ETC Announces Winners of Show Us Your ETC Student-Video Challenge

"You made us laugh, you moved us, you amazed us, and inspired us. You proved that the entertainment-technology world can look forward to an infusion of enthusiasm, talent and creativity from your generation. It was very tough to choose the winners. Thank you, all participants," said ETC CEO and Show Us Your ETC video-judge, Fred Foster.

After months of video submissions (55 in all) and much judging deliberation, ETC announced the winners of their Show Us Your ETC student-video competition, on Friday, March 30, at USITT 2012:

• First prize - Juniata College, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania
• Second prize - College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio
• Third prize - California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California

Plus, three honorable mentions:

• Lake Zurich High School, Lake Zurich, Illinois
• Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto, California
• Home-schooled high school students, Madison, Wisconsin

As first-prize winner, Juniata College will have first pick of either an ETC Eos, Ion, or Element lighting-control console. CCM (College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati) will have second pick of the two remaining consoles. And Cal Arts (California Institute of the Arts) will receive the remaining console.

The contest was the brainchild of ETC IT specialist Jon Ironside, who was also one of the three ETC judges. He summarized his take on the winners and why they registered as best of show. He praised the total package of Juniata College's top-prize entry: "I loved this video. It had everything I was looking for -- it was funny, had a good story, incorporated ETC in a creative way, and had great production values. And who doesn't love zombies?" On second place CCM's tech-wizardry, Ironside said: "These people put some serious work into showing how they could use ETC products in a unique, unexpected, and fun way. Not only did they come up with a great idea [pixel-mapping], but they put together a really well-made video to showcase it." On third place Cal Arts' ad-spoofs submission: "This is just a great example of a funny video that makes you want to send it on to all your friends, which is exactly the kind of thing I had in mind when I proposed this contest. It did a great job of combining those ETC-specific inside jokes with the commercial stereotypes we can all identify with."

ETC was also so impressed by three particular videos, all by high schoolers, that they decided to award them honorable-mentions and prizes: to Lake Zurich High School ("great story"), five ETC Source Four fixtures; to Palo Alto High School ("cute stop-action"), five ETC Source Four PARs; and to the home-schooled Madison students ("great independent effort"), a collection of books on lighting.

ETC wishes to thank renowned international lighting designer and author Richard Pilbrow, who showed his enthusiasm too as one of ETC's three video judges. "What an adventure that turned out to be!" said Pilbrow. "I loved the diversity of the approaches. Some serious, some techie, some humorous, some touching, many imaginative and entertaining. An amazing set of submissions. I must say that I found judging to be very hard." ETC did too and will award an autographed copy of Pilbrow's recently-published book A Theatre Project to each of the submitting schools.

Back at the end of September 2011, ETC announced the Show Us Your ETC contest, challenging students everywhere to demonstrate via video their "ETC" (enthusiasm, talent, and creativity) while incorporating ETC-branding, themes, and motifs. The videos -- under five minutes -- allowed for plenty of artistic and technical license. They can still be viewed at www.showusyouretc.com.

The videos were judged by Foster, Ironside, and Pilbrow, whose combined ETC votes equaled 60% of the weighting, with the popular vote via Facebook "Likes" contributing 40%.

The ten Show Us Your ETC semifinalist school winners [listed below in alphabetical order] will receive special ETC swag prizes:

California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California
College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio
Home-schooled high school students, Madison, Wisconsin
Juniata College, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania
Lake Zurich High School, Lake Zurich, Illinios
Middlesex County College, Edison, New Jersey
Nazareth College, Rochester, New York
Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto, California
Point Park University, Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania
South Eugene High School, Eugene, Oregon