» Posts Tagged ‘opportunities’
First-Time Feature Directors in Post-Production: Submit to IFP's Independent Filmmaker Labs
If you’re a first-time feature director — documentary or narrative — I highly recommend you submit your project to IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs, which is “the only free program in the U.S. supporting first-time feature directors when they need it most – at the crucial rough cut/post-production stage.” The deadline for documentaries is tomorrow (March 11) — sorry for the late notice! — but the narrative deadline isn’t until April 8, so that should give narrative filmmakers sufficient time to put together an application. More details here: More »
Creative Capital, according to their web site, is “the only national grantmaking and artist service organization for individual artists with an open application process.” Their 2011 grant cycle — which will hand out 20+ grants of $10,000 — just opened on February 1st, and runs until March 1st. If you’re a U.S. citizen (or permanent legal resident) 25 or older, check out the 2011 grant guidelines [PDF link]. Here are the details: More »
Openfilm’s second “Get it Made” competition (first one was here) is offering a $50k/$450k cash/financing prize to one lucky winner. If you’ve got a live-action or animated film (40 minutes or less) that you think has potential to be adapted into a feature film, you’ve still got a couple days to submit: contest ends January December 31. More »
The Economist has teamed with PBS NewsHour to create The Economist Film Project, an open call for feature-length documentaries (40-90 minutes) and shorts (6-40 minutes) shot in the past five years. They’re planning on featuring three docs every month (focusing on, but not limited to, stories pertaining to current events), offering exposure and distribution in lieu of prize money or other rewards. Here’s their call for entries: More »
Not-for-profit film production company/foundation Cinereach awards $500,000 to feature films every year, and their Winter grant cycle comes to a close December 1st. In the past four years Cinereach has disbursed $4 million to more than 80 projects “at the intersection of engaging storytelling, visual artistry and vital subject matter.” If you’ve got a project that fits the bill, here’s how to apply. More »
Amazon has launched Amazon Studios, a new online film studio with a crowdsourced development process. Amazon has $2.7 million committed to film projects through their first-look deal with Warner Bros.; they will be awarding $140k in prizes for submissions this December. However, rather than just running a standard contest, they have some very interesting ideas for how to “develop” these projects, and they’re more than a bit controversial. More »
I wasn’t going to post this, because I doubt that TV dinner company Hungry-Man is of much interest to filmmakers (or anyone who cares about arterial health). But Filmaka’s current pitch contest, for 2-minute short stories incorporating Hungry-Man’s “Hungry Heroes,” includes a $30,000 production budget and a $10,000 cash prize. Hard to believe, but Filmaka’s jury also includes such filmmaking heavyweights as Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Neil LaBute, and Paul Schrader.1 Here are the details for the contest, which is accepting submissions until November 22: More »
- I hope for their sake that these distinguished jurors are judging contests at Filmaka other than this particular campaign… [↩]
Time Warner Cable and IFC have been running a short film contest, which wraps up on Halloween (yes, in a few days — I’m a bit late with this). Four grand prize winners will be given tickets for two (including airfare) to this year’s Sundance Film Festival in late January, a $500 travel stipend, and “a Sponsor-selected video camera.” The contest closes at midnight on October 31st, so either get shooting or search your hard drives for shorts between 2-5 minutes; no particular subject or theme required. Here’s the official video: More »
I always make it a point to say “check out the fine print” when I post contests or other opportunities here, but I owe much of my career so far to grants and other awards. Thus I think many contests are overlooked by the larger filmmaking community – so here are five upcoming contests I’ve found recently (and be sure to read the fine print if you’re planning on participating): More »
Independent Film Week kicks off in New York City this Sunday the 19th, and the main event of the week is the Independent Filmmaker Conference. It’s going to be a networking clusterlove, with reps from CAA, ICM, Kickstarter, Paramount, Sony Pictures Classics, Focus Features, Fox Searchlight, IFC, and festival programmers from Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, Toronto, Berlin, Rotterdam and more out and about. I’ll be there as part of the No Borders Project Forum with my transmedia project 3rd Rail, but I’m going to try to make it to as many panels as I can — of which there are 33 in all, covering the latest in need-to-know info for indies: More »
Camera accessory manufacturer ikan has announced their 2010 HDSLR Revolution short film contest, which asks DSLR shooters to make a short incorporating the ikan brand name. To submit to the contest (and be eligible for the prizes, which are ikan gear and not cash), ikan asks that you “Simply create a film using your HDSLR camera that utilizes the ikan name, logo or an ikan product in a creative, positive manner. Your film must adhere to the simple, one-word theme of ‘revolution’.” If you’re interested, here’s how you enter the competition: More »
How-to sites like eHow, 5min, and Instructables are crowdsourcing their video content and then making money off the submissions. It follows, then, that these sites should offer the content creators some form of remuneration. While it’s difficult to discern what revenue sharing agreement some of these sites have in place, NYC-based Howcast has an Emerging Filmmakers program that lays out its terms very clearly. If you ever make tutorials or how-to videos — for any topic, not ust filmmaking — their program is worth a look: More »
I poked fun at YouTube in the previous post, but this announcement is much more significant. YouTube, it seems, is no longer content in its role as indiscriminate distributor, and has announced a Partner Grant program to fund the production of original content. The program is fairly unique in its structure, however, as it’s not really a traditional grant nor a bona fide production fund. In their own words: More »
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 »
YouTube’s bandwidth bill has been estimated at $300 million/year (or not) (or yes), but whatever the true amount of the bill, it can’t be cheap delivering 2 billion videos every day. One of the chief problems YouTube is faced with is how to monetize this content; most of its videos are user-generated, and it’s difficult to monetize UGC given most advertisers don’t want to run ads against amateur videos whose content can’t be controlled or cataloged. This could be a good reason for YouTube’s recent attempts to “mature” into a site where Guggenheim-worthy content is featured and Sundance films are shown as paid rentals. Continuing their recent moves in this direction, YouTube has announced Life in a Day, a forthcoming feature film from director Kevin Macdonald, which hybridizes user-generated content (i.e, submissions from you) with a professional’s touch: More »
London-based Power to the Pixel’s annual Pixel Pitch is now open for entries. What is the Pixel Pitch? A public event wherein transmedia project creators pitch their project to a jury of financiers, producers, and decision-makers. There’s a £6,000 ($9,000) purse to be had, as well as a roundtable of valuable meetings afterward with jury members. The first Pixel Pitch took place last year, and my project 3rd Rail (with co-creator Zack Lieberman) was one of seven lucky projects to be selected for the event. While we didn’t win, the experience of pitching and taking meetings in London was an exciting, educational, wonderful experience. I highly recommend anyone with a transmedia project apply; the deadline for submissions this year is August 6. The details: More »
I recently stumbled across planet5D’s calendar of DSLR workshops and tutorials, which is a great resource for anyone looking to attend free workshops for learning DSLR tips and tricks. Coming up soon are DSLR filmmaking post workflows, Color Grading Hollywood Style with Apple Color, and Avid Media Composer 5 Bootcamp For Final Cut Pro Editors. These three are hosted at NewMediaWebinars and are free to watch live, and $25 to watch archived (which also includes bonus project files, etc). Thanks to Mitch at Planet5D for putting together the calendar. planet5D Event Calendar »
Okay, “wasteland” is a bit harsh. But up until recently the most viewed YouTube video of all time was of little value, in my opinion (Lady Gaga’s crazy-terrific Bad Romance music video recently took the top spot). Perhaps with the domination of amateurish content in mind, YouTube and Guggenheim today launched YouTube Play, a much needed initiative to spotlight creative online videos. The event (which takes place every two years, thus their “biennial” tag) will be accepting entries until July 31; approximately 25 videos will be showcased at the Guggenheim museums in New York, Berlin, Bilbao, and Venice as a result. More »
Vimeo and I go way back, as I wrote a positive review of their service early enough in the game to be quoted on their front page for a while (this would never happen now, as they don’t need the help!). Their service has evolved tremendously since then, and now for the first time they’re running an awards competition with a $25,000 grand prize. Here’s my college classmate Blake Whitman with the announcement: More »
Artists Wanted wants, well, artists. They’re currently looking for “your best photographs” and are giving away $10,000 cash and a year of free living at a $1.2 million apartment at The Edge in New York City, along with a Manhattan gallery reception and airfare to and from New York City for the event. Obviously this is going to be a highly competitive project with prizes of that caliber. Deadline is June 7, so if you’ve got some great photos, check out their blurb: More »
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