National Park Video Contest

Win a trip, camera, and more with the National Parks Foundation "Your Parks" Video Challenge

Feel like channeling your inner Spielberg in tribute to the national parks? If so, you're in luck: The National Parks Foundation just launched the first-ever Your Parks Video Challenge. All you have to do is film your personalized experience at a national park this summer, and you'll be eligible for a raft of loot, in addition to Interweb fame.

First Prize winners get an all-expense paid trip for two to the national park of his or her choice, an Olympus PEN camera kit, and a Federal Recreation Lands Pass. 10 Runners-Up get Olympus Stylus Tough-8000 digital cameras.

All you have to do is submit a video no more than two minutes in length to between July 8 and September 14. Public voting for a winner begins online at the National Park Foundation website on September 1.

The National Park Foundation helpfully asks "What do America's National Parks mean to you -- how do they inspire you? Why are they important? Why should we protect them?" But other than that, the subject matter seems wide open.

That's good, because this is the perfect excuse to film the epic-swordfight-space-robot-battle road-comedy-with-zombies-in-Olympic-National-Park script I've been sitting on all these years.

Plan to participate in the contest? Let us know where you're shooting in the comments below.

—Ted Alvarez

Your Parks Video Challenge