YouTube, Ridley Scott Will Give You $500,000 For a Short Story

Ridley Scott knows a few things about how to make a good film. If you know a few things about how to make a good film, here’s your chance for you and Scott to make a good film together.

The director and/or producer of multi-award winning classics Blade Runner, Gladiator, and a few dozen other films and television series with which your average American has most likely seen and enjoyed, and the driving force behind the 1,025 clip user-submitted YouTube feature collaboration Life in a Day is offering a half million dollars to one talented auteur. He’s partnering up with YouTube, Scott Free London, the Venice Film Festival, and Emirates for Your Film Festival, a global, short story competition where the winner will receive a “$500,000 production grant to work with Scott’s team to create a new story for the world to see.”

Here are few internet (and now Hollywood) famous filmmakers (Josh Raskin, Fede Alvarez) talking about their film making in order to promote the initiative.

From February 2 through March 31 you can submit 15-minut-or-less story-driven videos on YouTube.com/yourfilmfestival. The submission guidelines allow for for anyone above 18 years of age to compete, and “all genres and formats are welcome.” Scott and company will whittle all the submissions down to 50 semi-finalists, the YouTube-viewing public will vote on the top 10 (all of which will be screened at the 2012 Venice Film Festival), and a jury led by Scott will select the grand prize winner.

Good luck and here’s to making the next Panic Attack.