Musical Video

Open For Submission All Year Round

Click on this hyperlink here to go to a dedicated web page for this competition.

ENTRIES READY FOR REGISTRATION

Participants MUST register online (please click the button

European based filmmakers have multiple platform choices(English subtitles required) please enter either via Festhome.com

European based filmmakers also enter via Click4Festivals.com

US, Canada, Central and South American countries may submit here

China and Chinese language films (English subtitles required) please enter here

Thank you & Good luck.

Short Film competition accepts films from ALL Genre Categories
The most popular genre and awards that will be considered are:

.Drama

.Comedy

.Thriller/Horror/ Sci-Fi/Film Noir etc

The films submitted may be of recent or older date and, can include international releases in English, or other languages. These last can be entered in Foreign category competition but must have subtitles in English.

Thriller films can include any of these sub genres. Conspiracy thriller, Crime thriller, Erotic thriller, Legal thriller, Political thriller, Psychological thriller, Rape and Revenge films, or Supernatural thrillers.

Horror: Terror, Vampires, Witchcraft, Wolves, Werewolves, Zombies, you know the usual in short film form.

Sci-Fi: Supernatural, Time or Space Travel, Virtual Reality and anything out of this world.Sci-Fi Feature films can include any of these sub genres, please indicate which yours falls under.

Action Sci-Fi, Alien Invasion, Aliens, Extra-Terrestrial Encounters, Atomic Age, Classic Sci-Fi, Cyber Punk, Disaster - See Greatest Disaster Film Scenes also Dystopia, End of World, Fairy Tales, Fantasy Films, 50's Sci-Fi, Futuristic, Lost Worlds, Mad Scientists, Monsters and Mutants, Other Dimensions, Outer Space, Post-Apocalyptic, Pre-historic, Robots, Cyborgs and Androids, Sci-Fi Thrillers, Space Opera, Space or Sci-Fi Westerns, Star Trek, Super-Hero Films (e.g., Supermen and Others), Supernatural, Time or Space Travel, Virtual Reality

Make a WAP Vidlet clip for use in advertising for mobile phones. Any promo in any format and suitable length is welcome!

Click on this hyperlink here to go to a dedicated web page for this competition.

Read the info on mobile advertising to help you make the right decission, right format and right choices before you are producing it!

Mobile Advertising Market

Mobile phones have become a part of every human's daily life. Recently, technology giants such as Microsoft and Google have launched into the emerging Mobile Advertising market to pursue a piece of the mobile ad revenue pie. From a subscribers viewpoint the most popular and simultaneously annoying method of advertising for subscribers is SMS advertising. Advertisers run ad campaigns with varying ad types; text, fullscreen or banner ads to target different age demographics, gender and location statistics obtained from user profile information. This targeting method is accomplished through various mediums such as WAP, SMS, MMS and also through mobile email client applications such as Consilient Push.

WAP advertising is one of the break-out advertising mediums as many subscribers use their mobile phones for internet access due to competitive and very affordable data plans offered by their mobile carriers. The traffic generated on each carrier's WAP portal is now much higher than any other medium which leads to a high revenue generating source.

WAP advertising Technology

The mobile advertising technology used to deliver ads to the subscriber has grown quite sophisticated, allowing advertisers to target specific users by numerous targeting parameters to deliver a much more focused advertising campaign. When the subscriber visits the carrier's WAP portal page, the WAP gateway communicates with the ad server and obtains the ad image source URL and then sends this information to the mobile device for the device browser to make a request to fetch the image source of the ad. The advertisements are served with varying types of user actions for that particular ad. Click-to actions can include: Click To Call, Click To Email, Click To SMS, Click To Browse, Click To Download and Click To Chat. Also the ads will be served based on a priority ranking system. In addition, the advertiser's budget capping for impressions and clicks will also be taken into account, set by the advertiser for each of their advertisements.

Conclusion
Mobile Advertising is an emerging potential revenue market.

All participants or registered members please note, that all terms and conditions outlined online must be reviewed and agreed to

Make an iPOD Vidlet clip for use in advertising for iPODs. Any promo in any format and suitable length is welcome!

Click on this hyperlink here to go to a dedicated web page for this competition.

The iPhone has become the undisputed king of the portable media player market. iPODs sold over 50 million units worldwide, before iPhones became the number one choice. In the old days iPod had a 90% market share in the hard disk-based media players. Whether it was the snack-sized iPod Shuffle, the gourmet iPod Nano, or the super-sized iPod video, there was a flavor to satisfy every customer. If you are generating audio or video content for any type of distribution you may want to include this device on menu of options.

Since iPod's was such a groundbreaking innovation in the old days we would like to see more promos or vidlets made for this device still.

When one sees dark silhouetted figures dancing against bright-colored backgrounds, the iPod instantly comes to mind. Few other brands out there can claim to have such a level of recognition among consumers.

Filmmakers can make any kind of promo, musical videos or whatever you wish. See more tips below.
Must be compatible with ALL iPOD models.

 

Tips! for old and new devices (may vary)

Before we jump into recipes the content itself, let's talk a little bit about what customers are clamoring to enjoy and how they consume this media. The extremes appear to be moving further apart in content for the iPod audio and iPod video , with the most popular content appearing to be either under 5 minutes and very short (the latest Top 40 hit, a video podcast from despair, Inc., or < King Burger Whopperettes the of making>) or 30-45 minutes and longer (more than 10 hours of 2006 NBA Finals highlights, an 80-minute America's Funniest Home Videos Battle of the Best episode, or the audiobook version of The Devil Wears Prada).

These two extremes are important to realize when planning your content for a mobile society. Most people consume their media while traveling from one place to another (or at least there's the illusion of travel for those folks on the treadmill). Keeping the media very short for a quick car ride or a bite-size snippet in between phone calls is just as important as making it full length with extras and deleted scenes for the long subway ride home or the flight to Europe.

The leader in serving up media for the iPod is iTunes. With cross-platform compatibility, this restaurant for the iPod serves up a variety of free and paid content that can satisfy even the most discriminating palate. There are also more and more sites offering iPod-ready files to download and move to our device. Whether it's an audio podcast in MP3 format or the latest TV commercial in MPEG-4 format, we are seeing a sharp increase in independent sites offering content specifically for the iPod.

How to make iPOD Video
Creating video for the iPod is very simple with Apple's new set of iLife 06 tools.Could use video shot on any video camera and iMovie HD to build a simple iPod video. Open iMovie and select New File and MP4 file formatting as the default encoding. Plug in your camera via FireWire and you'll be able to instantly upload your video by pressing the Import button in the view area.

iMovie can recognise the brand and model number of your video camera. After a few editing tweaks and some sizzle, thanks to iMovie's rather nice title options, you should be ready to serve your iPod video. Select File-->Export, and it opens up an option window with multiple output formats. There is a tab just for the iPod and it renders out the video as an MPEG-4 video file, 320x240 at 30 frames per second using H.264/AVC video and 44.100kHz AAC stereo audio encoding. It even automatically puts it into iTunes and opens it up for me when it has rendered out the file. Next time you hook up my iPod, then you can drag and drop this onto your video iPod, or it will upload automatically if I have iTunes' automatic update option selected.

Once you have created these scrumptious media files, it's time to share them with your guests and hope they come back for seconds. You can submit content to iTunes or you can host the files and supply links to the hungry masses. With the "giant's" grip on the mobile media marketplace, creating content for the iPod is no longer a novel idea but a necessity. Remember to keep the content short or in-depth and build your media for your target audience's transit time. With more devices and ideas on the horizon I am sure you will be cooking up content for iPods for years to come.

Good luck!

Click on this hyperlink here to go to a dedicated web page for this competition.

We would like to recognize the best storyboards from around the world. With certificate and world-wide promotion prize on offer it is hardly a category to be missed out on.

Drawings in any format even by hand is welcome to be submitted. See tips section below.

All participants or registered members please note, that all terms and conditions outlined online must be reviewed and agreed to

Events Screening Dates and Times :: Screening Events Schedule (Outdoor)

Thank you & Good luck.

Tips!

Film is, after all, a visual medium, and the storyboard is the most often used tool for getting a sense of how an idea will work before filming takes place. Storyboarding involves drawing still, comic book-like images of what you want your final scenes to look like. It is used as a guideline for smooth filming on set, as well as a template for the pre-production editing process.

Why storyboard?

Alfred Hitchcock was well known for storyboarding every shot of his classic films. In fact, he was so meticulous about storyboarding that he considered the procedure to be the most creative phase of the filmmaking process. Shooting the actual film was just a necessary evil. The storyboard not only determined exactly what the film would look like, it even decided what kinds of camera movements and shots were necessary to create the perfect scene.

Who can forget the shower sequence from Psycho, its every shot communicating a new terror? Or the plane chasing Cary Grant in North by Northwest? If Hitchcock had waited to decide how to shoot the scenes of either of these sequences on location, there is little doubt that they would not have ended up as well crafted and memorable. But how can drawing a few storyboards have such an effect on the final outcome of a film? The main reason is time.

If you don't storyboard, you'll be spending more time with your camera in hand, forcing your actors to wait on the sidelines and working hard to figure out what to shoot next. Your time is better spent planning on your own and going over your script in detail.

Pretend you are shooting the film on paper and drawing each shot as you go. (For beginning filmmakers, it is helpful to have a list of possible camera shots to assist you. This will help you visualize the difference between close-ups and medium shots, cutaways and cut-in shots, etc. and allow you to choose what will best help "show" rather than tell your story.)

Review your drawings in sequence to make sure every shot will fit together smoothly, and if they do not, it is best to know this beforehand. That way, you can make changes before filming begins, eliminating the stressful need for a re-shooting.

How do I get started?

To give you some practical insight into how the storyboarding process works, here is an exercise. First use a storyboarding template and make additional copies as needed. Next, grab your favorite movie and watch a short scene with your pencil and template in hand.

Choose something short. You may be surprised how many shots (or edits) there are in a short film sequence. For example, the shower sequence from Psycho has 52 shots in a span of only 2 minutes and 8 seconds.

Freeze frame your scene and stop at the first shot of the sequence. Sketch what you see on the screen as a still representation on your storyboard. Continue sketching each new shot (or edit) within the sequence.

If the scene includes a long pan, or moving shot, (for example, a pan of the skyline or a zoom in on an actor's face), you can indicate motion within your storyboard. Use an arrow to indicate the motion the camera will make. An arrow can eliminate the need for multiple drawings. Under the storyboard box, write careful descriptions to effectively communicate the movement happening within the shot as well.

To test yourself, or if you are a teacher, to test your class, try the American Film Institute Screen Education handbook and Door Scene Exercise. Teams of students must create a storyboard of a simple scene involving a door and a number of camera angles and shots. Then, they must film and edit their finished scene based on the storyboard.

To ensure that the students' storyboard is complete and easy to follow, they must trade their storyboard with another student team. A second film is made exactly as this "new" storyboard instructs with no other communications from its creators.

Will the films turn out the same? If they do, congratulations, you have created an excellent storyboard, one that can effectively communicate your vision without explanation. If the two films are different, you should go back and try to figure out where your visual communication could have been clearer and more concise.

A storyboard is the primary communication tool for filmmaking. It does not matter if you are creating a work of fiction or a documentary; each benefit from the kind of planning that storyboards provide. The dilemma here is that a storyboard should not leave anything to the imagination: using your imagination could be dangerous as no two people "imagine" the same thing.

Use your original script to create a solid and interpretable visualization of your story. Take the time to plan, or otherwise you will be dealing with reshoots, footage you cannot use, scenes that are difficult to follow and a lot of miscommunication. Follow the great directors who went before you and grab some paper and pencils, because storyboarding is the secret to a successful film.

Good luck

Click on this hyperlink here to go to a dedicated web page for this competition.

we recognize the best new screenwriters from around the world. With multiple prizes and screenwriter events at the festival, CIFF is your best chance to get your writing discovered.

 

Events Screening Dates and Times :: Screening Events Schedule (Outdoor)

Thank you & Good luck.

Past & present 'Winners & Runner Ups' (click here please)

Colortape Film Magazine for Filmmakers (PDF file preview, 2017 issue) (click here please)

The magazine was put together by us and features biographies, or a short synopsis, posters and photos about films submitted in our festival. Those who would like to feature in our magazine, please send us a short 300 word synopsis of your film/script/animation/docos please send us an email requesting to be included. FREE softcopy (pdf file) can be provided to those who participated in our festival. If you would like to order FREE copy please send us an email requesting a softcopy (pdf file). Note is FREE ONLY to those who participated in our festival. Alternatively, we will may have hardcopies available by the end of the year for an approximate price of AUD$18 + Postage (subject to orders and printing volume requirement, please inquire within), order can be placed vi email. Thank you for supporting our magazine.

Help us spread the word, invite your buddy filmmaker to our festival! Thank you in advance.