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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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.

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I’m a huge music video fan – always have been. Maybe it’s because I was raised in the era of Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean, Madonna’s Like A Prayer and Guns N’ Roses November Rain. I remember deliberately sitting down to watch the world premiere of these videos – they were cultural events not to be missed. But oh, how I lament the demise of this medium. Today, when I flip on ‘The Hits’ I see video after video that look the same: slick, overly-edited and dull. What happened to the videos that brought us directors like Anton Corbijn, David Fincher, Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry?

Well, in the era of youtube – they only seem to exist online. While ‘The Hits’ is playing mostly drivel, there is a new generation of innovative content online (insert OK Go comment here). There seem to be more and more great videos popping up under the radar – and none of them are budget busting. What I don’t understand is why mainstream artists aren’t doing the same. (Madonna – I’m talking to you!)

In any case – here’s a clip of my current favorite, Gnarls Barkely’s Who’s Gonna Save My Soul which takes the phrase ‘heart on a plate’ to a very literal level (directed by Chris Milk). Great song, great video – I’m sold.

*Additionally – I’d advocate for more muppets in videos (all this time we thought Bert and Ernie were gay, but no, they’re gansta!)

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Ok, I admit – this is barely, tangentially related to photography. BUT – they do say ‘photo’ a lot…and it is really fun to watch (although I can’t say I understood all that much).

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Ryan McVay/Getty Images

Have you ever wondered how a photographer captured that second in time, or how a filmmaker managed to secure that footage?

Check out our behind the scenes video of how one Getty Images photographer and one filmmaker came together to capture images of over 200 people.

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Motoyuki Kobayashi, a Getty Images contributing photographer in Tokyo, is included in the 2007 Art + Commerce Peek Festival, which recognizes outstanding emerging photographers.
The Peek website has video clips relating to each of the selected artists’ work. On the Peek site, click on this part of the collage of images to see the video for Motoyuki:

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