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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Social media has upended the traditional promotional methods of engaging with customers, leaving you left to explore which of the social media channels are best for your marketing and communications plans. Do you engage through a branded Facebook group? A Twitter feed? Or do you create customer awareness through a viral YouTube video or design your own personal page for a fresh look? Whatever your strategy, imagery will continue to remain integral to creating an engaging user experience for any of your social media programs.

Getty Images recognizes that our customers need to be more nimble than ever, and our licensing must continue to evolve accordingly. Today, Getty Images has introduced two new licensing options designed specifically for social media use. When licensing any creative image under our rights-managed licensing model, customers can now select “Other Web & Mobile Uses” category to find:

• Web – Social Media for advertising or promotional use*
• Web – Social Media for non-commercial, editorial use*

* Price is determined on duration of use, territory

Now, you can take advantage of the social networking buzz with the use of compelling imagery from our premium rights managed collections, complete with indemnification.

Let us know what you think about our continued efforts to develop simplified licensing models. We want to help you do your best work.

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Recently, photographer Sue Flood was awarded two first place wins at the prestigious 2009 International Photography Awards.  She won first place for the Special Finalist Pro category and first place for the Travel/Tourism Pro category. The International Photography Awards conducts an annual competition for professional, non-professional and student photographers on a global scale, creating one of the most ambitious and formidable competitions in the photography world today.  Her first place wins gives her the opportunity to compete in IPA’s top award of International Photographer of the Year.  Sue is one of eight finalist that will be competing for this award, which will be announced in October 2009. We had a chance to catch up with Sue and hear her story behind her images, what she has been up to, and how she became a photographer.

Before joining Getty Images I spent 11 years as a wildlife filmmaker with the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, England.  In 2005 I moved from producer to freelance photography, and my life as a wildlife and travel photographer now takes me all over the world on assignment.  Along with some wonderful trips to Africa in the last few years, I’ve spent lots of time in the polar regions – a combination of filming trips for the BBC, Disneynature’s Earth movie, and working as a lecturer for Quark Expeditions, who run adventure travel trips to the poles.  It’s just as well that I like the cold!

Last fall I spent three months on board the Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov, on an incredible trip to the emperor penguin colonies of Snow Hill Island, and then on to the Ross Sea.  This included the awesome experience of standing on the world’s largest ice barrier – the Ross Ice Shelf, and visiting the historic huts used by Shackleton and Scott.

I was thrilled to hear last week that a portfolio of images from my Ross Sea voyage has been selected as one of the eight finalists for the title of International Photographer of the Year – The Lucie Awards, which will be announced in New York in October 2009.   My favorite shot was the image of passengers standing on top of the Ross Ice Shelf – like tiny ants on the vast icescape – that I managed to grab as the helicopter flew out to pick them up.  However, my favourite subject from the entire three month trip had to be the emperor penguins – the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen in my life (apart from George Clooney!).

I’m looking forward to another three months in the Antarctic starting in October, but I’ll have a chance to thaw out on a three week shoot to Tahiti and Easter Island in September – I can’t wait!  It will be great to be able to pack for a trip and not include thermal underwear in my pack…

- Sue Flood

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894396621 - Dan Hallman/Digital Vision (RF)

Getty Images now offers you even more great content.  With the re-launch of Jupiterimages, you can now access nearly 2 million royalty-free images and several new collections on Jupiterimages.  And, you can use your current Getty Images username and password.  No need to register or set up a new account – it couldn’t be easier.

And through September 30, 2009, we are offering a one-time 33% off promotion at Jupiterimages. Think of this as a “thank you” for checking out our new site.  Just use this code DFZPC46N to take advantage of this great offer!

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Keyword:  Curtain

Kevin Cooley/83289163

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One of our Creative Researchers forwarded me this ad a few weeks back. It fitted very well into a presentation I was preparing on the rise of authenticity in advertising. I found it fascinating as we had been speculating on how imagery used to promote financial institutions, products and services would change as a result of the credit crunch. I’m interested not only in the way it has used ‘Responsibility’ as it’s key concept (knowingly ironic since many financial institutions irresponsible conduct has lead the current crisis) but on the way it has chosen to illustrate that concept. We see a range of homely domestic chore’s left undone – the ironing, making the bed, taking the dog for a walk etc – but these are clearly amateur shots or if professional then they have been shot with a treatment that makes them appear as amateur snap shots taken on a small camera or phone. I think this relates to an ongoing trend in a lot of advertising photography that somehow the more amateur something is the more real, authentic and hence trustworthy it feels.

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Two German guys having fun with torches, bike lights and a camera.

LICHTFAKTOR

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