be more creative or use the product in a more creative manner. These are products such as Kraft Foods, Arm and Hammer baking soda

Need for a Sense of roots Nostalgia, "It was good enough for grandma. . ." The use of historical data such as "Since 1876. . ."

Need for a Sense of power Advertising for motorcycles, vehicles and other swift powerful objects. But it also may include an appeal about "the power of wealth, politics, prestige and the like."

Need for Love objects Appeals include attractive people of either gender, animals, children (particularly babies) and old people. The idea is to show these "objects" in a positive way to make the prospective consumer feel good about the product. Michelin tires and other products which use children for decorative effect. They aren't selling kids, obviously

Immortality (or mortality) Either way you look at it, people do not worry about mortality, particularly young people. They think they will live forever.

But, an appeal is made to older people through insurance advertising that they will not live forever and need to plan for their family's future.

Other appeals may be success, family, intimacy, vitality, humor, good health or numerous others.

The MARKETING CYCLE
Advertisers aim sales messages (conscious, subconscious or unconscious) through channels (newspaper, magazine, radio, television, direct mail, outdoor, Internet, specialty) to prospective consumers whose needs and desires are known through market research.

Advertising falls within a larger framework of the business operation known as marketing. Marketing includes all those activities involved in getting a product to the consumer, such as packaging, pricing, promotions, publicity, etc.

Marketing begins and ends with the consumer. The consumer will likely be consulted during research, development and production - throughout the life of the product - to make certain it responds to changing wants and preferences.

Visual
Used in advertising to create familiarity with new products, subliminal messages make familiarity into a preference for the new products. Dr. Johan Karremans suggests that subliminal messages have an effect when the messages are goal-relevant.[11] Karremans did a study assessing whether subliminal priming of a brand name of a drink would affect a person's choice of drink, and whether this effect is caused by the individual's feelings of being thirsty.

By subliminally priming or preparing the participant with text or an image without being aware of it, gave the partaker familiarity with the product. Half of his participants were subliminally primed with Lipton Ice ("Lipton Ice" was repeatedly flashed on a computer screen for 24 milliseconds), while the other half was primed with a control that did not consist of a brand. In his study he found that subliminally priming a brand name of a drink (Lipton Ice) made those who were thirsty want the Lipton Ice. Those who were not thirsty however, were not influenced by the subliminal message since their goal was not to quench their thirst.[12]

Subconscious stimulus by single words is well known to be modestly effective in changing human behavior or emotions. This is evident by a pictorial advertisement that portrays four different types of rum. The phrase "U Buy" was embedded somewhere, backwards in the picture.

A study (Key, 1973)[13] was done to test the effectiveness of the alcohol ad. Before the study, participants were able to try to identify any hidden message in the ad, none found any.

In the end, the study showed 80% of the subjects unconsciously perceived the backward message, meaning they showed a preference for that particular rum.

Though many things can be perceived from subliminal messages, only a couple words or a single image of unconscious signals can be internalized.

As only a word or image can be effectively perceived, the simpler features of that image or word will be cause a change in behavior (i.e., beef is related to hunger).

This was demonstrated by Byrne in 1959. The word "beef" was flashed for several, five millisecond intervals during a sixteen-minute movie to experimental subjects, while nothing was flashed to controlled subjects.

Neither the experimental nor controlled subjects reported for a higher preference for beef sandwiches when given a list of five different foods, but the experimental subjects did rate themselves as hungrier than the controlled subjects when given a survey [14] If the subjects were flashed a whole sentence, the words would not be perceived and no effect would be expected.

Studies in 2004 and 2006 showed that subliminal exposure to images of frightened faces or faces of people from another race will increase the activity of the amygdala in the brain and also increase skin conductance.[16] [17]

In 2007, it was shown that subliminal exposure to the Israeli flag had a moderating effect on the political opinions and voting behaviors of Israeli volunteers. This effect was not present when a jumbled picture of the flag was subliminally shown.[18]

Audio
Backmasking, an audio technique in which sounds are recorded backwards onto a track that is meant to be played forwards, produces messages that sound like gibberish to the conscious mind. Gary Greenwald, a fundamentalist Christian preacher, claims that these messages can be heard subliminally, and can induce listeners towards, in the case of rock music, sex and drug use.[19] However, this is not generally accepted as fact.[20]

Following the 1950s subliminal message panic, many businesses have sprung up purporting to offer helpful subliminal audio tapes that supposedly improve the health of the listener. However, there is no evidence for the therapeutic effectiveness of such tapes.[21]

Subliminal messages have also been known to appear in music. In the 1990s, two young men died from self-inflicted gunshots and their families were convinced it was because of a British rock band, Judas Priest. The families claimed subliminal messages told listeners to "do it" in the song "Better by You, Better Than Me". The case was taken to court and the families sought more than US$6 million in damages. The judge, Jerry Carr Whitehead, ruled that the subliminal messages did exist in the song, but stated that the families did not produce any scientific evidence that the song persuaded the young men to kill themselves. In turn, he ruled it probably would not have been perceived without the "power of suggestion" or the young men would not have done it unless they really intended to. [22]

Subliminal messages can affect a human's emotional state and/or behaviors. They are most effective when perceived unconsciously. The most extensive study of therapeutic effects from audiotapes was conducted to see if the self-esteem audiotapes would raise self-esteem. 237 volunteers were provided with tapes of three manufacturers and completed post tests after one month of use. The study showed clearly that subliminal audiotapes made to boost self-esteem did not produce effects associated with subliminal content within one month's use.[23]

Criticism
The effectiveness of any subliminal message has been called into question time after time and has led many to one conclusion, namely: that the technique does not work, as Anthony R. Pratkanis, one of the researchers in the field puts it: "It appears that, despite the claims in books and newspapers and on the backs of subliminal self help tapes, subliminal-influence tactics have not been demonstrated to be effective. Of course, as with anything scientific, it may be that someday, somehow, someone will develop a subliminal technique that may work, just as someday a chemist may find a way to transmute lead to gold. I am personally not purchasing lead futures on this hope however." [24]

Allegations
Some groups have made claims that subliminal messages can be found in various forms of popular entertainment, such as the supposed use of "backward messages" in rock and roll songs.

Fictional references
While their ultimate efficacy is somewhat controversial, subliminal messages have a long history in television shows, movies, and novels.

REFERENCE
"The Straight Dope: Does subliminal advertising work?". The Straight Dope. Retrieved on 2006-08-11.
1. ^ a b Pratkanis, Anthony R. (Spring 1992). "The Cargo-Cult Science of Subliminal Persuasion", Skeptical Inquirer, Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, pp. 260-272. Retrieved on 2006-08-11.

2. ^ tachistoscope - Definitions from Dictionary.com

3. ^ a b c d "Urban Legends Reference Pages: Business (Subliminal Advertising)". The Urban Legends Reference Pages. Retrieved on 2006-08-11.

4. ^ Urban Legends Reference Pages: Subliminal Advertising

5. ^ a b Lantos, Geoffrey P.. "The Absolute Threshold Level and Subliminal Messages" (PDF). Stonehill College. Retrieved on 2007-03-01.

6. ^ Boese, Alex (2002). The Museum of Hoaxes: A Collection of Pranks, Stunts, Deceptions, and Other Wonderful Stories Contrived for the Public from the Middle Ages to the New Millennium, E. P. Dutton, ISBN 0-525-94678-0. pages. 137-38.

7. ^ Peters, Dan; Steve Peters (1985). Rock's Hidden Persuader: The Truth About Backmasking. Bethany House Publishers, 19. Cited in U.S. Senate, page 125.

8. ^ U.S. Senate, page 118.

9. ^ U.S. Senate, page 125.

10. ^ Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2006

11. ^ Karremans, J. (2006). Beyond vicary's fantasies: the impact of subliminal priming and brand choice [Electronic Version]. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 792-798

12. ^ Key, W. B. (1973). Subliminal seduction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

13. ^ Byrne, D. (1959). "The effect of a subliminal food stimulus on verbal responses." Journal of Applied Psychology. 43 (no.4), 249-251.

14. ^ Marka conference.com

15. ^ Williams, Leanne M.; Belinda J. Liddell, Andrew H. Kemp, Richard A. Bryant, Russell A. Meares, Anthony S. Peduto, Evian Gordon (2006). "Amygdala-prefrontal dissociation of subliminal and supraliminal fear". Human Brain Mapping 27 (8): 652–661. doi:10.1002/hbm.20208. Retrieved on 2008-01-16.

16. ^ Brain Activity Reflects Complexity Of Responses To Other-race Faces, Science Daily, 14 December 2004

17. ^ Hassin, Ferguson, Shidlovski, Gross (2007). Subliminal exposure to national flags affects political thought and behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, vol. 104, no. 50

18. ^ Vokey, John R. (2002). "Subliminal Messages", Psychological Sketches (PDF), 6th edition, Lethbridge, Alberta: Psyence Ink, 223–246. Retrieved on 2006-07-05.

19. ^ Robinson, B.A.. "Backmasking on records: Real, or hoax?". Retrieved on 2006-07-04.

20. ^ Moore, Timothy E. (Spring 1992). "Subliminal Perception: Facts and Fallacies", Skeptical Inquirer, Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, pp. 273-81. Retrieved on 2006-08-11.

21. ^ Vance, J., et al. v. Judas Priest et al., No. 86-5844, 2nd Dist. Ct. Nev. (August, 24 1990)

22. ^ Eskenazi, J., & Greenwald, A.G., Pratkanis, A.R. (1990). What you expect is what you believe (but not necessarily what you get): On the ineffectiveness of subliminal self-help audiotapes. Unpublished manuscript. University of California. Santa Cruz.

23. ^ The Straight Dope: Does subliminal advertising work?. The Straight Dope. Retrieved on 2008-06-11

24. ^ BTK Back

25. ^ Fight Club Easter Eggs - Eeggs.com

26. ^ Screen It! Parental Review: Fight Club

27. ^ Fight Club (1999) - Crazy credits

28. ^ Crowley, Candy. "Bush says 'RATS' ad not meant as subliminal message" CNN.com, 2000-9-12. Retrieved on December 16, 2006

29. ^ Smoking Pistols: George "Rat Ad" Bush and the Subliminal Kid

30. ^ 9/19/00 Speech by Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth: The FCC's Investigation of "Subliminal Techniques:"

31. ^ Brasseye Wiki

32. ^ Error - - New York Times

33. ^ Re: [AMIA-L] Reply: "Sherlock Jr."

34. ^ "It was a glitch, not a subliminal ad, for McDonald's on Food Network". Canadian Press (2007-01-25). Retrieved on 2007-03-11.

35. ^ Subliminal advertising. - ninemsn Video

36. ^ YouTube - Led Zeppelin : Greatest Secret

37. ^ www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/queen.php

38. ^ Media:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdd01RI-AZE

39. ^ Agency asks slot-machine maker to halt subliminal messages

40. ^ Killick, Jane (1997). Babylon 5: The Coming of Shadows. The Ballantine Publishing Group, 131.

41. ^ Singh, Simon (June 10, 2003), "I'll bet £1,000 that Derren can't read my mind", The Daily Telegraph,<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2003/06/10/ecfmagic.xml>. Retrieved on 12 March 2008
-> Dixon, N. F. (1971). Subliminal Perception: The nature of a controversy, McGraw-Hill, New York.
-> Greeenwald, Anthony W. (1992). New Look 3: Unconscious Cognition Reclaimed, American Psychologist, 47.
-> Holender, D. (1986). Semantic activation without conscious identification in dichotic listening, parafoveal vision, and visual masking: A survey and appraisal. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 9, 1-23.
-> Merikle, P. M., and M. Daneman (1998). Psychological Investigations of Unconscious Perception, Journal of Consciousness Studies.
-> Watanabe, Sasaki, Nanez (2001). Perceptual learning without perception. Nature, 413, 844-848.
-> Seitz and Watanabe (2003). Is subliminal learning really passive. Nature, 422, 36.
-> United States Senate (1985). Record Labeling: Hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. United States Senate, Ninety-ninth Congress, First Session on Contents of Music and the Lyrics of Records (September 19, 1985). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Further reading
-> Boese, Alex (2006). Hippo Eats Dwarf: A Field Guide to Hoaxes and Other B.S.'', Harcourt, Inc., ISBN 0-15-603083-7, 193-95

If you have found any error or misspelling please accept our apologies.

0-60 Seconds Funniest Engrish Advertisement Competition

Funniest Engrish Advertisement Competition

According to Urban dictionary, Engrish is the slang term for Japanese to English translations gone horribly wrong, and the results are often extremely funny. Bearing this in mind we have decided to make a competition for the funniest Engrish film or video clip.

Filmmakers can enter funny Engrish video clips into this competition. It must be no longr than 60 seconds, including credits list. Formats that can be submitted are: filmed video clips (analog or digital), animated JPEG format, power point format, collated pictures, narrated sound/voice form, prank call type, or in any viewable digital format.All submitted format or material must provide informstion where the Engrish video or material originally hails from and the person who collated the material.

The Rules

All participants or registered members please note, that all terms and conditions outlined by Withoutabox must be reviewed and agreed to

ENTRIES FROM DEVELOPED COUNTRIES:

Fees - To be eligible to participate you must register through Withoutabox and pay the fees accordingly

0-60 Seconds Logo Design Competition

Logo Design

Ideally, your film or promo logo enhances the judges crucial first impression of your production. A good logo can make a huge impression while introducing your film or promo, and provide the professional look of an established production house. So why not enter the competition with a professionally designed logo that is so crucial to your production image.

The film production industry is a highly professional and creative industry. It is also an iconic industry rich with symbolism. When creating logo designs for film-related businesses, there are numerous immediately recognizable and simple film-related symbols that designers can draw on directly (or for inspiration) such as film reels, camera lenses, director"s chairs and tripod stands. Whether the business is a large scale production company working the Hollywood scene or a corporate film production company or a freelance producer working on small scale events and functions, most will want a design that is both professional and creative.

Tip! Hence, would like to see TV size logos, designed for television use, possibly using high definition specs, non-interlaced or interlaced.

Conclusion

As clients, film related companies offer great scope for creativity. Designers can draw on a multitude of well known film symbols for inspriation – such as negatives, cameras, tripod, film reels and lenses. The innate simplicity of these symbols provides great opportunity to creatively incorporate them in a logo or combine them with other symbols (like for example an airplane, fruits or a letter).

All participants or registered members please note, that all terms and conditions outlined by Withoutabox must be reviewed and agreed to

ENTRIES CAN BE SUBMITTED HERE:

Fees - To be eligible to participate you must register through Withoutabox and pay the fees accordingly

0-60 Seconds Animation Competition

2D & 3D Animation

Entries are open for this category, theyb can be character animations in any medium, from CG animation (Maya, 3DS Max, Blender, Animation:Master, etc.) to traditional 2D animation to stop-motion. Feedback and criticism will make your animation stronger! See below requirements section.

All participants or registered members please note, that all terms and conditions outlined by Withoutabox must be reviewed and agreed to

ENTRIES CAN BE SUBMITTED HERE:

Fees - To be eligible to participate you must register through Withoutabox and pay the fees accordingly

Reasons to Enter Animation Competitions
There are a growing number of animation competitions opening up on the web. And regardless of whether you are a hobbyist, student or a pro, you should absolutely take advantage of them.
Reasons why to enter this competition.

1. For practice.
This is really stating the obvious here, but animating is not that different from learning to play an instrument. The best way to get better is to practise. And practise. And practise.

There is only so much you can claim to theoretically know about squash and stretch, timing, spacing, overlapping action and appeal. You have to be able to do it.

If you are animating for X amount of hours a week and your fellow animators are animating 6perhaps less hours a week, you are learning at Y times the rate they are.

2. For experimentation
If you have always done 3D computer animation, why not try a 2D cartoon? Or a stop motion test? Or a paper cut-out animation? Or flash?
Not only does it improve your depth of knowledge and make you more employable, but it helps you focus on what is essential in your main animation medium.

3. For your reel
Treat the animation competition as an assignment for school, or a commission from a paying client. Once you finish it, you can definitely consider adding it to your show reel. Particularly if you select a different style that complements your existing reel.
If your reel is mostly dialog shots, why not go for a very physical scene.

4. For the deadline pressure
If nothing else – entering an animation competition forces you to think about the constraints of the competition brief AND the constraints of the deadline.
It will allow you to focus on what is important and leave out details that are not required.

5. To get feedback
Some competitions, like the Colortape Internattional Film Festival 2D & 3D Competitions, also have a blog/forum where you can comment or another option to vote on other peoples' animation. This is where the really valuable part comes into play. Not only can you receive honest feedback (maybe brutally so), but you can GIVE your own feedback.

Better to give critiues than receive, give specific comments on as many animations as you can. It will help develop your eye which is one of the most important things you can do if you're still learning.

Reason NOT to enter an animation competition
#1 . Is To win!
The simple fact is: you can only control your output, not outcomes. All you can do is your best, and the rest largely lies in the hands of other people. This is true of life and of competitions.
If you spend time thinking about what it would be like to win, or worse: thinking about how you deserve to win, you are setting yourself for massive disappointment.
Instead – make your goal to be doing the kind of work that would have a real chance of winning. Staying focussed on quality, rather than future outcomes is a much better attitude and will ensure you're pushing your work as far as it can go.
Good luck!

Rules
-> Copyrighted rigs and/or character designs will not be allowed in entries unless the entrant has the right to use the rig and/or design.

-> Don't edit the sound file (beyond adding silence before/after if needed - please try to keep the extra time to a minimum, winning eCritiques will not include added time)

-> Don't put your name or contact info anywhere on the actual video (this makes voting unfair).

-> Don't use anything overtly offensive (this is not the place for crude sexual humor, extremely violent imagery, or intolerance towards any culture/religion/gender/etc.) This is also not the place for political statements of any kind.

-> Do have fun! :) get your animation registered today! Prices to win. Subject to availability at the time of the competition.

Here are the rules you need to be sure to follow to avoid having your entry disqualified and ineligible for voting or winning
-> Don't edit the sound file (beyond adding silence before/after if needed).
-> Don't put your name or contact info anywhere on the actual video (this makes voting unfair).
-> Don't try to upload very large files (see Withoutabox requirements)
-> Don't use anything overtly offensive (this is not the place for crude sexual humor).
-> Don't try to cheat. You can NOT give your own entry a high rating if you think it deserves it, and you are not allowed to organize groups of friends to give your entry unfairly high ratings.Our system is set up to check for suspicious voting activity, and if we find you've been cheating, consequences can include entry disqualification, account suspension, or a permanent ban from the site.

0-60 Seconds WAP (Mobile) Ads

Make a WAP Vidlet clip for use in advertising for mobile phones. Any promo in any format and suitable length is welcome!

Read the info on mobile advertising to help you make the right decission, right format and right choices before you are producing it!

Mobile Advertising Market

Mobile phones have become a part of every human's daily life. Recently, technology giants such as Microsoft and Google have launched into the emerging Mobile Advertising market to pursue a piece of the mobile ad revenue pie. From a subscribers viewpoint the most popular and simultaneously annoying method of advertising for subscribers is SMS advertising. Advertisers run ad campaigns with varying ad types; text, fullscreen or banner ads to target different age demographics, gender and location statistics obtained from user profile information. This targeting method is accomplished through various mediums such as WAP, SMS, MMS and also through mobile email client applications such as Consilient Push.

WAP advertising is one of the break-out advertising mediums as many subscribers use their mobile phones for internet access due to competitive and very affordable data plans offered by their mobile carriers. The traffic generated on each carrier's WAP portal is now much higher than any other medium which leads to a high revenue generating source.

WAP advertising Technology

The mobile advertising technology used to deliver ads to the subscriber has grown quite sophisticated, allowing advertisers to target specific users by numerous targeting parameters to deliver a much more focused advertising campaign. When the subscriber visits the carrier's WAP portal page, the WAP gateway communicates with the ad server and obtains the ad image source URL and then sends this information to the mobile device for the device browser to make a request to fetch the image source of the ad. The advertisements are served with varying types of user actions for that particular ad. Click-to actions can include: Click To Call, Click To Email, Click To SMS, Click To Browse, Click To Download and Click To Chat. Also the ads will be served based on a priority ranking system. In addition, the advertiser's budget capping for impressions and clicks will also be taken into account, set by the advertiser for each of their advertisements.

Conclusion
Mobile Advertising is an emerging potential revenue market.

All participants or registered members please note, that all terms and conditions outlined by Withoutabox must be reviewed and agreed to

ENTRIES CAN BE SUBMITTED HERE:

Fees - To be eligible to participate you must register through Withoutabox and pay the fees accordingly

0-60 Seconds iPOD Ads Competition

Make an iPOD Vidlet clip for use in advertising for iPODs. Any promo in any format and suitable length is welcome!

The iPod is the undisputed king of the portable media player market. With almost 50 million units sold worldwide, the iPod has a 90% market share in the hard disk-based media players. Whether it's the snack-sized iPod Shuffle, the gourmet iPod Nano, or the super-sized iPod video, there is a flavor to satisfy every customer. If you are generating audio or video content for any type of distribution you must include this device on menu of options.

Since iPod's being such a groundbreaking innovation we would like to see more promos or vidlets made for this device.

When one sees dark silhouetted figures dancing against bright-colored backgrounds, the iPod instantly comes to mind. Few other brands out there can claim to have such a level of recognition among consumers.

Filmmakers can make any kind of promo, musical videos or whatever you wish. See more tips below.
Must be compatible with ALL iPOD models.

 

All participants or registered members please note, that all terms and conditions outlined by Withoutabox must be reviewed and agreed to

ENTRIES CAN BE SUBMITTED HERE:

Fees - To be eligible to participate you must register through Withoutabox and pay the fees accordingly

Tips!

Before we jump into recipes the content itself, let's talk a little bit about what customers are clamoring to enjoy and how they consume this media. The extremes appear to be moving further apart in content for the iPod audio and iPod video , with the most popular content appearing to be either under 5 minutes and very short (the latest Top 40 hit, a video podcast from despair, Inc., or < King Burger Whopperettes the of making>) or 30-45 minutes and longer (more than 10 hours of 2006 NBA Finals highlights, an 80-minute America's Funniest Home Videos Battle of the Best episode, or the audiobook version of The Devil Wears Prada).

These two extremes are important to realize when planning your content for a mobile society. Most people consume their media while traveling from one place to another (or at least there's the illusion of travel for those folks on the treadmill). Keeping the media very short for a quick car ride or a bite-size snippet in between phone calls is just as important as making it full length with extras and deleted scenes for the long subway ride home or the flight to Europe.

The leader in serving up media for the iPod is iTunes. With cross-platform compatibility, this restaurant for the iPod serves up a variety of free and paid content that can satisfy even the most discriminating palate. There are also more and more sites offering iPod-ready files to download and move to our device. Whether it's an audio podcast in MP3 format or the latest TV commercial in MPEG-4 format, we are seeing a sharp increase in independent sites offering content specifically for the iPod.

How to make iPOD Video
Creating video for the iPod is very simple with Apple's new set of iLife 06 tools.Could use video shot on any video camera and iMovie HD to build a simple iPod video. Open iMovie and select New File and MP4 file formatting as the default encoding. Plug in your camera via FireWire and you'll be able to instantly upload your video by pressing the Import button in the view area.

iMovie can recognise the brand and model number of your video camera. After a few editing tweaks and some sizzle, thanks to iMovie's rather nice title options, you should be ready to serve your iPod video. Select File-->Export, and it opens up an option window with multiple output formats. There is a tab just for the iPod and it renders out the video as an MPEG-4 video file, 320x240 at 30 frames per second using H.264/AVC video and 44.100kHz AAC stereo audio encoding. It even automatically puts it into iTunes and opens it up for me when it has rendered out the file. Next time you hook up my iPod, then you can drag and drop this onto your video iPod, or it will upload automatically if I have iTunes' automatic update option selected.

Once you have created these scrumptious media files, it's time to share them with your guests and hope they come back for seconds. You can submit content to iTunes or you can host the files and supply links to the hungry masses. With the "giant's" grip on the mobile media marketplace, creating content for the iPod is no longer a novel idea but a necessity. Remember to keep the content short or in-depth and build your media for your target audience's transit time. With more devices and ideas on the horizon I am sure you will be cooking up content for iPods for years to come.

Good luck!

Advertisement Short Film Competition

COMPETITIONS THEMES

Call Opening Dates: All Year round

Competition: Short Advertisement Film (Commercial) Title to be used: "The Volcano"

Genre: any

Scope/Aim: a short film about the chaos created by the volcano eruption in any part of the world.

Reference is to be made in the film to flying over a country, alternative traveling options.

Words that MUST be included either in text, narration, sound or graphical format in the film are: volcano, IOPS traveling agency, 21st Century travel chaos.

Film Length: 30minutes including credits submitted in file format as required and on DVD/BluRay (posted in) together with press kits, posters etc via surface mail to:

Colortape International Film Festival, 479 Mt Petrie Rd McKenzie, 4156 Australia

Submission Competition requirement: ONLY a 3.5minutes short promo reel to be submitted via Withoutabox "online".

Other requirements: submission fee paid upfront, must have credits included, all foreign films must have English subtitles, originally filmed in HD, a watermark Colortape International Film Festival logo (CIFF logo) must be shown accross the entire film. End of the reel must have the Copyright (C) CIFF logo & year embedded.

Please do not include black blanks at the end of the film. Timecode must be strictly specific to competition requirements.

All participants or registered members please note, that all terms and conditions outlined by Withoutabox must be reviewed and agreed to

ENTRIES CAN BE SUBMITTED HERE:

Fees - To be eligible to participate you must register through Withoutabox and pay the fees accordingly

The Theme for this period is pre-defined.

For every promo competitors MUST use the tradename or trademark IOPS (as a company or brand name) OR use the IOPS Logo and brandname (ask us for the logos please) IOPS stands for Indoor Outdoor Promotions & Services (is a brandname used for services). must be mentioned in visual form ex:logo form, or textual (written text on screen or as graphics signs), and/or sound (verbal form, to be mentioned in a dialogue or in a conversation) Also each promo MUST use or make a reference at least twice in the vidlet (promo) of the following words: quality, environment, IOPS travelling, IOPS brand name to be mentioned, best travelling & safest on the market, 21 st century travelling.

Mid Year - Call Opening Dates: 1st May


Competition range & dates Subject to change. All rights reserved. Competition Title: Short Film (Commercial) "The Brand" Genre: any

Scope/Aim: a short film about the promotion of a new range of products ranging from parfumes, mobile phones, bottled drinking water, cosmetics and fashion related. Reference is to be made to the brand named "Schiller Signature" Words that MUST be included either in text, narration, sound or graphical format in the film are: "Schiller Signature brand", range of products ranging from parfumes, mobile phones, bottled drinking water, cosmetics and fashion, best and famous.

Film Length: 30minutes including credits submitted on DVD/BluRay together with press kits, posters etc via surface mail to: Colortape International Film Festival, 479 Mt Petrie Rd McKenzie, 4156 Australia

Submission Competition requirement: ONLY a 3.5minutes short promo reel to be submitted via Withoutabox "online".

Other requirements: submission fee paid upfront, must have credits included, all foreign films must have English subtitles, originally filmed in HD downconverted to SD, a watermark Colortape International Film Festival logo (CIFF logo) must be shown across the entire film. End of the reel must have the Copyright (C) CIFF logo & year embedded. Please do not include black blanks at the end of the film. Timecode must be strictly specific to competition requirements

For further information, or other competitions feel free to visit www.colortapeinternational.com related web links

The competition commenced this year and the festival will run as indicated on withoutabox deadlines and listed timetables.

All participants or registered members please note, that all terms and conditions outlined by Withoutabox must be reviewed and agreed to

ENTRIES CAN BE SUBMITTED HERE:

Fees - To be eligible to participate you must register through Withoutabox and pay the fees accordingly

Storyboard based on a Script Idea Competition

We would like to recognize the best storyboards from around the world. With certificate and world-wide promotion prize on offer it is hardly a category to be missed out on.

Drawings in any format even by hand is welcome to be submitted. See tips section below.

All participants or registered members please note, that all terms and conditions outlined by Withoutabox must be reviewed and agreed to

ENTRIES CAN BE SUBMITTED HERE:

Fees - To be eligible to participate you must register through Withoutabox and pay the fees accordingly

Tips!

Film is, after all, a visual medium, and the storyboard is the most often used tool for getting a sense of how an idea will work before filming takes place. Storyboarding involves drawing still, comic book-like images of what you want your final scenes to look like. It is used as a guideline for smooth filming on set, as well as a template for the pre-production editing process.

Why storyboard?

Alfred Hitchcock was well known for storyboarding every shot of his classic films. In fact, he was so meticulous about storyboarding that he considered the procedure to be the most creative phase of the filmmaking process. Shooting the actual film was just a necessary evil. The storyboard not only determined exactly what the film would look like, it even decided what kinds of camera movements and shots were necessary to create the perfect scene.

Who can forget the shower sequence from Psycho, its every shot communicating a new terror? Or the plane chasing Cary Grant in North by Northwest? If Hitchcock had waited to decide how to shoot the scenes of either of these sequences on location, there is little doubt that they would not have ended up as well crafted and memorable. But how can drawing a few storyboards have such an effect on the final outcome of a film? The main reason is time.

If you don't storyboard, you'll be spending more time with your camera in hand, forcing your actors to wait on the sidelines and working hard to figure out what to shoot next. Your time is better spent planning on your own and going over your script in detail.

Pretend you are shooting the film on paper and drawing each shot as you go. (For beginning filmmakers, it is helpful to have a list of possible camera shots to assist you. This will help you visualize the difference between close-ups and medium shots, cutaways and cut-in shots, etc. and allow you to choose what will best help "show" rather than tell your story.)

Review your drawings in sequence to make sure every shot will fit together smoothly, and if they do not, it is best to know this beforehand. That way, you can make changes before filming begins, eliminating the stressful need for a re-shooting.

How do I get started?

To give you some practical insight into how the storyboarding process works, here is an exercise. First use a storyboarding template and make additional copies as needed. Next, grab your favorite movie and watch a short scene with your pencil and template in hand.

Choose something short. You may be surprised how many shots (or edits) there are in a short film sequence. For example, the shower sequence from Psycho has 52 shots in a span of only 2 minutes and 8 seconds.

Freeze frame your scene and stop at the first shot of the sequence. Sketch what you see on the screen as a still representation on your storyboard. Continue sketching each new shot (or edit) within the sequence.

If the scene includes a long pan, or moving shot, (for example, a pan of the skyline or a zoom in on an actor's face), you can indicate motion within your storyboard. Use an arrow to indicate the motion the camera will make. An arrow can eliminate the need for multiple drawings. Under the storyboard box, write careful descriptions to effectively communicate the movement happening within the shot as well.

To test yourself, or if you are a teacher, to test your class, try the American Film Institute Screen Education handbook and Door Scene Exercise. Teams of students must create a storyboard of a simple scene involving a door and a number of camera angles and shots. Then, they must film and edit their finished scene based on the storyboard.

To ensure that the students' storyboard is complete and easy to follow, they must trade their storyboard with another student team. A second film is made exactly as this "new" storyboard instructs with no other communications from its creators.

Will the films turn out the same? If they do, congratulations, you have created an excellent storyboard, one that can effectively communicate your vision without explanation. If the two films are different, you should go back and try to figure out where your visual communication could have been clearer and more concise.

A storyboard is the primary communication tool for filmmaking. It does not matter if you are creating a work of fiction or a documentary; each benefit from the kind of planning that storyboards provide. The dilemma here is that a storyboard should not leave anything to the imagination: using your imagination could be dangerous as no two people "imagine" the same thing.

Use your original script to create a solid and interpretable visualization of your story. Take the time to plan, or otherwise you will be dealing with reshoots, footage you cannot use, scenes that are difficult to follow and a lot of miscommunication. Follow the great directors who went before you and grab some paper and pencils, because storyboarding is the secret to a successful film.

Good luck

Lower Third Banner Competition

Banner & Lower Thirds

In the television industry (especially in North America), a lower third is a graphic placed in the title safe lower area of the screen, though not necessarily the entire lower third of it, as the name suggests.

Lower thirds are most commonly found in television news production, although they also appear in documentaries and even have begun to make appearances in amateur videos thanks to home-video non-linear editing systems (NLE).

In its simplest form, a lower third can just be text overlying the video. Frequently this text is white with a drop shadow to make the words easier to read. A lower third can also contain graphical elements such as boxes, images or shading. Some lower thirds have animated backgrounds and text.

Lower thirds can be created using basic home-video editing software or professional-level equipment. This equipment makes use of video's alpha channel to determine what parts of the graphic or text should be transparent, allowing the video in the background to show through.

This competition is aimed at rewarding participants for their effort, creativity & skills.

Requirements: any format is welcome. From Adobe PSD file to FCP Motion etc.

If possible please design using HD specs (wide anamorphic screens). Judges will score on the degree of difficulty it was composited and the "know-how" to make them. See more hints below.

All participants or registered members please note, that all terms and conditions outlined by Withoutabox must be reviewed and agreed to

ENTRIES CAN BE SUBMITTED HERE:

Fees - To be eligible to participate you must register through Withoutabox and pay the fees accordingly

Hints!

Lower thirds are also often known as captions, or occasionally chyrons in North America.[1] Other common terms include superbars (or simply supers) (US), name straps and astons (after Aston Broadcast Systems) (UK).

Video with lower thirds is known as a "program as broadcast" or as "dirty"; video without lower thirds is known as a "clean feed" or as "textless". For international distribution, programs often include "textless elements" on the master tape – these are all the shots to which lower thirds (and other digital on-screen graphics) have been applied, placed end-to-end so a clean master can be created if necessary.

Lower thirds are usually arranged in tiers, or lines:
One-tier lower thirds — Usually used to identify a story that is being shown, or to show a presenter's name.

Two-tier lower thirds — Used most often to identify a person on screen. Often the person's name will appear on the first line, with his or her place of residence or a description below it. Two-tier lower thirds may also be used as "locators" to identify where a story is taking place.

Three-tier lower thirds — These lower thirds add more information. Commonly the first tier is used to tell when the video was shot, if it was not shot the day the newscast is airing.

In addition to information pertinent to the currently-showing video, the lower thirds has increasingly become saturated with specialized, dedicated graphic elements, such as news tickers, digital on-screen graphics, time and date, stock quotes and/or sports scores, with specialty channels (such as those for news, business, weather and sports) accruing such elements in order to keep the perpetual interests of viewers.

Chromakey Composition Competition

Chroma keying is a special effect that revolutionized filmmaking. In video and film production, chroma keying on green or blue screen allows filmmakers to combine shots, change locations, fix mistakes, maximize budgets and create impossible effects. Every day, audiences see the result of chroma keying's innovative history.

Chroma keying is the process of shooting a subject on camera and replacing that subject in an entirely different background indiscernibly. According to Mercury TV, chroma "refers to the purity, brilliance or richness of a color and its strength and weakness...Keying cuts a hole in an image making it transparent. The resulting hole is then filled with another image." The development of color film and television allowed colors absent in human skin tone to be isolated and separated. Blue and green are the primary colors used as chroma backgrounds.

Hence, we would like to give an opportunity to all filmmakers to present their chromakey montage to showcase their creativity and skill in creating visual effects using this particular technique, by entering this category of the competition.

Participant must explain the segment of the montage where it has been used and how it was done.

Requirement: only blue or green background may be used. See more tips below.

All participants or registered members please note, that all terms and conditions outlined by Withoutabox must be reviewed and agreed to

ENTRIES CAN BE SUBMITTED HERE:

Fees - To be eligible to participate you must register through Withoutabox and pay the fees accordingly

Tips!

Chroma key, also called Chroma key compositing or "green screen," is a technique used in video filming and still photography. Chroma key places the subject of a photo or video in front of a solid green screen (occasionally the screen will be in other colors such as blue or magenta). The subject is then filmed with the Chroma key screen as a backdrop. After the video has been made, video editing programs are used to digitally insert any background desired into the video or photo. The goal of Chroma key is "combining images from different sources and merging them into one seamless image,"

Brightness
The main effect that a Chroma key screen has is brightness. Chroma key screens are typically colored in a brilliant green or blue color. The brightness of the screen is very obvious, and will make the subject of the video much more noticeable than they would be with a dark-colored screen or a backdrop with multiple colors on it.

Definition
A Chroma key screen gives an effect of clear subject definition. Any person or object who is placed in front of a Chroma key screen will stand out in very sharp relief, which makes it easier for the technicians working on the film to insert backgrounds later.

Good luck!

Script Competition

we recognize the best new screenwriters from around the world. With multiple prizes and screenwriter events at the festival, CIFF is your best chance to get your writing discovered.

All participants or registered members please note, that all terms and conditions outlined by Withoutabox must be reviewed and agreed to

ENTRIES CAN BE SUBMITTED HERE:

Fees - To be eligible to participate you must register through Withoutabox and pay the fees accordingly