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July 14, 2017
Tips for SXSW Film PanelPicker Entry Success – Deadline Friday, July 21
PanelPicker deadline is approaching quickly! Only a few days left until the July 21 deadline. Below you will find valuable information about how to apply for PanelPicker, film PanelPicker tips, and an overview of film tracks for the SXSW Conference.
SXSW values community input and involvement, so the two-step online process PanelPicker was developed to encourage the SXSW community to enter proposals and have a significant voice in daytime Conference programming. The SXSW community is then able to browse proposals, leave comments, and vote to help shape the March event.
Application Process
During the open application process from Monday, June 26 through Friday, July 21 at 11:59pm PT, we encourage the community to upload proposals related to interactive, film and, music industries in a variety of session formats including panels, solo presentations, workshops, and more. Read the 2018 PanelPicker FAQ for important information about SXSW, the PanelPicker submission process, and valuable tips.
All ideas received will be posted online for the community for voting from Monday, August 7 – Friday, August 25. It’s as easy as “enter, review, comment, and vote” to help shape SXSW programming.
Film PanelPicker Tips
Don’t be afraid to think outside the box – It’s fine to talk about future trends and not current ones. Film and TV is an ever-changing industry and we want to hear your thoughts no matter how obscure.
Diversity matters – All panels (3-4 person sessions) must include diversity in gender, race, location and employment of speakers, and diversity in thought and opinion. Everyone should bring something different to the table.
Subject levels – Not everyone who attends SXSW may be up to speed on all film-related topics. If your proposal delves into the specifics of a particular subject and uses advanced knowledge and terminology, please note that in the proposal. We can better guide our attendees if this session is right for them.
Proofread, proofread, proofread – Spelling, grammar, and punctuation are extremely important. PanelPicker allows you to securely edit your proposal up until you click “Enter Proposal” on the final page.
Film Tracks
Entertainment Influencers
Inspiration from thought leaders, experts, and innovators that will last beyond your time at SXSW, including conversations with high-profile speakers from the entertainment, film, and TV industries.
Film & TV Industry
Learn about the inner workings of the film and TV industry. Sessions will focus on the business side of things, with topics like distribution, financing, and the ever changing nature of the industry
Making Film & Episodics
Learn everything you need to know about developing and crafting your project, from screenwriting and working with your subject to post-production and beyond.
Be sure to also take a look at our film-related Convergence tracks such as VR/AR and Experiential Storytelling.
Mark your calendars for Tuesday, August 1 when registration, housing, and press accreditation opens for the 2018 SXSW season. We hope to see you in March!
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and SXSW News for the latest SXSW coverage, announcements, application tips, and updates.
Screening of The Relationtrip – Photo by Carol Watson
The post Tips for SXSW Film PanelPicker Entry Success – Deadline Friday, July 21 appeared first on SXSW.
Source: SxSW Film
July 14, 2017
Watch: Learn the Trick Used By Landscape Photographers to Get Deep Focus
Everything you need to know about hyperfocal distance.<p>With the advent of DSLRs, shallow focus became all the rage in photographic visuals. However, …
Source: CW’s Flipboard Feed
July 14, 2017
See What’s New for the SXSW Community Service Awards
This year we’ve revamped and consolidated our grants programs into our individual and organization focused community service awards — and we will celebrate both at a combined ceremony in March! Five individuals and five organizations will be recognized for their community service. Each honoree or organization will receive complimentary badges to SXSW, a $5,000 grant, and a chance to spread the word about their work to the SXSW community. Learn more about the SXSW 2018 Community Service Awards below.
SXSW Community Service Awards for Individuals
Five individuals will receive a $5,000 grant to an eligible 501(c)(3) or eligible charity of their choice as well as a complimentary registration to SXSW 2018. The Community Service Award is intended to honor the breadth of community service work of five individuals rather than organizations or groups. We are looking for individuals whose creative community service work bridges the digital divide, impacts the community positively and includes some degree of grassroots or hands-on organizing.
SXSW Community Service Awards for Organizations
Five organizations will also receive a $5,000 grant to continue or begin their work and will be honored at the SXSW Community Service Awards. To qualify, an organization must be a charitable organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) or be otherwise qualified to receive charitable contributions. The selection committee chooses organization grantees based on their connection to one of the following aspects of SXSW: Interactive, Film, Music, Edu, or Gaming.
All applications are free of charge and must be received no later than 11:59pm PT on July 28, 2017.
Who Should Apply?
The SXSW Community Service Awards are for everyone! Whether your interest lies in filmmaking, music, technology, education or gaming, the Community Service Awards recognize good work being done within communities. There’s also a grant for a local Austin charitable organization that does not easily fit into one of those festival categories. SXSW feels that promoting good is one of many ways of helping foster creative innovation.
The post See What’s New for the SXSW Community Service Awards appeared first on SXSW.
Source: SxSW Film
July 13, 2017
Tips for SXSW PanelPicker Entry Success – Deadline Friday, July 21
With so many PanelPicker proposals, how can you ensure that your amazing idea stands out? As the Friday, July 21 deadline approaches, take a dive into our helpful PanelPicker resources below, from tips for success to an overview of SXSW Conference tracks, as you construct the perfect proposal.
Tips for PanelPicker Success
Follow the instructions and read the FAQ. Reading the PanelPicker FAQ will give you important information about SXSW and some valuable tips for creating a great proposal. For a walk-through of the PanelPicker form and entry process, watch the How to Enter Your Proposal video. Once you’ve watched the video and read the FAQ, you are ready to get started!
Create a future-focused, original proposal that shows what you’re passionate about. Often SXSW previews what you’ll be talking about next year and beyond in tech, culture, music, and film. Give us your perspective on what lies ahead and why.
Depth and specificity. SXSW attendees want advanced, in-depth information, so be sure to delve into the particulars of a topic. The more specific a proposal is, the better. Drill down to what really matters.
Solo sessions and strong moderators. While panels works well as a session format across the Conference, the SXSW community tends to prefer solo presentations for Interactive and tech-focused tracks. Be sure you have a strong moderator if you are going to propose a panel.
Your title should reflect your description. Your title is going to be fighting for attention with hundreds of other titles in PanelPicker, so it’s important for your title to be direct and explanatory. The community should be able to understand what the proposal will cover without reading your description. Remember: think simple, accurate, and succinct. Pro-tip: Avoid using ALL CAPS in your title and proposal.
Diversity matters – all panels (3-4 person sessions) must include diversity in gender, race, location and employment of speakers, and diversity in thought and opinion.
Include a video with your proposal. Your speaking abilities matter and we’d like to see them. Does the video need to be a fancy production? No, the video does not have to be professionally produced and can simply be recorded on your webcam or phone.
Proofread, proofread, proofread. Did we mention to proofread? Spelling, grammar, and punctuation are extremely important. PanelPicker allows you to securely edit your proposal up until you click “Enter Proposal” on the final page.
Meet the deadline. The 2018 PanelPicker entry deadline is 11:59pm PT on Friday, July 21.
SXSW Conference Tracks
The SXSW Conference provides an opportunity for global professionals at every level to participate, learn, and network. Explore what’s next in the worlds of entertainment, culture, and technology within 24 tracks of programming plus our SXSW Eco curated Cities Summit. Learn more from our track overviews for Interactive, Film, Music, and Convergence including additional proposal tips.
While PanelPicker contributes to the majority of the 2018 SXSW Conference programming, it also helps us identify industry trends based on each season’s entries. Explore 2017 Programming Trends and follow SXSW News for the latest updates in trends that emerge from the 2018 PanelPicker.
Enter Your PanelPicker Idea
Visit PanelPicker.sxsw.com, login or create a new profile to begin. All ideas received will be posted online for Community Voting from Monday, August 7 – Friday, August 25. Review the resources and tips to get started – PanelPicker entry deadline is Friday, July 21 at 11:59pm PT. Good luck!
Mark your calendars – registration and housing opens on Tuesday, August 1 for the 2018 SXSW Conference & Festivals in Austin, Texas from March 9-18.
2017 SXSW Conference panel, Jazz in the Digital Age – Photo by Danny Matson
The post Tips for SXSW PanelPicker Entry Success – Deadline Friday, July 21 appeared first on SXSW.
Source: SxSW Film
July 12, 2017
‘The North Pole’ Trailer: Oakland-Bred Climate Change Comedy Will Make You Laugh Until You Cry — Watch
As New York Magazine recently made clear in an anxiety-producing cover story, climate change is accelerating at a rate much faster than even scientists’ most alarming predictions. As fewer resources are stretched between more people, the gentrification of urban areas will continue to displace folks from their homes. Enter “The North Pole”: A smart and stylish web series that manages to find the funny amidst the worries about gentrification and climate change.
READ MORE: Jerry Seinfeld, Demetri Martin and Female Bros: The 16 Best Web Series Of 2016
Set in North Oakland, California, from which the series takes its name, “The North Pole” follows three friends as they struggle to stay afloat amidst a rapidly changing neighborhood. They fight, dream, and plot half-baked schemes to save the place they call home. They will have to combat evil landlords, crazy geoengineering plots, and ultimately each other if they want to stay grounded.
“We wanted to make ‘The North Pole’ because there’s no place on earth like Oakland,” said filmmaker Josh Healey, who created the series with Yvan Iturriaga and Darren Colston. “Until Neil de Grasse Tyson tells me otherwise, there’s no planet in the universe like earth. I call both these places home—and both are suffering through their own kind of ‘climate change.’ At a time when whole communities and environments are being displaced and disposed of, ‘The North Pole’ is our creative picket line-turned-comedy roast.”
The series features guest appearances from comedian W. Kamau Bell, former Black Panther Party leader Ericka Huggins, and Oakland-based rappers Boots Riley And Mistah FAB. “The North Pole” is executive produced by ecological justice organization Movement Generation, and will launch with a special screening on Thursday, September 7 at Oakland’s historic Grand Lake Theater.
Check out the exclusive trailer below:
For more information on the series, head to the project’s website.
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Source: IndieWire Digital TV
July 9, 2017
Specialty Lenses
Every once in a while, you will find that a wide, normal or telephoto lens just won’t do the job. That is when specialty lenses come into play. They …
Source: CW’s Flipboard Feed
July 9, 2017
Whoa Is Me: Keanu Reeves’ Saddest Roles, From ‘My Own Private Idaho’ to ‘John Wick’
We’ve all seen the Sad Keanu memes, and a number of details from the “Point Break” and “Matrix” star’s biography do indeed point toward tragedy. The actor is known for thrilling us rather than saddening us nevertheless, not that there aren’t a few exceptions to prove the rule (even if none of them involve him eating a sandwich on his lonesome).
With “To the Bone” premiering on Netflix this Friday, take a moment to relive some of Keanu’s saddest performances.
“My Own Private Idaho”
Maybe it’s the fact that he’s acting opposite River Phoenix, a friend who died just two years after Gus Van Sant’s early classic was released, but it’s hard not to feel for Keanu in “My Own Private Idaho.” A soon-to-be-wealthy heir, his Scott is always looking after his narcoleptic best friend (Phoenix, whose character is also in love with his bestie); they cover a lot of ground during their journey, but don’t exactly have a happy destination. Scott is last seen attending his father’s funeral, leaving him financially secure and potentially friendless — if only their bond were as strong as the one between Theodore Logan and Bill S. Preston, Esq.
“Bram Stoker’s Dracula”
Not his best performance, but one of his most ambitious. Bad things have a habit of befalling anyone who hangs around a certain Transylvanian count, whose hunger for blood is insatiable. Jonathan Harker doesn’t have an easy go of it, and neither did Keanu after Francis Ford Coppola’s take on that most famous of vampires as released: Much of the “Keanu can’t act” discourse centers around “Dracula,” which few would argue finds him at this best. But it does demonstrate how internalized the oft-underrated actor’s style can be, as though it’s more difficult for him to coax whatever emotions he might be feeling to the surface than it is for other performers. That’s sad in and of itself, and a reminder that Keanu’s talents are better suited to a certain kind of material.
“The Matrix Revolutions”
The final chapter in the “Matrix” trilogy made pretty much everybody sad, though not necessarily for the right seasons. Still, there’s no denying that the film finds Neo at his most forlorn — forced to soldier on after the death of his beloved, he eventually makes the ultimate sacrifice to ensure that no more lives are lost in the Great Robot War (that’s what it’s called, right?). All the fun and action of the original movie (and, to a lesser extent, the first sequel as well) gradually give way to a brooding, at times laborious atmosphere of dread. Talk about bogus.
“A Scanner Darkly”
“I saw death rising from the earth, from the ground itself, in one blue field…a present for my friends at Thanksgiving.” Richard Linklater’s rotoscoped adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel shifts tones throughout, but the book’s status as a memorial to the author’s friends whom drugs got the best of informs its melancholy arc. Keanu plays a detective who’s in over his head without realizing it, and though the film is mordantly funny it’s also increasingly sad — especially as concerns the animated gumshoe. Substance D: just say no.
“John Wick”
Widely seen as a return to form for the action star, this franchise-starter is also born of grief. Reeves plays the title character, who’s already mourning his wife when bad guys with no idea what they’ve just done kill his precious doggo. The despair this instills in our trigger-happy hero is nothing compared to the grief he visits upon his enemies. As is often the case in his action movies, though, Reeves doesn’t delight in taking lives and exacting vengeance — there’s a certain melancholy to his murder, and neither his wife nor his pup is ever far from his mind.
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Source: IndieWire film
July 9, 2017
‘The Amazing Spider-Man 3’ Would Have Brought Characters Back From the Dead — Watch
“The Amazing Spider-Man 3” will never see the light of day, which many consider a good thing. The first two films starring Andrew Garfield as everyone’s favorite web-slinger inspired a lukewarm reaction, while the just-released “Spider-Man: Homecoming” has earned much more positive notices. A new video looks back at what might have been in the third chapter of Marc Webb’s trilogy, including a resurrection subplot that sounds fairly out-there.
READ MORE: ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Score: Stream Michael Giacchino’s Latest Soundtrack
“Part of the discussion was that, possibly in ‘3,’ there was this idea at one point that Spider-Man would be able to take this formula and regenerate the people in his life that had died,” says Dennis Leary, who played Captain George Stacy, in the video. “So there was this discussion that Captain Stacy would come back even bigger in episode three.” Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) might have returned from the dead as well.
Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin, Rhino, Vulture, Kraven the Hunter and a to-be-named sixth villain were potentially in the mix as well. Watch the full video below.
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Source: IndieWire film
July 9, 2017
‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Score: Stream Michael Giacchino’s Latest Soundtrack
“Spider-Man: Homecoming” appears to be the return to form that fans have been longing for, as the friendly neighborhood superhero movie has opened to favorable reviews and beaucoup bucks at the box office. Amid the praise for star Tom Holland and the diverse ensemble around him, warm words have also been reserved for composer Michael Giacchino. His score is now available on Spotify; stream it here.
READ MORE: ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ Soundtrack: Listen to Michael Giacchino’s Score
Featuring such punny titles as “No Vault of His Own,” “Pop Vulture” and “A Stark Contrast,” the OST consists of 22 tracks. Giacchino, who’s won an Emmy for his work on “Lost” and an Academy Award and Golden Globe for “Up,” has also composed the scores for such films as “Rogue One,” “Let Me In,” “Jurassic World,” “Doctor Strange” and “War for the Planet of the Apes.”
Here’s the tracklist:
- “Theme From Spider Man (Original Television Series)”
- “The World is Changing”
- “Academic Decommitment”
- “High Tech Heist”
- “On a Ned-to-Know Basis”
- “Drag Racing / An Old Van Rundown”
- “Webbed Surveillance”
- “No Vault of His Own”
- “Monumental Meltdown”
- “The Baby Monitor Protocol”
- “A Boatload of Trouble Part 1”
- “A Boatload of Trouble Part 2”
- “Ferry Dust Up”
- “Stark Raving Mad”
- “Pop Vulture”
- “Bussed a Move”
- “Lift Off”
- “Fly-By-Night Operation”
- “Vulture Clash”
- “A Stark Contrast”
- “No Frills Proto COOL!”
- “Spider-Man: Homecoming Suite”
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Source: IndieWire film
July 9, 2017
Kanye West Biopic: Trey Edward Shults Wants to Follow ‘It Comes at Night’ with a Movie About Yeezy
In his first two films, Trey Edward Shults has focused on families in crisis. The drama is interpersonal in “Krisha,” while “It Comes at Night” adds a post-apocalyptic bent to the filial drama. In a new interview with the Independent, the ascendant writer/director says he says something entirely different in mind for a future project: a movie about Kanye West.
READ MORE: ‘It Comes at Night’: Why A24 Took a Gamble on a New Filmmaker’s Ambitious Horror Vision
“I have a dream of doing a Kanye West biopic,” says Shults. “My dream is he will somehow see and like my movies and let me pick his brain apart — to make the ultimate one-of-a-kind biopic we haven’t yet seen [that will] explore this man. I think it’d be amazing. There’s so much to explore. I just want to chill out with Kanye and make something great. I think he’ll like this next movie that I’m writing.”
Sounds like A24 needs to have its people reach out to Kanye’s people and see what they can make happen. As for Shults’ next project, he’s vague on details but does hint that he’s going in a new direction: “It’s not genre and it’s not one location.” Read the full interview here.
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Source: IndieWire film