It is official; we did NOT win the Openfilm.com contest. I am not shocked, but I am a little disappointed. Who wouldn’t be? I did however have over six months to get used to the idea of NOT winning, so it all worked out. Now they did announce the winner and it was Patrick Boivin. This guy is an amazing filmmaker. He made the IRON BABY trailer that was awesome. He also does a lot of innovative stop motion, like with a vintage AT-AT Star Wars toy as a puppy, or action figures having epic battles. He has millions of views for his movies on YouTube.
However, his entry into the contest was a French language zombie clown movie that sucked ass. The contest was supposed to be for a short film that can be made into a feature film. I’m trying to wrap my brain around the idea of the director of ON GOLDEN POND Mark Rydell or Robert Duvall voting for the zombie clown movie. Something stinks. I expected the movie from Katie Maholic with the kids to win or the other movie with the actor Kevin Durand (from LOST and X-MEN ORIGINS WOLVERINE) to win, because their actual movies were great, but without the millions of YouTube views, I guess they didn’t really have a chance.
Because of that, I think it is unlikely this (or any online contest) was real. I think they already knew who they wanted to give the prize to and we were all just patsies who paid for the privilege to promote their website for a month to make the owners look good to their sponsors.
I had a friend, a standup comedian, who told me about his experience with contests. He said that they are almost always rigged. They already know who they want to win before they start and that all of the contestants and entry fees do nothing but promote and pay for the contests. I now believe he is 100% right.
Before anyone finds me to just be a bitter, sore loser, the truth is that if I were in their position; I’d have probably given Patrick the prize too. It makes business sense. He has millions of followers and fans. He has proven that he makes movies a lot of people want to see. Mr. Boivin will probably make a great film, so my only regret was wasting $75 and a month of MY time.
Win some and lose some, they say. Business is business and I hope nothing but the best for a very talented filmmaker who deserves his shot to make a real feature film with decent money. Just don’t expect me to ever enter a contest like this ever again.
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