18-year-old leads in Lending Club's video contest

Eighteen-year-old Steve Dinelli has thrown his hat into the ring against rock stars and movie directors in an attempt to win $5,000 in Lending Club's video contest. Or, perhaps it's more appropriate to say rock stars and movie directors have thrown their hats into the ring to compete against this soon-to-be college freshman. Steve was one of the first to enter the contest and has nearly a two-week lead as others race to catch up. The winner will be the video with the most YouTube views on Friday. Steve's video is fascinating to watch and was created by carefully lacing together over 1,500 still pictures. Steve shared a few of his thoughts about marketing and peer to peer lending with Prosper Lending Review:

How did you hear about the Lending Club video contest?

I heard about the Lending Club contest while browsing Google. I'm always looking for new video contests. I didn't really know what to make for the contest so I figured just something fun with stop motion would be fun.

Tell us about how you made the video.

Making the video is a little harder then the 49 seconds looks, it's made completely with still photographs moving the objects slowly to create video when the pictures are played in rapid succession. It takes about 30 photos for every second of video, this video took about 1,500 photos to produce...I have the stop motion technique down pretty well and I made the entire video in less then 2 hours from the time I found out about the contest.

Have you made other videos using that technique?

The first film I made a 8 minute film using this technique titled "Nightmare On Gamer Street". It took 15,297 photographs to produce and I'm very proud of it. This is a one minute cut from the movie, which actually won 2nd place in the "askmrvideo your day in 60 seconds" contest. The entire film is not online yet because I'm entering it in a contest in a month or so, so keep a look out.

While in high school I made a Six Flags Great America marketing commercial which won a state wide contest and we won a bunch of season passes for my marketing class.

I made a short film "A real card trick" which is currently in 3rd place in the Memelabs "Cards Gone Crazy Contest" using this technique also.

I entered the Thomson Gale Library Love video contest with a video entirely stop motion which is on YouTube now.

Have you used Lending Club or heard about it before this contest?

I have not heard about Lending Club before the contest. I think its a great concept and it will take some time for more people to feel safe lending and borrowing money not from a bank, but I'm sure this will become very popular within the next few years.

What do you plan to do with the $5,000 if you win?

If I win the contest I'm starting college next year and could use all the help I can.

Tell us about yourself (work/school).

I will be attending Robert Morris College in Chicago and will be on their bowling team. I also work at Classic Bowl in Morton Grove IL doing PR and Marketing. I'm a competitive bowler and have competed in bowling at the national level. Also my senior year I competed at the national DECA competition in business service marketing.

Good luck Steve and thanks for sharing your video with us!

Be sure to come back as we feature one of the top Lending Club videos each day this week. Vote for your favorite video here.