Another great resource! Scott Kirsner, author of the incredibly useful Fans, Friends and Followers which I mentioned earlier on this blog, has set up a wiki called Power Tools for sharing much of the information he has collated on audience building, collaboration and commerce. There are already a bunch of useful links on there on things like social networks, analytics, blogging and online video – but like all wikis this will be much more valuable if filmmakers like you get on there and add the resources you’ve found useful. C’mon share the digital love!
If you make films about social issues and you think about how your films can make a difference in the world then make sure you catch up on all the topics covered at the Making Your Media Matter Conference that took place in DC in February. On the Center for Social Media website you can watch video from the conference and read a summary of everything that was discussed, including:
Here’s Sean Fine, Director of War Dance, Cara Mertes, Director of the Sundance Documentary Film Program and Thomas Allen Harris, from Chimpanzee Productions talking about Art, Ethics and Mission and responding to Moderator Sky Sitney’s (Programming Director of SILVERDOCS) question about whether documentary makers ought to subscribe to an artistic or journalistic code of ethics.
The Center for Social Media’s latest whitepaper Public Media 2.0: Dynamic, Engaged Publics is also worth a read, especially if you are interested in the role public media plays in creating conversations in a democracy (which you should be!). Shooting People is mentioned on page 17 as an example of an organization sharing strategies through a peer-to-peer network. Hooray!
The call for entries is now open for the Good Pitch at Hot Docs. The Good Pitch gives filmmakers a unique opportunity to pitch social-issue documentary projects and associated campaign strategies to an audience of NGOs, foundations, campaigners, advertising agencies, brands and media.
The Good Pitch at Hot Docs welcomes submissions from filmmakers of any nationality working on documentary projects with a human rights focus. There is no entry fee to apply. Deadline: 20 Feb 2009. Apply at www.britdoc.org/goodpitch.
The Good Pitch will make its first stop at the Toronto Documentary Forum (TDF), May 6-7 2009, part of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto, April 30-May 10, 2009. See www.hotdocs.ca for more info.
The Good Pitch will then call at SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival in Washington D.C. (June 15-22, 2009) and IFP’s Independent Film Week in New York City in September. Sign up for email updates at www.britdoc.org.
The first Good Pitch was held at the BRITDOC Film Festival in 2008 – see the trailer at: www.britdoc.org/goodpitch. The Good Pitch North America tour is a partnership between the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program (DFP).
Here’s the announcement that was made by Cara Mertes and Jess Search about the partnership between the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program during the Sundance Film Festival in January this year.
Early Bird Booking for Partnerships 2.0 closes at 5pm, Wednesday 10 September 2008.
The Forum, which is being is being hosted by the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen, will explore how to develop audiences for the arts, film and the wider creative industries by maximising (Web 2.0) technology and new partnerships.
Chaired by Scottish broadcaster and journalist Muriel Gray, international keynote speakers include Zurich-based Gerd Leonhard, one of the world’s leading media futurists, and Brian Newman, CEO of the Tribeca Film Institute in New York. Pat Kane, lead singer with Scottish band Hue and Cry, will lead a seminar on a musician’s quest to find a business model in this age of networks. Further participants – just confirmed – include Richard Hadley, Audiences Europe Network, Hannah McGill, Edinburgh International Film Festival, and Roberta Doyle, National Theatre of Scotland.
The Forum will attract a wide audience of professionals, united by their passion for audiences and audience development.
And they’re having a party to celebrate on December 15th if you’re in the Bay Area. Happy Birthday CC!
If you haven’t heard of Creative Commons go to the website right now because they are doing some really important work that filmmakers should be aware of. Creative Commons is pioneering new ways for you to license your work so that you can control the rights that are available – across the spectrum from all rights reserved to public domain. This is great for content creators who want to share their work without throwing the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak.
If you need to convert a media file fast and don’t want to download software then Media Convert is a really nifty online solution. Just upload your file, select the output format, and bob’s your uncle! And it’s free.
As a media player it plays absolutely everything, it’s cross platform, it’s open source/free and now with the latest version you can export your files into a myriad of other formats, including the very good .mp4. For people with HUGE file sizes who need to reduce the size but keep quality, I’d definitely vote VLC as one of the best options around. Simply go to File/Wizard in VLC.
Made a short film that you would like to be more than a calling card? Listen to this edition of This Conference Is Being Recorded from the Workbook Project with Tiffany Shlain (who also happens to be a founder of the Webby Awards). Shlain’s short film The Tribe was one of the top 5 iTune downloads and has made enough money to support a small distribution/outreach staff.
TOOLS is a blog from Shooting People focusing on all the tips, tricks and resources available on the web and beyond for independent film production and distribution. This means we look at everything from:
*new strategy for filmmakers in a world where more and more people are making films, producing content and competing for audience
*using the web to promote yourself and your films
*great blogs and websites
*new equipment and other interesting gadgets filmmakers might find useful.
Please get in touch to let us know about resources that you have found useful. It's time to share our toys and make stuff happen!
