Audio Video News

High school and college students whose parents may be wondering if little Ricky will ever stop playing with the video camera now have a scholarship program to call their own. The creation of the Zoom Culture Undiscovered Genius Scholarship program was announced last week at the Sundance Festival.

Zoom Culture claims that the semi-annual scholarship is open to students and "undiscovered geniuses" of all ages who submit the most captivating video content. The company says that short videos, which can be submitted in either taped or digital formats, will be judged according to both "quality" and the amount of traffic they generate at Zoom's website. According to Zoom, submissions, which should be five minutes or less in length, are due July 1, 2000. The winner of the first Undiscovered Genius Scholarship will be named on September 1, 2000.

Zoom describes itself as a multichannel Internet portal that plans "to capitalize on generation X and Y's fascination with the many forms of self-expression made possible by Web video." "Chief Zoom Officer" Nate Wieler says that "we're announcing the Undiscovered Genius Scholarship here at Sundance because it emulates the spirit of the festival—to discover new talent and nurture it."

According to Wieler, "young people are fascinated with live cams and digital video. Zoom Culture is an outlet for the millions of students internationally who will be producing original content and, in essence, broadcasting themselves to the world. These people will not be making feature films for the Sundance Festival, but their pent-up creativity is ready to bust out—like Butch and the Kid—onto the Internet."

Contact the company's website or physical address for submission guidelines and registrations: Undiscovered Genius, P.O. Box 689, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, www.zoomculture.com.