So, I was one of the 90+ million viewers who tuned into Super Bowl XLI last weekend, and like a lot of folks I was curious to see the latest batch of multi-million dollar commercials, partly for the sheer flash and glam of it all, but mostly because our extended Yahoo! team here played a part in bringing the first “user-generated” commercials to the Super Bowl.

The commercials were for Doritos and were actually two of five final contest entries that our very own Jumpcut community created and voted on last fall.

You might remember a while back when we found ourselves enamored with this whole “remix” culture. The prospect of finding and using “stuff” on the web to create new multimedia that can further enrich the Web as a repository of knowledge is like our FUSE motto flourishing once again. You find stuff, you use it. You share it, and you expand the world’s database of knowledge with your own contribution.

Check ‘em out:

It’s always interesting to see how our platforms enable the makers of the world, giving them the tools to create meaningful experiences on the web. In this case, we were particularly thrilled to watch (along with millions of other people) members of our community earn a level of recognition and respect for their unique achievement.

Our congrats to Dale Backus and Kristin Dehnert for their creations!

Take a look at the rest of the videos here.

Mitali Pattnaik
Yahoo! Video

Before Monday I had never even participated in a regular scavenger hunt, let alone one involving urban mobile media. Yahoo! invited a group of vloggers, photographers, videographers, and students to spend a day creating digital media for the Time Capsule project. We broke up into small teams equipped with only a digital camera and mobile phone to receive clues and instructions. Each team had 5-20 minutes to shoot movies that touch upon the collective human experience and upload them before advancing to the next challenge. Some of the results were indeed interesting.

Let?s start with the concept of beauty — It?s undoubtedly subjective, and most certainly influenced by the media. But see how easily it is destroyed? The representations of beauty before and after were some of my favorites. Eek!?

The world seems to be shrinking as digital communication and tools expand our notion of community. We must respect social boundaries and the feelings of others in order to get along, but there are moments when the behavior of others is simply annoying. Whether their infractions are petty or serious, we have to cope with anger. What would irritate you ? maybe someone blocking traffic while on a cell phone or just cutting in a line? Certainly being poked or groped is unacceptable!

As easy as it is to annoy others, it is even more difficult to love them. There are many types of love, ranging from mere camaraderie with strangers to love that withstands the test of time, and including the romantic love we feel for others. The pain of love can also hurt more than anything else.

Later in the day, we had hands-on workshops on remixing with Jumpcut and uploading to social media products like Flickr and Yahoo! Video. Whether remaking a popular movie using only our hands, reenacting a media event from recent times, or dropping a figure from the past into the modern world, it was challenging to collaborate and shoot video while the clock was ticking. Ultimately, it was a great experience in human collaboration and the power of portable media, in which everyone is a participant.

Bethany Del Lima
Yahoo! Video Editor

As readers of this blog know, we recently welcomed JumpCut to our family, and we’re back to tell you about our first project together.

We’re working with Frito-Lay to invite people to create their own Doritos commercials – and the winning ad will be aired during the next Super Bowl. Yep. That is correct. Thirty seconds of snacky, salty video could get you one of the most coveted spots in broadcast advertising, recognition of your brilliance, $10,000 bucks, and a trip to Miami. We are talking about an estimate 48 million viewers during Super Bowl XLI on February 4th, 2007.

The place to go to is Crash the Super Bowl. You get a variety of great assets to use, and please see the official rules for creative assignment and content guidelines ? this is family entertainment after all. No Janet moments, please.

People can submit their videos from October 11th through December 4th (you’ll need to sign in to post your video), and all approved submissions will be viewable for everyone to vote and comment on. Then Frito-Lay and its agencies will pick five finalists by January 2, 2007. Each of the five finalists will receive $10,000 and a weekend trip to Miami. The winner will be determined by open voting and the winning ad will be unveiled during the Super Bowl broadcast.

Whether you’re a Final Cut Pro master, or just getting your feet wet with online video editing products like JumpCut, the time has come to call upon your fondest Doritos memories ? and turn your addiction to the orange nacho cheese flavor into digital genius. In fact, folks are already submitting their work, like cbisher and JStocco. And there’s also a healthy string of comments and lots of viewer ratings.

Greatness awaits you!

I’m thinking about submitting something myself. My cat eats Doritos…

Tara Kirchner
Yahoo! Search Blog

We love it when an idea takes hold of people’s imaginations, and especially when it’s transformed into a different language. Earlier this year, Yahoo! Research Berkeley, in partnership with the San Francisco Film Society and San Francisco State University’s Institute for Next Generation Internet, released the International Remixer. The International Remixer enabled over 1,000 people to get crazy with their creativity and mashup content from the 49th San Francisco Film Festival to create their own 1-minute movie remixes.

Last week, Yahoo! Korea launched a localized version of the Remixer to promote “School of Rock”, a popular cable TV program in Korea produced by Mnet. The program brings in local rock stars who surprise a different high school every week by putting on a music concert for the screaming student fans. The students then create their own video clips by remixing the standard footage of the concert.

With the Yahoo! Korea launch, incredibly easy video editing tools like Remixer are reshaping how we think about video programming. It transforms thousands of video viewers into video creators and enables them to share new stories remixed from the media.

Ok – we don?t understand a word of it, we just love the fact that it’s in Korean and the universal concept of remix and mashups needs no translation in order for anyone to have a fun time. If you?re interested, surf on over to Yammy Remixer and get your groove on.

Rock on, Yahoo! Korea!

Jeannie Yang and Ayman Shamma
Yahoo! Research Berkeley

We recently launched the new Yahoo! Video and the editors have been highlighting interesting stuff on the video home page as well as on their new blog. Now they are also featuring some of the best user videos on the homepage of Yahoo!. Talk about a fire hose! Thank goodness for video hosting.

Yesterday, Yahoo! Video editor Bethany del Lima took a moment to call out some of the Yahoo! Videos that were recently showcased on our homepage:

• Poetry by Billy Collins and animation are combined to create a moving take on the human experience in the nostalgic Forgetfulness created by The Nursery.
• Real Ninjas is a fun AMV combining clips with pop music.
• One thing I love about contemporary pop culture is how easy it is to reference Fellini and Eminem in the same sentence. In 8 ? Mile, the AV Club takes clips from Fellini’s 8 1/2 and sets it to Eminem music in this odd trailer mashup.
• A couple of World Cup fanatics with a lot of time on their hands create Finger Football tricks.

We are always looking for great content to feature, so upload your best clips and maybe they’ll play someday on the Yahoo! home page!

Bethany & Tara