We were blown away by the fantastic effort from all the entrants to this year’s Mishmash competition.  We’ve had a hard time judging, but two pieces of work really stood out for us. And so, without further ado, we’d like to announce the winners:

David Hopkinson won the UK prize with “Flash Forward (And Back)” – a video which merges a series of old-school images and footage, with a classic speech from Grand Master Flash on the art of mixing. Tommi Lius won the Northern Europe category with “Glitchmindly” – a fast-paced, high octane video montage set to electronic music.

Each of these winning videos has carefully blurred the lines between imagery and footage, from archival to contemporary, to create music videos which amazed the judges with their innovative editing techniques.

The judging panel comprised of a who’s who in music and film production, including representatives from advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi, production company Cobblestone Hamburg Filmproducktion and UK music duo, “Hexstatic.”  The judges looked at each music video as soon as it was uploaded and gave their verdict by leaving comments and rating each entry, ensuring each video received real time feedback.

One of the judges, Dan Waite, Label Director of MTV Talent  & Music International said: “It was a delight to be a judge on this panel. The creativity that the entrants showed using Getty Images’ stock footage and Pump Audio music tracks was of a very high quality.  As I watched some of the videos, I thought that a few were good enough and compelling enough to be on a music channel in their own right. It highlighted to me the breadth of the Getty Images film archive and the outstanding abilities of tomorrows’ music video and film producers.”

Congratulations to our two winners. They’ll soon be receiving their brand new 17″ MacBook Pro with Final Cut Pro.

If you weren’t lucky this time, don’t worry, as we’ll be running Mishmash 2010 next year. So, get your thinking caps on — we’re sure it’ll be an amazing competition.

For more information and to see all the work, visit: www.gettyimages.com/mishmash

Julien M. Hekimian/Getty Images

Jean-Charles de Castelbajac and Beth Ditto attend the Christmas illuminations launch of BHV at Bazar de l’Hotel de Ville on November 17, 2009 in Paris, France.  Beth Ditto personifies the notion of a “Brick House”  as The Commodores describe so well:

She’s a brick—-house
Mighty mighty, just lettin’ it all hang out
She’s a brick—-house
The lady’s stacked and that’s a fact,
ain’t holding nothing back.

The  Mishmash judges have been busy looking at entries and were amazed at the quality of work produced.  Well done and thanks to all that took part!

So… who made the cut? We have five finalists from the UK and four that made the cut for Northern Europe.   Each of the shortlisted videos has carefully blurred the lines between imagery and footage, from archival to contemporary, to create music videos which amazed the judges with their innovative editing techniques.

The nine finalists are:

UK

• Christian Anderson-Marshall – We’ve come a long way baby…
• Manuel Barrio – Twist in the fabric of space
• Chris Gavin – Mashmatick
• Robbie Gibbon – SPIDERS!
• David Hopkinson – Flash Forward (And Back)

Northern Europe

• Tommi Kortesniemi – Moving Mosaic
• Tommi Lius — Glitchmindly
• Altti Sjogren – First Humans Land on Earth
• Nigel Upchurch – Rear Window

Congratulations!  The two winners will be announced on the 18th November and will receive their 17″ MacBook Pro with Final Cut Pro.

To vote for your favorite video, go to www.gettyimages.com/mishmash

It’s been over a year since Getty Images partnered with Flickr to launch the groundbreaking Flickr Collection on www.gettyimages.com.  We wanted to provide a quick update on how the Collection has grown and some of the exciting new developments in our partnership.

When launching the Flickr collection, our goal was to choose photos that created a commercially viable collection, while preserving the inspirational and unexpected nature of the kinds of images that are so prevalent on Flickr.  We’re proud to announce that today the collection has grown to over 60,000 images, many of which have been license by customers from around the world.

As you may remember, for the last few months, editors at Getty Images has been busy exploring the Flickrverse to find the right photos to be part of the collection.  While we know they’ve enjoyed viewing your work, with over four billion images, it can sometimes be an overwhelming experience!

In the past, the Flickr community could set their account settings to reflect that they wanted to be contacted by Getty Images, but could not proactively present a portfolio of photos for consideration. We know how eager Flickr members have been to showcase their work and wanted to develop a solution.

That’s why, today, we’re very excited to announce a formal Call for Artists, meaning ANY Flickr member can submit their work to be considered for the collection through the Call for Artists group on Flickr.

Detailed guidelines can be found here but a submission should include exactly 10 images that represent what they consider to be the best of their work.  The Getty Images create team will evaluate submissions based on style, subject matter and technical skill.  If some or all of the photos – or other images from that member’s photostream — are selected for the Flickr Collection on Getty Images, they will receive an invitation via Flickrmail.  This invitation will clearly show Getty Images’ initial selection of images and introduce the enrollment process.

When we first launched, we aimed to create a “living collection” — one that mirrored the vibrant Flickr community itself.  Now, with the community’s help, the collection will continue to grow and bring a new flavor of photography to Getty Images and its customers — an authentic view into the daily lives of people around the world.

We at Getty Images truly can’t wait to review the portfolios of the accomplished and experienced photographers that contribute to Flickr. With the community’s help, the collection will better represent, what is, in effect, the world’s image library.

Andy Saunders

Vice President of  Creative Imagery for Getty Images

Marcel Thomas/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Agyness Deyn in all her raven splendor, was seen on the streets of Manhattan in feathered lower lids, creating a permanent look of coyness.  Squint your eyes and she is averting her gaze, a gesture that is universally recognized as a signal of  sweet submission.  Are the days of aggessive feminine warpaint coming to a close?  Lily Allen wore innocent reverse raccoon eyes this summer, projecting wide eyed dolly-like innocence.   Below, 1970 era models fake a similar gesture with fashion glasses  by French designer, Courreges.  See more eye makeup affectation here.

Central Press/Getty Images

The platoons regrouped, and then headed off for their objectives. The one I stayed with was lead by an ebullient and witty staff sergeant from Indiana named Steven Caldwell, whose platoon was a motley group of young men from across America.  They irreverently cracked jokes as they marched, mostly banter about their girlfriends back home or discussions on the bathroom habits of local Afghans.  Also along for the ride was a somber Air Force dog handler named Schwartz and his pride and joy, a black German Shepherd named Bleck, who was trained to sniff out explosives.  All of them were hauling huge packs full of 100 pounds or more of gear, along with their heavy weapons and ammunition.

The entire first day of the mission was earmarked for finding the first two caves, but a short walk took us to the spot where they were, and it turned out they weren’t caves at all, just natural ridges in the rock that apparently looked like caves from the air.  Caldwell shrugged, entered the information on a rugged handheld GPS-type device that he was using to find the targets, and we continued on to look for the rest, some miles ahead on a windy path.

We passed through several villages along the way, the Pashtun tribalists regarding us with curious stares as we walked by.  A few hours of hiking brought us to a road that hugged the base of a long, imposing cliff face.  Caldwell glanced down as his computer and back up at the moutainside.

“Looks like the next few caves are right up there,” he said, pointing to a spot on the cliff far above us. He looked over at his men, “Who’s coming with me?”

No volunteers. Caldwell rolled his eyes, and muttered several unprintable things. Then he drooped his pack with a thud onto the dirt.

“Fine, just watch the road. I need the K-9, though,” and with that, he started clamoring up the mountain. Schwartz and Bleck scrambled up after him.  Soon they were all over the ridge and out of sight.

I hesitated for a few minutes, trying to convince myself there was something productive to photograph right where I was, without venturing up into the heights. The platoon laughed and loudly started back with their discussion about the Afghan’s toilet habits.  I sighed, slung my camera over my shoulder, and headed up the mountain.

It was ridiculously dangers; the route up ranged from a steep incline to nearly vertical, and the rock itself was a grey shale of some kind that had a disquieting tendency to disintegrate as you searched for a foothold on it.  One slip on this thing and you’d go for a long, painful tumble onto jagged rocks somewhere below.  Eventually, I caught up with Caldwell, Schwartz and Bleck on a narrow ridge.  They were barely sweating.

“Caldwell, you’re from Indiana,” I said, panting. “Where did you learn how to climb mountains?”

He smiled without looking up from his computer.

“Man, I’ve been stationed in Alaska for five years. We do this stuff all day… a-ha, it’s over by that crevasse.” He bolted off and started making his way literally across the base of the long vertical crack that wound down the cliff face.  Schwartz and Bleck gamely followed after him.

The way they went looked nearly impossible to me, so I hiked up a bit instead, looking for a better place to cross the crack. But there was nothing a few feet up either, and I couldn’t go down because I couldn’t see, so I went up still farther.  Still there was no way to cross. Before long, I couldn’t go up any more and the sides were nothing but an inclined slope of loose pebbles. Somehow I’d gotten 50 feet over the others, and was completely stuck.

After a few minutes of self-pity, I lunged to the left and danced across the crumbly slope like a barefoot teenager on the hot sands of vertical beach.  I made it to the crevasse and awkwardly landed on my rear, and instantly started sliding down.  But inside the crack I could use my feet to slow myself and it was actually kind of fun, like a waterslide.  (My pants would disagree; I shredded them and, as they were my only pair, an Afghan tailor working on the Army base later laboriously put them back together.)  Finally, I tumbled to a stop at the bottom, landing with a cloud of dust right next to Caldwell, who was still absorbed in his GPS.

“Hey there,” he said. “Man, this ain’t no cave here, either. You about ready?”

“Whenever you are.”

It is moments like these in foreign lands that always prompt me to get philosophical, even existential: Why am I here? How did this happen? Why exactly am I hanging on the side of a mountain in Afghanistan this morning? I’m not in the Army, I didn’t sign up for this. I should be back home, watching TV or canoodling in bed of having a strong espresso in Brooklyn. Or just about anywhere else.

But in the end, things tend to work themselves out, I find, and the satisfaction of photographing and documenting the most important issues of our time far outweighs any temporary discomfort, or even fear.  In the end, I found a way down by quickly dancing across the inclined slope like a barefoot teenager bouncing on the hot sands of a vertical beach, and continued on with the mission.

Chris also writes for dscriber.com about his experiences in Afghanistan. To read more about this particular day, click here.

Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Actress Renee Zellweger arrives at ELLE’s 16th Annual Women In Hollywood Event at the Four Seasons Hotel on October 19, 2009 in Beverly Hills, California.

Color coordination seems to be the thing these days and there are a few benefits to suggesting a color theme to a parties attendees.  Photo ops (especially group photo ops) look great and it gives the event goers some focus. Last night at ELLE’s 16th Annual Women In Hollywood Event at the Four Seasons Hotel, most everyone played along, except for Diane Kruger, who wore blue!  We gather the dress code was: reds, nudes, silver or neutrals.  Here are our picks for the best dressed in each catagory.

Best Red: Renee Zellweger, runners up Amber Rose and Robin Tunney

Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic/Getty Images – Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Best take on the gradient/diagonal look: Julianne Moore runners up Miranda Cosgrove and Jenna Dewan.

Stefanie Keenan/WireImage/Getty Images – Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Best in Black: Katie Holmes, runners up Robin Wright Penn and very pregnant Jenna Elfman.

Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Jason Merritt/Getty Images – John Shearer/WireImage/Getty Images

Winner in Cream: Three way tie between Emily Blunt, Becki Newton and Katie Cassidy

Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic/Getty Images

In our latest podcast, co-founder and chief executive officer of Getty Images, Jonathan Klein talks with Bill Wallauer, a renowned filmmaker for the Jane Goodall Institute.

For more than 15 years, Bill Wallauer has documented the wild chimpanzees of Gombe National Park for the Institute, capturing dramatic and fascinating footage of their daily life.  In this podcast, you will hear the stories behind some fo the never-before-seen footage of life among wild chimpanzees.

Click here to visit our podcast page featuring Bill Wallauer.

After a half hour we arrived a tiny hamlet, a dispersed collection of mud brick houses set among farm fields and tiny hay barns.  The largest building by far among the dozens or so in the area was the mosque. It was also of mud, and was around the size and shape of an old one-room schoolhouse on the prairie.  Several other buildings abutted the mosque, forming a simple town square fringed with hewn long benches.

The purpose of the patrol was ostensibly to search the farm houses in the area, looking for weapons or signs of militant activity. So as not to rile the locals too badly, the American forces I was traveling with, led by a burly Staff Sergeant named Adam James, brought along members of the nascent Afghan police force to do the actual searching.  The Afghan police didn’t look any different than the men sitting idly in the square, save that they wore heavy blue coats that read “Police” in English on the back.

Staff Sgt. James laconically directed these Afghan forces to begin their search, seeming almost bored; he has two hours of Iraq under his belt before coming here, and has a seen-it-all sort of air about him.  Before long, like everywhere else in the Third World, young boys materialized from the ether and started gathering around the visitors.  No girls approached us, though I could see some in the distance, leading pack animals around or tending to the fields.  Sgt. James ordered some of his men to nearby high ground to watch the road and the land around us. Once these sentries were in place James relaxed, sitting on the log bench and taking some of the pale yellow Afghan hot tea offered to him by one of the men of the mosque.

I looked around at the surrounding hills. “Hey, isn’t this Taliban country?” I asked.  “Pretty much,” James said, blowing on the tea glass while holding it gingerly by the rim. “Aren’t you worried you’ll get ambushed?” I asked. “Naw, they wouldn’t do it here,” he said. “They’ll wait until we’re on the road heading back to the base.”  “Oh. What might you do to prevent that?” “I’ll call in helicopter support. They’ll cover us, and then we’ll head back.”

Just then, one of the soldiers watching on a hill called won, stringing some words together he probably never had uttered before in his life: “Looks like we got a bunch of camels heading for us, sir.” Everyone turned to look down the road.  He was right. In minutes, they were among us.

It was a colorful caravan of at least fifty camels and as many ponies, all laden with ramshackle cloth bags tied with homemade ropes.  Hundreds of angular bearded mean in turbans and shalwar kameez and as many women covering their faces walked alongside.  Sleepy children with wild hair and runny noses rode on hand-woven saddles on the humps, their heads rocking in time with the rhythmic sway of the camels’ steady gait.

They were passing through and didn’t stop, but the Army’s Pashto translator managed to shout out some questions as they lumbered past, and we got the gist of their story — they had been on the road four days so far, and had about a week to go; they were fine thank you though one of their camels was going lame; and they were heading for warmer climates for the winter, toward the village of Salerno and coming from Ghazni.

As the caravan disappeared into the dusty distance, we all watched it quietly, with the kind of instinctive awe one gets when you see something that seems to walk out of history.  Had one stood on this road during the autumn migrating months a thousand years ago, that caravan would have looked completely the same.

Soon the local police finished their searching and it was time to return to the base. Sgt. James called in for Apache attack helicopters to cover the road, but none were available.  So, instead we hiked up into the hills and returned cross-country on the high ground, the soldiers marching single-file on the ridges of the ancient mountains. We were back in time for a late lunch.

Erik Von Weber/Getty Images

Due to popular demand, Getty Images has extended the deadline for “MISHMASH” Music Video Challenge to October 23.

What is MISHMASH? It’s a competition for people who enjoy remixing and editing music and film. Create a music video using one (or a mix of 5) Pump Audio music tracks and at least 50% of Getty Images’ footage clips & imagery.  Submit your video before 23 October 2009 for the chance to win a MacBook Pro 17inch with Final Cut Studio.

MISHMASH Music Video Competition is open to any person over 21 years of age, who are residents in Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and UK and are working for agencies or production companies.

To get all the details and to register for the competition, visit MISHMASH.