Ok we know film competitions are a dime a dozen but we’ve gotten behind this one from Mofilm because the prizes are awesome (and there are lots of them) and if you enter through Shooting People you also stand the chance of winning a bonus prize: the Canon 5D. Plus you’ll get flown to Barcelona which ain’t half bad.

Your task, if you choose to accept it, is to make an ad of less than 90 seconds for any one of five brands.

You up for it?

Register and download the briefs.

Act fast – you only have 3 days left!

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:

• Ethics in Social Issue Film: Reenactments vs. Cinema Verite
• Money and Mission
• Outreach and Connection
• Art, Ethics and Mission

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).

APPLY HERE.

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.

Ted Hope Art House Convergence Closing Remarks from joe zina on Vimeo.

You can also read the full text of Hope’s keynote address, delivered at the Arthouse Convergence in Salt Lake City just before Sundance, on indieWIRE.

Lance Weiler is live streaming from The Conversation which started this morning here in Berkeley, California.

Update: You can follow The Conversation blog here – the blog includes links to photos, tweets and other joys.

Calling all Scottish Shooters,

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.

For booking information, please visit www.scottisharts.org.uk or contact forum08@scottisharts.org.uk.