News

Sharpen your skills at Freelancer's Fair

Join the film and TV community for a great-value industry day to debate, learn and make new contacts.

BECTU’s Writers Producers and Directors branch have crafted a great line-up for this year’s Freelancers’ Fair on Friday 19 May, at the Royal Institution in London. Running from 9am-6pm, it includes sessions on copyright, getting from script to screen, using small kit to film big, film funding and vlogging & blogging, all with expert contributors. And there’ll be debates on fake news and Brexit too, with added humour thanks to a session of Brexit Bingo called by actor and comedian Samantha Baines.

Workshops are in the mix as well, offering support to film-makers in a number of areas, and there’ll be a small but perfectly formed exhibition delivering advice on a range of key production and lifestyle issues. ARRI and Alias Hire will be joining forces to help visitors to get hands on with kit. Find the latest speaker line-up, programme and booking info here.

BECTU members attend for free; non-members pay just £12.30.

The official info says:

Deadline looms for Lacie film contest

You've got just two weeks to get your short film into LaCie's new PushPlay filmmaking competition where there's an amazing money-can't-buy prize! There's an incredible prize of a full two-day mentoring session with Oscar-winning cinematographer Michael Paleodimos plus a £10,000 production suite.

The swag includes a seven-inch Blackmagic Video Assist monitor-recorder, Zoom H6 Portable Audio Recorder, LaCie 6big 24TB and LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt3 SSD 1TB hard drives, DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone, MacBook Pro 15 inch, Blackmagic 4k Production Camera and DaVinci Resolve Studio.

The closing date is April 17 and a shortlist of the best films will be selected by a panel of industry experts. You can enter the Lacie #PushPlay contest here! #Ad #Promo

Lacie’s information says:

We want to shine a light on the best told stories in short film format. Regardless of the genre, every short submitted will be watched in full and critiqued against some basic criteria.

Is it shorter than 20 minutes in length?

Is it emotionally engaging? Does it make us feel something?

Is it thought provoking? Does it make us think from a different perspective?

Is it innovative? Is it something we've not seen before?

Is it a great story involving compelling characters with depth?

Big budgets, famous actors and fancy special effects are cool, but not part of our criteria. submit your story to #PushPlay for a chance at a once in a lifetime experience.

We want to unearth the brightest short film makers and support them on their journey to greatness. We'll set up the winner of #PushPlay with a once-in-a-lifetime mentoring session and a state of the art production suite. We'll also expose their work to the global filmmaking community.

Mentor

It pays to have someone in your corner who's already walked the path. We'll set up a once-in-a-lifetime, 2 day mentoring session with Oscar winning cinematographer, Michael Paleodimos, who will provide the winning filmmaker with expert advice, guidance and hands on demonstrations to equip them with the skills needed to enhance and elevate their work.

Gear

Assembling or refreshing your filmmaking equipment is not a cheap exercise. We'll gear up the winner with a full video production suite including:

Blackmagic Video Assist 7"

Zoom H6 Portable Audio Recorder with Interchangeable Capsules

LaCie 6big 24TB

LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt3 SSD 1TB

DJI Phantom 4 Pro

MacBook Pro 15 inch TouchBar Quad i7 2.6GHz 16GB 256GB Pro 450 Silver

Blackmagic 4k Production Camera

DaVinci Resolve Studio

Exposure

We have a brand that is recognised around the world. We'll use our marketing channels to extend the reach of the #PushPlay winner’s short within the global filmmaking community.

CVP hosts Showreel Showcase

Mega retailer CVP is joining up with filmmakers’ network Shadows and Light for a ‘Showreel Showcase’ at their Fitzrovia headquarters in central London tomorrow night, March 30.

The idea is that emerging filmmakers can have their showreels shown to a group of their peers, prior to an informal networking event. Attendees don’t have to be showing a showreel to attend, all are welcome.

It’s totally free to attend is to be the first of these type of events which will, in the future, have a theme. More details from the CVP Blog.

Oscar treatment and £10k for Lacie winner

Submit your short film to LaCie's new PushPlay filmmaking competition and you could win a £10,000 production suite and a two-day mentoring session with Oscar-winning cinematographer Michael Paleodimos.

The closing date is April 17 and a shortlist of the best films will be selected by a panel of industry experts. You can enter the Lacie #PushPlay contest here!

Lacie’s information says:

My RØDE Reel film competition is open

Now in its fourth year, the My RØDE Reel 2017 film contest is back with its biggest ever prize pool, worth over $500,000! With 25 categories - new ones include Best Virtual Reality, Best Vlog and Best RØDE 30-second TV Commercial - there are even more chances to win in what is said to be the world’s largest film competition. Entries are now open and close on June 30.

Need some Filmmaking inspiration? RØDE have put together a unique Film Industry Behind-The-Scenes video series, and a complete series of Filmmaking Tutorial videos, designed to help aspiring filmmakers navigate the complexities of planning, shooting and editing their very own short film, to enter into the My RØDE Reel Short Film Competition.

Register for a FREE starter pack which contains special offers and templates to help you produce your film!

- FREE Music Track from Musicbed
- 30% off FilmConvert
- FREE Sound Effects from Blastwave FX
- First month FREE from Shane’s Inner Circle

PLUS

- My RØDE Reel 2017 Title Card
- Budget Template
- Script Template
- Shotlist Template
- Storyboard Template

Head to www.myrodereel.com now to register for your FREE starter pack!

Zacuto’s My Story film contest

Make a short film explaining why you became a filmmakers and you could walk off with a raft of top prizes including a Zacuto base plate and $600 gift certificate, Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, $700 worth of Kessler kit, $500 of Rode equipment, a Portabrace case and lots more.

The Zacuto My Story film competition runs all through March and all you have to do is make a film of 60 seconds or less explaining how you became a filmmaker. Zacuto’s information says: