The deadline for the MyToronto video contest has been extended two weeks, until Friday September 21. The extension is due in part to requests from returning students, who can only access equipment beginning this week. However, if you are ready this week, please upload asap, as your video can be viewed for a longer time, and there is some interest from various organizations who are looking forward to seeing the early submissions.
Do you think you can make a commercial for Toronto that’s better than those ad agency campaigns? Toronto has always been a hard place to sum up — slick marketing campaigns are often criticized for not getting to the heart of what makes this city great and why people should visit. Now you have the chance to make your own commercial for Spacing’s My Toronto video contest.
Over the summer, put together your own 30-second commercial for Toronto. Use your camcorder, camera phone, or even a still camera. Edit it, animate it, set it to music, or give it a voice-over. Be creative. When you’re done, upload it to our YouTube group. Famous places like the CN Tower are fine, but in making your commercial, you should think about the subtle stuff in your neighbourhood — from Malvern to Kensington to Long Branch — that makes Toronto unique. The commercials will be judged both by jury and by popular vote, and the best will be shown at a public event.
Please help us spread the word to any budding filmmaker or ultra-indie-producer you know of in any corner of the city and let them know about this contest. This includes your 12 year old cousin in Rexdale who pretends he’s the young Spielberg in the neighbourhood.
Click here for specific video/upload requirements.
11 comments
I think you have to live here to really appreciate it. Maybe ads could reflect this notion.
Ben notion raises an interesting point — what is the goal of the commercial supposed to be? Is it to get people to visit Toronto, to move to Toronto, to invest in Toronto, to think better of Toronto…? There’s some overlap, but I’d hope a good marketing campaign would target one of those things fairly specifically.
Matt> The call is intentionally vague — let people show it from whatever angle they want, to whatever audience they choose (could be general or specific). I thought about making it more specific, but didn’t because I thought maybe a loose, sky-is-the-limit call might be more interesting. So we’ll see. I do see them, generally, as being 30 second love-letters to Toronto — hence “my toronto.”
This makes me happy 🙂 I have been wanting an “open branding” competition for a while, because we need a brand that doesn’t suck.
Reminder: if tourists are the target, especially American ones, touting Toronto’s diversity isn’t going to get you very far – as well as being fairly cliché.
My hope is that if some of the winning entries are “good” enough, they could become real ads of some kind, and the folks who made them paid for doing so.
I think saying simply “Toronto is Diverse” is cliché, but there are ways of showing it without saying it, and without doing it the usual obvious way. A cosmopolitan metropolis, which is the other way of saying diversity but in a less identity-politics sort of way, is certainly a tourist draw.
Do we all work our butts (Canadian bums)off
so you don’t have to pay ad agency prices?
What does the winner get other than a pat on the
back? Take it a step further…ask for $25 entry
fees!
That’s exactly the motivation Robert.
If you look around on YouTube, you’ll find lots of amateur Toronto videos that people have made on their own. That was the inspiration for this contest — there are lots of people using Toronto as their muse, so let’s do something a bit bigger and organized in one spot.
The producers of these little films lack your cynicism though. Good luck with it!
If I had a camera and I was not going to be at Burning Man around deadline time, I would surely submit something like this, aimed at liberal American youth:
Voice over: “Toronto, largest city in Canada with almost 3 million people!”
*kid with braces walks out of Beer Store*: “The drinking age is 19!”
*asian girl smokes a joint*: “Marijuana is basically legal!”
*clubber guy at a glitzy party*: “And so,” *sniffs* “is everything else!”
*helicopters and explosions fade to a dove, indian guy says*: “Canada said ‘no’ to ground troops in Iraq.”
*mediterranean guy*: “Gay marriage is a right and the Village is fabulous!”
*middle eastern girl standing in front of U of T*: “Tuition is really cheap here!”
*black guy on Bay St.*: “There are plenty of jobs!”
*girl alone in an alleyway at night, stranger passes her and smiles*: “The safest large city in North America.”
*in unison*: “And everybody is happy all the time.”
Some skyline and subway shots, just to let people know that we do actually have those things.
Yeah, it would be an awesome, feelgood short about how Toronto is a left-wing, hedonistic, indulgent Babylon where you can do whatever you want and get away with it.
It would be shallow, without question, but I would love it if somebody made it anyway. Go ahead, the idea is free 🙂
Lol. You’ve been watching too much Simpsons, dude.
Someone just posted an animation piece called Bloom that rocks. Just brilliant. I am so jealous.
http://www.youtube.com/group/SpacingVideoContest
IN TORONTO
Singer songwriter Steve Paul Simms’ original song In Toronto http://www.stevepaulsimms.com/opencity.swf sings the praise of living in Toronto. This celebration of the city of Toronto is developing into a visualized song map of life in Toronto. After the introduction the song takes you down “funky Bloor” at night, as visualized in the video clip
‘In Toronto Bloor’ then the visualized chorus ‘In Toronto’ takes you to Kensington Market’s Festival of Lights ,then on to City Hall’s Cavalcade of Lights fireworks. Dramatic and richly colorful night scenes of Toronto are combined with “camera tossing” light scribing visuals.
Additional animated children’s verses sing the praises of Metro Zoo and sounds of the TTC with visuals and voice contributed by a seven year old. We hope to further expand the song map interested?
IN TORONTO
Got a melody and rhythm, lyrics to go with ‘em
Bought a brand new set of strings
I’m looking for a girl who sings smoky harmony
Take a walk on funky Bloor, you’ll find an open door
Come see just what the night-time brings
We’re gonna do some things
In Toronto
In Toronto the menu is changing from day to day
See what’s on the tray tonight
In Toronto you don’t know what street show is waiting a block away
Hey Toronto – turn on the light
You can wear your happy feet there, dance the sassy beat there
When your day of work is done
We’re gonna have some fun
In Toronto
Rolling South along Spadina, head for Little China
Hot and sour soup to go
Don’t worry ‘bout what you don’t know – it’ll come to you
Won’t you tell me what you’re seeking, we can spend the weekend
Wand’ring ‘round the A.G.O.
We’ll take it nice and slow
In Toronto
In Toronto, whoever you are it’s all right by me
You don’t need to be polite
In Toronto the window is wide open, you’re free to disagree
Hey Toronto – turn on the light
(Repeat 1st Verse)
In Toronto my favorite place is the Metro Zoo
see the kangaroos… at play
they got hippos, and lions and tigers and monkeys and penguins too..
but the polar bears.. They’ve gone away
In Toronto the doors on the subway go ding dang dong
and the streetcars go… clang clang
Take the TTC, to City Hall, see the band sing their song..
while fireworks.. go bang, bang, bang