PEN your story challenge - Old Dog (Rob Watcher) New Dog (Mason Watcher)

Old Dog (teach) New Dog (tricks)

I have submitted a video project proposal for the Olympus "Pen your story challenge". If I am one of the 6 finalists, I will be producing a documentary video within a documentary video.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9XNMZr4h1E"]YouTube - PEN your story challenge - Old Dog (Rob Watcher) New Dog (Mason Watcher)[/ame]

I will be using my 30 years of experience, in mentoring my 9 year old grandson to produce his own documentary film - guiding him with regards to scene setting, lighting control, exposure, composition, shooting angles, and editing and production of his piece.

If you find this project to be of interest and would like to see it completed with the help of Olympus providing an E-PL1 camera, lenses and $5000 budget for producing the video - please be sure to help us out by voting with a big THUMBS UP just under this video - - - before the voting closes in a few weeks. If we receive enough votes, filming will begin before too long and after a month of work, the end result should realized.

You do require a YouTube account for your vote to count - so please sign in before hitting the Thumbs Up (or Thumbs Down but hope not). If you feel so inclined, you are free to create a Youtube account so that you can vote on the winners. Certainly a useful account to have for future upload and distribution of your own videos.

Would you like to know what the Pen your story challenge is about - be sure to visit "getolympus" at Youtube:

YouTube - getolympus's Channel


If any of you Olympus users aren't aware of this Challenge and would like to participate - then now is the time to submit your video proposal. I think that this "Pen your story challenge", is a great promotion for Olympus and one that is sure to help with the interest in these great little cameras.


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Here is Mason in the full YouTube video of the clip that I used : [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI6uoCURY5U"]YouTube - A Chat at the Office[/ame]

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I am actually a little late getting in to the competition. I didn't bother submitting when the challenge was announced early in the month. I presumed that because I already have the E-PL1, that I wouldn't be eligable.

Yesterday however - I found out that there was not an issue with me already having the camera. That was good to hear and so last night I asked Mason's parents for permission to use him in the project - - - and then my wife Anne and I headed out early this morning to record this 3 minute Proposal using my E-PL1 to record the video.

So I have a lot of catching up to do to reach and surpass some of the leaders who are approaching 200 votes. So I appreciate your support.

 

Thank's so much for that.


One thing that has been happening is that several people have been helping me out by voting the "Thumbs Up" - and not realizing that the vote wasn't being recognized because they weren't logged in. When you are not logged in to your Youtube account, the Thumbs Up button still shows and feels like it is being clicked on. A small expandable window that says " Sign In or Sign Up now! " shows up under the button - but from some of the emails that I have received letting me know that they voted but it did not change the number of likes (hold mouse over area to the right of the Thumbs Down button) - - - it may be confusing for some. Just have to make sure to sign in to Youtube before voting. Thanks.

 

Thanks for the support.

 

While I wrongly presumed that the public YouTube votes would determine the final 20 and then Olympus judges would pick the final 6 and then the final winner . . .

. . . I reread the terms again this morning only to realize that the top 6 winners as well as the final winner - will all be selected based on 51% of the judges decisions and 49% of the continuing votes from Youtube.

The public voting is a strange way to determine the winner. And so for the guy that just signed up 15 hours ago and has almost 1000 votes (even though the closest vote getters that have been there for weeks are under 200 votes) - - - it is just a given that he will be the winner regardless of his proposal or the final video he produces. The votes will override any judges decision.

Another strange thing about the YouTube voting is that there are Dislike votes. I am sure that there will be people going through all the entries and clicking the Dislike Thumbs Down, so they have an advantage. I have noticed several really good prospects for the competition - who are receiving negative votes even though there is no reason for it. I'm not sure if the Dislikes go against the Likes for the final vote - but it would be a shame.

Those are the reasons I have never had any use for such competitions and probably shouldn't have wasted my time with this one. Oh well - what's done is done .

 

To be fair to Olympus - - - letting "America" (or whatever country) vote, is the popular voting method used in TV shows these days. This is a promotion by Olympus to sell cameras, and they are following the current popular method of doing that. I don't blame them. It is smart on their part. Unfortunately those methods have little to do with value or content - and more to do with popularity. But at least Olympus has made an attempt to have judges have some say (51%). We'll see how it turns out.

 

It was a brilliant moment of thought as my wife was sleeping! She awoke in the morning before putting together our proposal video, and enlightened me to the idea she had in her moments of not fully sleeping - that a further tie in to the Pen concept and my Old Dog New Dog theme . . .

. . . was that the Old Pen passed on many of it's features and strengths to the current generation. I never even thought of that angle and have thanked her prefusely for coming up with that idea.

Unfortunately the first Pen was in 1959 and the new Pens were introduced 50 years later in 2009 - wheras there is a gap of only 44 years between my grandson and I - - - otherwise if our gap were 50 years, that analogy would have been killer.

So I have attempted to make my comparison by the gap between the last original Pen (FT) and the E-PL1 being 44 years (1966 to 2010) - - - and that is the same as the gap between Mason and me (1956 and 2000). SO - KINDA LOL

 

Just in case you are wondering how the "PEN your story challenge" is coming along with 14 days left until the 20 high vote getters are chosen to select the 6 winners from . . .

. . . I did a quick tally today and these are my "unofficial" findings.

It looks like there are about 178 entries so far.

The high total vote getter is 1,431 votes (next highest is around 350)

50 - 100 votes = 12 entries
101 - 150 votes = 7 entries
151 - 200 votes = 1 entry
201 - 300 votes = 3 entries
300 + votes = 2 entries

25 entries have received 50 votes or more.

I am currently sitting at 53 votes - so still have a chance at making it past the first round.

 

May 27'th, 2010

TODAYS UPDATE shows around 222 entries in all for the Pen Challenge

200+ votes = 6 entries
100 - 199 votes = 15 entries
59 - 99 votes = 10 entries

(59 votes is what I am currently sitting at and all 10 entries in the 59 to 99 vote range are between 59 and 76 votes)

 

June 5'th, 2010 - This will be the last tally (unofficial) for me to post, with only 1 day to go.

Around 310 entries in total
high vote total is 2,223

1000+ votes = 3 entries
500-999 votes = 6 entries
300-499 votes = 4 entries
150-299 votes = 22 entries
73 - 149 votes = 15 entries (including myself at 73 votes)


I would like to thank everyone who played along and helped out with the 73 votes that I received for my contest proposal. I value that support.

I feel that this is a good project for me to follow through with and hope that I am able to go ahead with completing the video on my own, this summer when Mason is out of school. I may just have to document him using my inexpensive Canon miniDV camcorder while shooting the main video with my E-PL1. I'll keep you updated on how it progresses.