Well, imagine that.
Thirty-year-old Adam Henderson, a Dallas native and eight-year video editor, has been named winner of Adobe's "Make the Cut" music video editing contest and pockets the $25,000 grand prize that comes with it.
Adobe and rock band Imagine Dragons teamed up for the "Make the Cut" editing competition. Contestants were given the outtakes and footage from Imagine Dragons' "Believer" music video and asked to create a completely unique version of their own using Adobe software. The competition was open to contestants worldwide.
"It was so intimidating at first because I knew a lot of people were gonna do it," Henderson said. "But editing a music video, what's more fun than that?"
In a matter of three weeks, over 9,000 people had submitted videos. And Henderson beat them all out.
"I thought, 'If anything, I'm gonna be a better editor because of it,'" he said. "Winning is just the icing on the cake."
Contestants were judged by an all-star panel that included two-time Oscar winning film editor Kirk Baxter; Academy Award winner Angus Wall, who films credits include "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and "The Social Network"; music video editor Vinnie Hobbs; television editor Billy Fox; Adobe CMO Ann Lewnes; and "Believer" video director Matt Eastin.
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"I was looking for something different from what I did," said Eastin. "I was looking for new, creative takes and spins on it and that definitely happened."
Henderson said he took all the footage and thought of the music video as a five-act story. Henderson estimates he spent about half of the total time, 20-25 hours, on the story creation and editing, and the other half fine-tuning it.
As the contest winner, Henderson also wins a one-year subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud.
"It's been the best day of my life," he said just hours after he found out that he won. "It's been an incredible experience, I'm a better editor because of it and I hope others who competed feel the same way."
The contest had five additional awards categories: Best Short Form, Best Young Creator, Most Unexpected and Fan Favorite and a bonus prize for Best Use of Stock.
What's next for Henderson? Well he says a professional goal would be to work on "the next 'Stranger Things,' 'House of Cards'" or editing a film.
But for now, Henderson said he'll just bask in this huge competition win.
"It's just been such a fantastic opportunity and to actually come out winning is something I'll never forget for the rest of my life," he said.
