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News stories from Jan 2006 to 2012..

  • 09 April 2008
    Awards

Submit to Raindance Film Festival 2008!

The Raindance Film Festival is probably the UK's leading independent film festival, and is currently looking for submissions for 2008. Here's what they submitted to Netribution: We want you to be a part of it! We are currently accepting submissions from ALL OVER THE GLOBE. Have a fantastic short film? The next-big-thing-feature? Represent your corner of the world and send us your work! For our Film Festival Toolkit, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. f…
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17 May 2006

If You Can't Beat Them - Samsung Threatens To Join Them

  The next generation of DVD, with greater capacity and higher definition, has been delayed by the bickering of the two camps: Blu-ray and HD DVD. Samsung, on the Blu-ray team, has announced that it will release a machine next year that will play both formats if the two rivals cannot figur…
01 August 2006

Debt Trail Follows Film Firm Downunder

  Hard Drive Sinks For Troubled River Queen Firm The film company behind the troubled movie River Queen has left a trail of debts in Queenstown after the collapse of its latest venture after only six weeks. Silverscreen Films (HD) halted pre-production work on Hard Drive, a car-chase…
06 June 2011

2011 Short Form Script Contest

from Runadun We have officially released the 2011 Runadun Movie Production (RMP) Short Form Script Contest.  This contest will focus on finding a talented writer who can script a new short form screenplay for D. R. Hirschberg to direct and produce with Runadun Movie Production (RMP). Are you a…
  • 06 September 2010
    Contests

New writing competition Killer Script launches

Killer Script Launches! Bournemouth, Dorset – White Lantern Film has teamed up with screen actor Mem Ferda to launch the exciting movie script search, KILLER SCRIPT! [Editor's note - many years ago Mem Ferda posted an advert on Netribution offering himself as a lead actor for short films.] Mem’s undeniable appeal first came to the attention of the media when he made his screen debut in Guy Ritchie’s controversial film Revolver. Now with over 40 credits to his name, Me…
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28 August 2006

Sheffield Docfest Calls All Doc Makers to meet their match in The MeetMarket

The Sheffield International Documentary Festival (Docfest), has introduced a new initiative designed to match documentary makers'  ideas with national and international executives at this year's festival from 30 October - 5 November 2006. Get your applications in - the deadline f…
29 September 2008

A New Kind of Movie Viral That's ‘Daylight Robbery’

From Rachel Devenport: A new viral from the makers of British gangster film Daylight Robbery has been launched online  at www.70millionquid.co.uk The cast and crew of the film teamed up with creative digital agency Silence to produce a personalised short which asks for viewers to…
01 November 2006

People-powered film financing raises $267,000 from 4 emails in 9 days

Adam P Davies and I have recently begun work on a new film funding book - an update to the One With The Pig on the Front. One of the things I'm most interested in this time round, following on from the Cluetrain stuff, is community-driven financing, and in particular how filmmakers who commun…
  • 03 January 2009
    Documentary

Groundbreaking web video project builds documentary bridge between Gaza and Sderot

"The day after the war we need a new beginning. Let's start planting seeds of humanity and trust now" Hope Man, Jan 2nd 2009 The Israeli city of Sderot lies a few miles from Gaza and towards the end of 2008 the French TV Station Arté produced 80 short films/vlogs in both Sderot and the Gaza strip where Palestinians and Israelis talk about their hopes, dreams and fears. The last episode of Gaza Sderot : Life in Spite of Everything, was produced on 23rd December, four days be…
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01 August 2006

Debt Trail Follows Film Firm Downunder

  Hard Drive Sinks For Troubled River Queen Firm The film company behind the troubled movie River Queen has left a trail of debts in Queenstown after the collapse of its latest venture after only six weeks. Silverscreen Films (HD) halted pre-production work on Hard Drive, a car-chase…
06 January 2008

Free widgets for weather, sun position and film calculator

Film Source LA have posted up a few useful tools for filmmaking for your computer. These work on Dashboard on a mac, tho PC equivalents can probably be found. Sun Position - which lets you input any location, time and date and kicks out the suns position. Weatherbug - a pretty comprehe…
26 January 2011

Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival Celebrates 36 Years of Weird

from Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival Although the final schedule for 2011's Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival has not yet been announced, festival director Garen Daly has already noticed a jump in ticket sales. The festival, which began at the Orson Welles Cinemas, began as a 24 hour science fiction retrosp…
  • 16 July 2006
    Internet

YouTube hits 100m a day and 60% marketshare

Video download and streaming site YouTube has passed the 100m views a day mark with 2.5 billion videos viewed last month, according to the latest online stats. In April that figure was 35 million a day, an indication of how rapidly the public's appetite for online video is growing. Formed barely 18 months ago, the site's ease of use (you can upload video in most formats) and straightforward way of letting users embed video in their own site (see below)…
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22 July 2008

Young Writers and Filmmakers Given the Chance to Showcase Talent to Key Players in Film Industry

Get Connected, the charity that provides a helpline for young people, are launching Nobody's Perfect, a new website for young writers, actors and directors to showcase their talents to professional writers, producers and directors. Young people between 16 and 25 can submit film, script…
20 May 2006

Rickshaw Driver Rises To Movie Director

  It's a real rags-to-riches story of the Hollywood variety, but this is a tale of a poor but talented auto-rickshaw driver who has now become a Bollywood film producer, director and actor. 39-year-old Waqqr Khan, from Uttar Pradesh, is apparently semi-literate, but has produced h…
06 February 2006

Moira Shearer - Red Shoe Ballerina Dies

Moira Shearer, the ballerina and actress whose debut film, The Red Shoes, created an international sensation in 1948, has died. The wife of fellow Scot, author and campaigner Ludovik Kennedy, she was 80. Shearer died at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, said Mr Kennedy. He said that she had become…
  • 25 June 2006
    Production

Extraordinary Rendition Interrogation Chamber Found in Dalston Basement

  An interrogation chamber has been discovered below ground in Dalston, where people suspected of involvement in terrorism are to be held and questioned prior to rendition abroad in secret flights. Not a real scenario as far as we know, but real enough for the makers of a micro-budget feature film Rendition, filming now in London.   The premise of the film is that of a man snatched from the streets of his home-city and transported to an unknown destin…
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28 March 2006

Audio Think Tank Meets Over Sound Training Dilemma

  The Institute of Broadcast Sound is looking to solve some of the screen industry’s shortage of skilled sound personnel, particularly in TV production. A Training Forum has been specially convened to address the issue.   There have been enormous changes in broadcast sou…
25 April 2006

UK Moviegoers Stay Warm On Ice Age 2

  Ice Age 2: The Meltdown continued to stay warm with moviegoers and stayed top of the box office charts for the third week running. The comic tale of Manny the mammoth and Sid the sloth held off the horror film Silent Hill to stay at the number one spot. It has taken £24.6 million p…
25 May 2008

Turner winner McQueen picks up Camera D'Or, as The Class takes Palme

British artist Steve McQueen's film debut, Hunger, detailing the hunger strike and death of IRA prisoner Bobby Sands, has picked up the Camera D'Or at Cannes, for best debut work. French docu-drama, The Class, looking at life in a Parisian school - has taken the Palme D'Or. Hunger also picke…
  • 08 September 2006
    Internet

MySpace builds in revenue model for unsigned bands

The social network giant MySpace is introducing a way for the three million bands hosted on the network to sell downloads of their music, through a partnership with Napster-founder Shawn Fanning's venture Snocap. This actually was announced on Tuesday but I've been moving house. "The goal is to be one of the biggest digital music stores out there," MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe told Reuters. "Everyone we've spoken to definitely wants…
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06 July 2006

BBC’s Comedy And Film Units Combine Forces

  BBC Comedy is joining forces with the Corporation's film department to develop a slate of comedy feature films utilising the best of UK writers, performers and producers. David Thompson, head of BBC Films, and Kenton Allen, creative head of Comedy Talent and Comedy North will lead th…
15 May 2009

Which video sharing sites offer the best filmmaker-friendly licenses? Not Vimeo

Apologies for the quiet around here lately - I've been completely emerged in a family health crisis. I hope to pick things up in the next few days. Meantime here's some suprising news (by way of BoingBoing) from Markus Weiland, who has compared the license agreements from the main video sharing sit…
06 March 2009

Mohamed Al Daradji's Son of Babylon feature wraps filming in Baghdad

Film looks at Saddam regime's 'modern holocaust' - second feature from Leeds based Oscar-shortlisted producers Human Film - 400,000 bodies in mass graves found since 2003 from over 30 years of rule - cast and crew are made up of many survivors of regime - includes lead actress Shazada Hussein…
  • 01 April 2010
    Finance

UKFC launch new £15m fund, appoints Wharton, Collins & Franke, confirms Innovation Fund

Incorporating UKFC Press Release Biggest shake-up since UKFC's creation £15m film fund open for applications today £5m Innovation Fund confirmed for Autumn 2010 New online application system for funds  An ambitious sounding 'web-based.. national filmmaking community'  Producers to receive equity in UKFC recoupment WT2's Natascha Wharton joins BBC Film's Chris Collins and Em Media / EIFF's Lizzie Francke on team The UK Film Council today published its three yea…
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17 May 2006

OpenHD Black and Gold For Compatibility

  While the hi-def DVD companies go to battle with visions of holy grail profits, other companies like Adobe, Dell, HP, Intel and Microsoft are now banding together to make HDV and HD products that play well together while also "delivering optimal performance at a price point that is…
31 May 2006

Film Director Fights To Keep 'Withnail & I' Off The Stage

  For years, student union bars have resounded to such memorable lines as "I demand to have some booze" and "Officer, I've only had a few ales", as generations of students attempt to match the characters' prolific alcohol intake drink for drink.  …
14 June 2006

Shortlist announced for 2006 Edinburgh TV Fest

The Discovery Channel, BBC FOUR, E4, UKTV History and SKY One form the non-terrestrial shortlist for this year's MediaGuardian Edinburgh International TV Festival’s Channel of the Year Awards. The TV festival, running from August 25 - 27, this year features South Park creators Matt…
  • 14 October 2007
    Festivals

British Independent Film Awards 10th Anniversary Approaches

  Recognisably one of the best channels for recognising and promoting British indie film talent, the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) are about to celebrate their 10th year championing the best new indie films and the talents of those creating them, on both sides of the camera. On Wednesday 28 November 2007, the 10th anniversary a special awards ceremony will be hosted by James Nesbitt, at the Roundhouse in London. Nominations and this year's jury…
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20 March 2006

US-Style Talent Agency in UK

Media finance company Ingenious Media is investing in the creation of a new talent agency, to be chaired by former Sky chief Tony Ball, that it hopes will be a major power broker in the British film and television businesses. U.S. agencies like CAA and William Morris package acting, directin…
31 July 2006

Guy Ritchie Hosts Youth Film Festival

  Film director Guy Ritchie has hosted the first Film for Youth Festival in Belfast. The initiative was established in 2005 and aims to encourage and support young film makers in the United Kingdom. It enables budding young film makers to develop their talents and skills under the gu…
06 August 2007

News roundup: Crude, YouTube, Funds, new mag, book and Gondry

A roundup of some of the latest news, events and funds doing the rounds at the moment - McLibel docmaker Franny Armstrong's new film Crude, made with Oscar-winner John Batsek, is shaping up as a British pioneer of user-engaged filmmaking. Like Brave New Films work in the US, the…
  • 08 July 2009
    Censorship

The Co-Op backed Burma VJ shows the reality behind the monk rebellion & crackdown

The first feature film to ever be screened at Number 10, in an event set-up by Sarah Brown on Aung San Suu's birthday, and the first feature from the Co-Op Group's new partnership with distributor DogWoof - Burma VJ is a guerilla documnetary made up of footage smuggled out of Myanmar (Burma) by video journalists in the country (and is a great example of open video's relationship with traditional film): "Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Anders Østergaard, the award winning, p…
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12 March 2006

Cashing in on Oscarless Cashback

The filmmakers behind best live-action short nominee Cashback may have left left the Oscar ceremony empty-handed, but their film is poised to grow bigger. Writer-director Sean Ellis and producer Lene Bausager have turned the sexy, 19-minute supermarket drama ("think a UK-style Clerkswith…
28 February 2006

Actors Detained by Special Branch Following Terror Roles

Two actors who appear in the award-winning British documentary The Road to Guantanamo were detained and interrogated at Luton Airport by Special Branch when returning from Berlin, along with two former Guantanamo prisoners. One of the actors says his treatment by security authorities was "…
01 August 2006

Debt Trail Follows Film Firm Downunder

  Hard Drive Sinks For Troubled River Queen Firm The film company behind the troubled movie River Queen has left a trail of debts in Queenstown after the collapse of its latest venture after only six weeks. Silverscreen Films (HD) halted pre-production work on Hard Drive, a car-chase…
  • 15 April 2006
    BBC

Newsround Goes Large With Docs For Kids

  Children's TV programme Newsround, still the only dedicated daily news service for children in the UK, is to go large with a spin off documentary series called Newsround Investigates. The programmes take an in-depth look at issues affecting children’s lives, starting in May.   Newsround Investigates is in documentary format for children, screening on BBC One. For the first time in its 34-year history, the award-winning programme has bee…
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25 February 2006

EXCLUSIVE: Shark Monster in Bed With Toxic Avenger

The Evolved, a feature film about a rogue shark monster terrorizing London and produced for only £1000 has been signed for distribution to the Legendary American film company, Troma Entertainment. Troma has helped bring to the world some of the best and brightest talents in entertainment. The…
19 May 2011

Studio Beyond Launch May 25th: A Groundbreaking Concept For The Movie making World

Submitted by Studio Beyond CEO Like many successful businesses, Studio Beyond was created to solve a problem. In Hollywood, there are often significant barriers for film makers who often find themselves unable to tap into Hollywood resources. Since Hollywood is a giant business oriented towards m…
22 March 2006

Guantanamo Film Gets US Release

A US film distributor has signed to release The Road to Guantanamo, about three British Muslims held at the detention camp, in the US and Canada. Roadside Attractions will distribute the film by British director Michael Winterbottom. Roadside Co-president Howard Cohen said the movie would…