This is a great concept and a great opportunity for filmmmakers. Thank you.
Oh my gosh. I most certainly would absolutely love to participate in this, because an idea has been floating around in my head for the last week or so that is probably the most unique concept I’ve come up with. Thank you all for this chance to make something great.
Savvy
I just need to find someone who can speak French with a Corsican accent for the trailer to my film on Napoleon that I have been planning.
So this is just for US residents?
No its for anyone. It’s Garage. Garage is global.
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So you are making a film. You are writing in notebooks, sketching storyboards, collecting script elements on your laptop, making test cuts, imagining and curating and commissioning music. You are eating, sleeping, breathing, sweating and dreaming a process that will one day lead to a moment when you shout ‘action!’ and the camera begins to record for the first time.
The TEN festival celebrates films in this embryo state. Ten’s mission is to help a new generation of filmmakers take those all-important first steps toward making their first feature film a reality by bringing professional exposure to the filmmakers’ pitches, seeding the most promising project with prize money, and opening up traditional industry and new media channels for the top ten.
The festival itself is comprised of short films as movie-trailers or teasers to films that don’t yet exist. If you have a feature film concept you want to bring to light, you make the trailer first as a ‘pitch’ for it, and submit it to the festival. It costs $10 to enter. You’ll be asked to add some production details (because we want to see that you are serious about getting this film made, and not just lost in wild imagination). Out of the total submissions, 20 finalists will be selected by the Garage and TEN curation team: these finalists will then be invited to make coherent, full pitches for their productions, covering all aspects from complete budgetary breakdown to coherent script. Garage producers will personally mentor each of the selected finalists in their pitch until they reach professional levels. At this stage, candidates may submit extra audio-visual materials to support their case: actor bios, director notes, production and license necessities, scripts, music and so forth. Much of this extra information can be embedded in the Garage Production Journals channel. The finalists will be given an opportunity at this stage to refine their trailers for the final event.
On the 10th of October 2010, at an as yet undisclosed location in San Francisco, the 20 films will be screened, final pitches will be considered, and 10 will be chosen. A combination of audience vote and a jury of industry professionals will decide on one to get a $10,000 bonus seed fund, based on the excellence of their presentation. All ten finalists, however, will then be brought into The Garage production studio and helped to get their films funded, produced, marketed and distributed by connecting them in each case with the exact resource network that will best help them achieve their goal.
About trailers
Trailers are an artform to themselves. The best work in this field captures the essence of a film without destroying the possibility of surprise, of suspense, of seduction into a story. WIthin this, we are looking for people who are able to tease us into their vision, not sledgehammer us with soundbite and cinematic cliche. There are a million ways to approach your submission: we want to see what you can do with 3-5 minutes of time. Don’t try and sell a romance as an action thriller because you think the immediacy of explosive drama is better than subtlety. Pitch your film as you want it made. You’re pitching to people who spend all day every day watching and curating films: we know how to read between the lines. At the same time, don’t present something so abstract as to be unfathomable: we need to get a sense that this film could in fact be made, that it would draw an audience, however niche that might be, and isn’t the speculative ambition of a daytripper with a camcorder. There are no restrictions on genre: everything from Noir to Documentary is allowed.
For kickstarter ideas on trailers and different approaches, we encourage you to check out this thread on The Garage forum. When you are ready, and you have gathered your elements, put your trailer together and follow the instructions below.
How to submit your film
Click here and follow instructions. You will need to open an Auteurs account and a Vimeo account. Only films uploaded to Vimeo will be accepted for embed into the site. All films must be uploaded to this TEN festival project channel on The Garage.
Notes on uploaded films
1. “What we’ve learned is that trailers are unique in advertising: they’re a free sample. That’s not true of virtually any other form of advertising. A commercial for aspirin isn’t a free sample of aspirin. A car advertisement isn’t a free test drive. But with a movie trailer, you actually get to see some of the movie you’re being asked to plunk down money for.” Mike Shapiro
Good point, and here’s what we don’t want to see. We don’t want to see trailers for films you have already made. We want you to create something original. If you make it through to the final 20 and we discover that actually this is all just spliced from something that you’ve had uploaded on YouTube gathering virtual dust for two years, we wont be taking your pitch forward. We’re also not interested in seeing pitches and trailers for films just looking for completion funds, because that also defeats the purpose. TEN is all about taking that first step on a big feature idea still lodged in your head.
2. We’re not big on game-playing, but we do pay attention to statistics. When your film is up and on The Garage, we’ll watch and see how many times it gets played. Now this isn’t going to play any major element in the final decision, because we all know that some people are good at getting hundreds of people to fan and follow them, and some… not so good. But by the same token, any filmmaker wanting to get their name and work up and out there in the 21st century is faced with a hard reality: you have to be willing to think about distribution and marketing as part of the process of making films. Every day at The Garage we encounter filmmakers who didn’t think it important to consider the endgame of their film— what actually happens when the final cut is made and it’s all ready for the world to watch. No one expects you to sell your soul. But we do expect you to want to promote. To this end, we will keep tabs on who is pro-active in getting their work noticed, because it’s a good indication of the seriousness of your intent to get this film made.
3. Copyright: You, the filmmaker, will retain all rights to your short film movie-trailer. By submitting your work to the TEN film festival, you grant us the ability to show it on the event, web, print it in our publications, and/or use it for promotional material.
OK that’s it. See you soon.
Any questions, don’t hesitate to contact T at this Auteurs Account
“http://www.theauteurs.com/garage/projects/10”: The TEN Festival on The Garage