Posts In: film

Washington Filmworks is pleased to announce the five semi-finalist filmmakers for the inaugural Film Cycle of the Innovation Lab. A jury of industry experts, representing all facets of pre-production, production, marketing and distribution chose the 5 semi-finalist filmmakers from a diverse collection of twenty-three quality applications for funding assistance.

Over the last few years the online retail giant Amazon has been experimenting with a controversial new business model for producing original content. Amazon Studios was created to gather scripts, test projects, and determine whether audiences found those to be commercially viable. The studio claims they offer opportunities for new voices and promote the platform as open to anyone. However opponents accuse Amazon of developing a system that takes advantage of green writers, holds their intellectual property hostage, and eventually strips them of valuable rights to their material.

Washington Filmworks is pleased to announce that the Board of Directors has approved funding assistance for eight national commercials since the Motion Picture Competitiveness Program was renewed during the 2012 legislative session. These eight commercials spent an estimated $2.2M in Washington’s statewide economy in five short months. Production took place in diverse locations throughout Washington State, including Anacortes, Port Angeles, La Connor, and Seattle.

Washington Filmworks reached out to one of our incentive alumni Producers, Colin Plank, to pen a guest post about lessons learned through the process of making a feature. Colin is a Producer at Centripetal Films based in Seattle. His film, Eden, will be released in theaters in early 2013. Eden is his first feature film.

Next Tuesday, Nov. 6, we vote on several political offices and initiatives. There are many factors that can inform your vote for an elected official and we hope that a candidate’s support of your livelihood is one of them.

This guest post is from Ben Andrews, independent filmmaker and co-founder of Evil Slave LLC. His passion lies in creating a truly viable and robust film industry in the state of Washington. Ben is one of the organizers of the Seattle Film Summit, which will be held at the Northwest Film Forum this Saturday, Sept. 29th, in conjunction with the Local Sightings Film Festival. The summit is a day-long, participant-directed conference, where attendees and speakers address the tough questions of the local film business.

Washington Filmworks continues the conversation on crowd funding with the second in a series of 2 guest posts…

Change. A major change in how we think about financing independent film has not only arrived, it is maturing – crowd funding. And more change is coming. It seems that everyoneis embracing this newest gift to the “democratization” of the filmmaking journey. But is the change all, and only, good? Does the “gift” come with a catch?

The deadline for submitting preliminary forms to the Filmworks Innovation Lab (Film Cycle) has been extended until Friday, September 7th at 5 p.m.

Ahoy, Mateys! Filming was underway aboard the 112-foot, 99-ton ship the Lady Washington on Aug 9th. A production took her out near Aberdeen, WA, close to the mouth of the Chehalis River on Grays Harbor, where cast and crew were busy filming scenes for a feature film set in the 19th century.