Canon is holding a new contest for aspiring filmmakers that gives you a chance to win a Canon 7D, 5D Mark II or some Canon lenses.  Vincent Laforet has created a new short film, Cabbie (seen above), but you have to pick up with the subsequent chapters based on the still image provided by Laforet at the end of Cabbie.  Laforet and other all star film makers will pick the winning chapters after Cabbie for a total of seven chapters (six winners).

The deadline for chapter 2 is February 11.

You can get details in the press release below and over on the Vimeo group, Beyond the Still.

Canon “Story Behind the Still” Press Release

Lake Success, N.Y., January 15, 2010 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging, today announced the commencement of “The Story Beyond The Still Contest,” allowing photographers and videographers to showcase their creativity in a new style of filmmaking that blends still and video images into a continuous cinematic piece begun by Canon Explorer of Light Vincent Laforet. The contest, sponsored by Canon and hosted by Vimeo, the online video sharing site hosting one of the largest collections of HD content on the Web, invites participants to use the HD video capability of their camera to create short, two to four minute videos that tell a story based on the final still frame from Laforet’s piece, and then from each successive winning “chapter.” Videos can be submitted to and viewed on a dedicated site within the Vimeo online community before they are judged.

The “Story Beyond the Still” contest provides filmmakers with a unique opportunity to showcase their storytelling abilities in a new style of filmmaking utilizing an HD-capable camera to capture moving images while also demonstrating the social appeal of collaborative storytelling. To kick off the contest, Laforet collaborated with Grey New York to bring his interpretation of a still image to life in a short film entitled “The Cabbie,” which serves as the first installment of a seven chapter collaborative work in which each participant will be asked to interpret the previous winning photographer/filmmaker’s final still image to start their vision for the subsequent chapter.

In “The Cabbie,” Laforet’s interpretation begins on a still image depicting a teddy bear left on the sidewalk outside of an airport before telling the “Story Beyond The Still” that gives the viewer more to appreciate beyond the original moment the image was captured. Viewable exclusively on Vimeo at http://vimeo.com/groups/beyondthestill/, Laforet shot in stunning 1080p HD image quality utilizing Canon’s new EOS 7D Digital SLR camera.

“The concept behind the ‘Story Beyond The Still’ Contest was to find a way to involve people in the new realm of HD DSLR video,” said Laforet. “Working with Canon, Vimeo and Grey NY to bring the contest to light, there is tremendous anticipation to see how the story unfolds in this wonderful social experiment in filmmaking.”

Six winners will be chosen (one for each chapter) based on their submissions and will join Laforet on location to collaboratively film the final chapter of the film, In addition, winners will receive a choice of prizes including Canon EOS 7D and 5D Mark II DSLR cameras or select Canon lenses.

“Canon is pleased to participate in the innovative ‘Story Beyond The Still’ contest which showcases the increasing convergence between still photography and dynamic video capture,” said Yuichi Ishizuka, executive vice president and general manager, Consumer Imaging Group, Canon U.S.A. “As consumers demand increasing functionality from their camera and break down traditional barriers, we continue to enhance our products and redefine how consumers can express themselves.”

“Canon is pleased to participate in the innovative ‘Story Beyond The Still’ contest which showcases the increasing convergence between still photography and dynamic video capture,” said Yuichi Ishizuka, executive vice president and general manager, Consumer Imaging Group, Canon U.S.A. “As consumers demand increasing functionality from their camera and break down traditional barriers, we continue to enhance our products and redefine how consumers can express themselves.”

For complete rules and to submit “The Story Beyond the Still” videos participants can visit http://vimeo.com/groups/beyondthestill/. Projects will be judged based on how well participants execute the four criteria including:

1. Best incorporation of initial still and quality and evocative nature of final still

2. Cinematography

3. Storytelling

Each chapter winner will be selected by a three-step judging/voting process including the initial selection of 50 semi-finalists by a three member panel comprised of Vimeo, Grey NY and/or Canon U.S.A employees. Five (5) finalists will be determined by representatives from Vimeo, Grey NY and/or Canon U.S.A., and a distinguished panel of award-winning photographers and cinematographers (subject to scheduling availability) including:

Vincent Laforet – Director / Canon Explorer of Light Photographer

Russell Carpenter – Cinematographer “Titanic”, and “True Lies”

Rodney Charters – Cinematographer/Director of Photography FOX Network’s “24″

Shane Hurlbutt – Cinematographer “Terminator: Salvation”, and “We Are Marshall”

Stu Maschwitz – Filmmaker/Author of The DV Rebel’s Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap

Rick McCallum – Producer “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace”, “Star Wars: Attack of the Clones” and “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith”

Philip Bloom – Director / Director of Photography – Co-owner F-Stop Academy

Blake Whitman – Director of Community and Product – Vimeo

Nick Childs – Director/ Director of Content – Grey New York.

Following the selection of the five chapter finalists, their videos will be posted at http://vimeo.com/groups/beyondthestill/ where members of Vimeo will have five days to view the videos and vote to determine the chapter winner.