Video Social Networking Enables Movie-Mashup Contest

Warner Independent Pictures has tapped startup video editing and social networking community Jumpcut.com to promote Richard Linklater's movie "A Scanner Darkly," which opens July 7.

RES Magazine spearheaded the idea to hold a contest allowing contestants to remix the movie's video and still clips into a trailer to promote the film. Warner Bros' independent studio arm, Microsoft Corp., and Jumpcut.com's parent company Miravida Media Inc. have also teamed up on the project.

The call went out Jumpcut offers a community where people can upload video clips and still photos and create finished videos with an option to share the content or keep private. The Jumpcut editing program was written in Flash 8. Open source applications support the site. By the end of June, Jumpcut plans to integrate with blogging sites, such as Six Apart Ltd., eBay Inc. and Google Inc.'s Blogger, Folgner said. "We've already integrated with Yahoo! Inc.'s Flickr," he added. Deals are in the works to power other sites, too, Folgner said, such as AOL Inc.'s UnCut, or MySpace and YouTube, all social networking communities that offer the ability to upload videos, but not edit them. As for "A Scanner Darkly" project, the creative team working on project will choose one winner and one runner-up. Web site visitors will vote on an additional audience award. Contestants can use Jumpcut.com's online video editor or their own software. Deadline for entries is June 7. The group will announce winners in mid-June. The grand prize winner will receive two tickets to the U.S. premiere of "A Scanner Darkly" in Los Angeles, including roundtrip airfare, hotel and a Microsoft Windows 64-bit powered professional video editing workstation with Adobe Production Studio Premium featuring Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop and more. The runner-up and Audience Award winners will both receive an Xbox 360 video game console, Adobe Production Studio Standard software and an autographed movie poster. Based on experience from science fiction author Philip K. Dick, "A Scanner Darkly" tells the dark comedic tragic tale of drug use in today's world. The film emerges with live-action photography overlaid with an advanced animation process known as interpolated rotoscoping, first used in writer and director Richard Linklater's 2001 film "Waking Life." "A Scanner Darkly" stars Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder and Rory Cochrane.