It was great last night getting to attend the screening of a couple of segments of the 24-hour Video Race, sponsored annually by the Video Association of Dallas. Much less to act as judge for the competition. I was honored to serve with a couple of seasoned industry pros who had both done judgeship stints in prior years.

The first five entries on our evaluation sheets were produced by local high school students; we (the judges) were provided with materials for note-taking and instructed to consider the films first by whether they fulfilled the stated requirements of the contest: the theme being "twist of fate," the prerequisites being that a key should make an appearance as a prop at some point and a sporting venue should be used as a location setting. Furthermore, the line of dialogue "what's this going to cost me?" had to have been incorporated into the dialog - preferably in clever fashion.

Following our screening of the five short films in contention, we adjourned to the judging room (a broom closet office sandwiched between theaters at the Angelika) and ranked our favorite (most highly-rated) productions from first to last (or vice-versa, as applicable). A consensus between the three judges was then reached following a brief discussion. (Amazingly, we all agreed on the number one selection.)

The second group of five vids we evaluated were created by college kids, and some of them showed surprisingly polished craft considering the 24-hour time constraint. Our top selection was produced by a group calling themselves "Manimals," and took place in a bowling alley. Seems an unsuspecting bowler encounters a foot-high pretty lady in his shoe locker. And she begs a favor...

If you get a chance to see some of the remaining screenings of these quickly-produced creative vids, I encourage you to do so - you might get an early glimpse of a Stevie Spielberg in the making. Without doubt, you'll have a lot of fun.