The 1st Annual Vimeo Festival and Awards

There are two weeks left to enter your videos into the first-ever Vimeo Festival and Awards. If your video premiered online within the past two years, you should head over to vimeoawards.com and submit it ASAP! The grand prize includes a $25,000 grant to produce your next film/video. These awards are open to ALL videos online, not just videos on Vimeo. Judges include David Lynch (Blue Velvet ) and Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me).

Film4Prizes Highlights Top Film/Video Contests That Pay

Film4Prizes is a cool site that maintains a database of several online film & video contests which include many with cash prizes. Here are a few interesting contests that they list:

- “HP You On You Contest” – top prize is $40,000.

- “Nobody’s Gonna Lay a Finger on My Butterfinger” Video Contest – top prize is $25,000.

- The Reason Project video contest – $10,000 top prize.

Their database is sort able, so you can choose which contest suits you best. Definitely worth checking out.

DIY Screenings & Distribution

Some call it “four-walling,” others DIY distribution. Filmmakers now have direct access to their audience like never before and are forgoing the middlemen who used to control the route to theatrical distribution. By and large, artists are now able to gauge their audience’s demand/interest for their work and market it directly to them. CinemaTech’s Scott Kirsner highlighted this movement in his recent book, Fans, Friends And Followers: Building An Audience And A Creative Career In The Digital Age.

Filmmakers are building databases of their fans’ e-mails and zip codes and are utilizing that data to book their film in local theaters – on their own. I believe that the directors of Four Eyed Monsters, Susan Buice and Arin Crumley were the first to use this approach for their 2005 film. They provide a great tutorial on their site titled, “Hearts and love-o-meters” (they used heart-shaped markers that grew with the number of requests for their screening).

Here are some tools and sites that can help you create maps, book theaters and screen your film:

- Box Office Widget – provides a tool for you to collect email addresses of people who are interested in seeing your film and charts them geographically.

- “How To Make A Screenings Map With Google” – Self Reliant Film’s Paul Harrill shows you how – well, the title of the post says it all.

- Theatrical Mapping Project – The Workbook Project (http://workbookproject.com/) – among many things – is building a collaborative database of theatrical venues that can show digital work.

- Brave New Theaters – Provides the ability to utilize a community around your film. Think, MySpace/Facebook fan page with a purpose: fans screen your film at home, small theater, community center, etc.

- Eventful.com’s Demand service – empowers fans to influence where their favorite films appear by creating viral grass-roots campaigns to “demand” them in their town. Filmmakers are then able to use their service to make informed decisions about where to appear and can communicate with their fans via targeted email tools.

- MobMov – a.k.a. Mobile Movie is reviving the great American drive-in. Powered by cars and video projectors, “mobmovs” are easy and affordable to set up. Check out their tutorial. If this interests you, check out Popular Mechanics – “How to Make Your Own Drive-In Movie Theater.”

- How-To Notes On Producing A 1 Week Long Run Of A Feature, With Info. On Gear & Costs” – The quintessential “DIY Filmmaker” (who owns that moniker) – Sujewa Ekanayake – explains, in detail what it took to screen his film, Date Number One for a 7 day run in Kensington, MD.

IndieClix: Affiliate Marketing for Indie Filmmakers

IndieClix is an affiliate marketing management platform that gives filmmakers a new way to sell and market their films. It utilizes other people’s websites and blogs as referral outlets that get compensated for every sale – same as Amazon.com and many other affiliate programs.

The program was originally created by Magic Rock Entertainment to support Neoflix clients (another e-commerce service created for filmmakers and distributors). Its functionalities worked so well that it allowed for a greater expansion into the IndieClix program.

An affiliate can be a website, blog, or anyone who provides a sales referral, and is then paid if that referral translates into a lead or a sale for the merchant. A group of affiliates is like the “outside sales” for an artist or distributor, and an effective affiliate marketing strategy gives the artist/distributor a worldwide sales force. Indieclix handles the affiliate sign-up, creation of affiliate marketing programs, tracking of the sales lead, and the compensation and reporting for both sides. Magic Rock serves as the neutral third-party that ensures affiliates and filmmakers/distributors are equally served.” [excerpt from Magic Rock’s explanation of the program]

Click below to see their tutorial video that explains the whole program:

Continue reading IndieClix: Affiliate Marketing for Indie Filmmakers…

Film Racing Coming to a City Near You

Film Racing is a great creative concept that’s like “Mission Impossible” meets “The Amazing Race” in a marathon filmmaking competition.  Filmmakers form teams in each participating city and have 24 hours to complete an original short film (no longer than 4 minutes) based on an assigned theme and surprise element. Each team receives an e-mail on Friday night with a theme (like “revenge”) and a surprise element (like a prop – “toothbrush” or action – “slap”). The plot of your film will need to incorporate the assigned theme and element. The completed films are then due back at the film drop-off location by 10PM on Saturday night.

Since 2007, Film Racing has given out over $120,000 in cash and prizes to the winning filmmakers to aid them in their future projects. The winning films from each city compete for thousands of great prizes and one team will walk away with the “Best Film of 2009″ title. [from official site]

Anyone can enter this “race” and each team is responsible for providing their own equipment and crew. See if your city is in the race by clicking here.

Online Film Distributor – Caachi – Gives Filmmakers 75% of Sales Revenue

Caachi is another interesting site that offers a ‘no-strings-attached’ online distribution deal for indie filmmakers. On top of the non-exclusive, cancel-anytime agreement, they pay .75 cents for every dollar earned to the filmmaker.

Marketing your film will always be a challenging endeavor and Caachi adds a unique element – an affiliate program. Similar to any other affiliate program (i.e. Amazon, iTunes, etc.) website owners can display ads and earn revenue through direct sales of any or all films from Caachi’s library. This allows for an expansive reach beyond a “viral” campaign. Also, the Caachi Vidget (video widget) can show off your film’s trailer via an embeddable code ready for any social networking website like Facebook and MySpace.

Caachi also offers free films. Check it out here.  FYI…to download films, you’ll need to use the open-source video player Miro.

YouTube PROJECT: DIRECT Can Get You to Sundance ‘09

2009 marks the 25th anniversary of the Sundance Film Festival and Youtube’s short film competition can send you there with PROJECT: DIRECT. The winner will go to the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and meet with Sundance’s Director of Programming, screen your film to a live audience, plus $2,500 cash. Submissions, no longer than 5 minutes long are due by December 14, 2008.

Here’s the gimmick: Your entry must include two props from their list – plus a red telephone. There are 25 props samples to choose from. Each represent a classic Sundance Film Festival film – i.e. a hockey stick from Clerks, an instant photo from Memento, a bunny suit from Donnie Darko, etc. Here’s the FAQs.

For the full rundown, check out the clip below from writer/director Darren Aronofsky [IMDB]:

Continue reading YouTube PROJECT: DIRECT Can Get You to Sundance ‘09…

Documentary Filmmaking Tutorials from ‘FourDocs’

FourDocs is the online documentary channel from Britain’s – Channel 4. Fourdocs also offers a unique opportunity for filmmakers to get exposure making short docs for their “3Minute Wonder.” – which is “the only site that selects online films and puts them directly in a primetime terrestrial broadcast slot,” says Kate Vogel of 3MW. Because of this, they have a top notch documentary filmmaking tutorial guides on their site. It covers everything you need to know from start to finish:

+ Pre-Production – “Get Planning”

+ Production – “Get Shooting”

+ Post Production – “Get Editing”

And everything in between. Check ‘em all out here.

Special thanks to Make Better Media where I found this info.

DETAILS Mag & NEHST Studios Want Your Film Pitch

NEHST Studios and Details Magazine are collaborating on a project to produce a film with you. Yes you! NEHST, whose founder produced Sling Blade [imdb] and Details, a men’s lifestyle and fashion magazine want your film pitch.

Here’s the gist:

The DETAILS/NEHST Movie Project is a unique initiative that enables aspiring filmmakers the access to get their film made. Anyone who has a movie idea can “pitch” their idea via this website. DETAILS and NEHST will then review the submissions and if they find the right project, they’ll greenlight the idea. The DETAILS/NEHST collaboration allows those wanting to break into film—or those just toying with a movie idea—to bypass the red tape of Hollywood and have their ideas reviewed by real producers.” [from the official DETAILS/NEHST Movie Project site]

If you have a script, treatment or just an idea for a film – they are interested in hearing from you. Go to their official “how-to pitch page” and submit your idea. There’s a $10 submission/administration fee – but that will also get you a one year subscription to Details Magazine.

Film on Facebook Debuts First Movie

Facebook is now embracing independent filmmakers with their FILM ON Facebook project. According to its official page, it’s described as “a place to interact with other filmmakers and movie-goers on Facebook and to share your experiences about marketing your film on Facebook.” It was first announced at this year’s SXSW Film Festival and now will finally premiere its first movie: One Track Mind, (a surfer flick shot on 16mm film – created by Woodshed Films).

The film will debut exclusively on Facebook on October 16-17, 2008 via the Kyte video application. Check out the 2 minute trailer by clicking below:

Continue reading Film on Facebook Debuts First Movie…