With books, movies and even television itself being regularly mined for new shows, it comes as little surprise to witness the very minds of viewers becoming the next target. The New York Television Festival, in cooperation with Xbox Live, has launched Xbox Live Originals, a contest that has participants creating a pilot episode for a new television show that, if chosen as a winner, will be granted a $100,000 distribution deal with Xbox Live. Six episodes based on the pilot will then be distributed over Microsoft's online console network and be screened at September's New York Film Festival.Your pilot may be animated, live-action or both, and must be between 5 and 15 minutes long. Entries must be on VHS (ask your parents) or DVD and, unless you're a student, must also be accompanied by a $25 "processing fee." You must be over 18 and live in one of the 25 countries where Xbox Live is officially available. Since that rules me out, allow me to share some amazing concepts as you check the competition page. Entries close 29 June 2007!
Imperfect Acquaintances
After losing his job, a newspaper cartoonist is forced to move into a cheaper apartment. Unfortunately, his new roommate is an irate foreign woman in desperate need of a green card. He's cynical! She's Hungarian! Together, they're hilarious!
Pilot
A disgraced fighter pilot, upset about the cancellation of JAG, decides to steal an experimental craft and destroy the television studio responsible. He ends up failing, however, and becomes friends with a TV executive who greenlights a pilot based on the failed mission and its beneficial outcome.
Misplaced
A group of strangers, seemingly destined to be together, find themselves lost in a Hawaiian vacation resort. In a series of completely pointless vignettes, we learn of their mundane lives before the vacation, all whilst dragging to the main plot's nebulous and inevitably nonsensical conclusion at an agonizing rate.
The Outer Twilight Realm
A series of standalone stories investigate bizarre "What if?" scenarios and frightening "WTF?" possibilities. Journey into madness as a veterinarian is transported into a nightmare realm where cats chase dogs, or witness the struggles of a driving instructor who finds himself in a parallel parking world. Gasp in surprise as the twist ending reveals that they were all dead robot ghosts from the future to begin with!
