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On 31st July, Jess Search died peacefully in London from brain cancer, surrounded by the love of her life Beadie Finzi, their children Ella and Ben, and friends.

In the mid 1990s as best friends, Jess and I started to make DIY indie films together. We knew nothing. We had a ball making our first film (with lots of mistakes). And what we really learned was that the best way to make a film was to learn from and get support from other people also doing it.

So in 1998, Jess and I co-founded Shooting People, together with Stu Tily. As an online space and community for anyone who wanted to make a film, to learn from others and to share expertise, advice and skills. So that we could all become better filmmakers. That core founding principle -- solidarity -- has remained the same ever since.

Jess was devoted to documentaries and the people who make them, are in them and watch them. She went on to co-found the amazing Britdoc, later called Doc Society, in 2005. She devoted her life to documentaries and social justice. And also to people, her comrades.

She had a spirit that was truly irrepressible.
She was a visionary.
She was so loving. And SO loved.

XXXXX Cath, SP

Producers and directors, good news after hearing from some of you! We've extended the deadline for submissions to the New Shoots: Filmmakers Awards until the 10th of August ????.

Entry is simple and quick, all you have to do is submit a short film. There will be one overall winner, two runners-up and TWELVE shortlist awardees.

This year’s prizes include:

✨ A Nikon Z 9 Mirrorless Camera and memory card (valued over £5000).

✨ Mentorship from either Caragh Davison (Talent Programme Manager @BFI NETWORK), Abigail Addison (Co-director @Animate Projects) or Luke Moody (Founder and Creative Producer @ LONO Studio).

✨ A 3 Legged Thing MIKE Tripod + Airhed Cine.

✨ Final Draft 12 Screenwriting Software.

✨ A Zoom H6 audio recorder.

✨ Shure IONIC SRH440A professional studio headphones.

✨ 1 year's membership to MUBI.

✨ 1 year's SP membership.

✨ Spotlighting to our community of directors and producers. 

The awards are super accessible to filmmakers at all career stages. Submissions are open to any type or genre of film, and there’s no date limit on when a film should have been completed. The only requirement is that your film is short ???? and by that we mean under 30 minutes.

If you have an ‘old’ short film that’s already done the festival circuit, give it a new lease of life by submitting it to New Shoots. Or if you have a ‘new’ short film, you can make the submission not viewable publicly, so it won’t clash with your film’s festival strategy ???? 

After making waves with his enigmatic short documentary 'Another Presence' we got the chance to catch up with Simon to have a chat about all things filmmaking. Have a read to find out how Simon avoids creative burnout, what it's like to work with medical funders and how he's been getting on with the Nikon Z9... which by the way, Nikon have just announced their new Z8 ????. It's being lauded as the lite version of the Z9 which at a lower price point, seems like a welcome addition to the Z series fleet of mirrorless cameras.

“Shooting People is an important resource for anyone blindly attempting to penetrate the mysteries of the film industry. The contacts you make there can be contacts for life!” 

- Alice Lowe (Actress and Director of ‘Prevenge’, Writer and Actress ‘Sightseers’)

OFFER ENDS 7 AUGUST

To save you time, we spend hours and hours finding every film fund you could possibly apply to, and then we list them in our SP Funding Directory. A one stop shop of funds ????. It’s currently a goldmine of over 50 funds and you can follow the directory for weekly updates - good luck applying.

The Independent

Filmmakers Network