Samsung and NYTVF offer $300,000 for orginal short series

Read about the Samsung Challenge:

“New York, NY, July 25, 2012 – Samsung Electronics America, a leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, and the NYTVF, a pioneer of the independent television movement, today announced they will collaborate on a landmark initiative that will provide indie producers and production companies the opportunity to compete for a production budget of $300,000 to create an original short series with accompanying second screen material.

Free the TV Challenge III – “Second Screen Storytellers” is Samsung’s third Free the TV Challenge, following successful competitions in 2010 and 2011. This latest challenge represents the first time Samsung will be working with NYTVF and the indie storytelling community to push the boundaries of the Samsung consumer experience.

The NYTVF will be accepting entries from August 6, 2012 through September 24, 2012. The winning selection will be announced at the 8th annual New York Television Festival, taking place from October 22-27, 2012, in lower Manhattan. The subsequently-created series will then debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2013, after which it will be exclusively distributed via Samsung Smart TVs and Galaxy devices.”

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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Solaris Finishing Fund for Independent Filmmakers

“Solaris created a “Finishing Fund” to support fellow indie filmmakers who seek the financial and technical resources necessary to complete their films. Greg and Gavin O’Connor originally created the Completion Partners as a response to their own efforts in trying to raise the capital to complete post-production for their film Tumbleweeds. In addition to financing the completion of these films, the Completion Partners Fund will offer the expertise necessary to help navigate the post-production waters, enabling filmmakers to get the film they envision to the market in the most effective way. They will be instrumental in the films’ promotion, festival strategy, and sales strategy.”

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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Oppenheimer Cine Rental New Filmmaker Equipment Grant for Students

“The Oppenheimer Cine Rental New Filmmaker Equipment Grant Program is a grant to support new filmmakers in producing their first serious film project. The grant awards the use of our Grant Program Arriflex 16SR2 camera package to senior and graduate thesis students and to independent filmmakers for a scheduled period of time. This specific package, which we have set aside for the grant program, should meet the needs of most 16mm projects. Proposed projects may be of any non-commercial nature: dramatic, narrative, documentary, experimental, etc. Our expectation is that you are working from your own vision, your own creativity and not for someone else (solely for a profit motive). The program does not support commercials, industrials, PSA’s, music videos, or pornography. In order to keep the package available for the largest number of filmmakers, feature length film projects will not be considered. The length of time the equipment will be available to any one project will depend on each project and on the pressures of the program. You should plan your schedule realistically. Practically, most grant projects will be expected to use the package for one to two weeks. We have only one Arri 16SR2 camera in the program; your compliance with the program requirements assures access for the most filmmakers.”

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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Hubert Balls Fund supports films in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe

“International Film Festival Rotterdam’s (IFFR) Hubert Bals Fund supports remarkable or urgent feature films by innovative and talented filmmakers from developing countries. Since its establishment in 1988, close to 900 projects from independent filmmakers in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe have received support. Approximately 80% of these projects have been realized or are currently in production.”

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.

Silverdocs Documentary Film Festival June 2011

Silverdocs has announced the Film Festival and Conference line up for 2011.  This year’s documentary festival will take place between June 20-26 at the AFI theatres in Silver Spring, MD. 

“Now in its ninth year, AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs honors excellence in filmmaking, supports the diverse voices and free expression of independent storytellers and celebrates the power of documentary to enhance our understanding of the world.”

For more information, click here.

Fundraising Through CrowdSourcing & CrowdFunding

Crowdsourcing (also known as crowdfunding) is a relatively new term made popular by new media sites that draw on the collective and voluntary knowledge, expertise or support of their visitors or users.  If you look up the term “crowdsourcing” via Google’s define function, only 4 definitions appear (“crowdfuning” only has one).  Yet, crowdsourcing is increasingly gaining in popularity as a way to raise funds for documentary and series productions. 

I have not used crowdsoursing myself but have been invited to donate through crowdsourcing sites such as Kickstarter.com , IndieGoGo.com and RocketHub.com.  These sites allow producers to present their ideas and projects then set a monetary fundraising goal (such as $5,000 in completion funds for a documentary) and a time frame.  If the target goal is not reached on some sites, the project does not receive the funds.  Other sites give the project owner whatever funds are collected.  Most sites charge a fee. 

Visitors to the project fundraising site are able to donate however much they like and are often offered thank you gifts for certain donated amounts.  For example, one project I saw offered the documentary soundtrack to anyone who donated at the $100 level.

I recently that the chance to ask some of my colleagues in the independent production business about their experiences raising money on crowdsourcing sites. 

• Anne Mathide Cobern exceeded her $5000 kickstarter goal for her thesis film “Pretty All the Time.” Her film was winner of DC Shorts 2009 Script DC and a semi-finalist for the Carole Fielding award through the University Film and Video Association.
• Mary Ratcliff is a writer and director who used crowdsourced for her film “Catching Up.”  You can find out more about Mary on her website.
• Ishu Krishna’s company is Citra Productions.  She is currently crowdsourcing her film “Arrange to Settle.”  Check out her kickstarter page here. 
• Emmett Williams is an independent producer is using crowdsourcing to raise funds for a short documentary about people living with Multiple Sclerosis called “If You Can Dream.” Check out his IndieGoGo site here for more about the his documentary.  Or visit his website.

 

Why did you choose to raise funds through a crowdsourcing site rather than ask family and friends?

Anne Mathilde Coburn: For me, it’s a mix. In many ways, I probably could have gotten cash straight up from family, which has accounted for a good bit of the total, but I like the artificial deadline of Kickstarter–it creates deadline pressure on the part of the donor and the person with the project, which (at least with me, my family and friends) is a real concern in an open-ended fundraising scenario. I would suggest making arrangements with large potential donors to hang back until the last minute in case you have difficulties reaching the end goal. Also, craft a personal letter to everyone you know that hopefully creates an emotional tie between you and your potential donors. The good thing about social media/Kickstarter/crowdsourcing et al, is that if your contacts are in wildly different cities (for me, they’re in New York, DC, and Cleveland), people like to come to a place where they can follow the progress of the film. A blog with a link to the Kickstarter page; the Kickstarter page itself; Twitter updates– all of these things take time, but create a deeper connection between you and your donors/friends.

I’m actually using Kickstarter right now for my thesis film, which is a short narrative piece. I’m trying to raise $5,000. We’re currently at $4,265 with 21 days to go. I should also mention, though, that I have been saving for my thesis film (for 8 months), and have gotten a couple of grants from my university in order to make this film as well.

How involved is the process?

Mary Ratliff: I raised $500 through Kickstarter and I fully believe I would have raised over $400 of that through direct donations without the campaign. If you want to get substantial results through Kickstarter you need to make fundraising almost a full time job with promotions and getting your link out there. Getting your project featured (on their site) is one of the best ways to actually get funding from strangers, which requires a lot links back and forth from your page to and from other websites, people tweeting, etc.  You have to work really hard to build your own press because they don’t do any of that for you unless you are already really popular and successful.  Also, I’ve been told repeatedly that projects with videos have much, much higher success rates.

Are there any fees involved?

Mary Ratliff: You have to account for the fees that you have to pay to both the crowdsourcing website and their payment processing system (IndieGoGo and Paypal, Kickstarter and Amazon).  Depending on the size of the donation, they can run over 10%, but that’s the average.

What are some benefits to fundraising through crowdsourcing sites?

Ishu Krishna: I put up a paypal link for my previous project, and asked people to donate.  I got some donations but not a lot.  With Kickstarter, it gives me a kick in the butt to be more aggressive with fundraising, and it puts the urgency behind it. I have also had two people contact me through kickstarter to invest large amounts, and not just donate through kickstarter.  I am currently in talks with them, and not sure if it will pan out.  But it’s two people I am talking to that I didn’t know before.

What types of thank you gifts are you offering?

Emmett Williams:

• For $1: You will be added to the IF YOU CAN DREAM email list to receive updates on the progress of the film throughout production.
• For $25: The above plus a DVD of the broadcast television version of the documentary and a Thank You in the film credits.
• For $100: The above plus the official “IF YOU CAN DREAM” t-shirt.
• For $250: The above plus the extended Directors Cut of the documentary available to film festivals.
• For $500: The above plus a Producers credit in the film.
• For $1000: The above plus you will play a role in the development of the film through special online screenings where your opinion of the Work In Progress will be sought.

 

For more information about crowdsource financing check out this blog post  from FilmContact.com.  It talks about some interesting crowdsourcing distribution concepts.

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.

Documentary Grant: $200K from the MacArthur foundation

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur foundation has announced new grant making guidelines for documentary projects.  MacArthur supports U.S.-based independent documentary filmmakers for the production and distribution of social-issue documentary films intended for a broad audience.

The next deadline is June 1, 2011.  Then again on December 1, 2011.

Typical grant amounts range from $100,000 to $200,000.

For more information visit: Visit the MacArthur Foundation.

For more information about production financing, visit the Funding and Grants category.

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

Secrets to Funding Your Dream Documentary

Here is an except from my interview with Bill Einreinhofer from the CD recording of the  teleseminar “How To Fund Your Dream Documentary.”  Bill is a National Emmy-Award winning producer, writer and director with over 20 years of television production experience.  He shared a lot of useful tips about how to raise money to produce a documentary.  Here he discusses how to approach potential funders.

SYDNYE: Before you introduce yourself and how fabulous you are and how fabulous your idea is, you need to know why and where and how much they give?

BILL: Yes. This is where you start looking at the giving history. This is where these various reference libraries, whether you go to the actual library or whether you view it online line, find out where the money has gone in the past. What are their interests if they are a foundation? Of if they are a corporation, who they are trying to reach? Corporations, I’ve gotten corporation grants to do public television programs, and it’s because those particular corporations wanted to reach the audience that public television gets. You have to figure out what the grant maker wants. And then be able to tell them, “I can deliver what you want to you.” It only makes sense. I mean obviously, it these people are going to be making grants or if they are going to be making advertising buys, they have certain needs. You have to understand what those needs and be able to tell them “this is how I can help you meet those needs.”

SYDNYE : So we’ll talk a little bit more a little bit later about distribution because that is part of it.

BILL: And this is probably the biggest mistake that many people make. In that they’ll put together a wonderful proposal. They’ve got a great theme. They’ve got colorful characters. A really, really good story, they’ve figured out exactly how to shoot it and edit it. They know what the look is and they don’t put anything about how they are going to distribute it. And if no one is ever going to see this program, this film, then why fund it?

You can learn more tips from Bill Einreinhofer about funding documentaries on the 45-minute audio CD “How To Fund Your Dream Documentary.”

Writing Successful Grant Applications

Some of the most successful independent television and film producers are also the most successful at securing grant funding.  There are many types of grants out there including government agencies, non-profit organizations and private funding.  Once you have identified the grants that match your project, it is time to delve into the process of actually applying for the grants.  Here are a few pointers to help you make the most of your submissions.

• Carefully read the instructions and guidelines and then FOLLOW THEM to the letter.  This means filling out every section of the application in entirety.  If you talk to grant readers, one of the biggest mistakes they site is a non-complete application.  During my short stint as a grant reader, I found it helpful when the grant applicants mimicked the grant outline exactly as it was laid out.
• For any narrative answers, write clearly and concisely in jargon-free language.  This is not a time to impress people with your industry speak.  You want to plainly set out your intension so that anyone reading the application has a clear picture of you goals.
• Share your passion.  Just because you are writing clearly, doesn’t mean you have to be boring.  The best way to convince someone that your idea is worthy is to show some excitement about it.
• Give specifics.  A good idea or worthy cause do not speak for themselves.  Grant givers want to know that you have a plan to achieve your goals.  Do some research ahead of time and create an outline for yourself about what you are going to do and how you are going to do it.
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions.  Believe it or not, grant givers want complete, competitive applications.  If you don’t know how to answer a question, ask for clarification.  You can even ask about what the grant giver is looking for.  You never know what kind of response you’ll get.  Also ask previous successful grant recipients what they did to create a winning application.  They may have some insight that you never thought of.

Good luck.  For more information about fundraising in general, check out the recording of my teleseminar:  Funding Your Dream Documentary.