MEGA BLOKS HALO TOYMATION GRAND PRIZE WINNER REVEALED
California State University student wins the Mega Bloks Halo Toymation Grand Prize
MONTREAL - November 16, 2011- MEGA Brands Inc. (TSX: MB). After receiving over 3,000
submissions in their recent online video contest, Mega Bloks has announced the Grand Prize
winner: "The Rookie" produced by Tyler Gregory, a 22 year old student studying Entertainment
Art/Animation at California State University. Tyler's video won the title based on its overall
cinematography, originality and content.
The community-driven competition was launched this past summer to mark the 10th anniversary
of the hugely successful Halo videogame franchise, and required contestants to submit
toymations - stop motion animations featuring toys from the Mega Bloks Halo Authentic
Collectors Series.
"The creativity, talent and dedication that our fans demonstrated during this contest was truly
inspiring", says Andrew Sparkes, Vice President of Boys & Collectors Brand Management at
MEGA Brands. "The diverse content that was produced using our toys, from action-packed
battle scenes to dance videos, was an amazing creative expression of the Halo universe by
construction toy fans.
Tyler Gregory said he initially heard about the contest at Halo Fest in Seattle, WA, only one
month before the submission deadline. "I decided to enter anyways and just try my best," says
Tyler, "it took me 1 week to build all the sets, 2 weeks to film and take care of post production
effects, and almost a full day to do sound editing. I basically worked on the video constantly
whenever I was awake, and managed to finish the film on the deadline day."
In order to win this competition, participants like Tyler needed to generate as many votes as
possible for their videos. They did so, notably by using social media and word-of-mouth. Then,
the top 10 videos were published on October 17th at which point MEGA's panel of expert judges
took the lead in selecting the winner and runners-up.
These judges included:
- Pascal Blais, film producer and owner of the Academy Award winning Pascal Blais
Studios;
- Michael "Burnie" Burns, co-creator of the series Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch
Chronicles;
- Jessica Shea, Community Manager at 343 Industries and avid Halo gamer;
- Fred Kennedy (a.k.a Fearless Fred), host of Fred At Night, on Teletoon At Night;
- Andrew Sparkes, Vice President of Boys & Collectors Brand Management at MEGA
Brands.
To honor his work, Tyler will be receiving incredible prizes including the complete Fall 2011
Mega Bloks Halo Collection, video animation software, hardware and much more.
"The Rookie" video will also be featured on Waypoint, Microsoft's official "destination" for Halo
news, at the end of November.
To see Tyler Gregory's winning entry, the 2nd and 3rd place winners and other participant
submissions, please visit halotoymation.megabloks.com
News | Toy News
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