Interactive Fund Deadline: November 15, 2012

Got a great idea for an interactive project?

Need $50K?

The deadline to apply for BC Film + Media and the BC Arts Council’s Interactive Fund is Thursday, November 15th.

Projects can be:

  • “interactive websites;
  • interactive narrative content;
  • mobile/tablet applications;
  • microgames; and
  • videogames.”

Check out the Guidelines for more detail.

Telefilm Not Short on Talent Deadline: November 1, 2012

Telefilm Canada is accepting submission of short films for the next Not Short on Talent programme, which will unspool at Clermont-Ferrand in February 2013.

The program of shorts will be curated by Danny Lennon, film festival programmer and founder of Prends ça court!, who will strive for an appropriate regional balance, so as to encourage films from all regions of the country. Priority will be given to films that have never been presented in public (world premieres).

The deadline is Thursday, November 1, 2012.

Lytro light field camera raises possibilities

At first glance the Lytro light field camera seems underwhelming.

It’s a tiny spyglass camera that takes square 1080 x 1080 photos. And costs $400 to $500. There’s limited control and no video….

But the technology behind it is kinda cool. It captures all the rays of light bouncing off of everything in front of the lens. Which means you can focus later. And change it forever, after freezing the moment in time. Lytro calls these ‘living pictures’.

Here’s how I envision using this camera:

  • Interactive ‘stories’ composed of a series of living photos that tell a narrative. Each image would be carefully designed with two areas of interest and the viewer would ‘pull focus’ from the first to the second.

But four more ideas come to mind, when I push this tech forward:

  1. Imagine when time and mono sound can be added to this mix. The viewer will be able to refocus different areas in the shot as it unfolds over time. This would be a ‘living movie’.
  2. What if enough data could be recorded to allow the viewer to change their point of view within the shot? This would be the ‘living picturescape’.
  3. Imagine a similar device to capture the ‘sound field’. A sound field recorder would work very similarly to the Lytro. It would capture all the sound waves bouncing off of objects in earshot. The user would then be able to navigate through the soundscape, in essence moving the microphone closer to the sound source they want to hear.
  4. Now imagine a combination of both devices: a living movie with a soundscape microphone — what I’m calling the AVscape. Now that’s getting close to true virtual reality!

Play with Lytro images. Click on an out-of-focus area. Neat!

Super Channel Feature Documentary Award Deadline: November 30, 2012

Are you a Canadian director/producer with at least one hour-long television documentary credit?

If so, Super Channel wants to help you break into theatrical documentaries.

Pitch them by Friday, November 23, 2012, and you might win:

  • “15-20 hours of mentorship from a senior feature documentary producer
  • $3,000 to attend the Hot Docs Forum 2013 and to further enhance the project.”

See the Super Channel Feature Documentary Award guidelines and submission form.

NSI Drama Prize Deadline: November 27, 2012

Tuesday, November 27, 2012, is the next deadline for the NSI’s Drama Prize.

“NSI Drama Prize is an ambitious training course for producer/writer/director teams looking to make their first or second dramatic short. It provides emerging filmmakers with a year of professional support and training in the various stages of filmmaking while they develop and produce a short film (maximum of 10 minutes in length). Up to four teams of aspiring Canadian filmmakers will be selected.”

If successful, you will:

  • “work with an experienced story editor to polish your script;
  • receive customized training delivered by industry experts in writing, directing and producing;
  • receive up to $10,000 in cash to go toward making your film;
  • receive approximately $20,000 in services to go toward making your film which includes equipment, film stock, post-production facilities, closed captioning, insurance, legal counsel;
  • receive air travel and accommodation costs to attend the week-long bootcamp in Winnipeg;
  • explore the world of social media marketing, transmedia and multi-platform strategies and find out how they can extend your personal brand, generate buzz for your film, help you fundraise and expand your audience; and
  • receive access to an established industry professional who will act as your mentor, offering advice, expertise and support.”

The entry fee is $100. If your project is selected, each team member then needs to cough up $1,500 for tuition.

So is it worth it?

Probably.

Your $100 gets you thinking seriously about your project.

Your $3,000 – $4,500 tuition gets you $10K in cash, $20K in services, lots of training and networking.

My advice? If you have a project you’re passionate about, apply with a two person team. (Keep in mind the Producer and Director cannot be the same person.)

Hey, it’s only $50 a head and you’ll whip your project into shape.

And if you’re not selected, just shoot it anyway with the money you would’ve spent on tuition!

 

Canadian Screen Awards needs Jurors

Even though the film submission deadlines have passed, there’s still time to apply to become a juror for the innagural Canadian Screen Awards.

The Genies and the Geminis got together and merged into the The Canadian Screen Awards for Television & Digital Media. Martin Short will host the awards show on CBC next March.

If you want to help choose the winners, apply to be a juror now.

Here comes the 1K Wave!

Last May, Ingrid Veninger, the Queen of DIY Filmmaking in Canada, put up $5,000 of her own money for the first $1,000 Feature Film Challenge, or 1K Wave.

Now the films of the first 1K Wave go on view at Toronto’s Royal Cinema this Thursday through Saturday:

Hotel Congress Toronto actress Nadia Litz (The Five Senses, You Are Here) worked with her real-life partner Michel Kandinsky on this two-hander about love and fidelity, shot in a Tucson hotel room.

Me, the Bees and Cancer Veteran assistant director John Board (Naked Lunch, The Bay of Love and Sorrows) traces his search through stinging alternative therapies for a cure for his own cancer.

Mourning Has Broken This roving black comedy by Brett and Jason Butler (Confusions of an Unmarried Couple) centres on a guy who responds to his wife’s terminal illness by channelling his frustration toward all the nuisances of daily life.

Sockeye High-school student Ben Roberts pulls an all-nighter with his dad, TV actor Rick Roberts (Republic of Doyle), and discovers new plot twists in his family background.

Liquid Handcuffs: the Unmaking of Methadonia Indie-film veteran John L’Ecuyer (Curtis’s Charm) turns his unfinished film into a diaristic look at the theory and practice of making movies for almost nothing.

See Robert Everett-Green’s Globe and Mail article for more.

Canadian television industry to face extinction

According to the Winnipeg SUN, Pierre Karl Peladeau, president and CEO of Quebecor Inc., told a MIPCOM audience that the Canadian television industry could “face extinction.”

Peladeau told the audience that two trends in particular are threatening the country’s current TV business model. The first is that the country’s funding systems rely on politicians and taxpayers who aren’t “feeling particularly generous these days,” he said. The second worrisome trend, he said, is the fact that the way TV is watched and distributed is evolving. “Obviously, an ecosystem based on declining funding and antiquated regulation is ripe for a major upheaval,” Peladeau said.

A major upheaval indeed. These guys can see the writing on the wall. Hence the reason why all content companies in Canada have become connectivity companies as well.

One Year Later

Steve Jobs died one year ago today.

I’ve been using Mac computers for over 20 years. Sure the hardware’s gotten faster and cheaper every five years. But what I truly appreciate is all the Mac software I’ve explored and mastered. Among them:

  • FileMaker Pro introduced me to databases and remains one of the easiest, user-friendly and most powerful database applications out there.
  • HyperCard was a visionary blending of multimedia and programming.
  • Final Cut Pro took me from the analogue film world to the digital video realm.
  • iDVD helped me create beautiful DVDs of my work.
  • GarageBand released my inner rock star.

My hope is that Steve’s vision will remain intact and that Apple will continue to “Think Different”. I hope that in its quest to become a media empire it doesn’t forget about all the independent creators toiling away on their Macs.

Thank you, Steve, for the tools to unleash my creativity.

See Apple’s memorial video for Steve Jobs.