Company works with Vimeo and Grey New York to launch collaborative
project commencing with interpretive work by photographer Vincent Laforet
LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., January 15, 2010 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging, today announced the commencement of “The Story Beyond The Still Contest,” allowing photographers and videographers to showcase their creativity in a new style of filmmaking that blends still and video images into a continuous cinematic piece begun by Canon Explorer of Light Vincent Laforet. The contest, sponsored by Canon and hosted by Vimeo, the online video sharing site hosting one of the largest collections of HD content on the Web, invites participants to use the HD video capability of their camera to create short, two to four minute videos that tell a story based on the final still frame from Laforet’s piece, and then from each successive winning “chapter.” Videos can be submitted to and viewed on a dedicated site within the Vimeo online community before they are judged.
The “Story Beyond the Still” contest provides filmmakers with a unique opportunity to showcase their storytelling abilities in a new style of filmmaking utilizing an HD-capable camera to capture moving images while also demonstrating the social appeal of collaborative storytelling. To kick off the contest, Laforet collaborated with Grey New York to bring his interpretation of a still image to life in a short film entitled “The Cabbie,” which serves as the first installment of a seven chapter collaborative work in which each participant will be asked to interpret the previous winning photographer/filmmaker’s final still image to start their vision for the subsequent chapter.
In “The Cabbie,” Laforet’s interpretation begins on a still image depicting a teddy bear left on the sidewalk outside of an airport before telling the “Story Beyond The Still” that gives the viewer more to appreciate beyond the original moment the image was captured. Viewable exclusively on Vimeo at http://vimeo.com/groups/beyondthestill/, Laforet shot in stunning 1080p HD image quality utilizing Canon’s new EOS 7D Digital SLR camera.
“The concept behind the ‘Story Beyond The Still’ Contest was to find a way to involve people in the new realm of HD DSLR video,” said Laforet. “Working with Canon, Vimeo and Grey NY to bring the contest to light, there is tremendous anticipation to see how the story unfolds in this wonderful social experiment in filmmaking.”
Six winners will be chosen (one for each chapter) based on their submissions and will join Laforet on location to collaboratively film the final chapter of the film, In addition, winners will receive a choice of prizes including Canon EOS 7D and 5D Mark II DSLR cameras or select Canon lenses.
“Canon is pleased to participate in the innovative ‘Story Beyond The Still’ contest which showcases the increasing convergence between still photography and dynamic video capture,” said Yuichi Ishizuka, executive vice president and general manager, Consumer Imaging Group, Canon U.S.A. “As consumers demand increasing functionality from their camera and break down traditional barriers, we continue to enhance our products and redefine how consumers can express themselves.”
For complete rules and to submit “The Story Beyond the Still” videos participants can visit vimeo.com/groups/beyondthestill/. Projects will be judged based on how well participants execute the four criteria including:
1. Best incorporation of initial still and quality and evocative nature of final still
2. Cinematography
3. Storytelling
Each chapter winner will be selected by a three-step judging/voting process including the initial selection of 50 semi-finalists by a three member panel comprised of Vimeo, Grey NY and/or Canon U.S.A employees. Five (5) finalists will be determined by representatives from Vimeo, Grey NY and/or Canon U.S.A., and a distinguished panel of award-winning photographers and cinematographers (subject to scheduling availability) including:
Vincent Laforet – Director / Canon Explorer of Light Photographer
Russell Carpenter – Cinematographer “Titanic”, and “True Lies”
Rodney Charters – Cinematographer/Director of Photography FOX Network’s “24”
Shane Hurlbutt – Cinematographer “Terminator: Salvation”, and “We Are Marshall”
Stu Maschwitz – Filmmaker/Author of The DV Rebel’s Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap
Rick McCallum – Producer “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace”, “Star Wars: Attack of the Clones” and “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith”
Philip Bloom – Director / Director of Photography – Co-owner F-Stop Academy
Blake Whitman – Director of Community and Product – Vimeo
Nick Childs – Director/ Director of Content – Grey New York
Following the selection of the five chapter finalists, their videos will be posted at http://vimeo.com/groups/beyondthestill/ where members of Vimeo will have five days to view the videos and vote to determine the chapter winner.
About Canon U.S.A., Inc.
Canon U.S.A., Inc., is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions. Its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), a top patent holder of technology, ranked third overall in the U.S. in 2008†, with global revenues of US $45 billion, is listed as number four in the computer industry on Fortune Magazine’s World’s Most Admired Companies 2009 list, and is on the 2009 BusinessWeek list of “100 Best Global Brands.” Canon U.S.A. is committed to the highest levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty, providing 100 percent U.S.-based consumer service and support for all of the products it distributes. At Canon, we care because caring is essential to living together in harmony. Founded upon a corporate philosophy of Kyosei – “all people, regardless of race, religion or culture, harmoniously living and working together into the future” – Canon U.S.A. supports a number of social, youth, educational and other programs, including environmental and recycling initiatives. Additional information about these programs can be found at www.usa.canon.com/kyosei.
