< Back | Home

Keith Eddy, a computer science major, sits at his desk in the Northwest Quad residence hall. Eddy won the youTube "New Numa" contest grand prize of $25,000 this year.

UA student wins youTube contest

By: Evin Fritschle

Posted: 8/20/07

Most UA students are probably familiar with the Web site youTube.com, but one UA sophomore's submission to one of the Web site's contests netted him $25,000.

Keith Eddy, a computer science major from Russellville, said he spent about a month during last year's winter break creating a video for the "New Numa" contest.

"As of now, [making videos is] still just a hobby. I've thought about going to film school after college, but I don't really like the idea of being pressured to make videos for a grade. I enjoy my major, though, so I'm just going to stick with it and see what happens," Eddy said.

The video was shot in Eddy's room in Yocum Hall, where he lived with floor-mate William Topp.

"I was just looking around on YouTube one day and found their contest page," Eddy said. "After watching a few of the submissions for the New Numa contest, I thought that I could at least get one of the prizes for top 50. I also knew William would probably want to help and I figured his resemblance to Gary Brolsma might give us an edge over the competition," he said.

The "Numa Numa" song first became popular when a video starring Gary Brolsma, a teen from New Jersey, submitted a video of himself lip-syncing to a song by the Moldovan pop group O-Zone.

Eddy spent a month working on the video. "I didn't really put much thought into the location...I guess it just seemed more convenient to do everything in my dorm room," Eddy said.

"I planned most of it out, but a few ideas came as I was working on it. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to use some stop-motion and have it synced with the music," Eddy said.

"I'd always lose track of time whenever I was editing it, but I'd say that I put at least 100 hours of work into the video," he said.

"Stop motion musicals have probably been done before, but I guess you could say I invented a unique story," he said.

In 2006 Brolsma, whose original video uploaded to the Newgrounds Web site had more than 6 million hits, returned to the internet limelight with a "New Numa" video.

To coincide with the new video, Brolsma, now with his own dedicated Web site, launched a contest in September 2006. The contest ended in May 2007, and Eddy was announced as the winner on June 21.

"Sponsored by Jaeter Corp. and with professional production support from Experience Studios in Seattle and BeLive Productions in Minneapolis, Brolsma's new video features Brolsma and members of his garage band, the Nowadays, lip-syncing to an entirely new song. The creator of the New Numa song is acclaimed producer DJ Variety Beats under the BeLive Productions label," according to the Web site, newnuma.com.

The rules of the contest were to take the new song and make a video that was one to 10 minutes long. The contest had one grand-prize of $25,000, which Eddy won and gave 25 percent to Topp.

There was also a $10,000 first prize, a $5,000 second prize, and 47 third prize awards of $125.