UOIT students challenged to compete in TVO short documentary film contest

TV Ontario (TVO) is looking to showcase the film talent that resides at UOIT through its introduction of the Doc Studio Contest. As a proud supporter Canadian documentary films, TVO is committed to fostering talent among aspiring filmmakers and as such, created the newly launched https://www.tvo.org/documentaries as a platform to showcase Canadian documentary filmmakers and their work, as well as act as a learning community that supports point-of-view filmmaking.

The inaugural Doc Studio Contest invites students, accomplished and amateur filmmakers to hone their cinematic skills to create an interview-based short documentary masterpiece that can be visually told in five minutes or less. The challenge is to capture the essence of your subject to reveal Life in 5 – a memorable moment, a shift in perception, a secret no one else could uncover. 

Submissions should be inspired by the style of Alan Zweig and will be accepted until Monday, February 27, 2012.

Here is a quick overview of how the contest works:

1. Submit film online via TVO’s YouTube Channel or by mail with the completed entry form.  Entries must be entirely original to the person or group submitting the video and may not contain any content (i.e. clips, stills, music, etc.) that is not owned in its entirety by the entrant. 
2. Determination of the winner of the grand prize consists of two rounds of evaluation. In the first round, a panel of judges chosen by TVO (i.e. comprised of Alan Zweig and two other persons chosen by TVO) will select the top five entries from among all eligible entries based on the following criteria:

• Ability to interview someone;
• Ability to create intimacy with your subject – to reveal something they would never tell anyone else;
• Ability to make a film about something you are passionate about; and
• Ability to tell a good story.

     3. The top five entries selected in round one will be chosen on or before Friday, March 2, 2012 and will proceed to round two.

     4. Round two takes place between Monday, March 5 and Sunday, March 11, 2012. The selected top five entries will be posted online on TVO's Doc Studio microsite located at https://www.tvo.org/documentaries where visitors will be asked to vote. The winner of the contest will be determined by the video that has received the most votes in round two. In the event of a tie, entries will be re-submitted to the judges to determine the winner between the tied entries alone. The winner will be announced on or around Monday, March 12, 2012.

All inquiries about the TVO Doc Studio Contest should be directed to Netannis Arnett at 416.484.2600, ext. 2482.