Crofoot, 323East team up to create Rocketmonster contest

Rocket Monster. It sounds like the name of a Jim Henson Muppet or character from Where the Wild Things Are. Go beyond the surface and realize it's the newest place for musicians and video producers to show off their work.

Royal Oak-based 323East and Pontiac-based Crofoot have teamed up to create RocketMonster.com. The online film festival website lets local bands and filmmakers broadcast their music videos and compete for a grand prize of $500 cash, $500 in merchandise from Konquest, and a year of text message marketing service from Fyremobile.com.

The video creators can win by entering their work and promoting it virally using social media tools. Viewers vote for the 10 best films and website staff choose another 10 to make it to the final round on Oct. 4. The one with the most votes by Nov. 5 wins.

The idea is to spur more creativity and collaboration in the music and film scenes while promoting artists' work. The low cost of creating Internet entertainment is expected to open the contest up to a lot of up-and-coming bands and filmmakers.

323East and its companion company Ohm Creative Group have put these sorts of principals together in downtown Royal Oak for years. The Crofoot, an old blighted building in downtown Pontiac turned into Metro Detroit's up-and-coming concert venue, also works closely with these companies and employs many of the same principals.

Source: Jesse Cory, partner of 323East and owner of Ohm Creative Group
Writer: Jon Zemke
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