London, October 11, 2011 - As developers of innovative storage solutions for those looking to push creativity beyond the limits, G-Technology by Hitachi is delighted to officially announce the winner of its second annual Driven Creativity Competition 2011 -  Amateur Film Entry, We Miss You by student filmmakers Steffen Wilhelm (Producer), Sebastian Bandel (Producer), and Hanna Maria Heidrich (Director). These filmmakers will receive a grand prize of €5,000, as well as an innovative G-Technology G-SPEED™ Q for their short film that focuses on the relationship between humans and nature by asking: What if nature misses us or does it even care?

The Driven Creativity Competition, which ran from June 8 to August 31, 2011 2011, was open to amateur and pro photographers, filmmakers and musicians in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Finland, Portugal, Netherlands, Sweden and Russia. The goal of the Competition was to not only recognise the aesthetic qualities of creative work, but the invention and drive that went into creating it.

The Competition judges included Grammy® award-winning music producer, Kipper; Ivor Novello winner and Killzone composer, Joris de Man; renowned photographers Tim Flach and Terje Sørgjerd; Academy Award winning filmmaker of “Twin Towers,” Scott Hillier; US and UK X-Factor music producer Graham Stack; filinternational photography agent Niall Horten Stephens and web TV producer Alexander Hölzl.

Commenting on the overall winner, jury member Alexander Holzl said, "Very professional look and acting. Good story. Great work."

The winner’s story
The film “We Miss You” was developed as a graduate film at the Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany and was shot with a very little budget in two days in Frankfurt am Main. Describing what drove their creativity when filming “We Miss You,” Producer Steffen Wilhelm commented, “As a group we recognised that the usual environmental campaigns didn´t really speak to us. So we asked ourselves, what we could do to bring people like us back in touch with nature. We focussed on the principle of ‘One only protects what one loves’, so instead of raising funds or creating a guilty conscience amongst the viewers, the film and the campaign aims to make the audience view nature as a friend.”

The exhibitions
As well as rewarding the winning entrants with prizes, G-Technology will also celebrate and promote the successful work of the finalists by showcasing their work at exclusive gallery exhibitions in London, Paris and Berlin. The Strand Gallery in central London, 0Fr in Paris and The Janine Bean Gallery in Berlin will host the exhibitions between 10 - 15 October 2011.  This will include a private opening evening at each venue to bring together the successful entrants, the competition judges, G-Technology representatives, and members of the press.

The competition
Now in its second year, the Competition recognises established and up-and-coming talent, with all entrants having an equal chance of winning, regardless of size and budget within each category. The Competition received a high standard of submissions, with the official shortlist  and category winners and runners up being found from more than 800 entries in this year’s Competition.

And the winners are…
Category winners included “Dark Side of the Lens” by Mickey Smith in the Professional Film Category. The Amateur Film category was won by the overall winner “We Miss You,” which was also awarded three prizes at the 2011 Young Director Award in Cannes: Best European Branded Short, Best European Film School and the Special Jury Award.

In the Amateur Music category, Derek Dolan won with a piece of music entitled Brian Boru who used his passion for tales of Ireland to inspire his composition. The Professional Music category winner was Swallow by Anna Andreeva, who constantly explores new ways to communicate through music what she finds truly important. Andreeva says, “This particular piece was inspired by this awesome and complex world with its beautiful nature and people's lack of freedom. This metaphorical song talks about a young girl that could not accept the fate of spending her lifetime with someone she did not love, and chose to turn into a swallow instead.”  

In the Photography category, Björn Kentemich’s image Water Drop won the Amateur category whilst Gina Soden won the Professional Photography category with A beautiful moment.  Judge Terje Sørgjerd commented on the winning photo, "Excellent. Both images take you to a dreamworld of refreshing thoughts. For me, ‘A beautiful moment’ is the stand out entry in this category."

All of the professional and amateur winners will receive a G-RAID™ external drive – the high-speed, dual-drive storage system. The runners-up will receive a stylish G-DRIVE™ Mobile USB drive – the perfect portable assistant for their next creative production. Click here to view all of the category winners and runners-up.

Steve Pereira, vice president of EMEA at Hitachi GST said, “Through our brand G-Technology, we have been active supporters of the creative community and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed seeing the amazing standard of work entered into the Driven Creativity Competition, and we extend a special congratulations to the overall competition winner. We’re delighted to continue our celebration of the Competition entries by showcasing the shortlisted films, photography and music at the week-long gallery exhibitions in London, Paris and Berlin. We look forward to meeting many of the creative entrants at the launch of the exhibition as we admire all of their wonderful work that will be on display.”

Exclusively targeting the content creation market, Hitachi’s G-Technology drives are known for offering premium external storage solutions that are trusted by creative professionals around the world. They are the go-to tool for storage, editing and backup when quality, reliability and performance cannot be compromised.

G-Technology drives are engineered specifically to meet the needs of the Apple® Mac® community, including heavy users of multimedia content, Final Cut Pro® users, digital audio/video (A/V) specialists, and other pre/post production professionals. From rugged portable drives to ultra-fast rack-mount arrays, G-Technology’s USB, FireWire, eSATA, and SAS storage solutions support virtually all levels of A/V production and can be found in post-production facilities worldwide.

Full terms and conditions for the competition can be found on the G-Technology website. Keep updated with further news about the gallery exhibition and G-Technology by Hitachi, by connecting to G-Technology’s social network channels:

Facebook: GTechnologyEUROPE
Twitter: @GTechEurope
YouTube: GTechStorage
Flickr: G-Technology

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About Hitachi Global Storage Technologies
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) develops advanced hard disk drives, enterprise-class solid state drives, innovative external storage solutions and services used to store, preserve and manage the world’s most valued data. Founded by the pioneers of hard drives, Hitachi GST provides high-value storage for a broad range of market segments, including Enterprise, Desktop, Mobile Computing, Consumer Electronics and Personal Storage. Hitachi GST was established in 2003 and maintains its U.S. headquarters in San Jose, California. For more information, please visit the company’s website at http://www.hitachigst.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 360,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2010 (ended March 31, 2011) consolidated revenues totaled 9,315 billion yen ($112.2 billion). Hitachi will focus more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes information and telecommunication systems, power systems, environmental, industrial and transportation systems, and social and urban systems, as well as the sophisticated materials and key devices that support them. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.

Hitachi GST remains an independent company until the acquisition by Western Digital closes, anticipated to take place in Q4 2011. Our product portfolio has been a driver of our success. Until the close, we continue to execute plans for our communicated product roadmap and both companies intend to ship all product lines in parallel until their logical end of life. Customers can rest assured that when the acquisition is complete all Hitachi GST terms and conditions of the product warranty in effect at the time of purchase will be honored.

¹ The G-RAID 4TB, 6TB and 8TB models are not supported by Windows XP or older 32-bit operating systems, which limit maximum volume size to 2.2TB. G-RAID 4TB, 6TB and 8TB models are compatible with Mac OS X, Windows Vista or other 64-bit operating systems.

² One GB is equal to one billion bytes, and one TB equals 1,000 GB (one trillion bytes). Actual capacity will vary depending on operating environment and formatting. G-Technology drives serve as an element of an overall storage and backup strategy. It is recommended that users keep two or more copies of their most important files backed up or stored on separate devices.

G-RAID, G-DRIVE and G-Technology are trademarks of Hitachi GST. Hitachi trademarks are authorized for use in countries and jurisdictions in which Hitachi has the right to market the brands. Hitachi is not liable for third parties’ unauthorized use of Hitachi trademarks. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.