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Reader SurveyLucky You 2
Jan 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Cynthia Wisehart
The prize patrol is on the move, with continuing opportunities for aspiring content creators to get help and attention. In last month's millimeter, I wrote about Real Ideas Studio, a nonprofit organization that — among other things — puts on a contest for student filmmakers at Cannes. Phase 1 of the contest is now open for submissions. Find out more at realideasstudio.org or at reel-exchange.com.
As we go to press, we're at Sundance for our annual blog, where we're also collaborating with Avid to kick off the the Perfect Pitch contest at the festival's New Frontier on Main venue. During Sundance week, participants will have 60 seconds to pitch a film they'd like to get made; the contest remains open for online submissions through March 31 — upload your pitch video via digitalcontentproducer.com/perfectpitch. One grand-prize winner will receive a package valued at more than $25,000, which includes: a trip to the Sundance Producers Conference; an opportunity to have a trailer of their film cut by a leading Hollywood trailer house; consulting time with distribution and cinematography experts; and a filmmaker's production pack (computer workstation, camera, editing software and hardware, third-party plug-ins, etc.).
All entries — whether captured at Sundance or submitted on the Web — are available for public viewing and voting via digitalcontentproducer.com/perfectpitch. Peer voters determine the 20 finalists, each of which will receive free film budgeting and planning advice as well as a copy of Avid Media Composer software. A panel of film industry professionals will then select four runners up, who will each receive an Avid editing software-and-hardware package, and one individual who will receive the grand-prize package.
Also launched to coincide with Sundance — and with the participation of several Sundance filmmakers — IndieGoGo.com is an ambitious site that takes a Web 2.0 approach to the timeless task of fundraising for independent film. Filmmakers post trailers or other material from their films and offer benefits to fans in exchange for relatively small sums of money towards a larger fundraising target. For example, director Irena Salina has posted a promotion for her Sundance documentary Flow: For Love of Water, and she intends to raise postproduction funds by selling tickets to the New York premiere of the film for $100; $500 also includes coffee with the director; $1,000 also includes a signed DVD of the film. This is just one approach to what site founder Slava Rubin hopes will be a place where filmmakers and fans collaborate to get films funded, made, finished, promoted, and distributed. Remember how Howard Dean ran for president?
It's a fascinating idea, with a way to go on implementation; I had some trouble with the search functionality, and the 33 project pitches were in various stages of completion and at various levels of professionalism. Still, we're seeing the first stirrings of broader opportunity and shifting power dynamics that will eventually succeed at the intersection of user-created/user-controlled media.
