Making Your Media Matter is a conference taking place in Washington, DC February 7-8, 2008 for established and aspiring filmmakers, non-profit communications leaders, funders and students looking to learn and share cutting-edge practices for creating media that matters.

Join filmmakers, distributors, outreach specialists and an impressive cast of media pioneers for a rich day of panels, discussions, networking and keynote speakers on the latest tools and trends in creating and distributing social issue media.

And check out podcasts and Power Point take away points from last year’s Making Your Documentary Matter conference.

The Documentary Filmmakers Group in the UK have a new website called DFGdocs which includes lots of information about training they offer; a directory of British documentaries, directors and production companies; and a resources section containing articles, downloadable contracts and a list of other documentary/film organizations.

Fernanda Rossi, The Documentary Doctor, analyzes a documentary problem every month on Documentary Educational Resources. This month’s issue discusses what to do if you have used different format cameras to make your film. She calls this “irregular camera syndrome.”

From D-Word:

Applying for ITVS? Want to avoid some of the pitfalls? Starting today at The D-Word, ITVS leading executives Joy-Marie Scott, Cynthia Kane, Karim Ahmad and Kathryn Washington join us online to take us through the complexities of applying for ITVS funds. This moderated “ITVS Special Conference” runs from 17th to 22nd December.

The D-Word, co-hosted by founder Doug Block in New York, Ben Kempas in Munich and John Burgan in Denmark has been hosting documentary discussion forums online since 1999. Membership consists of more than 2000 professional documentary filmmakers from some 80 countries  around the world.

As well as the regular discussion boards, The D-Word holds a series of moderated online conferences with guest experts in the field. These week-long discussions cover the art, craft, business and social impact of documentary film.

For more information, join us at www.d-word.com

Here’s some more useful information from The Media Conference held in London earlier this year. This panel discusses how to work with non-profits, NGOs etc to create sustainable impact with your film.

Key Points

• The filmmaker should form strategic partnerships with relevant NGO’s early on in a film’s production to devise a long-term strategy of how best to maximise the film’s campaigning potential and resulting impact.
• Any broadcast dates or film festival screenings should be identified as key strategic moments for rallying around the issues covered in the film.
• NGO partners can use films to campaign by hosting informal screening parties – in café’s, town halls, anywhere with a TV - where the relevant issues can be discussed afterwards and, if the tools are provided, people can immediately take action.
• Similarly, documentary films are an effective way of reaching a young audience and can be packaged as an educational resource and distributed amongst schools.
• Celebrity endorsement is often a necessary evil to get press attention but should not be relied up on as a long-term strategy

Listen to these clips from the Adventures in Online Distribution panel from The Media Conference held by Britdoc earlier this year in London.

Key Points:

• Online distribution models remove third party gatekeepers, connect the filmmaker directly with the audience, giving them the freedom to decide when the film is released on a global scale.
• Partnering with grassroots organisations to access their databases is a great way of connecting with the right audience. These people can be your film’s distributors and marketers, for free. These databases can even be used to fund as well as distribute campaigning documentaries.
• Social networking sites like MySpace (with over 190 million members) are a great way to spread free word of mouth marketing.
• There are now dozens of websites where you can upload video, Current TV, MySpace, Reeva, etc all with something different to offer but it is important you read the terms and conditions, especially with regards to rights.

FourDocs have a series of very useful video guides to shooting, editing and uploading a short doc. While you’re there check out their awesome online archive of classic  docs. I recommend This Is A True Story by Paul Berczeller, The Lift by Marc Isaacs, Divorce Iranian Style by Kim Longinotto, The Dinner Party by Paul Watson . . . oh there are lots of gems in there, too many to name here. Check it out.

The Producer’s Institute for New Media Technologies is 10-day residency run by BAVC in San Francisco that teaches documentary filmmakers how to adapt their socially relevant work for delivery across different digital platforms from web to video. The institute will take place from May 29th to June 8th 2008 and the application deadline is February 1st 2008 so check it out now as it sounds like a great way to learn more about harnessing emerging technologies to tell your stories and reach people in new ways.

There are some online resources from this year’s institute that you may find useful if you are developing your own website and want to learn more about design and authoring.