FYI - Film Your Issue is an unprecedented, ambitious outreach to young Americans to engage them in the public dialogue about pressing issues of importance, locally or nationally.
We want to know what young people think, we want to empower the next generation of leaders to understand how their single voices can influence the public debate, and — as hoakey as it sounds — to understand the power of democracy — where every voice counts.
We want your passion, ingenuity, creativity, originality. We want to hear your heart, and see your talent in action.
Official Rules and Timeline
Length - Issue films should be no less than 30 seconds and no more than 120 seconds in length. We will accept a brief credit roll at the end, for a maximum five seconds beyond the 120 second limit.
Format - Live-action or animated.
Deadline - April 14, 2008
Who Can Participate - Anyone age 14 to 24 at the time of film submission. Certain prizes have age and citizenship requirement. Please check individual Awards and Prizes for eligibility.
Style and Content - This is important: we want mini-movies rather than dry Public Service Announcements. We encourage narrative — meaning a storyline. We’re not looking for lots of talking heads and scrolling text of facts and stats to tell the story. Show us dramatically rather than telling us.
Make us laugh, weep, gasp, grin.
And: Be Yourself. Share your issue. Be passionate. Be original. If it looks and sounds like something we’ve all seen for years, our eyes glaze over. Originality excites us more than whether it looks like prime-time.
Copyright and Broadcast Standards
You can’t use copyrighted music unless you have permission unless you have both publishing and licensing rights. (See copyright page). Original music, vocals and instrumentation, are encouraged.
Pay-cable is more liberal than network television. However Starz reserves the right to exclude any winning film from broadcast if it violates broadcast standards of decency, excessive profanity or copyright infringement.
Submission Format - All major media formats including:
* Video: .mpg, .mp4, .mov, .flv, .avi, .wmv
* Audio: .mp3, .wav
* Bitrate should be 400Kbs minimum
* Resolution: 320 by 240 minimum
* Maximum upload size is 100MB
When and how to submit - Film entries will be accepted after February 25, 2008. To be eligible for the competition, you must register at www.myspace.com/filmyourissue. Your film entries should also be uploaded at www.myspace.com/filmyourissue. You will also be given the option to have your film posted on Think MTV.
We also encourage you to post your film on your own on as many sites as possible, both for your own visibility and to promote the FYI competition. Use tags pertaining to the film's issue(s), as well as "Film Your Issue," "FYI" and so forth.
The sooner you create and upload your film, the sooner your film will get promotion and international visibility: Following February 25, the Associated Press will pick entries over the next six weeks to distribute to its 1,800 Online Video media outlets.
So the faster you submit, the more exposure your film can get.
Submission Deadline - April 14, 2008
The Voting Period - The voting period runs from approximately April 21 to May 4, 2008. From all entries received by the submission deadline, the FYI editorial team will select approximately three dozen films to continue to the public and Jury voting. All films submitted will be reviewed by the participating organizations for the joint awards selected by The United Nations DPI, The Humane Society of the United States, USA TODAY, NRDC, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/ Strong American Schools, NAACP, Human Rights Campaign, P.O.V. Series.
Beginning on or about April 21, 2008, the semi-finalists will be submitted to the VIP Judges and FYI ThinkTank, which will select the FYI 2008 Jury Prize winner.
The semi-finalists will also be posted on a voting platform on MySpace Impact, where the public will have two weeks to view and vote on the finalists. The top-rated film will receive the FYI – MySpace Impact Audience 2008 Favorite Award.
Films posted on the Think MTV site will also be rated during a one-week period, and the filmmaker of the top-rated film will be profiled on MTV News.
Additionally, The United Nations DPI, The Humane Society of the United States, USA TODAY, NRDC, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/ Strong American Schools, NAACP, Human Rights Campaign and P.O.V. Series will each pick one film from all submissions for the Award and prizing in its respective category.
All organizations reserve the right to decline naming a winner should none of the entries effectively articulate the suggested issues.
All winners will be announced on or around May 6, 2008.
Official Sponsor:
FYI - FILM YOUR ISSUE
1920 N. Alexandria Avenue, #3
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Monday, February 25, 2008
Film Your Issue Short Film Competition
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
echoDonations.org™ Releases Web 2.0 Widget for Facebook, MySpace
Local Nonprofit Launches New Viral Marketing Tool
CINCINNATI, OH, January 28, 2008 – Today echoDonations.org™ announced the launch of its first Internet widget; a tool used to share information among millions of people who use the Internet in their daily lives. Demonstrating the capability to reach over 300 million sets of eyes, the widget provides a way for echoDonations.org™ to spread its message around the world.
Everyday more than 300 million people interact with each other online through over twenty social media websites. Facebook alone has over 60 million registered users, with numbers constantly swelling. “The widget is an incredible tool for online sharing,” according to the widget’s creator Ryan Rosensweig, Director of Web Marketing and Design at echoDonations.org™. “I believe that a new wave of viral marketing will develop quickly among nonprofit organizations as they seek new ways to share their mission with the world.”
As a sharing tool, the widget has been added to www.echoDonations.org, as well as other social media websites, such as MySpace, Facebook, and LiveJournal. Once added to a webpage, the widget has the capability to link to other sites and can be shared with other people who have accounts with a social media website or their own webpage.
The widget is a program in itself, which allows for advanced communication in a very simple, concise way. Its physical appearance resembles a button or badge on a computer screen, and contains a simple, clean message in the graphic.
Widgets are designed to spread messages as far and wide as the Internet will allow. Anyone who finds echo’s widget online can “click it,” “donate,”“grab it,” or “share it.” By “clicking” the widget, the user is linked to echoDonation.org and has the option of reading their blog. Secondly, the widget has a feature that allows its user to “donate now,” a button that links directly to echo’s donation page. Thirdly, by choosing the option on the widget to “grab it,” users can take the widget themselves and add it to their own website. Lastly, the user can “share it,” or invite others to add it to their website.
The widget provides a highly broad form of marketing, which is greatly needed in the expansive Internet world of today. No longer are marketers competing by word of mouth and billboards. Today, they must find new ways to reach out and captivate their audience.
About echodonations.org™
echoDonations.org™, the nation’s leading online charitable mutual fund, is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping charities start or grow their online fundraising programs by offering loyalty building cash rewards for donors to give more. More information is available at www.echoDonations.org.
CONTACTS:
echoDonations.org™, Michelle Matthews, 513.276.4332, ext 105.
michelle@echodonations.org
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Marqui to Donate Subscription of Web Marketing Solution to Selected Nonprofit Organization
The Marqui solution helps non-profit organizations manage and increase the effectiveness of their online communications. Every year they host a lottery where one deserving nonprofit will receive Marqui's services free of cost.
Vancouver, Canada, October 12, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Marqui Inc., a leading provider of ondemand marketing automation and website content management software, announced today that they will be donating a subscription of their solution to a non-profit organization as part of their annual non-profit lottery. The award will enable the successful organization to make better use of their limited funds to build awareness and support for their causes without the burden and cost of managing their website or online communications.
“We are very pleased to be running this contest once again this year. We understand that many non-profit organizations have to rely on the generous donations of their supporters and operate with a limited staff and volunteers. The Marqui solution can help these organizations maximize the effectiveness of their online communications and website management,” said Rick Patri, Vice President, Client Solutions, Marqui. “The Web is such a pervasive medium, and Marqui provides non-profit organizations with easy-to-use tools to reach and build awareness with a worldwide audience.”
Non-profit clients such as the David Suzuki Foundation, the Canadian Liver Foundation, Coastal First Nations, and the Shriners of North America use the Marqui solution to:
• Control online brand and messaging
• Increase advocacy and outreach efforts
• Measure and optimize campaigns
To Apply
The award will be granted based on the organization's need and planned usage of Marqui’s ondemand software applications. All NPO/NGO's are invited to apply. Deadline for submission is November 30, 2007. Full award criteria and submission forms are available at www.marqui.com/donate
Marqui offers a comprehensive suite of on-demand software applications that automate and simplify a broad range of marketing activities; including web content management, email campaigns, search engine optimization (SEO), lead generation and CRM integration, analytics and program measurement. By combining all of these capabilities into one Web-based suite, Marqui enables customers to streamline marketing initiatives and improve program effectiveness without the issues or costs associated with installing multiple single-purpose products.
The Marqui suite of products – including Blog Management, Campaign and Email Management, Content Management, Marketing Analytics, and Approvals and Workflow – can be deployed incrementally or all at once based on business needs and objectives.
Further details on the Marqui marketing software suite can be found at:
http://www.marqui.com/solution/
About Marqui
Marqui enables customers to stand out from the crowd by providing innovative web marketing technology that helps align Sales and Marketing teams and execute closed-loop marketing activities. Marqui’s on-demand platform empowers customers to control their online brand and messaging, generate leads and revenue, and evaluate and optimize online campaigns. More than 250+ organizations have leveraged Marqui to successfully grow their brand and online campaigns through effective web content management, SEO, site search, CRM, and analytics.
Marqui's growing customer list includes: the Phoenix Suns, Ford Motor Company, Honda, Merck, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, Lakeland College, Roper Bioscience, CruiseWest, Grouse Mountain, BC Ferries, the David Suzuki Foundation, YMCA, and the United Way. Marqui is a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner. For more information please visit them at www.marqui.com .
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Contact Information
Marqui Inc
Angela St. Amour
604 630 1039
astamour@highroad.com
www.marqui.com
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
BLOGGERS TO UNITE ON BLOG ACTION DAY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 15, 2007
All Blogs Invited to Take Part in Joining Voices to Help Environment
An international initiative of bloggers known as "Blog Action Day" launched today, with the aim of uniting thousands of blogging voices, talking about one issue for one day. This year on Blog Action Day, which is slated for Oct. 15, 2007, bloggers will be discussing the environment.
Major blogs have signed up to participate, including Lifehacker, Dumb Little Man, Lifehack.org, Get Rich Slowly, Web Worker Daily, GigaOm, The Simple Dollar, Zen Habits, Freelance Switch, LifeClever, Unclutterer, Pronet Advertising, Wise Bread and many more.
"For just one day, we'd like to unite as many of the millions of bloggers around the world and speak about one issue - the environment," said Collis Ta'eed, an Australian blogger from FreelanceSwitch.com, and a cofounder of Blog Action Day. "We want to display the potential and the power of the blogging community, which is a disparate community but one with an amazing size, breadth and diversity. By bringing everyone together for one day, we can see just how much can be achieved, and how much we can be heard."
Blog Action Day is a non-profit initiative, and will be an annual event. As an alternative to blogging about the environment on Blog Action Day, bloggers can opt to participate by donating their blog's proceeds from Oct. 15 to one of several environmental organizations chosen for this purpose: Greenpeace International, The Nature Conservancy, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), the Conservation Fund, and the Sierra Club.
Bloggers who would like to participate in Blog Action Day should visit BlogActionDay.org or email Collis Ta'eed at collis@eden.cc, so they can be listed on the Blog Action Day site. To participate, a blog just needs to write about the issue of the environment on Oct. 15, 2007, or donate its proceeds for the day to one of the chosen environmental organizations.
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