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With the number of times I've submitted, uploaded, and promoted my projects you'd think I'd be comfortable with the film contest/festival process - at least on the independent/DIY level. In truth, I think I've just learned how to reason with myself to appreciate that the challenge has the potential to be a great reward in and of itself.
So here we go again with me asking you to vote for one of my short films.
Last year I uploaded my film school short, The Geology Student to Season 2 of Yobi.tv and in Week 3 of the contest I was voted into the semi-finals. With 40 weeks having gone by there's now 40 weekly winners, including myself, and voting has just begun for the week.
There are 4 rounds of the contest and each week 8 people are eliminated. All you need to do is click this link (or the giant banner above) and use your email address to vote for my short. You only need to cast one for each week.
They've actually simplified the process from last year, improving the page layout to keep you in the right place while trying to vote, so it's easier than ever.
The winner this year, besides getting a portion of the prize money collected, will get a trip and 2 tickets to the Toronto International Film Festival, which would be sweet. It's a pretty amazing prize!
That's about it, I'll keep things simple myself. If you have a couple minutes to spare it's easy to click over to watch my short and vote for me. There's no thumbs up or rating system, a vote cast is simply a vote to win.
Thanks for all of your help and support folks! As always, it means a lot.
Visit my profile page to vote here.
Day Two (08.24.09) On route to Las Vegas from Salt Lake, I-15 briefly cuts through the northwest corner of Arizona before leading into Nevada. While I didn't think much about this when reviewing the map before going, I was amazed at just how significant this stretch of road really was.
This brief section of interstate through Arizona was only about 30 miles long, an unexpected surprise between Utah and Nevada, but pretty much as soon as we hit it, the canyons and cliffs appeared. On the way down, this was actually a brief section of the road trip that I drove. It was incredible.
Dave and I rolled the windows down, the heat radiated through the car immediately, and I cranked up Vega4 on my iPod as we weaved through the towering rocks. It was exactly what you'd expect Arizona to look like, hinting at how spellbinding the Grand Canyon must be, and ultimately lasting no time at all.
I shot this video on our way back through (with Dave driving obviously) and it proved to be one of the most scenic stretches of interstate that we saw on the entire trip. Leaving Arizona and entering Nevada the terrain shifted immediately once again. The canyons stopped and a vast desert appeared before us.
Day One (08.23.09) Through Montana and Idaho, by the time we reached the Utah border it was late into the evening. By that point Dave and I were fairly quiet, enjoying music and making predictions about what the landscape looked like that we couldn't see. I remember Dave selecting a lot of R.E.M. tracks.
All of the population in Utah is practically located in the corridor surrounding Great Salt Lake, which gives the illusion early on that you must be close to Salt Lake City (if you're not used to the drive). In reality, by the time we reached Ogden, we were still a ways off from our destination, and with midnight rolling around we were feeling beat.
Bursts of rain continued to hit us randomly and then stop, on and off several times throughout the day. I remember this becoming more treacherous as we neared Salt Lake. The dirt on our windshield combined with the lights of oncoming traffic and buildings made for one blurry mess. In any case, we made it to Salt Lake City, spotting the giant temple from the interstate and looping around the international airport several times in our effort to find our hotel. By the time my head hit my pillow I was out.
Day Two (08.24.09) We awoke the next day intent on exploring downtown Salt Lake before heading south to Las Vegas. We parked kitty-corner to Temple Square and took a casual walk around the complex, spending extra time to take pictures of ourselves mimicking the statues. If there is one thing I could say about my impression of Salt Lake, it's that the place was immaculately clean and well landscaped.
We followed the Salt Lake Temple with a trip up to the State Capital Building, taking more random photos with statues and pictures of ourselves sitting on the steps. 'I'm Just a Bill' from Schoolhouse Rock was sung (by me anyway, haha).
The entire time I was trying to contain my enthusiasm, not because of any single thing we saw, but because I knew that this was just the beginning of our road trip. We could have easily spent several days exploring Utah, but instead the brief stop actually helped to justify the distance we were covering for the sake of the things we were going to be able to see and experience.
It was upon leaving Salt Lake City that the clouds from the day before finally started to break up. Heading south to Vegas the sun suddenly appeared, giving everything a golden colour and revealing the incredible transformation from the green and grey of Montana. It was as we passed Provo that afternoon I remember quipping, "this is where the road trip really begins".
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