Discover Top Posts Tagged with #doc challenge

KDHX Media Arts Programs: Our Expanding Outlook

"On life's vast ocean we sail,

Reason the card, but passion is the gale"

--Alexander Pope, "Essay on Man"

Six months into the role of Executive Producer of Media Arts, I find myself crossing the United States to a region that has shown remarkably sustained and consistent participation in the Doc Challenge. There's no question as to why. Educators in the Pacific Northwest have integrated timed filmmaking competitions into their curriculum. So, I'm visiting these educators in Portland and Seattle in search of ideas and energy for KDHX's Media Arts programs, especially where educational value is concerned. While the number of short film and documentary competitions has grown in the past few years, we see the Doc Challenge's and Film Challenge's benefits as something quite unique and remarkable, and notably so in education.

Here's where I see us being different:

Timed + random + global. Teams receive assignments that cannot be planned for ahead of time, and compete against teams around the world. While filmmaking experience and creative habits can offer certain advantages, everyone competes on a significantly leveled playing field. With all teams working over the short period of time, teams share excitement and similar experiences across diverse cultures. And regardless of the starting point of each participant, the deep immersion of the timed challenge process instills learning and growth. When analyzed within a short amount of time (two weeks is about the longest), can break through life's distractions for an impressive double-loop learning model that I suspect is difficult to achieve with anything aside. Who hasn't done a lot on a deadline? Time-based goals produce results, but if planned poorly, have a negative effect on the mind. Deadlines combined with preparation, on the other hand produce growth in capabilities and efficacy. With Doc Challenge, we don't depend on procrastination to create negative stress (distress) as a drawn-out deadline often creates; we employ the positive variety of stress (eustress) to capitalize on excitement and energy in the interest of stimulating creativity and innovation.

Our partnerships, especially in the Doc Challenge, present unique opportunities for amateur, student and professional teams to reach audiences in the world's foremost festivals, television programs, distribution networks and online channels.

We're student and teacher friendly, and that's expanding. We have a practical teacher's guide and we are committed to helping educators achieve their learning objectives.

Our organization's mission is "to build community through media" and so before all financial interests, we are here to serve. That's why we put a large portion of our efforts into communicating with and listening to educators. We believe it is they who are shaping the landscape of motion media, and they who are most in need of life-changing opportunities and experiences to integrate into learning strategies.

That said, new partnerships and sponsorships are a high priority as well. In order to continue to grow our offerings, we will need additional staff and resources, and we are much more interested in allowing excited and well-aligned partners to support this work than we are in keeping our fees at what are burdensome levels for some participants.

Where does the money go, you might ask? Aside from our two full-time and one part-time staff expense for operations and production, our Media Arts programs have moderate hosting expenses, travel costs (for outreach, education and festivals), communication and promotional costs, a bit of professional development, software and computing expenses, and our own efforts of research and development. KDHX provides significant management assistance with financial, fundraising/development, volunteer coordination and HR functions throughout the year, providing a powerful base of stability.

This year, we have a number of new projects in the works, and I'm proud to say that the majority of these are being driven by the wonderful feedback we've received from teams, partners and educators. Kat Touschner, our competition producer, has also been a tireless force in advocating for changes and improvements to our programs.

In 2013, expect to see:

A new Docchallenge.org and Filmchallenge.org, mobile friendly, with a dedicated page and URL for every submitted competition short film or documentary that was an official participant in our global competitions.

A new documentary education program, coordinated under the leadership of our new Director of Education (more on this later)

Online film submissions and expanded online form options in both the Doc Challenge and the Film Challenge

An expanded internship program. We are seeking high-output film, design, photography, marketing/communications students for semester-long, project-based work that is strong on a resume, and realistically challenging for professional experience. 16 contact hours/week min [link]

We'll be at SXSW Film. Although much of our energy at the conference and festival will be focused on imagining the future film and media landscape, we're thinking about putting together a meet-up and possibly a screening. If you will be there, please leave a note in the comments so we can connect!

And finally, we're launching an entirely new competition. But, instead of telling you right now, we'd like to tap your sense of curiosity as an opportunity for creativity.

If KDHX Community Media launched a new media arts competition today, what might it be, and what would make it so unique and amazing?

#kdhx #media arts #filmmaking #doc challenge #film challenge #partnerships #education #steven ley #differentiation #nonprofit #sponsorships #film competitions #feedback