How to Pitch Like a Pro: A Tribeca Guide

By Claire Aguilar
Vice President of Programming, ITVS

ITVS’s Claire Aguilar attended the 11th annual Tribeca Film Festival this past April, participating in the Tribeca Film Institute’s Filmmaker Pitch Workshop and acting as a juror for the Tribeca All Access Documentary Program.

Tribeca Film Institute Industry Meetings

For the past five years, ITVS has participated in the Tribeca Film Festival in many different capacities, from the funder of films selected for the festival (this year included Stephen Maing’s High Tech, Low Life, Beth Murphy’s The List, and Jerry Rothwell’s Town of Runners), to hosting special screenings of ITVS films (FUTURESTATES), ITVS’s involvement in this iconic festival is always varied and exciting.

Two special events this year included participation in Tribeca’s Interactive Day (attended by ITVS’s Karim Ahmad) and Tribeca All Access, a year-round initiative that supports the careers of filmmakers who hail from communities traditionally under-represented in the film industry. Tribeca All Access has been a successful and groundbreaking industry event, fostering and supporting diverse filmmaking voices through industry meetings, development support, and mentoring. › Continue reading

Tags: claire aguilar, pitch, producer tips, Tribeca All Access, Tribeca Film Festival, tribeca film institute

Reaching an Audience on Multiple Screens

ITVS’s Rebecca Huval discusses research, news, and trends that come out of ITVS’s IndiesLab.

As you probably know, TV viewership today is vastly different than it was just a few years ago. There’s at least one upside. Now that viewers tend to click on their entertainment, media has become easier to track. Recent Nielsen reports paint a picture of TV homes aglow with multiple screens, and their viewing habits vary across demographics in interesting ways.

Gadget owners juggle between multiple screens. While watching a TV program, they checked email (57 percent), surfed for unrelated info (44 percent), and visited a social networking site (44 percent). In 2011, the number of laptops surpassed desktops in TV homes, making it easier to browse on the couch. The top visited websites were the usual suspects: Facebook, YouTube, Zynga, Google Search, and Yahoo! Mail. › Continue reading

Tags: IndiesLab, multiple screens, Nielsen, trends

Muslim Stories Marinate Hawaiian Style

Filmmaker Justin Mashouf was one of six filmmakers invited to the Diverse Muslim Voices Exchange, hosted by the Doris Duke Foundation of Islamic Arts and ITVS. He offered BTB this roundup of the Exchange, held April 3-5, 2012 in Hawaii. 

The Diverse Muslim Voices Exchange was held at the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art at Shangri-La.

Collaboration is the best teacher and earlier this month, my classroom was a recreated 17th century Mughal garden overlooking the crisp blue ocean in Honolulu. Life is tough. I was fortunate enough to be included among the six filmmakers working on Muslim themed documentaries invited to fly to out to Hawaii for a 3-day meeting of the minds at the Diverse Muslim Voices Exchange. The event was hosted by The Doris Duke Foundation of Islamic Art at Shangri-La, the residence of the late Ms. Duke, which houses one of the world’s most unique private collections of Islamic Art.

We were invited to workshop and pitch our stories to funders from Ford Foundation, Tribeca Film Institute, Black Public Media, and the Center for Asian American Media.  I had come to pitch a film I have been researching for four years about men who convert to Islam in prison and their journey transitioning out of incarceration. › Continue reading

Tags: black public media, center for asian american media, diverse muslim voices exchange, doris duke foundation of islamic arts, ford foundation, justin mashouf, tribeca film fund

Looking In: An Update from ITVS Production

By David Eisenberg
Production Manager, ITVS

An ITVS Production Manager offers insight on rights clearances, which can turn out to be some of the most consistently underestimated items in project budgets.

Working with archival material has always been one of the most challenging aspects of planning a documentary project.  Locating the correct third-party material, identifying the appropriate rights-holders, and negotiating clearances for broadcast and other rights is often a challenge.  And for a number of reasons, rights clearances are some of the most consistently underestimated items in project budgets.

In recent years, the rights landscape has become even more complex, especially for independent producers.  Demand for archival material for use in Hollywood TV and film, as well as advertising has grown.  As a result, many materials that have been until recently held in smaller collections are now only accessible through large, for-profit rights holders, who can be tougher to deal with. › Continue reading

NAPT Announces 2012 Open Call for Media Makers

The Native American Public Telecommunications announced March 16th deadline for proposals.

The NAPT Public Media Content Fund will support video projects with significant Native involvement – particularly compelling projects that profile Native American leaders for the series Native Word: Stories Past & Present.

“The purpose of the Content Fund is to increase the diversity of voices in public media,” said NAPT Executive Director Shirley K. Sneve (Rosebud Sioux). “There are very few avenues open to documentary filmmakers, and NAPT believes that our organization has a great responsibility to support the creation, promotion and distribution of Native media. NAPT also believes that support from NAPT can help open other doors for various forms of other funding.”

Projects in any phase of production are eligible to apply for funding with NAPT. Awards for research and development range from $5,000 to $20,000, awards for production or completion can be up to $100,000 and New Media awards range from $5,000 to $20,000.

Learn more about the 2012 Public Media Content Fund here.

Tags: film funding, NAPT, Native American, Production

A Determined Filmmaker Returns to Open Call

Filmmaker Judith Helfand’s latest documentary Cooked was one of a dozen projects accepted into ITVS’s latest round of Open Call funding. She offered BTB this roundup of the producer’s orientation, held last week in San Francisco.

I started writing this amidst the din of the one week orientation for filmmakers funded through ITVS’ most recent Open Call. I’m finishing it from the relative “quiet” of my Upper West Side apartment, save for the garbage trucks way below on 84^th - otherwise known as Edgar Allan Poe Street, the two-year-old running on the bare wood floor above me in 11B, and the hammering from somewhere in my pre- WW1 building.

The “din”: the walla walla of 20 independent producers, each in a different state of disbelief, gratitude, relief, giddy nervousness, tenacious “I can handle anything that comes my way” and “thank you but don’t touch my digital rights”.  It has since turned into a low comforting roar/buzz/oral memory playing in the background as I write up these reflections.
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Tags: chicken and egg, cooked, funding, ITVS, judith hefand, Open Call, PBS

Independent Filmmakers See ITVS as New Family

Twenty filmmakers rallied in San Francisco this week to participate in ITVS’s latest producers orientation for Open Call funding. Among the crop were filmmakers Jamila Wignot and Sierra Pettengill, whose documentary Town Hall examines three personalities who become emblematic figures of the Tea Party Movement. The pair offered BTB this recap of their experience at orientation.

Filmmakers Jamila Wignot and Sierra Pettengill (Town Hall)

In the late spring and early summer of 2010 we made a leap of faith. With a bit of savings, a borrowed car, and friends/family to provide us shelter, we abandoned the highly structured and familiar world of commissioned television documentaries and struck out on our own, on a journey to understand an emergent new breed of American conservatism. We were guided only by our own personal curiosity and belief that the contours of this emerging political movement were about something deeper than left and right, republican and democrat, red state and blue state.
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Tags: democrat, ITVS, jamila wignot, open call funding, republican, sierra pettengil, tea party movement, town hall

Live Chat on DDF Funding

This year’s deadline for the Diversity Development Fund (DDF) falls on November 11. On Tuesday, November 1 at 1PM PT / 4PM ET, ITVS Programming Manager Karim Ahmad will be taking questions from interested applicants in a live chat on BTB.

The DDF provides up to $15,000 in research and development funding to independent producers of color to develop single documentary programs for public television. Projects should speak to the ITVS mission to serve underserved audiences with programs that take creative risks, explore complex issues, inspire dialogue and express points of view seldom seen on commercial or public television.
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Tags: diversity, documentaries, documentary, film, film schools, filmmakers, financing, funding, independent, producers

New AIR Initiative Seeks Innovative Media Makers

Localore — a new initiative from The Association of Independents in Radio (AIR) — is recruiting innovative producers to lead public stations in ways beyond broadcast.

Calling all independent media makers (yes, we’re talking to you filmmakers!). Do you want to explore new ways of telling your story? Do you have an idea that takes advantage of both traditional and digital media? Then take a look at Localore, a new initiative from our friends at The Association of Independents in Radio (AIR), that’s designed to fuel public media’s capacity for innovative storytelling and journalism.

Through Localore, AIR will recruit talented radio, TV, film, and online producers to lead 10 public station-based projects, blending approaches to broadcast and digital platforms. This means mixing traditional media with mobile applications, online video, digital games, data visualization and maps — anything that will help to bring stories to the public in new ways beyond broadcast.

Interested producers are invited to submit proposals until November 10th at Localore.net.A second round of vetting in December will call on producers, matched with incubator stations, to submit final proposals.

Watch the station runway video (above) to see which public stations are interested in partnering with Independents. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to get your innovative project considered for this game-changing initiative.

Tags: call for submissions, documentary, film, filmmakers, funding, media makers, producers, Production

Looking In: An Update from ITVS Production

Managing Director of Production Richard O’Connell, provides the first in a series of updates on some of the latest initiatives for independents at ITVS.

Welcome to the first in a series of updates on the production side of the public media world at large — in particular at ITVS, where our production team is working with filmmakers on more than 150 programs scheduled for public television. Topics will range from technology advances to marketing strategies and trends, and to ITVS policies.
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Tags: funding, ITVS, Open Call, orientation, Production