April Is Script Frenzy Month

If you need motivation to kick start your screenplay – join Script Frenzy‘s month long international writing event. Participants have to write 100 pages of scripted material in the month of April. There’s no fee to enter and there’s also no “valuable” prizes awarded. The real award will be the pride of finishing 100+ pages of your script. They’ll throw in a Script Frenzy Winner’s Certificate and web icon announcing your achievement. Some of last year’s participants have left comments on John August’s blog about their experience with the event.

Script Frenzy is affiliated with The Office of Letters and Light which also sponsors NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) – an event that challenges participants to write a 50,000-word novel in the month of November.

Also check out Script Frenzy’s Writer’s Resources page. It’s got several “how-to” and formatting guides.

Funding Your Film Through the Fan Based Social Marketplace

In a previous post, “Let the Public Finance Your Film,” I looked at several examples of filmmakers utilizing the social landscape of the internet for funding their film. Their approach was to reach out and create a fan base that would lend financial support for their project. Kevin Kelly [bio] recently commented on the financial power of a fan base in his article titled, “1,000 True Fans.” Kelly states that “anyone producing works of art – needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.” The expansion of that idea has created other websites that provide a platform for project funding and promotion.

The latest example is IndieGoGo. This is the hottest endeavor to utilize the social market place in helping filmmakers find funding for their projects. It was just launched in January ’08 and Filmmaker Magazine reported that the site announced its first film to reach its funding goal (The Lilliput by filmmaker Minna Zielonka-Packer raised $10,000 through the site). IndieGoGo allows filmmakers to incorporate what they call a “DIWO – Do It With Others” approach. Here’s how they describe it:

IndieGoGo enables this “filmocracy” by providing filmmakers an open platform to pitch their projects to the world, and giving the fans a vehicle to experience and influence the once inaccessible world of filmmaking. Filmmakers get new resources to build and engage a loyal fan base to assist in making their projects happen. Filmmakers can raise money and awareness, find cast and crew, and gain credibility through the help of their number one resource: their fans.” [excerpt from IndieGoGo-About Us]

Continue reading Funding Your Film Through the Fan Based Social Marketplace…

New MPAA Report Gives Filmmakers Good Stats for Business Plans

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has just released its 2007 U.S. Theatrical Market Statistics Report. It looks like the U.S. domestic box office receipts for 2007 hit a record $9.63 billion, up 5.4% above 2006. Internationally, the worldwide box office rose to an all-time high – $26.7 billion.

So why would an indie filmmaker care about this report? Well, beyond having a positive financial result from the medium that you work in – you can use those stats for your business plan. When pitching your project to potential financiers, it is always good to present a positive outlook in the industry that seeks investment. It’s arguably more difficult to convince someone to invest in your low budget film if the overall marketplace is on a decline.

Here’s the summary from the MPAA report (you can also view and download the PDF file here:

Continue reading New MPAA Report Gives Filmmakers Good Stats for Business Plans…

Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Film Institute Merges with Renew Media

Robert De Niro and his producing partner, Jane Rosenthal have merged their nonprofit organization – Tribeca Film Institute (affiliated with the Tribeca Film Festival) with Renew Media. Renew Media (formerly known as National Video Resources) was founded by The Rockefeller Foundation in 1990 as a funding source for media artists. The Tribeca Film Institute was created after September 11th 2001 as an effort to stimulate the economic revitalization of New York City through arts based initiatives and to “educate, entertain, and inspire filmmakers and film lovers alike.”

The merger will take the name Tribeca Film Institute and will continue to expand its home in lower Manhattan as a cultural institution providing artists with funding, exhibition and work space.

We have been pursuing complementary avenues with respect to filmmakers and media artists for many years now,” said Jane Rosenthal. “By putting these two institutions together under one roof our impact is going to be greater than anything we could have achieved separately and we look forward to building an unprecedented arts organization.”

“This new organization enables us to carry out our mission and support artists and filmmakers throughout all stages of their careers,” said Robert De Niro. [excerpt from official announcement]

Together, the two organizations will combine their resources, staffs and programs that according to indieWIRE, will “rival established entities as the Sundance Institute, Film Independent, and the Independent Feature Project (IFP).”