Collective91

Create. Contribute. Compete.

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Vimeo's Weekend Challenge

Every weekend, Vimeo holds a competition, where the staff posts a challenge and rules for the community to tackle in 48 hours. What a great way to spend the weekend! All videos must be under 3 minutes (anything longer would be hard to pull off it 48 hours anyway...) Examples are: creating a video inspired by a phrase from your favorite book, about how people move, one second clips shorts, etc. The winner not only gets Vimeo Staff picked, but also a free one-year Vimeo Pro membership and extra 3GB storage on the account. Vimeo Weekend Challenge is posted on the Vimeo Video School page. So what are you waiting for? GO AHEAD, make the most of your weekend! Here's an example of how simple and great some Weekend Challenge projects are.

The Totally Bearable Lightness of Floating from Daniel Hayek on Vimeo.

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Showcase Your Short on Indieflix

IndieFlix is a platform for independent filmmakers to upload their projects for people to watch. Ha, how original, you might think. But here's the catch - the more people watch a certain film, the more the filmmaker gets paid. IndieFlix is subscription based ($6.90/month) and it lets you watch countless projects, most of which have screened at various festivals around the world. From the IndieFlix About page: "Founded by filmmakers, IndieFlix is part champion, part curator. We’re so inspired by independent filmmakers and the work they produce, we’ve created a stellar platform for you to discover the best and quirkiest around.

But it’s still up to you to watch and poke around and discover and learn. We won’t force-feed you, and we’ll never tell you what to think. Let us know what you love and be sure to share the good stuff. You’ll find it all. This is a subjective world, and your opinions are just as valid as a professional critic’s." Sure, let's be frank - this kind of platform also attracts some random, not-so-great projects, too. But it's worth getting the free one week trial and weed through the endless lists of films. And if you submit your own project, there's a chance you'll earn some extra cash! Source: IndieFlix

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NPR: How Your Life Sounds Like

NPR is hosting an audio series where users record four distinct sounds that epitomize what their current lives sound like. You can record the sounds on your phones and submit them individually, or you can edit them together in one full piece.  From NPR's Tumblr: "Record and narrate four sounds, then post your mix on Twitter, Facebook, Soundcloud or Google+ with #howitsounds. Submit your link along with your name and age to [email protected]." What an obscure and subtle way to share a slice of life with the world. Source: NPR

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Netflix's Hidden Gems

Hammer To Nail, a quirky (and amazing) film review and community website, put together a list of instant streaming flix that you might have never heard of. The list comprises both, docs and narratives, in short and long form. Check out the list here!

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Atlas Obscura - The Most Amazing Guide to the World

Artists with an awake sense of mind constantly seek inspiration from their immediate surroundings. Whether in an urban, natural, artificial or mental environment, we scavenge for unknown curiosities that let our eyes glisten with awe. The team behind Atlas Obscura has made it their mission to catalogue all the wonders in the world that you generally don't appear in guide books. The website lets you enter a location anywhere in the world and it will yield results for any obscure, strange, amazing gem and/or event in that very place. It's amazing what you can find out there. This their credo: 1. There is something NEW under the sun, every day, all over the world. 2. Around the corner is something that will SURPRISE the hell out of you. 3. Atlas Obscura is for people who still believe in DISCOVERY. We dare you to enter your current location and see what pops up - you're likely to be surprised about that strange thing you might unknowingly pass by every day. The Obscura Society also has regular field trips, mostly centered around the NYC area. A recent one included walking through the city's sewage system! Sounds crazy? We think it sounds amazing.

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Questioning Your Characters the Right Way

Sometimes when working on a screenplay, feelings of doubt over the characters' motivations come up, discouraging you from continuing to write. As a result, you get stuck and before you know it you're experiencing writer's block. "Booo you!" you might think about yourself. But don't give up, there's a simple, fun and effective trick to fleshing out your character and getting to know them - by asking them questions. Check out the character questionaire here! Source: The Script Lab

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Producer of "Waiting for Sugarman" at DCTV

Simon Chinn, producer of the highly-acclaimed documentaries Searching for Sugarman and Man on Wire is sharing his experience with audiences at Downtown Community Television Center in Manhattan. Location: DCTV at 87 Lafayette Street, NYC Time: 10/22/2013 - 7:00pm

Don't miss this amazing opportunity to meet one of the most cutting-edge people in the field! Don't know what DCTV is? Check out our previous post here to find out!

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Screen X - A New Form of Cinema

A South Korean company named CJ GVC Screen X (yikes, what a name!) developed a new projection system named Screen X, which promises an immersive 270 degrees cinema experience. While audiences still sit comfortably in their steady chairs with the main screen in the front, the theater's side walls are used as additional projection surfaces, expanding the horizontal edges of the main screen. See for yourself:

Newfangled gimmick or just an evolution of cinema? Judge for yourselves and read the Filmmaker Magazine interview with the producer behind the technology, Paul Kim. Post your comments and opinions below! Source: Filmmaker Magazine

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Distribution Webinar this Weekend

The Atlanta Film Festival is hosting a webinar this Sunday, 20th, about the myriad of distribution platforms available for the independent filmmaker. Their website says "This webinar is for the practical independent film producer who wants to prepare their productions for hybrid or direct distribution." It will be held by The Film Collaborative, a collective resource for independent filmmakers seeking distribution. And these guys know what they're talking about. "This hour-long webinar will cover:

-An overview of the independent film market including insight from sales agents on what is selling and what isn’t;

-Distribution options available to release a film into the market including a look at the theatrical, digital, broadcast, and educational markets and what assets the film needs in order to succeed;

-The tools currently available to ensure a significant release and how much they cost;

-Other revenue streams that could be developed as part of the film release." Fee: $50 (or $40 for ATLFF members) Source: Atlanta Film Festival

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Copyrighting Artwork

Artist are often confronted with the question of whether or not to copyright projects and intellectual property. The word "copyright" itself sounds big and daunting, but don't go nuts - it's actually much simpler than you may think.

The good news is, that, under US law, your work is automatically under copyright protection as soon as it is presented in (and this is critical) a FINISHED state.

The bad news is, that, sadly, you can NOT copyright an idea only - meaning that unless you finish your film, song, screenplay, piece of art, etc. it is not unlawful for someone else to take your initial idea from you and make it their own.

If you want to be on the super safe side, you can easily file for copyright on the Library of Congress website. Doing so will grant you further rights and more control over any potential copyright infringement issues. It involves sending in a copy of your work, doing a little paperwork and paying a filing fee ranging from $35 to $50. Check out the steps on this ehow.com page.

Sounds a bit like a race, doesn't it? Not if you're careful about who you share your ideas with. Collective91 makes sure that this is the case - we've created an extensive Terms of Service page, which gives you all the information on copyright regarding Collective91.

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Margaret Mead Film Festival Starting this Week!

A film festival at the awesome American Museum of Natural History in NYC? Yup, you heard correctly (and it has also existed forever, so feel bad for never having heard of it... Kidding...)  The Margaret Mead Film Festival is an intimate and powerful festival, showcasing projects whose focus is on ethnography and anthropology. "It is the longest-running, premiere showcase for international documentaries in the United States, encompassing a broad spectrum of work, from indigenous community media to experimental nonfiction." (Wikipedia) Members of the jury include some highly-esteemed filmmakers (Aronofksy ring a bell anywhere?) This year's festival is starting TODAY. Check out their selection of films here!

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C91 Reel Submissions!

Attention Artists!  C91 will be hosting a Reel of the Month event, and we want YOU to submit yours! Any types of reels are welcome. We will be going through the submissions and choose the most exciting ones, which we will post all over our online platforms, helping you get the most exposure possible. Sounds great, right? So go send a link to your reel right now to [email protected]. We'll confirm with you once we received your submission. Bring 'em in!!

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Free Online Libraries for Artists

We created a selection of online resources for visual and audio content that are (almost) free of charge! Check 'em out - 

freesound.org

An extensive SFX library where users submit their own recordings, with the added benefit that there's a huge variety of recordings of the same sound source!

Lost and Taken

This website offers a myriad of high-res texture images that you can use for design projects of any kind. The name implies the edgy, grungy emphasis on textures found on the site.

YouTube Audio Library

Free tracks for your video that aren't corny or cheesy? That's right - you can download 150+ tracks on YouTube's Audio Library, categorized by genre or mood. Even if you don't end up using them in your final projects, they're pretty solid placeholders.

Vimeo Music Store

If you want more "indie" sounding tracks, Vimeo has a large library of high quality tracks and SFX. They're created by legitimate music and audio artists. While some are free, you can purchase most licenses for pretty cheap, starting at $0.99 for individuals, and $98 for corporate. Remember you're supporting the community! What's great is that you can be very creative in the search bar with your description on what exactly you're looking for. 

archive.org

If this website were a physical location, it'd be something like Salvation Army. It holds films/videos, images, audio recordings, texts, etc. Browsing through the archive is really a game of hit-or-miss, and, if nothing else, just a really great source of raw inspiration.

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Avoiding the Artist Ego-Trap

As artists, we spend a lot of time indulging in our minds and making sure that every ounce of time is used proficiently. But, we all know that one guy or girl in our network who's just a little too much into themselves (and we try to stay out of their way as much as possible…), right?

But have you ever worried of becoming that person yourself?! This is serious. Especially when collaborating as a team, sometimes egos can rub up against each other, which hurts your relationships as well as your own creativity.

Check out 99U's article on how to avoid the most common Ego Traps - and you might be shocked of how close it hits home…  Read the article here.

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Cheap Insurance Post Film School

For those of you fortunate enough to have attended film school, you probably never had to worry about insuring any equipment you used to shoot your student films. But it might hit you as a surprise that post-filmschool life plays by different rules. 

Most equipment rental venues require you to show proof of sufficient insurance before they even let you touch their gear. Insurance can really crush your budget. But don't worry; fortunately there exist places that are on your side! Below are three organizations/rental houses that will cut you a lot of slack regarding this matter:

Fractured Atlas 

Fractured Atlas offers Production and Equipment Insurance at a very competitive rate. It covers both, your own equipment, as well as rented gear and the deductible is reasonable and only applies to equipment, not general liability. The insurance is valid for one year. In order to purchase, one has to be a member, which is well worth the $95 since the membership also includes Fiscal Sponsorship and a bunch of other amazing resources.

Film Emporium

A very flexible company that suits its policies to your need, be it a small or large production, Film Emporium also offers short term insurance. They guarantee that all are treated equally, no matter if you're a film student, indie or high-profile filmmaker. Aside from film insurance, Film Emporium also has programs for theaters, concerts, performances, sports events, etc.

DCTV (Downtown Community Television)

Perhaps the best deal in NYC, DCTV does not require ANY insurance from your end in order to rent their equipment. Granted, they may not hold Alexas or RED Epics. Nevertheless, it is an invaluable resource not many filmmakers are aware of. As with Fractured Atlas, DCTV has more assets than affordable insurance. Fiscal sponsorship, post-production services, and a bunch of great weekly events.

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3 Free Handbooks for the Millennial Filmmaker

Usually, the production phase is the easiest (and funnest!) part of the whole filmmaking adventure, and it's what everyone in the field looks forward to the most. But unless you are very lucky, you will notice that you can get stuck quickly, especially at the very beginning or very end, aka the fundraising and distribution phases.

Fortunately, there's some great advice out there in the WWW on how tackle these stepping stones. And it's free too!

Below, we compiled a list of online handbooks containing a ton of useful info on how to approach these challenges and turn them into your advantage.

YouTube Playbook

YouTube put together a comprehensive Handbook in which you can find out about nifty tricks and tips that will help you and your project get the kind of exposure you want (i.e. increasing views. It's very reader-friendly and includes evaluations on how effective the advice has been for other YouTubers, as well as the time commitment involved in applying the tricks.

Vimeo School Lessons 

Smart folks work at Vimeo and the good thing is that they're all on your side when it comes to DIY filmmaking. The staff posts amazingly engaging tutorial videos on its "Lessons" page. There, you will find a myriad of lessons that will teach you really great things; from how to properly format your screenplay, to building your own camera slider, to writing a project treatment.

Bonus: Here's a helpful article on how to get more views on your Vimeo video.

Seed and Spark - "Bright Ideas"

A new kind of crowd funding platform, Seed and Spark dedicates an entire section on their page to "Stuff You Need to Know. Seriously." Their Social Media Handbook will teach you how to successfully fundraise and build an active audience for your project, by making social media your best friend. Among countless other great articles, you will find a Festival Survival Guide, Tips on Insurance Policies, Navigating SAG, etc. Make sure to check back often, as new articles are posted frequently.

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Useful Filmmaker Memberships

As a young filmmaker it is essential to be part of an established film community. You trust your creative friends and peers but it is important to continue to reach out and make new connections and experiences.

Below is a list of four film organizations that have affordable membership programs, which give you access to screenings, panels, networking events and many more benefits. Most have different levels of membership, and many have special student discounts. We promise they are well worth your buck! See for yourself:

Tribeca Film Institute

Part of the Tribeca Film Festival, a TFI membership will allow you to connect with other fellow filmmakers who are serious about their craft and eager to mingle. Best of all, though, a membership gets you into the TFI Interactive Day, happening every year during the Festival. You also get two free tickets to screenings at the Festival.

Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP)

As the name suggests, IFP is a landmark in the independent filmmaker scene of New York. The annual IFP Filmmaker Conference brings together some of the most inspiring folks in the industry. Its print publication Filmmaker Magazine is a great resource for discovering emerging talent and people to reach out to. Considering the advantages and access that and IFP membership gives you, it is probably one of the best investments you can make as a young NYC indie filmmaker.

International Documentary Association (IDA)

A great resource for all doc filmmakers, member benefits include: subscription to Documentary Magazine, access to Doc U Online (a video blog featuring interviews with industry), listing in the IDA Membership Directory, ability to upload videos visible to the entire community, and, most amazingly, automatic Fiscal Sponsorship status for you and your project!

Austin Film Society

AFS is committed to supporting the non-mainstream filmmaking community in the US. Aside from the standard discount for screenings, a membership gives you free submission to the short-case and works-in-progress program, eligibility for fiscal sponsorship, FREE associate membership with Fractured Atlas (!) and access to several panels and discussions. Be sure to check out the member discounts affiliated with Texas film institutions!