Not about videoblogging, but about social networks and other online resources for filmmakers:
I found this list via Peter Marshall's blog "Film Directing Tips" on which he posts daily links to film & video blog posts: http://filmdirectingtips.com/ The original article can be found at: http://www.makingthemovie.info/2009/08/list-of-film-collaboration-websites.html A List of Film Collaboration Websites LAST UPDATED 8/30/2009 It seems like I get a pitch in my inbox once a week for a website that allows filmmakers to collaborate or raise funds. In the interest of keeping them straight in my own head, I've decided to start a list. Here they are, in alphabetical order. Add the names of the many I've overlooked in the comments below. Boolaka http://boolaka.com Booklaka is a Web 2.0 site that aims to be a one-stop shop: a social network, jobs board, fund raiser and web distribution platform. They have way too intrusive ads for my taste. Craigslist http://craigslist.org Yes, I'm including this old standby. Why? Because, although it doesn't offer all the social media bells and whistles of other websites, it's a great way to crew a movie, or find used equipment. It definitely has the widest user base of any of these websites, and it is conveniently organized by geography. Eumagine Factory http://eumagine.eu This site bills itself as a watering hole for producers and editors, at least I think it does. The English on the site seems to be machine- translated. Also, the pages loaded slowly when I tried clicking around. Five Sprockets http://fivesprockets.com Five Sprockets is a Web 2.0 offering that is designed explicitly for filmmakers. It has modules for collaborating on every aspect of production. I like that it feels more like software than 'Facebook-for- filmmakers.' You can read my initial assessment here. Icewhole http://icewhole.com This site has a terrible name and wasn't even working when I went to check in on it. They do have a Facebook page, which convinces me I didn't invent the name in a terrible dream about a dictionary and a tornado. From the looks of it, they run competitions in addition to being a social networking site for filmmakers. Kickstarter http://kickstarter.com They just got a nytimes.com mention, although it doesn't sound like their model is entirely solvent. Still, if they are around long enough for you to raise money, it looks like a nice site. One drawback is that the contributions your donors make through them are not tax- deductible, which can be a big incentive for people to give. Mandy http://mandy.com Mandy seems to be one of the main production jobs boards, at least here in LA. They have a great user base of working professionals. People Jar http://peoplejar.com People Jar aims to help people looking for people with specific talents. The example they give in a press release is "a blonde hair, brown eyed actor that lives in LA and knows how to scuba dive." I went to the site and searched for just that. I got 0 results. Maybe the site will get enough users for that fine-grained a search. Right now, it seems optimized for searching for actors by location and union affiliation, which is useful enough. It might work better as a Facebook or MySpace app -- someplace that already has a larger built- in user base. ProductionHUB http://productionhub.com If Craigslist is too broad for you, you could use ProductionHUB to post and find crew. I've never heard of anyone using it - I think Mandy pretty much dominates this space. Power Filmmaking http://powerfilmmaking.com This is a social network for filmmakers that seems to be in large part promotion for filmmaker Jason Tomaric's book and filmmaking tutorial videos. It doesn't have a large user base and had some kinks that still needed to be worked out last time I tried it. Still, registration is free and there is a lot of useful filmmaking information available after you register, so I might recommend it to beginners. Shooting People http://shootingpeople.org This is not a website for people who like to hunt the most dangerous game, it's a social network for indie filmmakers. From what I can tell, they have a pretty active community, mostly European, especially UK. I get lots of emails from them which I quickly started to ignore which makes them a bit spammy. The site costs £30/yr to join but I don't remember paying any money so maybe it used to be free. They get funds from the UK Film Council which is a serious movie funding organization. There's a wealth of informational resources on the site (including access to David Lynch's famous weather reports) which makes the design a bit cluttered and they will host/stream your movie for you. I haven't gotten anything out of the site but I haven't put any time or effort into to trying to get anything out of the site. Talenthouse http://talenthouse.com Talenthouse is not just limited to filmmakers, although they claim Fernando Meirelles (co-director, City of God) as a user. They aim to have musicians, photographers, fashion designers and artists as well. Don't know much beyond that other than it looks UK oriented and the main page is too busy for my taste. Tribe Hollywood http://tribehollywood.com Tribe Hollywood has been around much longer than most of these sites. Way back in 2004, some NYU grads decided to start an industry networking site as a way to advance their careers. As an NYU grad, I'd like to be able to recommend the site, but I haven't gotten anything out of it other than a lot of spammy emails. I guess I could be sending spammy emails right back. The site is in need of a re-design to compete with all the uber-clean web 2.0 offerings. One advantage it has is that only real industry professionals are allowed to join, so it is smaller and more serious by design. Unusuals http://unusuals.net As you can see from when I talked about this site earlier, their confused pitches didn't convince me to try a three month trial. They have a cute, clean design but it looks like the site would be dead in the water if LinkedIn added the ability to have reels. Does anybody pay to post their reel and resume? You could do it free with Vimeo and Blogspot. Vimeo http://vimeo.com You may think of Vimeo primarily as a video hosting site. But they also have some social networking features and are more aggressive than YouTube in seeking out filmmakers and film artists (as opposed to people who upload videos of their cats). I like that you can add yourself to the credits of films to which you contributed. Although it's not built specifically for collaboration, the clean interface and social features make Vimeo a fun option. Wreck A Movie http://wreckamovie.com A group of filmmakers in Finland created a platform so they could collaborate over the web to create a parody movie called Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning. They later decided to open up the platform. Wreck A Movie seems to have a pretty strong international user base, with a decided emphasis on computer effects specialists. They are also very active on Twitter.
