Fourdocs » bursary

Bursary winners announced – 8!

Rebecca Frankel — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 00:20:34 +0000

We got lots of very high quality entries to the FourDocs bursary scheme. After looking through the applications I was totally impressed with the dedication of people who get out there and actually make films, instead of talking about it.

Some people had been filming a subject for years, others became so obsessed with an idea they just had to make it, and another decided to make a personal investigation about their heritage into a film. What we were looking for, as stated in the T’s & C’s, was strong visual ideas that stand a good chance of being selected at film festivals. We had a difficult time with the judging, because there were so many deserving projects that £1,000 would really help elevate. In the end, we actually decided to give to out eight bursaries to films that were all fairly advanced (ie most of the filming had already happened), made by filmmakers with a broad range of backgrounds, including artists and an actor, as well as seasoned doc makers. The winners are:

I Won’t Go – Georgina Hurcombe
The Blanket Men – Barry Curran
We Rob Banks – Nicola Harman
Down and Out – Chris Martin
Way of The Morris – Tim Plester
The Reapers – Jacob Cartwright & Nick Jorden
The First Day – Hannah Skrinar
Of Kings and Queens – Ian McDonald

I’ll be writing more about each project in detail over the next few weeks. Sorry to everyone who wasn’t successful, and remember – you still have until the end of this week to enter the Passat online pitching competition to win £5k for a camera. I’m off to IDFA tomorrow morning, but am on email if you have any urgent queries about what you need to submit (a visual pitch/taster up to three minutes long). If there are any problems with fourdocs@channel4.com, you can drop me a line – rebecca.frankel@magiclantern.co.uk

New guest editor to review films on fourdocs – starting today.

Rebecca Frankel — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:25:43 +0000

So the big developments for FourDocs this week are….

A NEW GUEST EDITOR TO REVIEW FILMS
Lee Kern has come on board as a guest editor. He’ s a filmmaker and cultural commentator. Last week he showed me what he thought of high concept art with sneaky hand gestures, in a way that was both performative and informative. Hopefully his reviews will do the same.

NEW FOURDOCS FILMS GOING UP ON THE SITE
Starting today, I am going to post one of the shortlisted my home town films everyday.

ONLINE DEBATING ABOUT WHICH FILMS ARE BEST, AND SHOULD BE PICKED TO GO OUT ON CHANNEL 4
Lee will be fierce and he will be funny in his critique of each, but please do feel free to disagree with what he says by leaving comments about what you think. He’s used to people taking issue with him, and actually quite likes sparring about what makes a good film.

ALSO, BURSARIES CLOSING THIS SUNDAY
The first round of FourDocs bursary applications are open until this Sunday. Remember, we are going to give 3 lots of £1000 away as completion funding for docs you want to send to festivals.

FourDocs Festival Bursaries – win £1000 to finish your film

Rebecca Frankel — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:59:10 +0000

We have opened up for applications! In this first round, FourDocs will be awarding 3 people £1000 each to finish their documentary in tip-top shape for festivals. It’s up to you how to spend the cash. You might want some animation, a specially written soundtrack, or to hire a top notch editor to re-structure it. All you need to apply is a documentary project you are already working on, and some idea of what you’d do with the money to make the film better. There are full details of how to apply on our bursaries page.