G-Technology® Names Grand Prize Winner In Its 2013 "Driven Creativity" Competition

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- G-Technology, a leader in delivering premium storage solutions for audio/video production, photography and the creative professional market, today announced the grand prize winner of its second-annual Driven Creativity competition. The competition, which celebrates talent in short film, photography, animation, GoPro® active film and music, drew in more than 600 entries from across the U.S.

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The competition's overall winner is Artist, Photographer and Filmmaker Michael Shainblum, who won the grand prize for his short film "Mirror City."  Entered into the Professional Short Film category, "Mirror City" delivers a unique artistic view of some of the nation's most popular cities – Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego, Las Vegas and Los Angeles – in a way that nobody has seen before. Using mirrored images, kaleidoscope visuals and time-lapse photography, the film delivers a crescendo of visual stimulation from beginning to end.

"I entered 'Mirror City' into the G-Technology Driven Creativity contest because my project really was creatively driven – it's not just another pretty time-lapse film. It represents me as an artist, showing my passion and creativity through an abstract short film," said Michael Shainblum.  "I'm honored to be named the overall contest winner. There are so many incredible artists who entered the contest, and a lot of them are my friends and inspirations. The money will definitely go toward a new time-lapse film and the G-DOCK ev will be integrated into my current back-up system to ensure all of my clips stay safe." 

"While our premium external storage solutions are an important part of the creative process, our Driven Creativity competition gives us a chance to connect with our customers in a different way – to showcase and celebrate their talent," said Mike Williams, vice president and general manager, G-Technology. "The amount of entries and the quality of the entries this year were amazing, and I'd like to thank all those who participated."

The People's Choice and category winners in this year's Driven Creativity competition are:

The People's Choice

• Shane Black for his short film "Adventure is Calling"

Short Film

• Amateur:  Josh Lopata for "Fade"
• Professional:  Michael Shainblum for "Mirror City"

Animation

• Amateur:  Paolo Cogliati for "Serial Taxi"
• Professional:  Chris Carboni for "Circular"

Photography

• Amateur:  Nicole Bartelme for "Shuba Looks South"
• Professional:  Robert Christian Malmberg  for "The Fading Fleet"

Music

• Amateur:  Josiah Austin for "Ordinary Hero"
• Professional:  J Scott Rakozy for "Adeline"

GoPro Active

• Manahi Taber-Kewene for "Snow Day"

A jury panel of G-Technology G-TEAM members and industry professionals judged the shortlist of candidates to decide the winners in each category; basing their decisions on the uniqueness, quality, creativity and the resourcefulness that went into achieving the end result of each category winning entry.  A full list of the judges, category winners, and runners up can be found at http://drivencreativity.g-technology.com/.

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G-Technology's roots are deeply ingrained in delivering premium storage solutions for audio/video production, photography and the professional content creation market. From storing, transferring, editing and distributing content, G-Technology makes the workflow simpler, better and faster. G-Technology's high-performance portable and desktop drives, flexible transfer/edit solutions and fast RAID systems are all built for professional content creation environments where performance and reliability are paramount. Because G-Technology holds itself to the highest standards, its products can be found in premiere production and post-production facilities worldwide.

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About HGST
HGST, a Western Digital company (NASDAQ: WDC), develops innovative, advanced hard disk drives, enterprise-class solid state drives, external storage solutions and services used to store, preserve and manage the world's most valued data. HGST addresses customers' rapidly changing storage needs by delivering intelligent storage devices that tightly integrate hardware and software to maximize solution performance. Founded by the pioneers of hard drives, HGST provides high-value storage for a broad range of market segments, including Enterprise, Cloud, Data Center, Mobile Computing, Consumer Electronics and Personal Storage. HGST was established in 2003 and maintains its U.S. headquarters in San Jose, California. For more information, please visit the company's website at http://www.hgst.com.

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