http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-UN6Zx2elg
The (South Korean) Presidential Counsel on National Branding is hosting a cooking video contest called “Experience Korea–UCC Video Contest: My Korean Cooking Video” in collaboration with YouTube as a part of Korea’s hansik globalization push.
There are several rules and guidelines for submissions. One of the most important was that the cooking videos must present a simple to follow Korean recipe in English with either English, Japanese or Chinese subtitles. If the video is in Korean, the video must have English, Japanese or Chinese subtitles. The contest rules specifically state, “Foreigners get extra points in judging.”
So I submitted a stripped down version of my original galbi video. I removed most of the music soundtrack for this contest and re-upload it for the contest.
The videos have to be posted by March 31, 2010 but they will keep the contest open until April 30. The contest judges will factor in the number of views into their judgment of the best Korean food video.
My Galbi video is facing over seven pages worth of stiff competition, including Dan Gray from SeoulEats, Steve aka QiRanger and Aeri from Aeri’s Kitchen.
The main thing I notice about this contest is that it is sponsored by Google’s militant UCC arm ‘YouTube’. I remember last year, the upload function was disabled for Korean residents, as Youtube rejected the gov’ts requirement to submit name and resident I.D. I’m guessing it was the gov’t that acquiesced to Youtube. Am I wrong? What’s the story?
The other thing I notice is the slickness of the videos. It seems like most of the recipes are less about doing interesting things with Korean food, than they are about incorporating music and imaging tricks with your camera and software. However, I thought Joordis seafood bibimbap had the best of both worlds.
I don’t know the politics of Korea’s “Real ID” so I’d leave that question for others more knowledgable than myself to answer.
However, I will respond to your second comment. I’ve been doing these YouTube cooking videos for a couple of years now (well before I started blogging). I usually error on the side of Keep It Simple, Stupid! However, as long as your “music and imaging tricks” help you tell the story, not become the story, the video is on the right track, IMO.