Website lets advertising and filmmaking students network, show off, and win money

November 14, 2007-Sites such as Myspace and Facebook allow students everywhere to make contact with their college friends. Whether sharing picture from recent parties or posting comments on the latest in their lives, these social utilities make connecting with friends a highly-addictive pastime. A new community called Black Turtle Media aims to move social networking in a new direction by creating a niche community for budding creative artists to demonstrate their talents, collaborate with each other and develop professional contacts.

Black Turtle Media is a website that holds creative contests for aspiring advertisers, filmmakers, and other creative individuals. The website also allows for users to post online portfolios of their work and to network with everyone from top industry professionals to fellow creative students.

“The creative geniuses of tomorrow are today studying their craft and honing their skills on America’s university campuses. Our vision is to help America’s creative geniuses – present and future – find the right platform to get noticed,” said Anirudh Kulkarni, founder of Black Turtle Media.

The site was initially launched last summer and began holding online video contests. The first batch of contests challenged contestants to create advertisements for Halo 3, the iPhone, and the 2008 presidential campaign. There are two winners for each contest: the popular winner and the critic’s choice. Each winner receives $5,000. The popular winner is voted by members of the website while the critic’s choice is voted by a panel of experts. Like YouTube, videos can be watched live on the web and commented on by anyone who registers.

On November 6th, the site underwent a re-launch and it now allows creative individuals the chance to create online portfolios of their work. Students can upload their best work and show off the full spectrum of their talents. The online portfolios allow students to upload print ads, videos, and other creative work to their profile in hopes that their work will land them an important contact, a creative gig or even a job. Students can give themselves an advantage by providing potential employers and networking professionals with a link to their online portfolios so that they may review their work.

Black Turtle Media is also expanding its reach in other directions. An online blog tells readers where to submit their work around the web and how to maximize their creative potential. A platform for exclusive classroom use is being worked on. Other ideas are already being drawn out as the portfolio feature begins to take off, such as agency-hosted pages and job listings.

The Black Turtle Media website is live and ready for submissions. Aspiring videographers, producers, and creative artists are encouraged to explore the opportunities to post their portfolio, network with peers, build professional contacts, and participate in various contests, including some sponsored by Black Turtle Media. These contests will give them a chance to work on professional level projects, shine in competition against their peers, and – for the winners – make some money.

For more information please visit, www.blackturtlemedia.com.

Black Turtle Media
11350 Random Hills Road, Suite 220
Fairfax, VA 22030
Brian Webb, brian@blackturtlemedia.com

Black Turtle Media is re-defining the future of advertising by nurturing a community of passionate, imaginative artists that have the creative skills to develop and produce commercial-grade advertising for major brand sponsors.

Black Turtle Media fosters an interactive community where consumers and creators combine forces with cutting edge brands as they look for fresh, authentic content to promote their products and services — at a fraction of traditional advertising costs.

Using the Web as a medium, Black Turtle harnesses the enthusiasm of budding creative producers, marketing communications professionals, amateur artists, and bold sponsors to collaborate in the creation of multi-media commercials by providing this global community with the tools to create, post, critique, rate, refine, promote and license their intellectual property.

This release was published on openPR.