BY: ROB HOFFMAN
GoPro has pretty much taken over the action-sports world, letting viewers see through the eyes of top athletes to imagine themselves carving down near-vertical mountain drops, popping backflips over canyons and surfing through 20-foot barrels. The beauty of GoPro’s business model is that the users themselves become the content creators, which then further promotes the brand. “Our customers are some of the most creative people on the planet. A key component of our programming strategy is user generated content,” says GoPro founder and CEO, Nicholas Woodman.
With this in mind, the ultra-hip company just launched their brand new GoPro awards, which will allocate up to $5 million a year, to everyday GoPro users who submit high-quality footage documenting their own unique passions in the traditional first-person GoPro style.
Submitting your work is easily done through the GoPro website, and could earn you anywhere from $500 for photos, $1000 for un-edited videos and $5000 for edited, finished products. According to their website, the main genres of a successful GoPro video include: Action, Adventure, Animals, Family, Motorsport, Music, Sports, Travel, Science and How-To. That’s right, you could literally get paid $5000 for submitting a cute video of your cat taking a bath.
Conversely, some have taken advantage of the camera’s portable design to create incredible works of cinematic achievement. “GoPro enables a global movement of self-expression that’s resulting in some of the most compelling user-generated content ever created,” says Woodman. The initiative, Woodman is excited to announce, gives amateur filmmakers and photographers a chance to gain access to GoPro’s wide audience of over 15.6 million followers on combined social media accounts, as mentioned by GrindTV.
Some tips from GoPro for getting your work published? Just keep the video quality high, the background music licensed, and your life motherfucking epic.
Photo: Chase Olsen
Image sourcing: gerdali.com, komplett.no, wearechampionmag.com
