Greetings to those here and there. I’ve been contacted… and not by little green men like last time. I’ve been contacted by T h o m a s P h i l l i p s o n. He apparently spells his name with a lot of extra spaces but don’t judge him, his parents were probably just hippies or something, that’s how I got the middle name Moonbeam. Anyhow, Mr. P h i l l i p s o n is the Regional Services Coordinator for the Northwest Film Center and he wants more Alaskan submissions for the prestigious Northwest Film Festival.
The Northwest Film Festival is a festival for independent Northwest film and video makers. It’s been judged in the past by such noteworthy folks as Gus Van Sant (Director of “Good Will Hunting”) and Matt Groening (Creator of “The Simpsons”). The festival usually accepts 30-45 shorts, features and documentaries and of those 10-15 shorts are selected for the Best of the Northwest Tour program which travels throughout the Northwest to media arts centers, museums, arts councils and universities. The total audience will likely exceed six thousand and if that’s not enough to get your motor running… entry is FREE. I’m going to say it a few more times so I catch the skimmers.. FREE FREE FREE.
Entry forms and more information-
http://www.nwfilm.org/festivals/festival_nwfv.html
More information on the Northwest Film Center
Summer Film Fest
As for our own little corner of the world, the JUMP Society Summer Film Festival was yet another wild success. We had three full shows at the Silverbow with the late show Friday packed tighter than a tube of Pillsbury biscuits. If you left an entry tape with us and want it back just drop by the office and pick it up.
Ninjas in our Midst
Several of the films underway for the Winter film festival are going to be Ninja themed and the festival posters will feature the jump logo in some kind of throwing star design. This is not going to be a required theme but I was thinking it would be fun to have some recurring element for our next festival so we’ll try it out and see how it goes.
Music and Mayhem
Mukhya Khalsa and a few other folks have suggested some experimental film projects to get people interested and editing over short periods of time. One idea is a music video project where you select a piece of music and have 24 hours to edit a music video for it. Another idea is a 24 hour movie scramble where participants have 24 hours to make a film, they get together at a kick off event and everyone gets a list of words and places that must be included in the movie and then are set to work. At the end of either of these events the tired and worn down filmmakers get together and watch their films. Maybe it would make more sense to have a two day event than a 24 hour event so people can sleep. Sounds like fun to me.. what do you think? Something you’d participate in?
Equipment
According to Aaron, our equipment fund czar, we have quite a bit of spare change socked away for a sunny day. Thanks to some helpful folks at the door taking donations we actually made more from our two Friday shows this summer than all of our previous festivals combined. Long story short, with the help of Lucid Reverie, and possibly some arts money, we’re planning on purchasing a new computer for the office that can be used as an editing machine for those who need it. This means we can still provide an area for people to edit and not have to lose time and money from the business by tying up our machines. The computer will have Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects, and some sort of capture card for digital video. The cost of renting the machine will be $5/hr with all proceeds going back to the Jump Society. If you really don’t have the money we’ll work out something fair, maybe working the door or hanging posters for upcoming festivals. Tutorials and manuals will be available as well. Other items on our list are a tripod, a cheap digital camera, and some sound gear.
501(c)(3)
All this talk of money makes me realize we need to get our 501(c)(3) non-profit status. I’ve heard it isn’t to hard but the paperwork is tedious. If anyone wants to lend a hand by filling out some paper work just let me know. It would be greatly appreciated.
Laters
Sorry for the long e-mail, if you made it this far you’re home free.