UPDATE: Partnering Filmmakers with Non-profits to Create Free Videos for Campaigns

The Cineworks Independent Filmmakers Society is an organization which has been dedicated to supporting independent film production in Vancouver for more than 30 years. As a registered charity, Cineworks is familiar with the challenges facing non-profits today in this economic and funding climate, and as a result is developing a program that aims to support both non-profits in the city as well as indie film producers. 

As the Internet and social media increasingly shape the way organizations communicate with their constituents, many groups are finding it challenging to amass the resources required to create communications materials with the production value that's required to grab and hold viewers' attention. Cineworks, however, believes that with the wealth of filmmaking talent in this city, that this may be more of an issue of networking than resources and are inviting you to participate in this pilot program to bring media makers and non-profits together for everyone's benefit.

"Play it Forward" would see filmmakers competing for one of three prize packages from Cineworks, each consisting of a few thousand dollars worth of credit with Cineworks to produce whatever film they desire. The application process would see each filmmaker partnering with a local non-profit to produce a one to three minute promotional piece (paid for by the filmmaker) that would be uploaded to YouTube for a popular vote, the results of which would be combined with juried voting to select the three winners 

The goal of the project is the production of numerous high-quality, creative and original promotional pieces which the participating non-profits could continue to use royalty-free in their campaigns and communications efforts and which will have hopefully already been seen by a large online audience during the voting process. The contest would culminate with a screening evening highlighting some of the best of the PSAs produced as well as the three prize winning shorts.

UPDATE: The official call for submissions will be issued on January 7, 2013. The production period for the campaign videos will run until February 28 and the voting process from March 1-15.

At this point, Cineworks is soliciting interest from groups who may be interested in participating in the program in order to compile a list for applicant filmmakers who may not have one in mind to work with. If you'd like to be on the list please reply to Jon Ornoy, Equipment + Facilities Manager, with a contact name, phone number and website and email address. 

Contact:

Jon Ornoy
Equipment + Facilities Manager
Cineworks Independent Filmmakers Society
Vancouver, BC
equipment: 604.685.2209
office: 604.685.3841
cineworkspost@gmail.com
equipment@cineworks.ca