Ugly Bug Contest 2011 winner

Congratulations to Seed Beetle, the 2011 Ugly Bug Contest winner!

The 2011 Ugly Bug Contest theme was based on the Spaghetti Western genre. With 56,092 people voting for their favorite insect, the Seed Beetle wins it with 23,434 votes.

This video is dedicated to Marilee Ann Sellers.

Credits

Editing, Art Design, and Animation: Jacob Sahertian
Sound and Music Design: Jacob Sahertian
Bug colorization:Debra Page Baluch
Video QC:Jacob Sahertian and James Baxter
Transcript: James Baxter

Transcript

The opening image shows the top half of an orange insect, facing the audience. It has big eyes and two large antennae, and the color is lighter, more yellow, at the top of its head so that it appears to be lit from above. The bug casts a large shadow on the wall behind it.

The wall appears to be made of wooden planks. There are six posters on the wall. All of the posters have the word “wanted” in big letter at the top, and show a picture of a bug. They look weathered: the paper is yellow, and the edges are darkened and torn. We can only see the picture on three of them. One is obscured by the bug in the foreground, and we can only see the bottom edge of the top two posters. The three posters we can see show three different contestants from this year’s Ugly Bug Contest. The one in the middle row, to the left, shows a red backed bug (the Bed Bug), the poster in the middle on the right shows a bug with a green head and legs curled up under its chin (the Icheumon Wasp); finally, the poster on the bottom right shows the same bug we see in the foreground.

Inspirational music begins in the first scene. This is the same music that plays in the 2011 Ugly Bug Contest introductory video (watch it here) at the one minute mark. The music continues as the bug seems to walk toward the left - it moves with an up and down motion and gets bigger, and the combined effect makes it look like the bug is walking. The bug’s shadow stretches, thins, and lengthens as it moves forward and off the screen. As the seed beetle moves another poster is revealed. This one shows a red, black and tan bug, the Flower Beetle.

The music continues, and we begin to hear a whooshing noise, like wind blowing. As the wind continues, the posters start to tilt and move on the wall, then are swept off to the left. First the poster on the top left and the one with the bed bug are blown away, then the wasp, the flower beetle, and the poster on the top right side. Only the poster for the seed beetle remains.

The view slowly zooms in on the poster, until it fills the right side of the screen. We hear the scratching of a pen, and words are written by the poster. First, the word “most,” and an arrow pointing to the word “Wanted” on the poster, then the words “2011 ugly bug champion.”

A bell starts ringing in the background, and the image changes. Now it shows large white text with wooden panels in the back. The text reads, “SEED BEETLE Algarobius prosopis.” After a few seconds the images changes again, this time to the seed beetle. The bell continues ringing as the screen fades to black.

Text appears on the black screen and it reads, “This year’s contest is over, but you can still download your own Ugly Bug coloring page and poster at askabiologist.asu.edu.” Most of the text is white, but askabiologist.asu.edu is in gold. Two arrows appear on the screen pointing to the link. The text fades out again, and is replaced by “dedicated to Marilee Ann Sellers November 2, 1946 - October 22, 2011.”