#zooppa

(Read more via Zooppa.com here)

Zooppa and Nickelodeon are inviting filmmakers and motion graphic artists from around the world to reimagine Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) on a global scale through depicting what they are up to in various home towns or cities.

Zooppa has teamed up with Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) to create fun and engaging videos that bring TMNT to life in a whole new way. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are brothers who live in NYC, love to eat pizza, are pop culture consumers, and use weapons to fight evil and defend their city.

Zooppa and Nickelodeon are inviting filmmakers and motion graphic artists from around the world to reimagine TMNT on a global scale through depicting what they are up to in various home towns or cities. The goal is to show how the Turtles would come to life in any given location, using local city or pop culture influences to help tell the story. Zooppa and Nickelodeon are looking for imagination and creativity, the videos made should be a fun way to share Turtle stories from across the globe––authenticity is key!

New & Notable Video Contests - Week of January 14th

Biggest Cash Prize: $3,000 in the Zooppa Feel Good Fruit Music Video Project! Produce a short music video for the Sunsweet Jingle!

Open to Zooppa community members, 18 and older. Due March 12th

Best Prize: $800 Scholarship in the Discover the World of Communication Festival! High school students, submit your short films!

Open Worldwide to high school students (Grades 9-12). Due March 3rd

OVC’s Pick of the Week: Our favorite contest to make its debut this week is the Tongal Logo Videos Project! Help Tongal celebrate their new logo in stylish 10-second videos, and win $1,500!

Open to Tongal community members (it's free to register!), ages 13 and older. Due January 22nd

New & Notable Video Contests - Week of July 23rd

Biggest Cash Prize: $35,000 in the Education.com Explainer Video, via Tongal! Create an explainer video that shows the benefits of Education.com.

Open to Tongal community members (it’s free to register!), ages 13 and older. Due August 1st

Best Prize: MacBook Pro + more in the LaCie Epic Editing Challenge! Prove your editing skills by taking the Epic Editing Challenge. Cut a scene using the scripts and dailies from two film scenes for a chance to win awesome swag from a prize pool worth over $10,000.

Open only to members of the LaCie Collective Program (It's free to register), who are legal residents of the United States, UK, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Due September 1st

OVC’s Pick of the Week: Our favorite contest to make its debut this week is the Swap-In More Veggies ...AGAIN! Project! Showcase Green Giant's Riced Veggies OR Veggie Tots! You could win $7,500!

Open to Zooppa community members, 14 and older. Due September 4th

New & Notable Video Contests - Week of January 15th

Biggest Cash Prize: $7,500 in Green Giant Swap-In More Veggies Video Contest! Produce a video showcasing Green Giant Veggie Spirals. Videos can be witty, serious, lighthearted -- they want to see your creativity! Cast busy moms, students, grandparents, any demographic that can benefit from the ease and reliability of these tasty spiralized veggies.

Open to Zooppa community members, 14 and older. Due February 19th.

Best Prize: Prizes valued at over $3,000 awarded to schools in the Earth Day Campaign Contest! Create a sustainability behavior change campaign at your school and in your community.

Open to students that are California state residents. Due May 18th.

OVC’s Pick of the Week: Our favorite contest to make its debut this week is the One Planet, Many People Video Contest! Students should create a short video exploring human population growth and its effects and discussing whether education, gender equality, or other changes can slow, end, or reverse population growth. You could win $1,000!

Entrants must be at least 14 years old and not older than 18 on March 16, 2018. Due March 16th.

I recently wrote and directed an Alfa Romeo Giulietta commercial for the "Zooppa Giulietta Get going Contest", and we won the silver medal. We didn’t have much time because the deadline was just 5 days after I realized the contest even existed, but I’m happy with the result.

THE PROCESS

The brief given from Alfa Romeo was simple: Giulietta is not just a car but it’s also part of the driver’s personality. The idea was showing in Alfa Romeo style that the car it’s an extension of the driver, thanks to its seamless technology and natural driving experience. In the spot a charming driver (which is also our art director Simone), seats on a stool in the middle of a hangar and after he shuts and opens his eyes the car magically appears. I wish we had more time and resources to build up the car around him in VFX piece after piece, to enhance the fact that Giulietta is built around the driver, but it wasn’t possible, so we had to make it straight out of black. I think that the result was effective anyway.

When I read the brief I immediately did a research to understand the brand values, the car’s features and the communication strategy of Alfa Romeo. They use a lot of the color red, they even have a specific car paint, they are elegant, they have powerful sportive engines, they are also charming Italians.

First I collected some references and made a visual board that represented the mood, then I started to write the first draft, bearing in mind the tight production timeline (5 days) and the resources available. After finishing the subject I did some sketches and imagined a bit the story but I didn’t design a storyboard, it was more a list of the scenes I needed and I kept the rest to the shooting night. Because it wasn't a typical agency/client job I decided to let it flow a bit and see on stage what felt best for the film.

I spent one full day trying to find somebody that could lend me the car and a hangar for the shooting, figuring out the light setup, the crew, and other production details.

The hangar was unavailable and too bright during so we shot at night. I had a light scheme that I sketched based on some references that were different to the final setup only for the top light, that we decided not to use. We used a Joker Bug 800w which I love and a few Arri 1200w. We shot on RED Dragon camera with Canon cine prime lens, for most of the shots mounted on a DJI Ronin.

We prepared a few black and white animations in After Effects to project on the car to give more dynamism to the scenes.

Having shot everything in sequence the edit was quite fast. The music was composed specifically for the commercial to reflect Alfa Romeo’s spirit. Post production was fast and simple, we only had to clean some dirt, change the plate of the car and smooth some reflections. It was all done in After Effects. We graded the film in DaVinci Resolve trying to match as much as possible the official red of Giulietta used in the other adverts while keeping a bluish blockbuster look.

Everything was done in 5 days from brief to deliver, thanks to the help of my amazing crew. 

Οι "Καθημερινοί Άνθρωποι" είναι μια μικρή σειρά ταινιών που εμπνέει τον δημιουργικό κινηματογράφο και την συναρπαστική αφήγηση. Ποιος είναι ο Καθημερινός σας Άνθρωπος; Δείτε την δική μου συμμετοχή στον διαγωνισμό ταινιών μικρού μήκους με το "Chocolate, "her" majesty!" και ψηφίστε το εάν σας αρέσει.