Moves to create a club

[Sean]

As some may know we’ve been investigating the idea of creating a filmmakers club based on the forum here and the things we’ve been doing over the past two years.

There are a number of good reasons to create a club, as a way of protecting us all in the projects we do , and as a way of legitimising fundraising so we can better the range of shoots that can be done . We will be able to raise funds through donations grants , sponsorship and any other way . The funds raised can go directly towards equipment , insurance and organising workshops and shoots for everyone to get involved in . A club can be a very strong thing, it can get discounts and have a stronger voice and get more recognition.

For this I’ve tried to come up with a club rules / constitution . You’ll find it attached to this post . Please take the time to read it and please comment here on it . I’d especially appreciate input from anyone who’s had good experience of how clubs are organised. I’m also working on the policy statement of the club and should have something on that up over the next few days. The statement will be more about the regulations and the spirit of the club as opposed to the fine nuts and bolts details. Finally nothing should change with regards to the forum , It should always remain free and should always be the place it is now . Creating the club will give a stronger identity though and those who decide to take up full membership in it should find great benefits from it. Rest assured we will do our best to keep subscription as low as possible for the club.

I’m looking forward to hearing your views and getting your input on the whole thing.
I’ve also put a poll up , just so I can get an idea of how many people would be interest in Joining the egomotion club

Regards
Sean

[Sean]

I had a chat with a colleague who has experience of forming clubs and was involved in a golf club before and He gave me a little advice .

I’ve made 2 small changes highlighted in red here , relating to mentioning specifically that the officers of the comittee are responsible for day to day running of the club and also making provision for resignation of officers .

Sean

[Vadakin]

I haven’t voted yet, because I want to get some more information, mostly with regard to finance (membership fees etc).

You see, personally, I’d like to see any such club be geared towards making films and nurturing talent.

For example, let’s say that membership is €20 and you get 100 members. That’s €2000…so what would that money be spent on? I don’t like the idea of awards because that ultimately is only going to benefit a select few members, and there are already a few organisations out there, such as Filmbase that offer such incentives.

I’d much rather see any income going towards actually making films, especially for those who can’t afford to make their own. There is no substitute for experience, and where I feel that places like filmmakersnetwork.ie have failed, is in actually providing ways for people to actually get experience.

Essentially, rather than be a filmase-like organisation, make Egomotion more of a production company. There are plenty of writers and directors here, a lot of whom simply can’t afford to attend workshops or hire out equipment or do courses. The same goes for sound designers, actors and cinematographers etc.

Any money that comes into the club should be used to fund movies, and give people the chance to actually go out and get a film made. Community projects.

At least that’s what I think. There’s no point in spending money on something that you’re not going to benefit from.

[Sean]

I’ll see if I can answer that there
[quote:459bc]
1.2
The aim of the club is to engage in and promote filmmaking in the Cork region for the benefit of members and the public at large.
[/quote:459bc]

That is the club should make films using it’s members and their talent and then promote those films ( To festivals , distributors ,holding screenings etc )
I’d prefer that membership fees go towards resources ( equipment , licensed software, insurance and promoting the club)
THan specific projects although that may be possible . Realistically no amount of subscriptions is ever going to fund a film , Donations and fundraising might , but might not go the distance and it might not be sustainable . People still need to do the work on their own projects and funding , but we would be able to pool resources and talents to make that whole thing more achievable. And Fun as opposed to stressful and disheartening as it can be at times.

The thing with the membership fees is not an easy thing , I could pick a figure but that’s not the best thing to do . If we come around to an agreed strucure and we know how many people are genuinely interested , we can hold the first AGM and vote in officers , have the officers analyse things and present it back to people then have a vote on it to set the membership fee , reviewing it annually.

One of the things I had thought about would have been that members would get a free season Pass to Futureshorts in Cork
that would be worth about 50 eur, The Issue of insurance is another one , I’m trying to get a quote on that at the moment So that would give a better idea of how much would be needed in subscriptions . All in all I don’t want to be paying too much myself so …

Hope that helps !!

Sean

[Vadakin]

Well that’s fine as long as the club is about making films using it’s members. After all, when it comes to movies, there’s no substitute for experience.

One problem though is that there are less than 200 members of the forum and the reality is the forum isn’t all that active….I’ve often spent hours on here with no one for company except yahoo and google bots.

So the question has to be asked – are there going to be enough people to make a club worthwhile?

I don’t want to seem like I’m knocking the idea, I’m not. I’d be very interested in participating, but obviously, there are things that need to be sorted out before it can happen.

[Sean]

Good input Vad

1. We haven’t actively recruited to the website in about a year ( I know I can’t believe it either as membership has Doubled ) Obviously a good amount of members is a good thing but I don’t think it’s vital to have like 500 members before anything can be done. We start with those that are interested in starting and build from there.

2 Take the point that it’s quiet in here. I will say though that the original burst of online activity here translated well into actual offline partnerships and when people are busy working together they don’t tend to spend much time gabbing in Forums , ( I don’t know but I think we can check statistics for PM’s and hits as I’m fairly certain a lot of people post privately to each other and log in to see what’s happening while not posting up )

And finally as to being a club about making films with it’s members well we have a good history already ( 4 films screened in two years in the Cork film Festival , one of those in competition, and about 11 other shorts done for different competitions we’ve entered . There have also been other projects by members or involving members that we wouldn’t have been directly involved in but which have been successful.

Tomorrow we’ll be in the Crane Lane shooting the final scene in a Music video we’ve been doing for Val Hely ,Directed by Sean Breathnach, and we’ve called for members to come along and help out being the crowd , and it looks like there’ll be upwards of 30 people tomorrow there. So I think that tells you a little about the commitment that people show here . It’s great, and I’ve never failed in being amazed by how much people are willing to get behind a project and make it happen. Next week we begin shooting on "Pork Pies" a script of Dans . Inky is nearing the end of shooting for "Transition Year" Teatowel is about to get going on a few projects soon too and I ‘m looking forward to those.
I’m really looking forward to this years shooting , having spent a long time pulling things together I think we’re building good momentum now. Hence the decision to try and make it an official club , to go and get the funding and the resources to build it further and support projects with more than our experience and graft and add a little more to it all.

[Vadakin]

Hey, if it helps me to get "Freezer" made then I’m all for it. (Actually thinking about shooting it myself…if I can get a camera…and a car…and actors…and fake blood…and a shovel…and if I can learn to direct)

[Sean]

I’m going to make a call here and say that this thread remains open until the 22nd of February , That’s Friday week.
So any more comment or input , try and get it in before that . I’d like to hold the First AGM in early March .

As far as I can make out a solid insurance policy will cost around €600 annually for up to 50 people, there are other types of personal insurances ( that cover public liability for individuals in a group ) that may be cheaper, if the numbers are small ( ie 10 people at €40 a head ) but they might not have the scalability ( 600/20 = 30 whereas 40 * 20 = 800 )

These aren’t exact figures as I haven’t gotten full quotes yet . I’m looking at Allianz ( who do a policy for the 101st Airborne ) and at Arachas ( who also do Film Production insurance) and I’m thinking of asking Axa as well .

Gives you an Idea though , that likely if there are 10 – 20 members , Annual subscription should be in around €50 .

I’ll be sending a mass mail on this soon

Regards
Sean

[Eoghan]

Hi I just saw this thread now. I think it would be a great idea – getting a dedicated club going. Like Vad said, treating it like a production company, with a pooled skill set would be a great way to get a project started.

In terms of numbers I definitely think you need a mopre active way of marketing this forum and the club. I only found the forums around a month ago by accident and I’ve been living in cork for the last three years. A few posters in Plugd records and places like primtime would probably help alot.

The subscription fee doesn’t bother me once it’s money well spent.

[Sean]

Hi Eoghan,

Well when we started we did a shot of advertising and decided after to build slowly, trying to focus our efforts , getting things screened in the Film Festival and trying as much as possible to make personal contacts . When you blast out flyers or posters a lot of the time people don’t fully know what the forum is about , join then might never look again ( generally if they don’t get a call from Speilberg in a week ,some people don’t bother ) as well as that it tends to be left on the doorstep of the core people to do the advertising, and time becomes an issue ( we have asked a few times for people interested in giving out flyers , and then not had a huge response.) And flyers, posters and the lot costs money. Not griping really just explaining why we haven’t actively advertised and sought increased membership. although word of mouth has served well in the past year , as membership has doubled

That said now is a good time to actively go and recruit , and with the formation of the club it could be a particular item to look at and go after, raising the profile more. Given the projects we have coming to fruition at the moment it will be a whole area that will be getting Focus anyway.

As to the first thing you said , that’s always been the way of it , and always will be the way of it , It’s an independent Production Company , that just so happens to be structured and managed as a club.

Picture a possible scenario : – it’s 2010 an egomotion member has written a great script , which has been developed by the club , a pilot trailer shot by the club , and a deal signed off by the club with Sony pictures and the Feature shot as a joint Sony /egomotion production Done in Ireland , pro crew and egomotion members working in the departments and it’s a box office smash that feeds so much money into the club we buy a plot of land after and build a studio .

Now I know I’m dreaming , but you have to aim high , and it isn’t an impossible scenario. Hard Work , good Fun , commitment and great projects are the way to go , and even if the above scenarion doesn’t happen there’s a whole pile of in between that can happen if we put this together. Stuff that otherwise wouldn’t happen.

[Eoghan]

well it(the club) would be a great help/ idea for things like frameworks also. If somebody managed to get funding for something like Frame works through a script then there is a ready made pool of people to call on to help with production. The help/work of the the club could be costed and the money from a frameworks grant could be used to pay the club. The club can then decide whether to either pay people in the club who help on the film or if people agreed, put the money earned back into the club.

[Sean]

Exactly.

[John Howard]

Great idea lads!! I definitely go for that and pay a subscription and all that… It would definitely be a much faster way to get funding and recognition aswell!! How much would the subscription be, a ruff figure??

[oisinmaccoille]

just wondering if you hope to set up a club (for which i voted yes) how do we decide which films get made. What i propose is a pitching session on the night of future shorts.

That could be done as follows:
we allow no more than 5 entries per session
the producer or director or both speaks for five minuites about the merits of their movie and why it should be made.
these happens 1 at beginning of night before films are shown
2 at first interval
3 at second interval
ina a break down of 2-1-2
then people vote on the movies in order of preference of 1 to 3
those people with the highest votes go onto a second pitch session at the club meeting and the club selects the best two.
no one individual may pitch more than twice in a night.

If we hold one pitching session per month at future shorts and then have the second session every second month that would give us 6 films for the club to choose from. that way egomotion are working on twelve films a year provisinally speaking which gives us a greater chance in terms of festivals funding etc.

its just an idea and like most of mine i’m sure is full of holes here and there. but the reality is this is how movies are picked in the industry and i feel would help people if they are looking for grants etc to get their film off the ground on their own steam.

It would also allow people the chance to work in different areas or maybe the club can allocate a a crew to reflect the best that egomotion has got.

Those selected films would then be showcased as egomotion films and people who have limited or no resources could get their film made with the help of ego motion. i feel that if the club is to be a success such a system would be imperative in terms of fairness alone and maybe we could start wensday night if you hope to have the first meeting in march.

again just my ponderings feel free to pick away at them.

[Sean]

I don’t think we’ll be going that particular route , for two reasons
1 , the club isn’t really going to be a funding body , and participation is always optional . if we start having votes on whose going to get what and when , it begins to get political , and it should never really be that way . That’s how I feel anyway.
2. There isn’t really the money or resources available to tackle things in that way at the moment , Not saying that that arrangement wouldn’t be possible in the future ( depending on how things go ) but really right now it would run a little like this.
Every one gets in a room , pitches are done , some project gets voted in for this month , Those that weren’t particularly interested in that project don’t really bother themselves with doing anything for it , writer gets annoyed and says "well I’m not working on anything for them " and it all falls apart .

Practically I think that’s how it would work . However if we provide the basics . ( insurance is in place , some basic equipment is available, advice is on tap , and a focal point is there to get likeminded people on board and the reputation of the club is built up to make it easier to access outside resources . ) well then I think there is no limits on how well it can grow . Each member will get out what they put in , if not more , and the whole thing can grow organically, without restricting itself to certain roles , as a funding body does ,

But like everything it is possible , as these kinds of things are what should be brought up at an AGM and voted on by the club membership . One possibility is if one member wanted to really push an idea like that then if they could secure sponsorship , they could run the script contest once a month and provide the award to fund that script. That indeed could be a committee role .

[Author]

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