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To Start a Film Career, How Important are Contests? Two Interviews with Competition Veterans

08.3.11 @ 5:34PM Tags : competitions, contests, interview, onlinevideo, vzaar

When I was 19 I was awarded grand prize in an online video contest put on by a now-defunct site named FirstEye. My music video entry (shot on a Sony VX1000, before HD, 24P, DSLRs, and After Effects made this video look primitive) won me a professional Sony video camera, which I used to shoot several successive projects — before selling it and buying a newer camera (which I’ve since done several times). Winning that contest gave me more confidence to keep pursuing film as a bona fide career, and every project I’ve shot since has been with that camera or its successors — including The West Side. In my own experience, contests offer a great opportunity to jump start a career. With this in mind, the following is a guest post by David Hinds, from video hosting platform Vzaar. They recently announced this year’s video festival winners. More »

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Discount (Free if you Hurry!) Entries to the 48 Hour Guerilla Film Competition

04.28.11 @ 10:01AM Tags : 48-gfc, competitions, opportunities

I’d mentioned the 48-Hour Guerilla Film Competition in the past, but the competition has beefed up their prize package a bit and is now offering NoFilmSchool readers a limited number of free registrations (and an unlimited number of discount entries). The contest, which features a $5,000 grand prize, runs May 13-15. As you can guess from the name, entrants are given 48 hours to write, direct, shoot, and edit their entry to a given theme. If interested, here are some more details and the link for free entry: More »

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Upcoming Contests and Opportunities for Filmmakers and Artists

07.9.10 @ 3:14PM Tags : competitions, grant, opportunities, screenwriting

As long as you’re not surrendering exclusive rights in the process, contests can be a great way of gaining exposure and/or funds. In my own case, I won my camera (since exchanged for a newer model several times) in a music video contest, and I bought my laptop with grant money. Here are several upcoming opportunities for screenwriters, video makers, and other artists: More »

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Zooppa will pay you 0.001% of what your winning ad is worth

05.21.10 @ 12:16PM Tags : competitions, contests, kingkong, opportunities

Zooppa is an interesting site, deeming itself “people powered brand energy.” Wait, that sounds pretty… ugh. So basically it’s a bunch of people using their creative energy to create spec work for brands looking for original ideas? Don’t they have overpriced agencies for that? More »

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Screenwriting competitions: Page, BlueCat

03.16.10 @ 12:00PM Tags : competitions, opportunities, screenwriting

Two upcoming screenwriting competitions, The Page International Screenwriting Awards and the BlueCat Screenplay Competition, share a deadline of April 1st (and a submission fee of $60). Page’s grand prize is $25,000 and BlueCat’s is $10,000. As with any contest, read the fine print. These opportunities are often great for money and/or exposure, but some of them also have draconian legalese attached, so be sure you’re not surrendering too much, like exclusive rights in perpetuity, or your firstborn child.

Does anyone know of a centralized resource for filmmaking competitions and grants? I’ve certainly benefitted from such opportunities — I won my camera in a competition and bought my laptop with grant money — and so I’m looking for a decent competition/grant calendar to share with others, but I can’t find one on the ‘net. If there isn’t a good calendar for filmmakers out there, I may have to scrape one together. Thoughts, anyone?