A Summer Rain – An Experiment in Crowd-Funding

Ela Thier is a NYC-based independent filmmaker who has been writing screenplays for 20 years (to the detriment of her school grades when she first started out because she insisted in submitting screenplays instead of essays). But Ela is still struggling to get any of her 20+ screenplays sold or made. She’s decided to take action by sending an open letter to all her friends and acquaintances explaining her frustration. Ela faces the same frustrations that many TV producers face – years of backbreaking development work and little to show for it but rejection. Her letter should act as a reminder, that if you really believe in a project, and you can’t get anyone else to take an interest start looking for other, more creative, ways to get it off the ground. UPDATE: * People have been so inspired by this letter, that it ended up at NPR and they contacted Ela to do a story about it.

* An journalist contacted Ela from Israel to run a story about this letter in Israeli newspapers

* Just yesterday, a woman she has never met wrote to tell her that she was so moved by this letter that she forwarded this letter to her contact at the White House.
(Photo (C) Ela Thier)

How to Avoid the Commissioners and Still Get your Films Made

The usual route to getting your programme commissioned is to:

* Get the channel brief and bang your head against a brick wall to come up with something that fits. And then hate yourself.
* Refuse to bow to the lowest-common-denominator-populist-dumbing-down-reality-TV peddlers and continue to pitch your save-the-world documentaries. You never eat and your children are in rags.

There is a third way, based on the US model of indie film production. Read Realscreen’s interview with Christo Hird of Dartmouth Films (ex-Fulcrum RIP) to find out how he’s doing it it.
(Photo by Lee Jordan)

Where to Pitch Your Idea (and Avoid the Commissioners)

Pitching is a bitch. Especially when you are just starting out. There seem to be so many different channels, all of them with closed doors.

But do you actually need to pitch your idea to a TV channel? No. It depends on your motives for pitching. You might think that the only reason to pitch your ideas is to sell them, but depending where you are in your career, there may be different reasons for pitching, and cleverer ways of pitching. (Photo by heiwa4126)

Digital Film Archive Fund Call For Submissions – Deadline 6th January, 2010

Stop the Christmas shopping, and put the turkey on hold: Film London’s Digital Film Archive Fund has money to give away to UK “legally constituted organizations” (private companies, schools, universities, local authorities, other public sector bodies) who are based in or work in London and who can combine London’s screen heritage – material held by “film archives, universities, record offices, production companies, galleries, museums and libraries” – with public engagement. But you need to move fast: the deadline is 6th January, 2010. Funding is available for documentary projects for online, broadcast, festival release, distribution or exhibition.

You can apply for between £3,000 and £70,000, and must be able to match at least 30% of your requested amount with cash from other sources.

Visit the Digital Film Archive Fund to find out more and study the small print.

Read more about projects previously supported through Film London’s Digital Film Archive Fund.
Hat tip to @Rockmother

The deadline for applications is 5pm, Wednesday 6 January 2010.(Photo by lepiaf.geo CC BY 2.0)