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-   -   A Couple Thoughts (https://www.dvinfo.net/forum/uwol-challenge/533205-couple-thoughts.html)

Paul Mailath December 17th, 2016 07:28 PM

Re: A Couple Thoughts
 
I had a quick look on withoutabox, without much luck but filmfreeway shows 25 free festivals that have categories for short, documentary, 3 minutes.

why not submit the winner of each monthly contest to a free festival? - we've got nothing to lose. These festivals may be small, unknown, new festivals but so what - if a film get's entered in to a particular festival, we can promote that, if it wins something, we can promote that - no cost to the group or individuals except time.

If we wanted to submit the annual winner to bigger, paid festivals we either get the winner to pay the entry fee of we all in a couple of bucks to cover entry via a specific paypal account.

I think we would need to discuss exactly how to submit but I would suggest that it be done by UWOL as opposed to the filmmaker. The filmaker will still have their credit but UWOL would be the submitter and draw attention to the group and the contest.

We have a presence on vimeo but not youtube and no unique domain as such - www.uwol.org is available. We have a facebook page but not a great deal of activity and no embeded videos.

If we do want to expand the group to get more entries, we need to market the group to get interest, that will take time and energy and may involve some financial costs as well - if we want to go that far.

Paul Wood December 18th, 2016 07:22 AM

Re: A Couple Thoughts
 
Firstly, nice to hear the news, Dale - as everyone has said, it takes a weight off your mind a bit.

As ever, there is an awful lot of common sense in the comments above - and of course the same enthusiasm which drew me to the group in the first place!

I still like the idea of some sort of collaboration, although I do remember how the UWOL RTW effort sort of petered out, due, I guess, to the same reasons we have a lot of sign ups and less submitted projects - life gets in the way!

I think Trond has some good ideas - voting for the overall best film of the year surely cant do any harm, and could be both an extra incentive and a way for UWOL to gain more exposure outside of the forum.
Extending the March challenge to allow a review mid way through is fantastic - I have certainly made re-edits of past entries based on comments, and Im certain they have been improved as a result.

I also wonder whether adding an announcement to the DV Info Net Announcements page as well as the UWOL pages may add interest from other forum members. Although I now tend to browse ¨New Posts ¨, for a long while I only went to my specific areas of interest, which at the time was the hot news of the Sony VG10 (ah memories…), and I completely missed the rest of the forum.

Finally, Paul has added some valid ideas about the wider world - certainly worth some thought. If we start to look at getting wider exposure, and perhaps incurring costs, maybe we should consider looking a getting some sponsorship? I know it opens a whole new can of worms, but we should certainly add to the discussion.

Vishal Jadhav December 21st, 2016 01:02 AM

Re: A Couple Thoughts
 
Good to hear the news Dale.

Lot of wonderful ideas i could read above, i suppose everyone at the end would like to have a bigger outreach for their videos/work and yes Film festivals are surely something that can give that outreach.

I see that a collaborative project was started and didnt go a long way before, however it doesnt mean that it will have the same fate next time we try, might be it may be successful, hope is the only thing that we can always work by.

Just came up with the idea and this may sound pretty weird to all but just think about it, we everytime have a topic which we work our films on and we have a 4 minutes hard deadline, what if we can come up with a combined film with shots from all the submitted films , it may give a flavor of worldwide production as well as get everyone involved .
Once we have the judging process completed, we start with this process where by everyone of us might try and string together shots from all films and make it into a compelling story . What say.
Who edits the final one is a question i couldnt find a answer to ..

This film with multiple contributors may also do pretty well at Film festivals or we can have a Youtube channel for them.
In this case we have a small film but participation from multiple people and might be new people may like to join in as they may not be able to put up the best film at the start but they might be contributors to such a joint project.
I just felt that this may increase the participation and also give a new output to the films we make.

Trond Saetre December 21st, 2016 01:55 AM

Re: A Couple Thoughts
 
Thanks everyone for your ideas. Much appreciated!
I agree with Paul M that it doesn't matter if the festivals we end up with are small or free. Maybe we get more publicity from several small ones than from being a small film in a huge festival?

Vishal, I am interested in your idea of trying to make a film out of all the submitted films. Could be fun trying it out sometime. It would probably be best to do this when there is a couple months until the challenge after.


The January challenge will run as normal. (Standard procedure)
This gives us more time to discuss the film festival submission ideas.
(Which festivals, if every winner or only the winner of the winning films each year should be submitted, and so on...)

The March challenge will be extended with one month, to allow for the intermediate feedback process, as suggested earlier in this thread)

Kevin Railsback December 21st, 2016 10:36 AM

Re: A Couple Thoughts
 
Nice to see so much input! UWOL is far from dead!!

I think it would be great if Chris would sponsor the submission to a really amazing festival. Like maybe Wildscreen '18 or something.

For Christmas my parents never really want anything because they have everything that they need. SO I usually donate money to an animal slitter in their name and they love that.

So I was talking to Karina about that and she said why not just give them the money and let them donate themselves or use the money for something else. I think that somehow diminishes the idea for me.
So I think if we sponsor a festival for the winning film of the years winning films, it should be entered in the festival.

My goal for 2017 is to complete a film that I can submit to festivals in 2018. I tend to be low key about my work and only occasionally enter in my local festival but after being at Wildscreen, it's changed my outlook on things. All of us should attend a major festival even just once. It's quite the experience!

Also like the idea of a collaborative film or something that we all can work together on in some capacity.

I just saw a memory on Facebook of Whispers of Winter, a UWOL film I did like nine years ago. I wonder what it would look like if I did it today. Would it be better, the same or can you never go home again?

All I know is that I can't wait for the January challenge to start!

Andrew Hood December 30th, 2016 07:12 AM

Re: A Couple Thoughts
 
Dale that's great news, hopefully you can use some of that free time for UWOL.

I can totally relate to Kevin with focusing on Plan A, which if it falls through then I struggle to make a plan B or C happen. Usually if I have time (2016 was mainly restricted by theatre commitments) I still don't get a solid enough idea to film till really late. Something to work on, just come up with a simple idea and get out there. If I conceive something better in the meantime maybe I'll change course.

Some great ideas mentioned! I think changing things up and trying different formats is a great idea. The worst it can do is keep entries a little lower, but will hopefully get lots of people involved.

A collaborative effort sounds promising - making it happen might not be easy but it would be great if we can get it off the ground.

Bryce Comer December 31st, 2016 02:16 PM

Re: A Couple Thoughts
 
Lots of great ideas here in this thread.
I thought this was a great idea of Vegard Paulsen in the sign up thread for the January challenge.

"Its always just luck for me to actually remember to log on to dvinfo and at the same time as a signup tread before it closes! I really wish for a reminder email service everytime a signup is open."

Maybe if an email was sent out to all the former participants, letting them know of the upcoming challenge, we would have more participation??

Mark Hartopp December 31st, 2016 04:08 PM

Re: A Couple Thoughts
 
Sign up email reminder would be great at some point in the future. I always seam to remember a few day after sign up closes.

Trond Saetre December 31st, 2016 06:37 PM

Re: A Couple Thoughts
 
I'll check into this and see if it is an easy way to do it.

Dale Guthormsen February 10th, 2017 04:47 PM

Re: A Couple Thoughts
 
Wow,

what a great sub thread.. Tronde you should colate te ideas and make the thread official!!

I had Maajor hand surgery last fall i couldnt film as i was in a cast and splint fot 3 months after 6 weeks of therapy the right paw works but just had the left paw done so now its casted up for 3 months.

Im still going to sigh up february 15th. maybe the morphine will give a differnt perspective,LOL.

I would like to see another long form challenge.

sometimes after seeing so many great films i dont think what i have is good enough, that happened to me on uwol 36, or i think i dont have anything good enough to film at that time, say winter when things just look ugly out there.

a lot of good ideas put out there.

misoula montana has a film festival every year. perhaps individuals or teams could make entries for it. using uwol feedback and get together at the festival ? would be cool.

Mark Hartopp February 20th, 2017 07:12 AM

Re: A Couple Thoughts
 
2 Attachment(s)
UWOL Winners Wreath:

Hello,
I've been reading few post about promoting the competition. I think a Winners Wreath graphic would be a small token of well done to the winner. This would need to be talked about in detail. This would cover ideas on how the graphic is used on your work does & don'ts etc. Get the DVINF log within the design to promote the website; And where possible enable a clickable link.

I've just knocked up an idea and how it works on a light & dark background. I do have a vector master if the moderators request it. Any thoughts.

Trond Saetre February 20th, 2017 07:44 AM

Re: A Couple Thoughts
 
Thanks, Mark!
We have used similar badges for the winning and runner up films for a long time already. (Attached the badges tothe films on vimeo). These have been made by Mike Sims.
Which reminds me that I haven't received any for the uwol 41 and future uwol challenges yet.

Mark Hartopp February 20th, 2017 08:04 AM

Re: A Couple Thoughts
 
Cool - It's already been done.

Dale Guthormsen February 20th, 2017 09:39 AM

Re: A Couple Thoughts
 
Yes its been done but I like how distinctive Mark,s looks.

Mick Jenner February 20th, 2017 10:05 AM

Re: A Couple Thoughts
 
Very nice Mark. Agreed Dale, the colour in them does give them a lift. Its an evolution rather than a revolution which fits in well with what we are trying to achieve to move the challenge forward


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