Chlorofilms announced May 15th the winners of its competition for new plant biology videos on YouTube. Over $8,000 in cash prizes were awarded in this first competition, which promotes the creation of fresh, attention-getting and informative videos about plant life.
Grand prize winner (with $1,000 cash prize) is Ela Lamblin of Vashon, WA, for his entry entitled "Fertile Eyes". The video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pHGN04CPEM, a collaboration with Anna Edlund, combines music, dance, sensual imagery and puns to tell the story of pollination and fertilization in plants in an unforgetable way. More from this creative team is available at http://www.lelavision.com/ .
First prizes ($500 cash awards) go to Daniel von Wangenheim of Cologne, Germany for his entry "fantastic vesicle traffic" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sRZy9PgPvg ; Kris Holmes of Rochester, NY for his entry "La Bloomba" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1ag6BSzvQQ , Burkhard Schulz of Purdue University of his production " PSI - Are my soybeans wearing different genes?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMKN9Q5FJh4 and Mike Wilder of Portland, OR, for his video series "The Carnivorous Syndrome in 3D" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d0_-XduCPU .
In addition 15 Second Prizes ($250) and 16 Honorable Mentions ($100) were awarded. These can be viewed at www.chlorofilms.org .
ChloroFilms is a nonprofit collaborative project started by Dr. Daniel Cosgrove at Penn State University with initial funding by the Education Foundation of the American Society of Plant Biologists http://www.aspb.org/education/foundation/gap.cfm and additional support from the Botanical Society of America and the Canadian Botanical Association. With the help of volunteers at colleges and universities around the globe, ChloroFilms is working to combine video and internet and social networking technologies to promote a greater appreciation and understanding of plant life and to make the best plant biology videos easy to find from its website at ChloroFilms.org.