What is it with college kids and online video challenges? There are plenty of startups catering to this strange video niche/fetish. IBeatYou and Strutta (read our review) have dedicated their entire Websites to this activity. And now Blowtorch Entertainment, the independent movie studio that raised $50 million last November, is getting in on the action with a Facebook app called Blown (and is using the tagline, “Get Blown”).
Blowtorch makes feature-length independent films, and is shooting one right now in Philadelphia with Luke Wilson called Tenure. But it also tries to engage with its potential college audience online through its Website, and now on Facebook. For instance, anyone can create their own short videos and the best ones get re-shot with professional actors by Blowtorch and will be shown before its main features in theaters across the country. Now with Get Blown, the idea is to get this audience to issue video challenges to each other. Right now, it is only a Facebook app, but Bebo and mobile versions are coming soon.
The barriers to participate here are really low. You don’t have to shoot your own scripted video. All you need to do is come up with a challenge, or join one, such as finding the best human beatbox video on YouTube, the worst male dance, or coming up with the cheesiest pick-up line. You can film yourself doing this, or simply find examples already out there on the Web and load them up into each challenge, where they can then be voted on and spread virally. Here’s an example of one that the company came up with for finding photos of the lamest tattoos:
Zach Challenge: Lamest Tattoo from George Johnson on Vimeo.
