Calling all directors! For those whose camera skills are superb or have a passion for directing, this is a great opportunity for you to show off your talent and possibly win big.

Elton John is looking for an original music video idea to go along with three of his songs. He has announced his pairing with YouTube to hold a contest to see who can come up with the best idea for a music video for three of his songs. These songs are: “Tiny Dancer,” “Rocket Man,” and “Bennie and the Jets.” All of these songs being released in the 70’s, were before the video era and don’t currently have an accompanying video.  

This contest is in celebration of 50 years of partnership and songwriting between Elton John and Bernie Taupin.

Each song’s video must be made in a distinct style. There are three types of video styles being accepted: animated, live-action, and choreography. The videos for “Rocket Man” are to be animated, “Tiny Dancer” videos should be live-action, and “Bennie and the Jets” videos need to be choreographed. Only one submission per song per person is accepted.

There are three mentors, each a specialist in one of the video styles, who are YouTube creators that will be judging and creating a shortlist to continue on in the competition. These mentors are: PES, Kurt Hugo Schneider, and Parris Goebel. PES is a filmmaker and is widely acclaimed for his stop-motion videos. Kurt Hugo Schneider is a musician and filmmaker who produces covers of popular music on his YouTube channel. Parris Goebel is a choreographer, specifically known for her work on Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” music video.

The second round of judges consist of Melina Matsoukas, a Grammy-winning music video director, Jeffrey Katzenberg, the founder and CEO of DreamWorks animation, and Barry Jenkins, an American movie writer and director. Once the video ideas get past the second round of judges, John and Taupin will be picking the three winners.

Of course there will be three winners, one for each song. The winning film maker will receive $10,000 and get the opportunity to work with Pulse Films to produce their video.

The video treatment ideas must be submitted by the 30th of January. The winning videos will be released in the summer of 2017.

John says, “We’re excited to see creative ideas that push boundaries, tell compelling stories and give viewers something they have never seen before.”

Check out the contest rules and submit your ideas at https://thecut.eltonjohn.com/