Canon Project Imagin8tion

Canon Project Imagin8tion
Canon has teamed up with the director Ron Howard as part of a new user generated contest designed to inspire a Hollywood short film.  Project Imagin8ion, encourages photographers to submit digital snapshots that fall into one or more of eight different movie theme categories. Howard will help pick the best and turn them into a user-generated/inspired short film.  The winning photos will be selected after June 14 and the film will be shot with a Canon DSLR, eventually premiering this fall in New York at a red-carpet event.  Script development will not begin until all eight photos are chosen, which is a novel approach not unlike Life In A Day.

The campaign (developed by Grey New York) and accompanying Youtube gadget is a nice example of how user generated content (in this case photos rather than just video) can serve as creative inspiration.  The custom gadget integrates various social feeds and allows users to upload photos from their computer or connect with Facebook or Flickr.  The Youtube community also is given the opportunity to vote for the photos that they like, which which will help to inform Howard's selections.  


Supporting Articles: LA Times | Inspiration Room | Creativity