Hastily Made Tourism Video winners announced

Positively Cleveland’s Hastily Made Tourism Video Contest wrapped up this afternoon as the winners were announced at the Positively Cleveland offices. The five judges, including Plain Dealer columnist Mike McIntyre, Cleveland International Film Festival’s Marcie Goodman, Cleveland Film Commission’s Ivan Schwarz, Cleveland Plus Marketing Alliance’s Rick Batyko and Mike Polk, creator of the original, comedic hastily made video that inspired the contest, picked the winners from the five semi-finalists, which were selected based on the number of views and ratings they received after being posted on YouTube with the other entries. The winning videos were, “Oh Mommy!,” which paired a catchy song with shots of recognizable city spots as a mother and her kids traipsed around town in a fast-motion clip. The other winner was "Marissa and Kevin," which included footage from the West Side Market and the Cleveland Heights toy shop Big Fun. The creators of both videos were present to pick up their prize packages, handed out by Tamera Lash Brown, Positively Cleveland’s VP of Marketing. “This has been such a fun ride,” Brown said, noting that there were a total of 38 submissions, double what Positively Cleveland aniticipated receiving. “And just so you know, our entire budget is less than half of the 14 million Polk claims it cost to make his video.” Overall, the contest was a hit as some 20,000 people viewed the videos, which were posted on the Positively Cleveland Web site. The five semi-finalist videos are still posted at positivelycleveland.com/hastilymade.