A&E And The NYTVF Offering Guaranteed Deals For Non-Fiction Series

“Five finalists will  receive development funding from the network; one winner awarded $10,000 and  the opportunity to participate in pilot production.

A&E Network and the New York Television Festival are accepting submissions for unscripted television formats from indie producers  and doc production companies. Entries should focus on big characters in  exciting and fresh worlds that are highly entertaining and of the moment.

Submission Requirements: A short treatment (1-2 pages) describing your original  unscripted format and a brief video introducing the subject(s). Five finalists,  selected by A&E, will receive notes and $2,500 to shoot additional tape. One winner will be  awarded $10,000 and the opportunity to participate in pilot production. All 25 semi-finalists will be invited to participate at the NYTVF and will be eligible for  additional opportunities.”

Find out more about grants and funding in the grants and funding category.

To purchase a download of the Funding Your Dream Documentary seminar, click here.

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Pare Lorentz Grants for Environment and Justice documentaries

“The 2012 Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund will provide production grants totaling $75,000 to be used in the creation of original, independent documentary films that illuminate pressing issues in the United States.  Grants will be made to up to 5 projects that tell a compelling story and focus on one of Pare Lorentz’s central concerns—the appropriate use of the natural environment, justice for all or the illumination of pressing social problems.

The fund supports full-length documentary films that reflect the spirit and nature of Pare Lorentz’s work, exhibiting objective research, artful storytelling, strong visual style, high production values, artistic writing, outstanding music composition, as well as skillful direction, camerawork and editing. A program of the International Documentary Association, the Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund is made possible by The New York Community Trust.”

Find out more about grants and funding in the grants and funding category.

To purchase a download of the Funding Your Dream Documentary seminar, click here.

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Frameline Completion Fund for LGBT Films

“The Frameline Completion Fund provides grants to emerging and established  filmmakers. The program seeks to provide a much-needed source of financial contributions to artists who often struggle to secure funding to complete their works. Grants ranging from $1,500 to $5,000 are available for films that represent and reflect LGBT life in all its complexity and richness.

For two decades Frameline has provided over 100 grants totaling $343,000 to help ensure that LGBT films are completed and viewed by wider audiences. Films finished with assistance from the Frameline Completion Fund include LAST CALL AT MAUD’S, GO FISH, BROTHER TO BROTHER, MAGGOTS AND MEN, THE COCKETTES, IT CAME FROM KUCHAR, FREEHELD, WE WERE HERE, GUN HILL ROAD and PARIAH.

Submissions are being accepted for documentary, educational, narrative, animated or experimental projects about LGBT people and their communities. The Fund also seeks to bring new work to under-served audiences; with this in mind, we especially encourage applications by women, people of color and transgender persons.”

Find out more about grants and funding in the grants and funding category.

To purchase a download of the Funding Your Dream Documentary seminar, click here.

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Princess Grace Awards film, theater and dance grants

“Working in conjunction with nominating schools and non-profit companies, the Princess Grace Awards recognize the talent of individual artists in theater, dance, and film.

This unique collaborative process fills vast voids in the artistic community: scholarships, apprenticeships, and fellowships give emerging artists the financial assistance and moral encouragement to focus on artistic excellence; monetary support for the nominating organizations eases fund raising challenges, directing resources toward the creative process.

All applicants must be US Citizens or have obtained permanent resident status, and each grant must be completed in the United States.  All nominating organizations must have 501(c)(3)  status.  Each category has unique guidelines specific to the discipline.  To read more about discipline-specific guidelines, please visit the Applications and Questions sections.”

Find out more about grants and funding in the grants and funding category.

To purchase a download of the Funding Your Dream Documentary seminar, click here.

Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog for up-to-the-minute updates!  Or follow us on Twitter!

Hot Docs-Blue Ice Flim Documentary Fund for African Documentaries

Hot Docs-Blue Ice Film Documentary Fund

The Hot Docs – Blue Ice Film Documentary Fund is a grant program providing financial support to African documentary filmmakers for development and production. Development grants of $3,000 – $8,000 and Production grants of $5,000 – $40,000 are awarded to approximately four to 10 projects annually.

The $1-million fund was created to enable more African documentary filmmakers to tell their own stories and contribute to a new generation of the African documentary community. Applications are open to professional filmmakers who are citizens and residents of continental Africa and are also living and working in the region.  In addition to financing, the initiative also offers valuable resources to support production and professional development, and offers filmmakers opportunities to access the international documentary community. Through an accompanying peer-to-peer mentorship program, grantees may team with international production partners to bring their projects to international markets, festivals, broadcast and online audiences. Additionally, grantees will have travel, accommodation and accreditation support to attend Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and Hot Docs Blue Ice Filmmakers Lab.

Find out more about grants and funding in the grants and funding category.

To purchase a download of the Funding Your Dream Documentary seminar, click here.

Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog for up-to-the-minute updates!  Or follow us on Twitter!

Shaw Media-Hot Docs Funds for Canadian documentaries

Shaw Media-Hot Docs Funds

“In 2008 Hot Docs and Canwest partnered in the creation of the Canwest-Hot Docs Documentary Funds. In December of 2010 the funds were renamed the Shaw Media-Hot Docs Funds. These Funds consist of a $3-million completion fund and a $1-million development fund. Shaw Media’s $4-million infusion into the Canadian documentary production community via the Funds will provide much-needed financial support to filmmakers facing financing gaps at critical stages in their projects. Hot Docs will manage and disperse the Funds’ benefit monies over a next seven-year period.

The Shaw Media-Hot Docs Funds aim to increase the quantity and quality of social, cultural and political one-off documentaries produced in Canada by Canadian-based production companies. In nurturing Canadian talent and giving voice to a diversity of viewpoints, the Funds will ultimately help Canadian documentaries reach new audiences.

Thus far the Shaw Media-Hot Docs Funds have supported 54 Canadian documentary projects with $1,000,000 in completion grants and $359,000 in no-interest loans.”

Find out more about grants and funding in the grants and funding category.

To purchase a download of the Funding Your Dream Documentary seminar, click here.

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Werkleitz offers grants for German Filmmakers

Werkleitz has at its disposal various funding schemes which enable it to support young artists both from Saxony-Anhalt and the international art world, whose work primarily addresses digital technology and new media. Artists in receipt of funding generally produce their projects in Halle (Saale), where the premiere presentation also takes place. These funding opportunities have given rise to new formats such as the Supported Artist programme, which have proved effective in establishing young artists’ careers. Grants and scholarships are awarded in cooperation with the respective funding partners such as the European Media Art Network or the Kassel Documentary and Video Festival.

Find out more about grants and funding in the grants and funding category.

To purchase a download of the Funding Your Dream Documentary seminar, click here.

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National Association of Latino Independt Producers’ Documentary Funding Working

VISIONS, REGIONAL VOICES

Do you have a trailer that is not bringing you money?
Or worse, no demo at all?
Are you stuck with hours of footage and no idea where to start?

http://nalip.org/nalip/NALIP-Programs-DYD.html

If you are trying to figure out your documentary story or fundraising demo this is a great opportunity to do so and meet the funders in person in Durham, NC October 14-16:

• Two full day workshops:
how to structure your doc story and make your fundraising sample
by internationally renowned author, speaker and story consultant Fernanda Rossi

• Two lunch lectures with funders and outreach experts

• Evening screening with director present for Q&A

• mentorship one-on-one with industry professionals and funders

$100 for the entire weekend, hand outs and lunch included!
Presented by NALIP, (and list all other organizations including yours)
http://nalip.org/nalip/NALIP-Programs-DYD.html
—————————————————————–
“Fernanda Rossi knows how to talk to filmmakers and,more importantly, she knows how to listen to them. Her approach to story structure is anything but formulaic and it was exactly what I needed to tell the story I wanted. It was lot of fun too!”
Scott Hamilton Kennedy, The Garden, 2009 Academy Award Nominee, Best Documentary Feature

“We had a trailer and lots of opposing comments from different people. Fernanda not only understood the different layers of our story and our voice within it, she also provided us with a method to enhance our storytelling while keeping our creativity flowing. We won the funds of ITVS and we’re now thrilled to be working with her on our rough cut.”
Maya Stark, Sun Kissed, ITVS winner


About the key speaker:

Internationally renowned speaker and story consultant Fernanda Rossi has  doctored over 300 films, including two Academy Award nominees® The  Garden, by Scott Hamilton Kennedy, and Recycled Life, by Leslie Iwerks;  as well as hundreds of trailers, many of which received funding from  ITVS, NYSCA and NFB.

Fernanda has given presentations and seminars for  major world  conferences and organizations such as HotDocs, Sheffield  Doc/Fest, and  SilverDOCS. Her columns and articles have been published  in trade  publications like The Independent in the US and DOX in Europe.  She is   the author of the book that, according to industry professionals  is  the bible on demo production: Trailer Mechanics: A Guide to Making your Documentary Fundraising Demo.

Detailed Program
http://nalip.org/nalip/NALIP-Programs-DYD.html

FRIDAY,  October 14
6:30 pm – 9:00 pm         Orientation & Program overview
Documentary Case-Study Screening and Filmmaker Q & A

SATURDAY, October 15
9:00 am – 5:00 pm         DOCTORING YOUR DOC: How to Structure Your Documentary

Do you have lots of ideas and even footage but no clue where to get started? Or maybe you are stuck in the cutting room? A solid understanding of story structure is as necessary to your documentary as a strong script is to a fiction film. With hands-on exercises, this full-day workshop is for producers, directors, writers and editors, and can give you the guidelines you need to find solutions that are true to your documentary’s style. You will:

• Learn story development techniques
• Learn story structure templates in an innovative and easy way
• Identify common pitfalls that waste your time and money during production and post, and how to avoid them
• Analyze a film as practice for your own project
• Analyze works-in-progress from the audience

1:00 pm  Special Lunch presentation on public television funding, and navigating the Consortia System

5:00 pm – 7:30 pm          Private Mentoring Sessions w/ Guest Filmmakers and Funders
Have your idea, proposal, trailer, pitch or concept evaluated and discussed for the next best steps to realize your project and documentary production.

SUNDAY, October 16  
9:00 am – 6:00 pm         TRAILER MECHANICS: How to Make Your Fundraising Trailer

“Can  you show me something?” usually means “can you show me a fundraising  trailer?” Today, a short work-in-progress tape or demo is the essential tool every filmmaker needs to raise the  funds needed to make a documentary, whether from grants, crowdfunding or private investors.  Stop guessing what works and what doesn’t work – and why – in this one-day,  hands-on workshop with Fernanda Rossi, the internationally  known author of Trailer Mechanics.

“Can you show me something?” usually means “can you show me a fundraising trailer?” Today, a short work-in-progress tape or demo is the essential tool every filmmaker needs to raise the funds needed to make a documentary, whether from grants, crowdfunding or private investors.

Stop guessing what works and what doesn’t work – and why – in this one-day, hands-on workshop  for producers, directors, writers and editors. If you have already read or about to read the book by the same name, this workshop is a chance to see all that theory in action with real life examples.

At this workshop you will:

• learn the foundational story structures for fundraising trailers.
• learn the most common mistakes filmmakers make when crafting their trailers and how to avoid them (not the filmmakers, the mistakes).
• learn what type of sample tapes are more appropriate for different markets and venues.
• view demos before and after Fernanda’s doctoring.
• view successful fundraising trailers.
• view fundraising trailers from the audience followed by discussion.

Trailer Mechanics: A Guide to Making your Documentary Fundraising Demo will be on sale at the seminar.

Venue Address:
Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University
1317 W. Pettigrew Street
Durham, NC 27705

Register at http://nalip.org/nalip/NALIP-Programs-DYD.html

 

 

Vanessa Gonzalez

Membership Coordinator

 

National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP)

1323 Lincoln Blvd., Suite 220, Santa Monica CA 90401

Office: 310.395.8880

Fax: 310.395.8811

Membership@nalip.org

www.nalip.org

Find out more about grants and funding in the grants and funding category.

To purchase a download of the Funding Your Dream Documentary seminar, click here.

Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog for up-to-the-minute updates!  Or follow us on Twitter!

8 Tips To Fund Your Documentary

Thanks to Melissa Houghton, Director at Women in Film and Video  in Washington, DC  who shared this link with association members about thinds to keep in mind when raising money to produce a documentary. It is a good primer for new documentarians and a good reminder for established filmmakers.  It’s from indieWIRE.

IFP Independent Film Week: 8 Quick Tips on How to Fund Your Documentary

 by Sophia Savage (September 21, 2011)

IFP’s Independent Film Week is underway with a host of master classes, panels and conversations about financing, production, distribution and more. Among the several offerings Wednesday afternoon, IFP presented “Master Class: How to Fund Your Documentary” at the new Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center in New York.

IFP’s description of the class states: “Learn how to navigate the vast array of funding options for non-fiction, and avoid the pitfalls, in this intimate masterclass…” iW is presenting highlights below from the discussion…

Three key elements to taking your documentary project all the way: Viability, Originality and Exclusivity. Here’s eight common sense points Masterclass leader Louise Rosen shared to help non-fiction filmmakers take that project from concept to reality. (All items in brackets were taken from a Power Point presentation given during the conversation).

Know Your Subject

If your film isn’t personal, you need to do your research to know what’s already been done on your subject, and not just in the U.S. Check international databases to inform yourself so you can know how to position your own project as being unique. If you have exclusive access to someone or something, lock it down. Protect yourself from losing this edge. (Realscreen.com, Reelisor.com, Telcoreport.com, Broadcastnow.com, Worldscreennews.com, Documentary.org, D-word.com, Beyond the Box, IFP, blogs!)

Do Your Homework

Keep your ear to the ground, serve your professional development: Go to workshops, festivals, conferences, training opportunities; read papers, blogs, news, commentary; stay collegial, share and compare with your colleagues and competition; do not isolate yourself.

Seek out opportunities where your idea can be discussed in a professional context.  Test your concept and gain more confidence in how you pitch it.

Know Your Audience

Know your target audience. Who is going to buy and watch? TV, community use, education purposes, non-profits? Be adaptable to how your material can be used, from feature format to series to 1-hour format.

Value Your Time and Budget Accordingly

There are different budgets for different funding scenarios – and have different versions. Keep in mind that if you don’t value your time, investors won’t either. Document the cash value of your time and your team’s time – it’s part of the project’s real cash need. Remember that there is a gap in how the US and European markets think about budget. Be able to defend every line item.

Remember: Funding is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Don’t expect all your funding to come from one place, because it won’t; it’s incremental. Look local first, at historical or arts societies. Don’t discount small amounts. Consider crowdfunding (Kickstarer, IndieGoGo). If you find a private investor, it’s best to go through a fiscal sponsor to buffer yourself. Be prepared to engage legal and accounting services of your own. Very few large sums are available, and they tend to be for completion funding. It’s very important what material you have to show.

Know How to Pitch Your Project

You need to be able to sell your project with two paragraphs, two pages, or the complete rundown. Tailor your pitch for the specific audience; know the mission statement of the entity you are asking money from. Write the pitch/proposal for a decision maker; keep room for their point of view or expertise.

Pitch events can be crazy; attend some as an observer to get a feel for it. Be true to yourself and your style – not everyone is a showman. In your pitch, consider tone, style, how much to disclose, type of footage, etc. Think visually.

Maximize Your Marquee Value

If you are starting out and don’t have a track record, try to add credibility through your team. Endorsements from anyone respected does a world of good. Bring in consultants, co-producers, etc. A strong editor and DP say a lot.

Get the Word Out

Get a website, and the sooner the better. The method of blogging as you go is debatable, but updates in some form are wise to keep your network in the loop. Consider the best way to share information; trailer, teaser, taster, sampler, selects? Don’t discount people who say “No”…build relationships, keep in touch. It’s a small world.

Exposure: It’s not over until the film is out there! Britfilms.com is a great festival database; don’t just use Withoutabox. If you pay for PR, make sure you are going to get a return.

Find out more about grants and funding in the grants and funding category.

To purchase a download of the Funding Your Dream Documentary seminar, click here.

Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog for up-to-the-minute updates!  Or follow us on Twitter!

DIGITAL OPEN CALL: $20K for Black Digital Projects from NBPC

From the National Black Programming Consortium
http://www.blackpublicmedia.org/for-producers

Your support and engagement with our summer of original content brought us a very fulfilling season. We hope you enjoyed Mondo Black, and Black Folk Don’t, and we hope you continue to engage with them, leave your comments, and join the conversation via Twitter and Facebook!

Both series were funded through our annual Digital Open Call; an interactive call for original web content focused on stories about the global black diaspora. Stories can be narrative, documentary, audio, video, etc, as  long as they present a unique opportunity for our audience to interact  around engaging subject matter.

And for the very first time this year we are opening up the call to include “serious games.” So come on down developers of mobile and web-based  games; an innovative new way to get audiences discussing truly important issues.

So are you a producer? Are you a  game developer? Do you want to see your own series on  BlackPublicMedia.org? Be sure to get your applications in, our deadline for the $20,000 digital grant is approaching on September, 26th!

Two projects will receive $20,000 each to make their ideas a reality, and  these projects will launch on BlackPublicMedia.org in the summer of  2012! Don’t waste any time, download the guidelines, and submit your online application.

http://www.blackpublicmedia.org/for-producers/

Find out more about grants and funding in the grants and funding category.

To purchase a download of the Funding Your Dream Documentary seminar, click here.

Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog for up-to-the-minute updates!  Or follow us on Twitter!