As I wrote about earlier today, an increasing number of companies have been seeking user-generated content through contests to both provide online video for their platforms and also recruit potential new creative voices.
While Comedy Central's upcoming contest is one of the latest examples of this, another was announced late last year.
Back in December, I wrote about a new project between Endemol and Comcast called Ten Day Take.
At the time, I wrote:
Ten Day Take will require users to submit ideas for programs to Comcast, with a winning idea being selected to give that person a chance to work with Endemol to produce a pilot. The catch, as the name of the contest implies, is that the winning idea will only have 10 days to produce a pilot, working on a budget of $50,000. You can probably see where this is heading...The process of creating that pilot will be programming as well, as it will be a reality-style show which follows the production of that pilot. Think about the wealth of content this creates...a call for user-generated content that builds into a documentary on the making of a show by the winner of the contest.
The plan was for the reality show to be made available through Comcast's on-demand service as well as Comcast Ziddio, and the call for user-generated ideas came through Ziddio.
Apparently, however, the contest has stalled, and some of the contestants are not happy about it. An anonymous contestant posted here on the C3 site recently that the plan was to go public with the outcome of the contest, who would be the winner and would then be featured in the reality show, on March 12. Now that it's been more than a month later, the Ten Day Take Web site still features a message saying "Currently Being Judged," listing the contest as closed. Several of the submissions are still up for view.
The note says, "Stay tuned for TEN DAY TAKE the reality series, and watch as the pilot is being made. Production starts soon," ensuring that the contestants had been notified. This anonymous contestant posted on our site, "Apparently they told all top 5 finalists that they did not win-but they never actually chose a winning show."
These claims are unsubstantiated, and the Web site claims that production will start soon on the video. I sent an e-mail out to Endemol for more information, but I haven't heard anything back yet, so I'm curious if anyone else knows if the Ten Day Take contest has truly stalled.
I thought it was an interesting project in terms of user-generated content and getting various forms of related video as well, with the initial entries providing content for the site, as well as the reality show showing the making of the pilot, as well as the final pilot itself. But I don't know where the project currently stands.
After contact from one of the contestants, though, I have to admit that I'm quite curious.
By the way, I just wanted to note that the Ten Day Take winners were finally announced, and the series depicting the winner making her show is available here. Looks like Ziddio will be having a second round of the Ten Day Take contest now.