The Million Dollar Challenge is HERE: Go Behind the Scenes and Meet the Makers

GoPro Awards: Million Dollar Challenge Highlight | HERO7 Black: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prt-G4cPIn4

When HERO7 Black launched three months ago, we challenged the GoPro Community to help us create the most epic highlight reel ever, and in exchange, we offered $1 million to be shared equally amongst the featured content creators. The only rule was footage needed to be shot on HERO7 Black, and it had to submitted raw by Dec. 9 at 11:59 PM PT.

We saw more than 25,000 submissions come in from around the world, and today we’re stoked to share the final Million Dollar Challenge (MDC) video featuring 66 clips from 56 creators representing 25 countries in one insane 2-minute highlight reel celebrating HERO7 Black users.

“Previously, our product highlight videos were shot by our in-house media team—expert creators with the know-how to get the perfect shot,” explained GoPro founder and CEO Nick Woodman. “Now that HERO7 Black makes it easy for anyone to capture professional-looking shots during their favorite activities, we decided to challenge our customers to shoot this year’s highlight video and pay them for it. We’re glad we did—they absolutely nailed it.”

To put things in perspective, we’ve seen videos that make us laugh, cry, cringe, cheer and celebrate, but this is one of the few to make us do all of the above—especially when it comes to celebrate.

“That was my vision for this from the very beginning—an immense amount of gratitude toward the people who buy GoPro cameras,” said creative director Josh Currie, who took the lead on the MDC edit team. “There were certain clips I was always looking for. Stuff that’s aspirational, stuff that’s high energy—you want faces, you want to connect to the people, and you want all the people who submitted to feel that they are connected in a way as well.”

The team would meet daily to sift through the thousands of new submissions, and the video evolved daily based on these meetings. And during each review, the team focused on finding clips that complimented one another and worked in the video’s 1920x1080 29.97 fps format.

“For example, finding a wakeboarder nailing a 720 and a skier doing a similar trick—they’re two different activities, but they are more or less doing the same thing,” Josh explained about the selection process. “By using them both, it makes it feel like you’re connecting them, and you’re uniform in this one voice throughout.”

The fact that the submissions came in as raw, unedited clips also presented a challenge in finding colors that matched or even quick moments, shot in high fps, that could be slowed down. During every review, videos were played back at full speed, so it took time and attention to details (like fps) to find a hidden slo-mo gem.

But the beauty of it all circles back to the fact that these were new HERO7 Black users, and at least four recipients were first-time GoPro users. Going from thinking we needed a full-scale production team to seeing the amazing pieces of raw content coming from GoPro newbies, made us realize that HERO7 Black is equally powerful for all skill levels.

“It amazing to watch how quickly creators rallied behind the challenge,” said GoPro’s Head of Community Devon DiPietro. “Once we planted a seed, the GoPro Community grew the Million Dollar Challenge into something more impactful and wonderful than we ever imagined.”

Each of the 56 creators included in the Million Dollar Challenge video will be awarded just over $17,800 for their submission. Please join us in congratulating (and following!) all the awardees listed.

There is one more creator to celebrate in the making of the MDC video, and that’s the composer, B. Lewis (@b_lewis), who provided us with the track that brings all the clips together. B. Lewis is a big part of the GoPro Music Family, and he created “Daises” specifically for the MDC video, which the team said was crucial to fine-tuning the feel, tone and the story arch in the piece.

All the recipients range from filmmakers and photographers to students, clerks, grounds keepers, dentists, lawyers, pilots, entrepreneurs, lifeguards, marine biologists and race car instructors, to name a few. And majority told GoPro it was their dream to be in one of our launch videos. Now they have a dream come true and a few extra bucks to help fuel their content creation dreams.

Visit gopro.com/awards for more details on how to submit to GoPro Awards. And follow @GoPro and check back here on The Inside Line for more MDC success stories throughout the next few weeks.