Elton John launched ‘The Cut’, a global competition where the winners will direct the official music videos for 3 of Elton John’s biggest hits.

Ever wanted to direct a music video? How about a video for some of the most loved songs ever written? And then collaborating on that vision with one of entertainment’s most imaginative minds? Well then step up and see if you can make “The Cut.”

That’s what Elton John offering with his new competition, supported by YouTube. The competition will see the winner create and direct music videos for three of the biggest hits by Elton John, each with their own unique requirements for the video. Entries will require different skills for each song so that each video has a distinguished style using various artistic elements.

The conditions are:

Rocket Man – Must feature animation within the video

Tiny Dancer – Needs to be a live-action video

Bennie and the Jets – Has to feature choreography

Bring your directorial flair to one of three timeless Elton John songs. Winning filmmakers will receive support from YouTube and Pulse Films to turn their idea into an official music video, in addition to a prize fund of $10,000 USD to help with future projects.

Entrants will be judged on their creative abilities and artistic vision by some of the biggest talents in film and video. The judges are CEO of Dreamworks Animation Jeffrey Katzenberg (‘Shrek’, ‘Madagascar’, ‘Kung Fu Panda’, ‘Monsters vs. Aliens’, ‘How to Train Your Dragon’), Grammy Award-winning video director Melina Matsoukas (Beyonce’s ‘Formation’; Rihanna’s ‘We Found Love’), and writer-director of Golden Globe Best Picture (Drama) ‘Moonlight’.

YouTube stars Kurt Hugo Schneider, PES and Parris Goebel will shortlist all the entries and present their final choices to the judges. PES, who’s an Oscar and Emmy nominated filmmaker, gave some examples of using his own stop-animation style for ‘Rocket Man’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFOAQu-SEn8&feature=youtu.be

The competition is open to anyone aged over 16 and you can enter it yourself, or find out more, here: thecut.eltonjohn.com