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

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There are a lot of pictures on Flickr that make me smile and this is definitely one of them. If this shot was key worded more according to stock standards it probably would’ve read something like ‘Man and woman embracing, blue sky in background’ but on Flickr, I love how not only are there so many original images but there are some pretty unique headlines as well.  “Hair Love, “  need I say more?

85308066, Shampoo Violeta/Flickr

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Does Flickr imagery transcend the culture of the place it was taken? Does it have universal appeal?

As an editor for the Flickr Collection, I’ve looked at thousands of images on Flickr, and whenever I come across Japanese imagery, I find it distinctively Japanese. I’ve posted some examples below:

85176930 © Stephan Wilms/Flickr

85269903, Masato Ninomiya/Getty Images

85154506, detch/Flickr

85151272, © 2007 Jon Climpson/Flickr

Is it culture? Is it country? Is it aesthetic? What is it exactly that makes these feel so familiar to me?

Japan is a country of Zen, Karaoke, Samurai, Harajuku girls, Wii, cup noodles, sushi and the list goes on and on. It’s a country of all things in the mix.

For those who have seen the film, “Lost in Translation” by Sophie Coppola, you might have wondered the same thing as I have. Is it western? Is it Japanese? Or is it the mix of both that makes the film universal?

What are your thoughts? We would love to hear what you think of the Japanese imagery we have so far in the Flickr collection!

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Vict?ria Pe?afiel/Flickr

I can’t help but notice that the Flickr partnership is turning up a very different type of imagery from what we normally edit.

They’re not all “slice of life” pictures either — there’s some really considered, crafted work from hugely talented photographers. What I get a kick out of is the tiny details of people’s lives – the little moments that say or reveal a lot, which are local but universal.

The shot above from a photographer in Barcelona is a great example – you have all the intimacy of family life, care and protection, animal instinct – maybe also competition! It’s shot through (excuse the  pun) with humor and warmth. This is true of a lot of Flickr imagery and is amazingly hard to recreate.

Images like this also have a general appeal, despite (or maybe because?) they’re intensely individual.  Like a lot of the Flickr stuff I love, if you read a description of the shot you’d struggle to visualize it – but it works.

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“In today’s society, our animal instincts are smothered by daily modern life, city-living and constant technological developments. Man is an animal, but he no longer knows it.“

The current European campaign for Wrangler, which launched this summer, wants to re-awaken our instincts. This is a back-to-nature campaign without tree-hugging, but truly interesting visuals instead. Check it out on YouTube and here.

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Datacraft/Getty Images

Need some inspiration, or just need to laugh? Check out this 24X7 live stream web cam of 6 puppies. According to blogs I’ve found on the pups, these little guys reside in the SF Bay area and are due to go to their new homes sometime next week. One blog reported that each puppy may be traveling to their new homes with their very own web cam. One can only hope.

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