Film Forum West Midlands next meet up will be on Tuesday 29th June @ The Victoria Pub from 7pm.

The idea of these meet ups is to give filmmakers a networking platform from which they can meet people involved in different aspects of filmmaking from directors to actors to editors in order to source equipment, make contacts and flourish.

The entire evening is very INFORMAL so therefore it is really up to you if you approach it as a casual drink or an opportunity to network and get projects off the ground.

*We have tables reserved in the backroom near the bar.

Address: The Victoria Pub, 48 John Bright St, Birmingham, B1 1BN

Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=131489443542471

Hope to see you there.

Film Forum’s next meet up will be on Thursday 29th April @ The Victoria Pub from 7pm.

The idea of these meet ups is to give filmmakers a networking platform from which they can meet people involved in different aspects of filmmaking from directors to actors to editors in order to source equipment, make contacts and flourish.

The entire evening is very INFORMAL so therefore it is really up to you if you approach it as a casual drink or an opportunity to network and get projects off the ground.

Address: The Victoria Pub, 48 John Bright St, Birmingham, B1 1BN

Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=117517881598352

We have tables reserved in the backroom near the bar.

See you there.

Shorts on Screens is the latest chance for Animation Forum WM membersto mingle, share an after-work drink and share their animation from 6.30pm on Wednesday 30th September at The Victoria, Birmingham.

Rather than submit animated shorts in advance for a sit-down screening, simply bring along a mobile phone, mp3 player or laptop pre-loaded with your best animated work, and share it with fellow animators over a drink.

Animated work can mean short films, commercial work, experiments, showreels; anything you think would be of interest to others AFWM members.

If you don’t have such snazzy mobile technology, simply bring along a USB stick or DVD and play it on one of the many laptops we’ll have setup around the room.

If you decide to do the latter, please ensure that you bring the animation as a rendered (compressed) video (e.g. avi, mov, flv , etc), not as an enormous uncompressed video file or with a rare and unusual codec, as these are unlikely to work.

Don’t have anything to show? Then feel free just to turn up and chew the fat with AFWM members, be they animators, scriptwriters, producers or voice-actors, you never know what might happen.

Entry is free and to attend simply RSVP using the Facebook Event page or todavid.luke.allen@bcu.ac.uk.

Shorts on Screens will take place in the upstairs room of The Victoria (where Shorts on Walls @ Flatpack was held last March) and can be found here.

Filmrats is upon us again on Wednesday 22nd July at the Bristol Pear in Selly Oak. Entry’s £1.50, so pop along and remember to send your short films in DVD format for future screenings to Filmrats, Flat 3, 889 Bristol Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham, B29 6ND

To enter the competition email monstermoviechallenge@hotmail.com with your team name. They will then send you three lines of dialogue. One of which will must be in your film for it to be a valid entry (this is so we know it was made specifically for the competition). They will also send you a postal address to send your entry to.

Submission is open now and the deadline is the 19th October.

The location of the screening event will soon be confirmed apparently, so we’ll keep you posted on the events section of the site. Non-filmmakers will be welcome to go along to the screening and should prove to be gut gushing, boogie-faced fun.

If you’ve got any questions or queries send an email to monstermoviechallenge@hotmail.com or visit the Facebook Group

Here’s the competition rules:

• Films must be 5-10 minutes in length (including credits)
• ONLY feature monsters. NO human beings! Monsters can include: vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein’s monster (or variants), zombies, swamp monsters, mummies, ghouls, etc.
• You must use at least one of the lines of dialogue provided to you by the organisers to count as a valid film.
• All entries must be submitted on a DV Tape or DVD and must have a 16:9 ratio.
• Films must not contain copyrighted material. The filmmaker is responsible for the content of their work and all copyrights must be obtained by the filmmakers prior to their submission.
• Film must not contain any pornographic or hate-related content.
• The judges’ decision is final and they reserve the right not to accept an entry without explanation.
• No allowances can be made for late entries.
• All films must be in English or have Engish subtitles
• All filmmakers must be 18+
• All films must be made between the opening date (1st July) and the submission date (19th October)

See the fruits of The Great Animation Challenge, the best entries to last year’s Flip Animation Festival and chew the fat with Animation Forum WM members at the next Animation Forum West Midlands event, Out Of Hours: Animation on Tuesday 21st July 2009 at the Light House, Wolverhampton.

The event starts at 7pm, with screenings of The Great Animation Challenge entries preceded by the best animation from Flip Festival 2008 and a talk by stop-motion animator behind Small Birds Singing Linda McCarthy. Following this, the results of The Great Animation Challenge will be announced with the competition entries screened in the courtyard area. The Great Animation Challenge is the culminatation of a competition run by Animation Forum WM, Flip and Imagine Magazine over the summer which gave animators tracks from several up and coming bands to download and animate to.

The evening will continue with a chance for a chat over a drink with fellow animators in Lock Works, the Light House café and bar.

To attend this free event, simply RSVP via the Facebook group or by email.

Film Forum’s latest social get-together (and informal networking night) will be held on Tuesday 7th July at the Victoria Pub on John Bright Street in Birmingham from 6pm.

For those that haven’t been to a meet-up yet, here’s the low-down. We meet up each month to get people from all aspects of filmmaking in the Midlands together to chat and start building networks of friends and contacts. It’s very informal and is really up to you if you approach it as a casual drink or an opportunity to make new contacts and get projects off the ground.

Contacts made through the social evenings have helped film projects to flourish and the variety of creative types attending has been very encouraging.

As for the location, The Victoria is fast-becoming Birmingham’s most-exciting venue, mixing a creative style with a chilled-out atmosphere. We like it.

So, come on down, say hello, tell us what you are up to and hopefully we’ll all benefit from some interaction.

Here’s the Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=202451205206

Here’s the address: The Victoria Pub, 48 John Bright St, Birmingham, B1 1 BN

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Whilst we didn’t manage to make the their opening night, it seemed to have a great atmosphere and turn out. We’ll definitely be making this next one as it looks like a great chance to take in local talents and have a nice time.

A provisional line up has been posted, but there’s always room for more Filmmakers, Singer/Songwriters, Bands, Poets, Comedians and Performance Artists. They accept all films and music videos and will play all submissions granted that the subject matter is not offensive.

Send your short films in DVD format to Filmrats, Flat 3, 889 Bristol Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham, B29 6ND and email any stills, posters, trailers and provide a brief synopsis and production credits.

Email: filmrats@hotmail.co.uk

They’re also social media’d up to the eyeballs:

Myspace Page: www.myspace.com/filmrats

YouTube Page: http://www.youtube.com/Filmrats

Twitter: http://twitter.com/filmrats

So get submitting and get some exposure.

http://rts360.eventbrite.com/

Here’s what RTS Futures have to say about it:

Following the great launch of RTS Futures Midlands’ sold out How to Pitch panel session, the Midlands Centre is yet again bringing together some of the top names in digital media next week, Thursday, June 4th.

With panelists from Channel 4, BBC, Hat Trick Productions and Raw TV, Pitching Multiplatform Ideas Pitching Multiplatform Ideas will demystify the process of how to pitch 360-degree concepts as well as the do’s and don’ts of pitching. Hear the experiences of our panel on the pitfalls, success stories plus, what’s hot and what’s not in the cross-platform world. Attendees will also get the chance to listen to top tips on how to give a successful pitch under pressure. This FREE event is produced by the Royal Television Society in partnership with Screen West Midlands and supported by Advantage West Midlands.

The speakers are:

• Alice Taylor: Commissioning Editor – Education, Channel 4 – Chair
• Martin Trickey, Commissioning Executive – Comedy and Comedy Entertainment, BBC
• Lucy Willis, Executive Producer, Raw TV
• Jon Davenport, Head of Digital, Hat Trick Productions

The event will be held at the Symphony Ballroom at the Hyatt Regency, 2 Bridge Street, Birmingham, B1 2JZ. Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start.

Places are limited and so if you want to book, please go to http://rts360.eventbrite.com/.

For more information on the panellists, RTS Futures has provided a bio and picture for each guest here : http://rtsmids.wordpress.com/2009/05/27/pitching360/

It’s criminal we haven’t already plugged this screening/social event in Derby.  Five Lamps Films next film night is on Tuesday 26th May at The Old Bell, Derby at 8pm. 

If you’ve got a film, trailer, music video to show then send them to Five Lamps Films and they’ll plug ‘n’ play ‘em at their film night. All films are welcome, amature, professional, student!

Send films to: Five Lamp Films, Flat 3, 37 Duffield Road, Derby, DE1 3NQ

Here’s the Facebook Event Page.

You can also befriend and poke them at Facebook although they (slightly annoyingly) don’t have an actual group you can join.

www.fivelampsfilms.com

Thanks to everyone that turned up at the Victoria in Birmingham last night to meet fellow filmmakers and have a good old chit chat. It was good to meet some new faces and especially nice to see some returning forum members in what we think was probably the best meeting yet. The venue helped we felt, as the Vic’s cartoon-strewn walls really got the creative juices flowing.

We had writer Brendan O’Neill and actor/producer Kriss Dosanjh talking about their planned feature ‘Paper Aeroplane’ to be filmed in Birmingham in August, Film Dash organiser Chris Unitt updating us on the next Dash’s progress, and many others including producer James Rock, photographer Dave Brassington, and aspiring actress Chara Jackson.

For those that couldn’t make it, we hope to see you at the next meeting in April.

In the meantime, why not follow us on the media’s new toy Twitter. You can follow us at @filmforumwm for news, updates, meeting times and general chatter and nonsense.

Also, if you want to follow the people behind the forum, Rill is @filmfake, Ian is @IanDice, Louis, imaginatively enough, is @LouisHudson.

Tweet you later!