Press release from Nixco
Movie Extra and Screen Australia have joined forces to offer budding filmmakers an extraordinary opportunity to produce a webseries for MOVIE EXTRA WEBFEST with a $100,000 production budget.
Screen Australia’s involvement offers upcoming filmmakers a remarkable and unique opportunity to create a webseries with an unprecedented production budget; making it an ideal time to start creating a 60 second trailer and to enter the competition.
Due to the announcement of the support by Screen Australia, the prize money has effectively doubled, and the Movie Extra Webfest 2.0 competition deadline has been extended to 23 November, 2011; allowing aspiring filmmakers more time and a greater opportunity to unleash their creative talent.
“Webseries have fast become a great way for filmmakers to connect with a large audience and raise their profile”, said Mike Cowap, Investment Manager, Screen Australia. ”Through the initiative we hope to encourage exploration of the format, and the use of social media to build community around a piece of storytelling.”
MOVIE EXTRA WEBFEST encourages creatives to pitch an original webseries idea via a 60 second trailer for a chance to win a $100,000 production budget to produce a seven part webseries for MOVIE EXTRA. Filmmakers and fans are encouraged to be part of the voting process via social media with each vote giving entries a greater chance of getting into the finals by generating a real life audience for their series. The winner of Movie Extra Webfest 2.0 will be decided through a combination of votes and an official MOVIE EXTRA industry judging panel.
General voting for Movie Extra Webfest 2.0 closes 30 November, 2011 with finalists revealed 2 December, 2011. The winner of Movie Extra Webfest 2.0 will be announced on 7 December, 2011 and the winning webseries will premiere on the Movie Network Channels YouTube channel www.youtube.com/mnctv.
Last year’s winning webseries Henry & Aaron’s 7 Steps to Superstardom has achieved over 92,000 views since premiering in June on www.youtube.com/mnctv and will have its television debut on MOVIE EXTRA 2 December, 2011.
Following the success of the inaugural MOVIE EXTRA WEBFEST competition in 2010, Movie Network Channels commissioned three animation webseries from the 2010 entries; Shaaark!, Mollusks and Livin’ With Steve. A raft of Australian talent from Tex Perkins, Merrick Watts, Bob Franklin, Shaun Micallef and Matt Preston have come on board and lent their talents to voice some of the fantastic characters in these webseries.
The first of the three webseries Shaaark! premieres in October on YouTube www.youtube.com/mnctv whilst Mollusks is scheduled for the end of November and Livin’with Steve early December.
To enter MOVIE EXTRA WEBFEST 2.0 and for regular competition updates, announcements and to vote for entries visit Facebook: www.facebook.com/movieextrawebfest