How do you get your work into the Gallery?

Pretty simple, we encourage you submit your work for review. We prefer it be in HD, but all submissions will be considered.

Send us a link and a short synopsis of the project. Tell us about yourself, your background and the process of your work. Include any specific challenges, creative and/or technical, you had to overcome. The more information you can share with the community, the better chance we will be inclined to select your work for display.

Can I submit my demo reel?

Sure. All reels from individual artists will be considered free of charge. During our initial launch we will be hosting a limited number of reels for free, after which we will be unveiling a tiered services hosting plan. We are also happy to embed from established sites such as Vimeo and Blip.tv

What about my company’s demo reel?

Yes. Commercial work is accepted on a sponsorship basis. Please contact us for further details.

Why should I submit to the HDFilmtools Gallery when I can post to YouTube for free?

YouTube is a phenomenal resource, and it’s our personal philosophy that if you want to build a career as a filmmaker or other digital media artist you need to post and promote your work via as many outlets as possible. What makes our Gallery different from the vast amount of material at YouTube is that we’ll provide a filter. A way to separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak and highlight the work of what we believe are the most exciting and talented writers, directors, cinematographers, editors, visual effects and motion graphics artists, sound designers, composers and animators.

There are no other restrictions for submission and we encourage filmmakers from throughout the spectrum to submit their work. In addition to the more traditional genres this includes, documentaries, social issue projects, PSA’s non-traditional/non-linear storytelling, trailers and even advertising.

Do I give up any rights as the content creator to display in the Gallery?

Absolutely not. The Gallery is just the beginning of a host of new features, resources and services HDFilmtools plans to launch over the coming year.

We look forward to your participation and to getting the word out about your work.

The activist filmmaker Robert Greenwald has tried for years to speed up the production process for his documentaries. Now, he says, he is creating one he can release almost immediately, in stages.

Mr. Greenwald is showing “Rethink Afghanistan,” a skeptical view of America’s war strategies, in five parts on the Internet, with the implied hope that it will contribute to the foreign policy debate.

Watch out, Blu-ray: Apple is now offering high definition movies for sale—including the big-buzz “Twilight”—to iTunes subscribers for $19.99.

“The overall goal is for The Conversation to be a real exchange of ideas — a gathering of people working on the edge and thinking about the future.”

Scott Kirsner over at Cinematech and several other leading web thinkers want you to be a part of “The Conversation”. Future Forward Events is organizing the 2-day gathering at Berkeley’s Pacific Film Archive Theater October 17th and 18th. The focus of the confab is new creative and business opportunities arising out of the democratization of digital media tools and technologies. Participation from attendees is welcome and encouraged, and there will be an opportunity to present your own work during the Saturday workshop session.

More from “The Conversation” website:

New software is making incredible things possible in visual effects and animation, and also democratizing those fields. Web sites offer to help finance film projects, or share ad revenue with video-makers. Marketing and release strategies are shifting by the minute. High-end high-def cameras are plummeting in price. The connection with the audience is changing. Established ways of doing things just don’t seem to be working anymore, while new opportunities are emerging.

I think this will be an exciting and mind opening event for all attending. We will update you as speakers and workshops are added in the coming months.  Stop by The Conversation Web site for more details on speakers and places to stay in and around the event area.

Here is the second part of my interview with Joe Fordham, director of the new short “The Glitch” and his cinematographer Tom Gleason. Here Joe tells us how he met his composer Laurent Watteau, who lives and works in Paris, online through the message boards at Film Score Monthly.com. I also ask Joe how he plans to get his film in front of an audience and any advice he might have for those thinking of making their own indie film.

Today we present Part I of our first Independent Profile of “The Glitch”, a short film directed by Joe Fordham. This is Joe’s first venture into HD, but he didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. Joe started making Super 8 films in his native Britain at a very young age. He ultimately became part of an award winning amateur filmmaking group known as Dangerous Visions. A short while later, he found himself working in London’s Soho filmmaking district, where he produced an eight-minute short entitled Board Game, which went on to win a BBC TV Showreel86 award. From there he was hired to write and direct Dogplant for Channel Four TV London.

After moving to Los Angeles Joe spent the next few years “breaking-in” to film production, again, this time the Hollywood film industry. He eventually landed work creating visual effects, creature effects and in post production on films such as Terminator 2, Men in Black, Virus and the Species series. Several years of all nighters were enough to convince Joe to pursue a writing career, and for the last six years he has been covering the international visual effects scene as a journalist and associate editor at Cinefex magazine.

Joining us is Joe’s cinematographer on The Glitch, Tom Gleason. Tom has been accumulating dramatic narrative DP credits for the last several years but he also has an extensive resume that demonstrates the breadth of his experience. This includes work as a visual effects model maker, where he built the 60’ version of the Titanic, (the one that breaks in half), one of the most impressive and widely published shots of the film. He’s also been a VFX DP, operator and 1st AC on films such as Beetlejuice. The Passion of the Christ and Mr & Mrs. Smith.

The Glitch – Official Site
Method
Laurent Watteau, Composer
CineWidgets
WithoutaBox.com
FilmScoreMonthly.com