This week, Hewlett Packard announced the HP You on You project, a worldwide contest that ask you to showcase yourself creatively and share who you are on Youtube, without showing your face.

Using the new video creation tools on Youtube allows people of all skills and experience to enter, and to further inspire, HP are giving away more than $300,000 in cash and prizes, ranging from the HP Artists Edition Notebook, to $2,500 for various stage winners and semi-finalists, to be chosen by both Youtube and their viewers.

More information about the HP You on You project is also available at http://www.youtube.com/hp

That’s essentially it! Get out there and create! I’ve already found some great entries, and would love to view more, so please feel free to ‘Declare Your Story’ here on the Media Match blog. Leave a link for your fellow production job hunters in the comments

Lee Jarvis.

The Olympics begin tomorrow in Beijing, and with that comes the inevitable question: should the athletes use this very public forum to deride China on its human rights violations (including jailing dissidents and violently suppressing protests), or should they remain silent?  It is an issue that has dogged these Olympics since it was announced that Beijing would host the games, and the fervor has only intensified as we’ve neared the starting date.  For the athletes, it’s a sensitive question: to some, the Olympics are a place of competition, the one venue where every country involved can unite in the quest for athletic glory; to others, though, it provides them with a chance to voice their opinions to countless millions, one they may never have again.  It’s a question every athlete will wrestle with, one that depends on which way his or her own moral compass swings.  And it’s a question that will play out every day, with every medal ceremony and interview, across television and computer screens around the world. 

The television aspect is nothing new.  While the Olympics have reached a worldwide audience in the past, this year will see a virtual TV saturation (NBC will provide an unprecedented 1,400 hours of coverage across six of its networks, according to the Associated Press – “more that all previous Summer Olympics combined”; it will also present 2,200 hours of live web coverage and 3,000 additional hours of clips available online).  But what truly makes this Olympics different is that the potential to reach people is even greater, and surpasses mere television exposure.  That’s because, since the last Olympics in 2004, we have seen the advent (and subsequent explosions in popularity) of sites like myspace, facebook, and, perhaps most importantly, YouTube.

For the first time ever, we will be given an almost real-time glimpse into the Olympics – everything from videos to blogs to photos, all created and uploaded instantly.  People at these games will shoot videos from the stands, on the streets, in hotels, and at restaurants…they will have their cameras and computers with them at all times (oftentimes both in one), and you can bet that everything they capture will be uploaded immediately to YouTube (or Liveleak, etc.).  Countless more people will be documenting their experiences on myspace or facebook, writing about what they’ve seen and heard.

The television coverage will be limited by its own rigidly structured design – and for all things sports, there’s no better place to turn.  But this means that the true heart of the games will be found online, on those sites that China and NBC can’t control.  There, we will see the real athletes, unbound and unprocessed.  Throughout their time in Beijing, they will be presented with a sea of people capturing their every move.  What’s more, the athletes themselves will have access to all of these sites; they will add messages to their myspace sites, or perhaps will upload their own videos – documenting everything from the opening day festivities, to the sidelines at the events, even their own medal ceremonies.  Simply put, we are looking at an extraordinary amount of access to this year’s games, the likes of which we’ve never seen before.

Which brings us back to the original question of just how much (if anything) the athletes should say about the way China conducts its affairs.  Because the reality is, they may be unable to avoid it.  If an athlete uses any of the above-mentioned media, they will be opening themselves to scrutiny.  Even a casual remark can be read as making some kind of statement – whether it’s a comment on the friendliness of the host country, or an expression of surprise at the seeming openness of a Communist regime.  The majority of what we will see on television will be about the sports… what we see in the other media will be about the people.  And if the athletes aren’t careful, they could be taking a stand whether they realize it or not.  Which, at the end of the day, might not be such a bad thing – after all, a heartfelt opinion is the best kind.

All of this, of course, will be a moot point if China decides to block access to YouTube and the like, as they did earlier this year during the Tibet protests.  But hey, if that happens, we still have almost 7,000 hours of NBC coverage to look forward to.

Go to YouTube and type in “Hilary Clinton”, and you get something along the lines of 96,000 videos; type in “Barack Obama”, and you get approximately 116,000.  Or try Google, where typing the name “John McCain” elicits about 38,000,000 hits.  Welcome to politics in the media age, where everything you need to know is at your fingertips – and even more that you don’t.

We live in a time where those running for the highest office in the country are under a greater, more intense form of scrutiny than ever before.  Each one of the videos or web pages mentioned above give us intimate access to the candidates, allowing us the freedom to leisurely examine their positions, or their public speaking methods, even their clothing or hairstyles.  It seems like we can never get enough… we gorge ourselves on every tidbit we can find, even though there is more information about these people than we could ever hope to read, hear, or see.

As humans, we’ve always had an insatiable need for knowledge; what we’re witnessing now, though, is something else.  It’s as if, by having so much, we’ve become conditioned to expect even more.  It’s not enough to be able to watch a video of Obama anytime we want… now, we can scrutinize his every word, to look for meaning both obvious and covert.  We can watch him frame by frame, in high definition television, looking for a blink or a facial tic that we can use to add meaning to his words – or to imply intent that isn’t really there.  It’s a form of perception-shaping, each according to his own needs or desires.  And then, when we’re done, we can log in to our favorite sites and post our newfound beliefs (or theories) for the whole world to read.

What does this mean to the election process?  One need only to look at Franklin Roosevelt for one answer.  Roosevelt contracted what was believed to be polio in 1921, resulting in his paralysis from the waist down.  Yet he was able to not only continue in public office, but to go on to win the presidency three times.  And throughout all of this, he convinced the American public that he was, if not exactly healthy, then at least getting better.  He did so by manipulating the media into seeing what he wanted it to see: he taught himself to walk using iron braces and a cane to appear vital; he used an extra-sturdy podium with which he could support himself for speeches in public; and he rarely allowed himself to be photographed in his wheelchair (which he used only in private).  He lied about the extent of his illness because he knew that it could not hinder him in serving the people.

Today, however, the line between mainstream media and independent ‘journalist’ has become severely blurred.  If Roosevelt were to try and manipulate the media now, he would in fact be manipulating us, the public at large.  And he would be vilified for it, for lying about something of such significance.  Today, the health of the most powerful man in the world is information that belongs to all of us.  The president cannot have a hangnail removed without the world knowing in advance… he gets a flu, and instantly the story flies around the world as markets tremble in anticipation.  No, chances are that Roosevelt wouldn’t even be nominated today – a candidate felled by a paralyzing illness might be considered a poor choice for whichever party he chose to represent.  Never mind qualifications… in the media age, it’s as much about how you look during your speech as it is what you say.

Which brings us back to McCain, who is questioned because people say he’s too old; or Obama, who comes across to some as a bit of an elitist; or Clinton, who at times is either too severe or too shrill or too mushy.  Thanks to an over-abundance of media outlets and devices, we have resorted to judging our candidates based on qualifications that, at times, have almost nothing to do with the office of the President and more to do with a popularity contest – we can watch a speech on You Tube, read the comments below, and get swept up in the discussions of everyday people debating the most mundane points.  It’s unnerving, to say the least.  And it’s also unnecessary.

Bring on the general election…