Jared, from Claremont California, won the Tax Slayer video contest, taking home $25,000 last month (May). His commercial will air nationally in the months prior to the tax filing deadline of 2009. Though the TaxSlayer prize was a tidy sum, Jared is no stranger to winning online video contests. He was a finalist for Doritos Crash the Superbowl, winning him $10,000 ($14K if you include the trip to Miami-Superbowl) and national airtime; he was also a finalist for Heinz taking home an additional $5,700. He received national TV play for Heinz as well.
Jared has made the rounds with his spec commercials, but has also submitted in the short film genre with companies like Ilaugh.com (where he picked up 1st, 2nd, and 7th in a live action category) good for $7,500, and xlntads.com who optioned one of his sit-com teasers for $500 for 3 months. He was hired by Spitfire studios in Claremont, Ca. to do 3 spots for them that ran on local cable television. As of last year he has given up the wedding photography business and is filming/videomaking full time and hoping for continued success down the road.
The point Jared would like to get across is that “Jared is Open for Business!” He represents a new genre of producers, a cyber producer model. Claiming that, “Our quality of work isn’t any lesser than the producers at the big agencies, in fact I would argue that smaller operations like mine have greater freedom to work/think outside the box. This often makes for ‘creative’ that ends up being better and more pleasing to the brand.” Keep your eyes on Jared, as you may see him starting his own business in the near future.
Q. How many contests have you entered in the past? How many have you won? I have entered 10-12 over the past two years. I won or was a finalist in all but the 100 GRAND contest run by XLNTADS.com.
Q. Why did you decide to enter this video contest? I really dug it because it showed a definition/clarification of the genre that I needed in order to work. I had made the mistake of entering contests, where the brand picked the 10-15 finalists, but then turned it over to the internet to decide the winners bracket. Internet (public) voting is, simply put, a popularity poll. If I am up against a frat kid at USC, I can’t compete with that. With the Tax Slayer contest they let the videos get viewed/rated on Youtube, but ultimately ‘they’ decided the winner. I contacted Tax slayer prior to entering the contest, and they said if they see a spot that works well for their brand that it would make it to the top 20 even if it lacked views/ratings on the TaxSlayer YouTube channel. TaxSlayer encouraged me to submit and said I was the type of producer they were looking for to create spec work for their brand.
Q. Were you a user of the product before you entered? No, I’m not eligible with the way I do my taxes.
Q. What were your goals for the contest? To win! This was a spot, where they give you a lot of required elements, like a real ad agency. 5X mention of their website, graphics/logo, attributes; how easy it is to use, guarantees etc., All of it had to be weaved into a story that would be true to the Jared brand and, sell the product.
Q. How long did you spend on your entry in the contest? I edited 3 versions, shot it over 3 days, about 2 weeks total.
Q. What are your favorite techniques for shooting? Editing? Sound? I like to make the Folly myself whenever possible, helps to give an original feel. I also believe in still camera live action. I like to let the story do all of the moving and shaking, not the camera. My background comes from a 17 year career as a full time free-lance wedding photographer. All I shot were ’stills’.
Q. What type of equipment are you using? A pair of Sony HDRFX-1’s for video. On location I use almost exclusively a Midnight Blues Audio Technica microphone, (which Tom Petty used on tour about a decade ago) retail; $69.00. The other 5% of my audio is done using an Oktava MK-319; retail $149.00. Nothing too pricey. I do all of my editing in Apple’s Final Cut Suite.
Q. What are the best quality settings to use for online export? For me it changes with length and requirements. It also depends where the video will be hosted. Hosting sites such as Youtube, Jumpcut, and Myspace are all compressing these videos differently. It depends on How much postproduction you are doing, you have to decide what is best with each new online video engine. It is always best to upload the vids on private settings first to check their quality.
Q. Where are you hosting your videos? Youtube in large part, but I do have some on Jumpcut and Facebook.
Q. What did you think was the most difficult aspect of the TaxSlayer shoot? Nothing was too difficult – it’s all wonderful. I love filming. If I had to pick one of the challenging aspects, it would be riding horseback for 4 hours straight wearing 70 pounds of chain mail, and needing to execute the duties of actor and Director.
Q. How much do you estimate entering the TaxSlayer contest cost (total budget)? $1500, in rentals and props was out of my pocket, and I had actors, and actress on contingency.
Q. What advice do you have for future video contest entrants? Anybody out there who is any good, QUIT, so all the contests are available to yours truly!
Q. Do you have any formal training? I was a wedding photographer, and just started filming 2 years ago. If equipment hadn’t become so cheap I wouldn’t have realized I was capable of this. I am an actor and I started this mainly to get a demo reel together.
~Andrea Ball Vidopp Staff Editor
[...] right. (Unless it’s a consumer-generated campaign like the stuff we’ve seen lately for Taxslayer, which is an entirely different kind of [...]