Cool and corporate: Microsoft's video relay

Microsoft is the latest entrant in the video contest parade, but they've actually come up with a fun slant.  It's a so-called video relay, a video version of the exquisite corpse, a la Google's excellent Gmail movie. But Gmail asked makers to submit three-second clips, while Microsoft is asking for short film-length script submissions, where your film has to pick up right where the previous segment left off, and end with a suggestion meaty enough for the next wave to run with. 

In the first entry, called "The Cube," an office drone gets a strange cube in the mail, and is asked to deliver it to a specific address or face dire consequences.  There's an obvious "Matrix" + "Office Space" vibe--not a lot of what you would call story-story, but it definitely keeps moving.

There are so many video contests these days you've got to wonder how many people out there aren't making movies.  It's probably a smart strategy to build an audience that consists entirely of contest entrants.  That way they're sure to buy a ticket to the premiere.