UPDATE:

 

The winner of our article contest has been announced. Please welcome to the writing staff, Heidi Fuhr. Over the next couple of weeks she will be writing about the plot points and acts of any great story – using the pilot episode of Breaking Bad as an example. Follow the series (aptly named ‘How Do You Plot Character-Driven Stories?’) here.

 

Thanks again for all your submissions! We are truly humbled by the interest!

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Our growing community is a constantly evolving work in progress and we need your help to keep up the pace.

We are currently looking for experienced filmmakers to contribute posts about a topic within your specific area of expertise. And we’ll pay for your efforts, of course.

*** THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING YOUR ENTRY FOR THIS CONTEST IS FRIDAY, MARCH 20 AT MIDNIGHT (PST) ***

These are the categories we need original articles about:

Writing, Screenwriting, Novelization
Illustration, Storyboards, Animation
Producing
Fundraising, Crowdfunding, Budgets
Directing
Cinematography and Lighting, Equipment
Production Design, Art Direction, Locations
Sound Recording and Editing
Editing
Visual/Special Effects, Motion Graphics
Distribution – Festivals, Theater, Streaming, TV Sales, Tugg
Marketing and PR – Building an Audience
Acting, Casting

We are looking for two types of filmmakers who can write articles.

PROFESSIONALS – making a living in the specific craft or field you are writing about. Documentary or Narrative.

ACTIVE FILMMAKERS – not making a living in your specific field, but have real experience in that part of the business in some way. There are a lot of us out there who are making films, but not yet making a living from it. We still have a lot to offer other filmmakers in the way of advice and experiences – both good and bad.

The more real-life experience you have, the better, but we will consider people with academic knowledge as well.

This blog is designed around the idea of skilled artists and technicians in film answering questions from our readers. For now, you will write both the questions you think are most relevant to your field and the answers.

For the contributors we hire – we pay $35 per article. The articles should be between 500-1200 words. If you’re not only a filmmaker, but also know math, you’ll see that if you do 20 articles at a time, you would earn $700 to be paid bi-weekly as they are delivered.

If they are well received by our readers, we would hope you would do more for us in the future.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THIS POSITION, HERE IS HOW TO APPLY

a. First, we want you to submit a blog article. (500-1200 words)

It would be great if you talked about a production you have worked on or are working on – or just know something about. Making these answers personal really helps.

Hint: Coming up with an intriguing question is paramount to a good Q&A blog post.

b. Secondly, we need at least one image we can use with the article. Make sure we can legally use any embedded video, images or copyrighted material. Fair Use images and footage are okay as long as they really fit Fair Use rules. You can google “Creative Commons” to find images that require credit, but no cost to use.

c. Give us 5 more questions that you would like to answer in future articles.

d. Write a short “About the Author” blurb (1-5 sentences long) that we can post on the blog – we want to make sure you are properly credited. This community is all about getting to know each other, after all. Tell the audience why you know what you are talking about. Also give us your profile picture.

As examples, take a look at these very different articles. One is a lengthy piece on Joe Crump’s experiences lighting interviews for documentaries, one is an opinion piece on why some acting performances stand out while others fall flat, and one is a quick How-To blog about headshots. Though all very different from each other, these are all useful and interesting, so be creative when submitting your entry. You can also pitch us your own blog series, by sending us your first article and a short outline of what your series would be about. Here’s a great example from a book publishing site we like. Your series would, of course, have to be film-related, but we would love to see submission of this sort.

HERE IS HOW WE DECIDE WHO WE’RE GOING TO HIRE

1. It is completely our call on who we want to hire and who will ‘win’ this position. We will want to talk to you before we give you the job. If we hire you, we will pay you for the first submission and post it on our blog.

It is possible, although unlikely, that we won’t be able to pick anyone from the submissions.

2. For those of you who are not offered the blog position, if you allow us to, we will pick a few (maybe more) of the submissions we get and post them on the blog – properly credited, of course. You would not be paid for this (sorry about that), but your valuable insight would surely inspire other filmmakers – and you’ll get to look like a boss expert doing it. I also want you to know, it’s possible we won’t pick your article after you spent the time on it and for that, I also apologize.

3. If you allow us to post your article and accompanying image(s), you will be giving us legal permission and all rights to post it on our blog, our youtube account or any place else we feel it would be effective to post. It will effectively be our article. You, of course, will have your name on it and get credit and can use it anywhere else you like – you are not giving us exclusive rights.

So that is it.

Lend us your voice and let others hear what you have to say. Let’s get the conversation started.

To be in the running for this blogger position, the articles are due by February 28th, 2015 (midnight pacific time).

Please send the requested materials via the form below.

*** THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING YOUR ENTRY FOR THIS CONTEST IS FRIDAY, MARCH 20 AT MIDNIGHT (PST) ***

Good luck! And THANK YOU for participating in our nascent film blog – it is our hope to build a wonderful filmmaker community.