Take180.com - Bianca DiMaio

Two summers ago I responded to an ad on facebook looking for people to test out a new beta-website called Take180.com. At first I was suspicious that it was a scam because it seemed too good to be true that they were willing to pay people for doing such a simple job from home. Since they didn't ask for any personal information I figured that there was nothing to lose.

I responded to the ad and was sent a password to gain access to take180's legit website.

Tak180.com is an interactive website that consists of different challenges for users to participate in. If you win the challenge you get a prize(such as an ipod, laptop, or a trip) and your idea also gets featured in an episode on their web series.

For example, I particpated in a challenge called "Unhelpful Movie Review". For this challenge the users were asked to upload a video of themselves giving an "unhelpful movie review". Here is one of my submissions...

Garfield The Movie from bianca on Take180.com

Not all of the contests required video. Some of them asked for images or even photoshopped photos designed by the users.

Here is a tabloid cover i designed for the "Put the "U" in Magazine" contest. This contest asked for an original magazine cover with crazy headlines that features the user.

Alright! Magazine from bianca on Take180.com

I had a lot of fun working for this site during summer of '08. I also made around $500 for my submissions to the site and getting nominated as a finalist for the tabloid contest.

I think this site is an interesting idea for giving the user the chance to see their work in a real, professional, studio created, webisode. The prizes are definitely a great incentive to gain interest.

So what's the catch right?

I found the biggest catch to be the fact that whatever you submit to Take180.com immediately becomes Take180's property. This means that you are not allowed to upload this video anywhere (like YouTube) EXCEPT for Take180.com. That may not be a problem for someone who is just making goofy videos for fun and not professionally trying to be recognized, but for filmmakers, such as ourselves, this is very limiting. Is it worth selling out for the possibility of winning a laptop? Okay, maybe it is, after all we are struggling artists...