[NiqDanger]

So who entered the contest to win the trip to Spain? I did!

-Nick

[Wynn]

LOL! I started another thread to ask the same thing, with a poll. Some three people have responded, and basically it looks like people didn't bother with the contest-- it seemed like too much work or something.

I put a lot into my video, and compiled an entire drama about my Mission MINI alias, private investigator Thomas Lanark. (That's from my mother's maiden name, and the street I grew up on-- isn't it great?! "Thomas Lanark: Private Eye!") My black-and-white, 1930's-style feature is a parody of the classic detective film noir, of course, with the femme fatale who waltzes in uninvited to hire Lanark to find her missing art. The catch is that Thomas Lanark is cocky and really, really dumb, and is sure that her "art" is a man. LOL!

The sound was terrible, the video is comically bad, and the whole thing is hilariously embarrassing, but I have to think I almost certainly went to more trouble than anyone else entering the contest, and must've turned in one of the most fun entries. I hope so. Even if I don't get to go, I truly had a blast making the film with my friends and even some strangers, and I hope the folk at MINI and their marketing office all get a huge laugh out of it. It's really, really bad, and terrifically funny.

My friend Kendall in Denver also submitted a video, but I don't know much about his. Sounds like that's three of us, so maybe we're the team-- HOORAY! Here's hoping! I can barely imagine the huge fun of going with all of you to Barcelona to solve the mystery. To quote Ren's blithering friend Stimpy, "I can hardly CONTAIN myself!"

Excitedly,
wynn... aka, Thomas Lanark, P.I.

[Mike Clarke]

Quote:

Originally posted by NiqDanger
So who entered the contest to win the trip to Spain? I did!

-Nick

So did I but now I see in the fine print that if selected I have to have an Australian passport - bugger - now I will have to have that lobotomy!

[HarryHBMCC]

Too much work? The other poll confused me. To enter here all you must do is complete a form, or so I thought. I never win anything anyways but if I had to make a movie then I've obviously misunderstood completely...

Don't have a passport yet either so it would be kind of funny if I won!

Harry

[SoggyCornFlakes]

I did too, and it was only a form to fill in

See you in Barcelona

[jlivingood]

I entered as well. My video was not at all elaborate - just a brief QuickTime movie shipped to them via CD-ROM. I also sent about 7 other mission briefing documents that I created - including 'past case history' to prove my investigative mettle. We'll see - it was fun putting it together.

I view this much like buying a lottery ticket - much of the fun is just imagining 'what if.' In any case, it sounds like a very, very fun event and I am certain that whoever is chosen will have a very good time.

By the way, I very much enjoyed reading the short story about the crime and Sam Cooper. Looking forward to the ending...

Jason

[NiqDanger]

The contest entry was only a form, unless you went for the 'extra credit' parts. That involved a video. Obviously I wasnt the only one who went for the extra credit. I really want to see some of the other movies! And yes, mine too was embarassingly goofy but amused me for quite a few hours.

So who can share? Mine is online (all 59 megs of it) in mpeg1.

http://www.hackermonkey.com/MiniMissionMovie.mpg

Its on the end of a 1.5m SDSL line so it takes a few minutes to get.


-Nick

[JBean]

I applied too, didn't have the time for a video, but I did send in the rest of the extra credit stuff: roof design, items in the boot. I approached it as if they requested an agent's secret profile (mine) from a fictional private investigation firm. Made fictional cover letter w/ letter head and such.
I don't know if you guys noticed but, the address that we here in America mail off our applications too is Circle.com, an internet advertising firm in Boston. I could be very wrong but I get the impression that no real MINI employees will be checking out the entries. So seeing that the address was a five minute drive from my home, I just went to drop it off in person. The receptionist said I could leave it with him and said he would be sure it got to "Deane Turnpike" *lol* ,and I got the feeling that they weren't getting that many applications. He kept peaking in my envelope so obviously the interest is still there for them, didn't see any piles of applications with him, and there was no one else that I passed with an envelope for Deane, so who knows. Maybe we have the four right here on this forum.
Wishful thinking doesn't hurt.
I think the form said winners are notified in the middle of Oct.. . .not a long waiting period.

Good Luck all!

[kgelner]

As Wynn mentioned, I also did a pretty full entry - I did a short two-minute video with a camera borrowed from a friend, that had something of an introduction and a few other things like my "rapid car entry technique" (sliding across the hood of my Neon and then jumping in the window - no MINI yet so I hope that's not too much of a problem!), and also a few of the disguises.

I decided that one disguise would be too few, so I came up with a couple and submitted photos of each.

I also took the approach of presenting the entry as from the investigator "Helm Apache" (part of my mothers maiden name "Helmstetter" and the street I grew up on as per the Mission MINI site).

I put everything together in a binder with a VHS tape and CD holding a digital master and smaller copy of the video, along with various roof designs, an introductory letter, and so on. The final result looked pretty go

I'll try and get some of it online and post a link when ready... I liked the other video posted quite a bit! I found it interesting that people included "bloopers" at the end of the videos (as Wynn said he did) - I had done that for a previous entry I did for "Survivor" but this time I decided just to present the primary material!

[Lizzybobio]

I did, but I don't have a passport. I hear they can expedite them! I would love to go to Spain.

[NiqDanger]

You CAN get passports quickly if you need. But they are supposed to notify on Oct 15, so you should have about a month to get one.

Jason and Wynn - can you post your movies? I'd love to see. I was hoping we could show what we did since I don't think there is any way we'll get to see it otherwise. Unless Mini puts up a page of all the people who entered and what they sent in!

[Wynn]

I didn't get a chance to make a QuickTime movie of my project-- I was really racing just to get it to VHS and sent to Boston on time. The clips downloaded to disk totalled some 3,000MB, and were almost all used for the video; I'm sure it's all much smaller with compression, but it's still five minutes of full-screen video, and would be vastly too large to post for viewing.

And more to the point, I don't have a digital copy any more-- I have only the tape. I drove to San Antonio to do the digital work on my brother's spiffy Titanium Powerbook, and came back with just the analog project.

[XSmall]

I saw the extra credit part, but just entered the form. A few months ago my husband and I applied for the Amazing Race, and went through a huge rigmarole with the 11 page application, photos, and making a video. I thought it was really cool, then we got it out and watched it the other day, and laughed our arses off, it was so embarrasingly hilarious.
(Never even got a call for the first round of semifinalists even though my husband kind of knows Blake from "Blake and Paige" season 2) So, I didn't mess with all the stuff on this one.

[kgelner]

Quote:

Originally posted by XSmall
I saw the extra credit part, but just entered the form. A few months ago my husband and I applied for the Amazing Race, and went through a huge rigmarole with the 11 page application, photos, and making a video. I thought it was really cool, then we got it out and watched it the other day, and laughed our arses off, it was so embarrasingly hilarious.
(Never even got a call for the first round of semifinalists even though my husband kind of knows Blake from "Blake and Paige" season 2) So, I didn't mess with all the stuff on this one.

I was thinking about entering the Amazing Race myself - as I said earlier I did a Survivor application, that was last year.

My thought on this contest was that I'd have better odds at least at having a really good entry get noticed, where in Survivor I'm not even sure who was looking. So I spent a lot of time and effort in putting together a cool entry they would enjoy going through, and I certainly enjoyed making it!

I had to keep reminding myself this was Mission MINI and not survivor, so nudity and tatoos would not help. Then again I might have been wrong on that point...

[Wynn]

Crud, my video is chock full of breasts. They're not really naked, but near enough. I hope that's okay.

<grin>

I think only a gay guy could get away with the breasts I turned in.

In my 1930s style black-and-white detective film, a busty chick enlists the help of Thomas Lanark, Private Eye. And then spends the rest of the flick trying to seduce him, and then his car.

Sample dialogue:

Girl: "Somone stole my art."

Lanark: "Really? What's he look like?"

"My art isn't a man."

"That's not my problem, Sugar, and let's just take one thing at a time; first, what's he look like?"

"If we hurry, we can still catch them; they took the ferry."

"Which one, Art, or one of his friends?"

"F-E-R-R-Y, ferry. Now let's get on to finding my art."

"I'd love to, Honey, but first I've got to slide across the top of this car."

Girl, cooing: "How'd you like to slide across MY top...?"

<new scene>

Girl: "How's about we get back to finding my art?"

Lanark: "I'd love too, Hooters, but first I've got to dive through the window and turn on this car."

Girl, cooing: "I can turn the car on from right here."

Lanark, to the camera: "I'll BET YOU CAN."

Then she spends the rest of the day running her finger along the hood and trying to turn on the car. It's great. I hope we don't all go to jail.

[NiqDanger]

You post a tease like that and then can't share the footage? I say you call your brother (was it in-law?) and get a quicktime version of that flick to share! I don't think I could have delivered that dialogue with a straight face...

Damn, I new I needed boobs in my movie... As the great Joe Bob Briggs said it was the three B's: Blood Beasts and Breasts.

[Wynn]

*chuckle*

Well, I've begged Scott this morning again to post the QuickTime video, but I think he's very busy and feels burdened by my request. It was his wife's computer I used, though they've both been a help to me. They're terrific people-- I feel really blessed.

[NiqDanger]

Did you tell him the fans must see it? :-) More Mini Movies!


If he is too busy, I'll convert it to quicktime for you.

[Wynn]

Scott does say he's too busy, and has only limited access to his wife's computer, anyway, since it's a TiBook that she carries with her. They're both in San Antonio, 200 miles from here, so I haven't access to it, either. Moreover, the compiled movie project is about three gigabytes uncompressed, so it's vastly too large to send elsewhere for compiling to QuickTime. Looks like we'll not get to see it.

However, Scott DID turn my short Apple "Switch" parody into a QuickTime movie, albeit an inexplicably DARK one; it looked great in iMovie before he ripped the .mov, and looks fine from video, too. Weird. And I recorded the sound badly. But, it's still pretty funny:

http://www.on-sight.com/switch.mov

Enjoy.

wynn

[NiqDanger]

That was priceless. Ha!

3 gigs? I think you are rivalling the titanic for computing movie size here *laugh* I do have the bandwidth to take the 3 gigs but I don't think your brother in law would be too keen on sending it (Lets tie up the like for the next ooohh... 7 days.)

Now you have to win so we can see them show your video *laugh*