Canon’s “Project Imagin8ion” was the first photo contest ever to inspire a Hollywood film. The project invited the masses to help shape the next production of two-time Oscar-winning director, Ron Howard. By interpreting 8 core tenets of storytelling, photographers could dictate things like setting, goal and main character. Submissions flooded in at a world record-shattering pace. After a user-generated vote decided the finalists, the 8 winning photographs were chosen by Ron Howard, who then had to narratively sew them together in a film shot entirely on Canon’s EOS cameras.

The final film premiered at the Museum of Natural History in NYC in November of 2011. At the premiere, the over 600 guests were invited to experience the journey of the project by walking through an immersive gallery made up of the nearly 100,000 printed submissions. All leading to the screening of “when you find me,” a Ron Howard production.