CBS3's Ukee Washington Discusses Online Contest With Digital Filmmaking & Video Production Student Kyle Griffin
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The Art Institute of Philadelphia Digital Filmmaking & Video Production student Kyle Griffin (pictured) was recently interviewed by Ukee Washington on CBS-3's morning show to talk about being a finalist in the Roommate of the Year video competition sponsored by apartments.com.
Griffin had found out about the contest by doing a simple Google search.
In fact, the apartments.com competition is only one of three online video competitions Griffin has entered in the last two months, sometimes in collaboration with Brandan Walsh, who attends The Art Institute of Pittsburgh.
"Just doing these videos has been a great experience," Griffin says.
Each of the contests had specific rules and requirements (sometimes calling for a certain scenario or even required dialogue) which Griffin fleshed out into a script before shooting.
Griffin and Walsh shot the footage for two of the entries in two days before sitting down to edit the final entries.
"You have to make a video first to be in the running," Griffin says.
He adds that working on projects like this is definitely more fun with at least one other person around to share the workload and to keep spirits up.
Griffin has found that entering contests also provides "great experience in terms of promoting yourself." He was a bit unprepared for the online voting aspect of the contests at first.
Griffin has noticed that many entrants seem to have a pre-existing fanbase which can be contacted to vote in any contest.
Griffin has an idea for how to build up such a fanbase himself over the course of the next year by consistently posting videos - perhaps a new one evey week - to YouTube or some other video hosting site and asking for honest feedback from people who view his projects.
He might look into the partnership program with YouTube so he can also track the demographics of people who view his work in addition to overall viewing figures.
"I have a knack for short-form video," Griffin says, noting that Internet video is "making a big change in the industry," a change which he welcomes.
Griffin appreciates the greater engagement between people who make online video content and the audience who watches.
Entering online video contests is only Kyle Griffin's first taste of what he hopes will be constructive feedback to his work.
"There's a good amount of money at stake" in these contests as well, Kyle points out. Whoever wins the apartments.com contest will receive $10,000 plus a year's worth of rent.