Mad Skillz - Entry #51 - Professional Yo-Yo Berry

OK folks, this is our last shout-outs post in what was a purely awesome I Love My BlackBerry Video contest. For this final round, I went through the videos and have highlighted in this post nine entries that really grabbed my attention for different reasons. I'll give a brief overview, and then you can watch all the videos below. As for the video above... well... let's just say it hit a sweet spot with me because back when I was 8 years old (in '88) I remember watching the Smothers Brothers reunion season on CBS. The Yo-Yo Man (Tom Smothers) was my HERO. Seriously, I was addicted to yo-yos long before I became addicted to BlackBerrys.

More Shout Out Awards:

• Mad Skillz Award - Aron Bendet is the Yo-Yo Berry
• First Entry In - Props to Matthios Rios for getting this video in just hours after we announced the competition
• From the Heart - Robert Sinisi's video is straight from the heart. Our best wishes go out to his sister
• Most Educational - We can now sign BlackBerry thanks to Jenna Endicott's entry
• More Mad Skilz - Marco Hartig killed his BlackBerry... in style
• Most Money Spent on a Video - Troy Peterson.. you is crazy! Watch him buy 7,000 shares of RIMM for close to half a million dollars :)
• Passion & Awesomeness - Troy Reynold's Inglorious BlackBerry Addict tale is a must-watch!
• Gag Reel Award - Troy Anderson's documentary had an awesome Gag Reel at the end. Kudos to that!!
• CrackBerry Crazy Awesome - BlackBerrying while Sky Diving? YOU BET!

In addition to our Slacker, SmrtGuard and ShaoSoft Prizes going out to all contestants that put in an entry, all of our shout-out winners will also get their own Coveroo and DreamTheme Prime Theme! 

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Entry #12 -Two Different Kinds of Fruit

* Update - We got Eric's Special Time entry back up. Watch it below!!! *

This post is way overdue! Between the BlackBerry Developer Conference last week, and playing catch-up from being away this week, I'm a bit behind on our I Love My BlackBerry video contest shoutouts. Today we've got a couple of the funny short-commercials that were entered. Above you can watch Randall Brown's Two Different Kinds of Fruit video and below you can catch Brian Smith's I Have an App For That skit (this video always wins the award for Best Hair). There were two other entries that I absolutely LOVED in this category, but unfortunately the contestants yanked from youtube (leave your entries up... our final shoutout is coming tomorrow!).  Kudos goes to Entry #34 by Eric Hilliard for Special Time and to Entry #32 by Brad Cook for Unavoidable.

A note to contestants: Just to recap where things are at... the grand prizes winners have their BIG prizes en route to them already. Our finalists will be getting their $50 ShopCrackBerry coupon codes before end of day Friday. Our finalists and shout-out winners will be getting contacted about their custom CrackBerry coveroos before end of day Friday, and then everybody will who entered a video will be getting contacted about their Slacker and SmrtGuard and ShaoSoft and Dream Theme prizes before the end of the weekend. Thanks for the patience!

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Entry #36 - Chairman Plow's I LOVE MY CRACKBERRY

With the Grand Prize Winner announced in the I Love My BlackBerry video contest, it's time to follow-up with some honorable mentions. In this shout outs post, we've got three stellar music-focused videos that were submitted. Above you can hear Chairman Plow's awesome I Love My CrackBerry track (this was one of my personal favorites - just needs a couple more verses and this baby would be platinum!). Below we've got two more vids. First, Crystal Hunter's I Love My CrackBerry parody of Miley Cyrus' Party in the USA (which today landed top spot on America's Top 40). Gotta give Crystal HUGE props for working "Force Radio On" into a chorus. LOL. Now THAT's Hardcore (download Force Radio On). And lastly, David Demaria's I Love My BlackBerry Remix that's full of CrackBerry.com love. Awesome stuff. Enjoy the vids!

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Entry #17: The Scent of a BlackBerry!

Yup, that's right... the Grand Prize Winner in our I Love My BlackBerry Video Contest is Matt Galo's amazing video production, The Scent of a BlackBerry. If you haven't seen it yet, watch it above and be blown away! For his creativity, efforts, and wicked video, Matt will be taking home a new Macbook (in honor of the launch of BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac), his choice of BlackBerry Storm2 or BlackBerry Bold 9700, and the Schlage LiNK home system!!

Our 1st runner up was our wild card pick, APPLECALYPSE, which drew in a lot voter support, capturing 24% of the vote compared to 26% of the vote for The Scent of a BlackBerry. 2nd place will get Kevin Leung his choice of BlackBerry Bold 9700 or Storm2. From there it was CrackBerry Therapy followed very closely by BlackBerry... A Love Story for third and fourth place respectively, each getting 11% of the votes. You can view the finalist voting breakdown below.

ALL OF OUR FINALISTS Will be receiving some great prizes, including a $50 coupon code for accessories from ShopCrackBerry.com, a free custom battery door cover from Coveroo.com, and a 1-year subscription to both SmrtGuard and Slacker Radio Plus. With the finalists and grand prize winners taken care of, we still have some shout out awards that'll be hitting the blogs over the next few days. To all our participants -- we'll be following up with all of you soon as everybody will be getting prizes (stay tuned for a big thank you to our sponsors post too).  BIG CONGRATS go to all our our finalists! 

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Entry #67 - CSI Waterloo | View All Contest Video Submissions >>

* Finalist Voting Now On - Be sure to Vote for your Favorite Video Entry!! *

With the finalists all announced in the I Love My BlackBerry video contest and voting now open, it's time for us to highlight on the blogs some of the other notable entries that were submitted. Over the next few days we'll run these bonus round faves in the blogs. While all entries in the contest are going to receive a free year of SmrtGuard and Slacker Radio Plus service, all of the shout outs are also going to get a free Coveroo for their BlackBerry! There'll be a lot of shout outs (in no particular order), so stay tuned!

My first shout out goes to entry #67 - CSI Waterloo! This one was actually put together by two of our hardworking CrackBerry Twelpers, @michaelwpg and @Shao128. The intro on this one is stellar and I couldn't help but appreciate the CrackBerry Kevin portrait they worked into the vid (kinda creepy actually! lol). Great work guys. And I'm posting this one first in the shout outs because Shao, who also develops BlackBerry Apps via ShaoSoft, has offered up one of his apps for free to everybody who submitted a video in the contest. What a nice guy! We'll be sending out emails next week to all who participated. Wicked! That's it.... sit back and enjoy the show!

Entry #33 - APPLECALYPSE | View All Contest Video Submissions >>

* That's it. All ten finalists have now been announced. stay tuned for the community vote!! *

With it being Halloween tomorrow, it's fitting that our tenth finalist in the I Love My BlackBerry video contest center around Zombies! As chosen by the CrackBerry community in our WildCard vote, Kevin Leung's entry puts us in a world where iPhone Zombies have taken over (scary thought, I know!). There were a lot of firsts for Kevin and his crew in putting this entry together - you can read the story behind the flick below. Awesome video!!

That's it for announcing the finalists. But there's plenty of iluvmybb fun left to come. We'll kick off the final vote tomorrow, and while that's open for a few days will be running some bonus round posts and shout-outs highlighting some of the other awesome entries submitted. Huge kudos and thank you once again go to everybody who submitted an entry!

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Entry #35 - The BlackBerry Addict | View All Contest Video Submissions >>

* keep in mind we're not announcing the ten finalists in any particular order - 1 more to come! *

For many readers, watching our ninth finalist in the I Love My BlackBerry contest will be like looking in the mirror. CrackBerry.com's tag line is The #1 Site for BlackBerry Users (& Abusers!) and Greg Stee's entry does a great job of portraying just what we mean by Abuser. The video was shot in Brooklyn, NY and stars Aldous Davidson as the BlackBerry Addict and Chris Prine as the ignored roommate. Too funny! Great Work.  

ONLY ONE MORE FINALIST LEFT TO BE ANNOUNCED! The tough thing about narrowing 80 entries down to 10 finalists is that no matter what, there's going to be 70 ticked off entries out there. Our judges took a LOT of time in making their selections, and I think they've done a pretty bang up job. Having now personally watched all of the videos a few times each and seeing soo many awesome vids,  I'm sure there's going to be a few comments about "this one should have made it instead of that one" and vice versa. Hopefully we won't see that, and don't forget, once the finalists have all been announced we're going to be doing some bonus round posts featuring more outstanding videos. 

PRIZES FOR EVERYONE: Also, we've round up a few great prizes that are going to be given to ALL 80 entries. Everybody who submitted a video, finalist or not, is going to receive one year free of both Slacker Radio Plus and SMRTGUARD plus some other goodies we'll announce later. BIG thanks to our sponsors.  

Entry #48 - I Love My BlackBerry, The Movie | View All Contest Video Submissions >>

* keep in mind we're not announcing the ten finalists in any particular order - 2 more to come! *

Suspense. Drama. Action. Our 8th finalist's video entry in the I Love My BlackBerry contest has them all and then some. Kick back, hit play and watch I Love My BlackBerry, The Movie. Mike Neel packed a lot into this 4minute flick, which flows quick and holds your attention. Great job Mike (and evil girlfriend!)! You can read his overview of the video below.

Only two more entries left to get announced. We'll do them both up tomorrow for Storm2 launch day! Stay tuned!

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Entry #69 - BlackBerry... A Love Story | View All Contest Video Submissions >>

* keep in mind we're not announcing the ten finalists in any particular order - 3 more to come! *

We're into the home stretch in announcing the finalists in our I Love My BlackBerry video contest. Our seventh finalist is entry #69, titled BlackBerry... A Love Story. The vision and handy work of Michael Garcia and Elizabeth Bejarno, this is one hella-creative entry, playing off the mood and theme of an old Hollywood love story. Just hit play and watch. Pretty wicked, huh? You can find the story behind the video below.

Only three more entries left to get announced over the next two days before we get the community vote kicked off on Thursday (will run through the weekend to Monday night). If you've missed any of the finalist announcements so far, here's a recap of our first six so you can get up to speed:

• Finalist 01 - Entry #45 - A day in the life without my BlackBerry
• Finalist 02 - Entry #43 - CrackBerry Therapy
• Finalist 03 - Entry #17 - The Scent of a BlackBerry
• Finalist 04 - Entry #20 - Getting Away with BlackBerry Love
• Finalist 05 - Entry #08 - Greased Touch Screen
• Finalist 06 - Entry #70 - Romantic Evening Gone Wrong

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Entry #70 - Romantic Evening Gone Wrong | View All Contest Video Submissions >>

* keep in mind we're not announcing the ten finalists in any particular order - 4 more to come! *

If you watch all of the video submissions in our I Love My BlackBerry video contest, you'll find a handful of entries that went with a fairly literal take on BlackBerry love. Our sixth finalist, by Justin Brown, fits into that category and made a great video of it with some stellar and hilarious acting. Justin told us:

This video was filmed in West Paterson, NJ. It stars myself, Justin Brown, Susanne Madani, and of course Vanessa the BlackBerry Storm! This is just a hint on how much I love my BlackBerry. 

If there were Oscars for best actor and supporting actress actress in a Smartphone film or documentary, I think Justin and Susanne would definitely be nominated and be in the running to win. They own their roles in this one. Great job!!

Browsing through the comments to our previous finalist announcements, it looks like things are shaping up nicely for a tight race in the final community vote. In case you were wondering on the judging criteria, I instructed the judges to look at, in no particular order: entertainment value and impact, effort, originality/creativity, passion and stickiness. After watching 80 videos, the finalist videos should be the ones that really stand out in the brain hours and even days later. We left the rules on this contest pretty wide open (we were curious to see what kind of entries would result... and were pleasantly surprised!); so while high production quality is always nice, it wasn't a requirement to be considered a finalist here. In future video contests we'll maybe try it out with more rules (like you need to record the video on a BlackBerry). Four more finalists to be announced!

Entry #20 - Getting Away With CrackBerry Love | View All Contest Video Submissions >>

* keep in mind we're not announcing the ten finalists in any particular order - 6 more to come! *

While the third finalist we announced in our I Love My BlackBerry video contest was a 9m13s long BlackBerry tale, our fourth finalist's video is short, but sweet. All of our judges got a real kick out of Jeff Jenson's CrackBerry Love video submission. It's definitely clever. You can read the story behind the video below. Nicely done Jeff!!

More finalist announcements to come. It wasn't easy for our judging team (ten person panel, 5 male, 5 female, varying ages - I'm not on the judging panel) to narrow down 80 entries to ten finalists. I'm sure when all is said and done you have may have a few picks different on your own top ten list (don't forget, we're going to follow up with some bonus round picks as well). But you can't make your own top ten list unless you watch them all, so be sure to visit the entries page to check them all out!

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Entry #17 - The Scent of a BlackBerry | View All Contest Video Submissions >>

* keep in mind we're not announcing the ten finalists in any particular order - 7 more to come! *

Friday night is movie night for many, so it's fitting that we announce our third finalist in the I Love My BlackBerry video contest just in time for the weekend. Entry #17, by Matt Galo (Stang68 on CrackBerry), created the epic major motion picture above, titled The Scent of a BlackBerry. At 9m13s you'll want to grab some popcorn and a beverage before hitting play, because you won't want to miss one second once the movie starts. As for Matt's thought process and story behind the flick, you can read that below. Amazing video Matt!

We're going to keep the finalist announcements coming over the weekend (maybe even up it to two a day for Saturday and Sunday) so keep it locked to CrackBerry for more finalist picks.  

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Entry #43 - CrackBerry Therapy | View All Contest Video Submissions >>

* keep in mind we're not announcing the ten finalists in any particular order - 8 more to come! *

The second finalist to be announced in our I Love My BlackBerry Video Contest is Entry #43, by Raymond Mendoza. If you're a BlackBerry user and visit CrackBerry.com on a regular basis, the odds are pretty good that someone you know -- a loved one or coworker -- has probably told you to seek help for your BlackBerry addiction. Watch the video above to see CrackBerry therapy brought to life! Raymond had his friends Aileen, Czar, Glen, Joel and Rohith help him out to get it all done. Raymond let us know that he wanted the video to be funny in a dramatic way. I'd say he definitely succeeded. Job well done!! 

We'll announce another finalist video right here tomorrow. One of the things you'll notice when checking out all of the contest videos submitted is that there are few popular categories of ideas: song / music video, short commercial, original skit/film, etc.. Once all the ten finalists have been announced and the voting is open to the community, we're going to run some bonus round posts here on the blogs looking at other awesome entries in these different categories (and we'll give away some bonus round prizes too!).

Entry #45 - A Day in the Life WITHOUT My BlackBerry | View All Contest Video Submissions >>

* keep in mind we're not announcing the ten finalists in any particular order - 9 more to come! *

The first finalist to be announced in our I Love My BlackBerry Video Contest is Entry #45, by Alexandra Jessome. Take a few minutes to watch the video above and you'll see that Alexandra went above the call of duty with her original flick, enrolling the help of her friends, classmates, and family (even Grandma took part!) to put together the compelling story of not why she loves her BlackBerry, but rather how she wishes she could say she loves her BlackBerry once again. Congrats Alexandra. Awesome job!!!

We'll announce another finalist video right here tomorrow. The suspense continues.... so stay tuned!! And if you haven't had a chance yet to watch all the video entries, jump over to the contest videos page and check them out. There's literally hours of entertainment. Once all the finalists have been posted we'll open up the debate and voting to the community to choose the winners (so keep the comments friendly and non-competitive on these individual posts!).