Win a Free Production Kit with EDIUS

Grass Valley, the manufacturer of broadcast and production equipment, is hosting a contest giving video editors a chance to win thousands of dollars in production gear. Grass Valley, in association with Zoom In Online, presents “Cut and Win,” in which contestants cut a 60‐second or less commercial spot promoting Grass Valley’s nonlinear editing program, EDIUS. The style and message…

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Video Hosting Site Quality Comparison

If you’re looking for somewhere to host your short film, there is now a plethora of options available, from the ubiquitous YouTube through to photo-sharing sites like Flickr and Photobucket, which have recently jumped on the video hosting bandwagon. It certainly pays to “shop around” when it comes to quality encoding, as the results can very dramatically. On some sites, there…

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Reinvent a 1980s TV Commercial for Riunite and Win $10,000

In these uncertain economic times many companies have decided to ditch their expensive advertising agencies in favour of throwing out an open call to independent filmmakers to have a shot at producing a commercial for their product or service. While there have been distant murmurings of exploitation amongst the “glass half-empty crowd”, these competitions can be a great way…

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New Short Film Distribution Guide

Scottish Screen, the government film agency in Scotland, has produced an in-depth guide to the distribution of short films. And the best news is that it can be downloaded for free. Called “You’ve Got it Made “, this PDF guide contains a host of information about the current landscape in short film distribution, the leading companies, festivals, and marketing strategies. Although targeted predominantly at filmmakers…

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Writing A Script

With the number of re-makes coming out these days, you’d think every original film idea had been used a dozen times. Not to say that it hasn’t (the black-white “buddy cop” film has practically become its own genre. Examples: Showtime (2002), Blue Streak (1999), The Man (2005), Money Train (1995) and Lethal Weapon (1987)). The reason Hollywood films are often pushed…

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