Let's try this again.

Here's a project by Canon that promises to be a real treat. A piece of branded-entertainment wrapped around a fresh center of crowd-sourcing. "The Story Behind the Still" is a film competition encouraging creative types to make their own short films based around a still image. It's the film version of one those cooking shows with a secret ingredient. Sort of.

Filmmaker Vincent Laforet kicks off the competition with the intro short film, which he shot on one of Canon's latest HD cameras. This is where the branded part comes in. Not sure exactly what cameras the crowd are supposed to shoot with, but I doubt it has to be a Canon.

Now I know what you're thinking. "Shiraz, you're a two-faced weasel. Wasn't it just twenty four hours ago that you exposed us to the ugly side of crowd-sourcing. Those so-called Doritos commercials will haunt us for the rest of our lives. And now you're pushing more of it."

So why am I so full of anticipation in this case. To put it bluntly, I believe the make up of the crowd will make for more engaging content. I may be wrong, but I'm pretty darn sure that this competition will attract a more skilled, creatively focused set of participants. Creating thirty seconds of "Doritos love" is one thing. An original short film is quite another. I should know, I've tried and failed horribly!

More importantly though, I believe, and I'm not the first person to say this and won't be the last unless the world ends NOW............So as I was saying, this competition should demonstrate that crowd-sourcing works best when the crowd is "niched". Or to put it another way, the more concentrated the pool with like-minded talent, skill and experience the better the content.

Kudos to Grey, Vincent Laforet and Vimeo, the folks behind the still.

(Sharing credit to jawbone.tv)