MediaMaker Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The Award

What's included in the MediaMaker "in kind" package?

BAVC MediaMaker Fellows:

• Participate in New Media Workshops throughout the year, designed to provide special access to experts in emerging technologies and multiplatform storytelling.

•     Participate in MediaMaker Fellows Labs to screen works-in-progress and receive feedback from fellow MediaMakers and invited industry experts on films and digital projects. Each fellow receives an evening Lab session designed to get feedback and input specifically on their project. Participation in the other fellows labs also helps to shape your project and gives you great ideas.

•     Receive a package of free BAVC equipment and facilities access for project development, focus groups, mentor meetings, professional production, postproduction, technical development, and beta-testing.

•     Receive numerous exposure opportunities including serving as a guest blogger for the BAVC web site and newsletter, highlighting your project, your creative process, screenings, events, and community engagement plans.

•     Are eligible for assistance from BAVC-trained media interns who will assist MediaMaker fellows in creating a short video documentary about the MediaMaker’s project to be used in presentations, funding proposals, and project promotion. (For samples of these see http://bavc.org/stream.) This video will also be distributed on BAVC’s local cable channels and web sites to educate and inspire other aspiring mediamakers and to promote your work.

•     Be included in the MediaMaker Showcase – a public event for the BAVC MediaMaker Fellows to pitch their projects to local funders, broadcasters, and community organizations.

•     Access to and involvement with BAVC’s creative program alumni network.

•     A small cash stipend ($1,500) to support your participation in the program, including in the development of your promotional behind-the-scenes video documentary with production assistance from a BAVC-trained intern.

What is the commitment required during the fellowship?
Applicants must be willing to be an active participant in monthly labs and quarterly workshops, an annual exhibition, pitch/showcase, and ongoing online forum.  Applicants must commit to siting BAVC with other major funders of the project that they develop through MediaMaker (such as in project credits, in any “About,” “Funders,” or “Sponsors” page of a project web site) with BAVC logo and link; and must commit to participating in the production of a short promotional case study video about their project (with assistance from a BAVC-trained intern, provided through the in kind award). Each fellow must also write one guest blog about their project and complete the program evaluation to receive their stipend. Note: These commitments are all designed to “help us help you” as a fellow, and we frequently use these materials to gain exposure opportunities for your project at conferences, public forums, funder presentations, and other events.

Do I have to complete my film during the year of my fellowship?  What am I expected to present at the final showcase?
Not necessarily. We hope that the fellowship will help you make great progress with your project, and that what you learn and the relationships you form will help guide not only your current project, but also your career and creative work. At the showcase event, each fellow shares some kind of trailer or clip from a work in progress with the attendees, who consist of the fellows and invitees from the media arts funding, production, technology, and distribution communities. Fellows share something of what their trajectory has been over the course of their fellowship: where they began the year, how the project changed through the MediaMaker, how the fellow’s creative process was influenced, where the project is now, and where it is headed. Like the fellowship itself, each presentation is unique to the project and fellow, and invites more industry leaders to support it and follow it through to completion and success.

Can more than one person from a team participate?
Yes, but each project is expected to have a primary applicant and project lead; that person if accepted would become the “MediaMaker fellow” featured on our web site and would be the primary point person for your project who is responsible for communication and deliverables.  A second key member of a project team can participate in most MediaMaker workshops, labs, and events.  Identify the lead applicant clearly in your application, and if you hope to have a second project lead or partner participate in the labs and workshops, indicate so in the “collaborators” field or elsewhere in your supporting materials.

Eligibility

Who is eligible for MediaMaker?
Any Bay Area BAVC member at the Producers Bundle level and above working on a noncommercial project is eligible for the MediaMaker Fellows program. For further information about the types of mediamakers and projects we support, see http://bavc.org/mediamaker.  To see the questions asked on the application, see http://bavc.org/mediamaker-application.

What types of projects are appropriate for MediaMaker? Can I apply with only a film?
All media projects are eligible.  Reviewers will look favorably upon strategic content plans for the subject matter and project.  A preference is given for social issue documentary films and transmedia projects, but MediaMaker is not limited to these genres. The most important criteria is that you have a great project with the potential to touch a lot of people, and a strategy for reaching the audiences you intend to reach.  It also helps to have an open mind and an eagerness for feedback and input, because the MediaMaker labs help artists to envision new directions and approaches for their work.

What are the geographic limits for eligibility?
MediaMaker is a program for Bay Area mediamakers. There are no geographic limits for eligibility, however each recipient is expected to attend up to ten in-person events each year.  If a key project producer or director (must be a decision-maker and lead artist) is located in the Bay Area, that person may apply on behalf of the project and attend the events.

Are previous MediaMaker and/or Producers Institute participants eligible?
Yes.  As long as the project itself is new to MediaMaker.

Does participation in MediaMaker make the participant ineligible for Producers Institute?
No. The programs have slightly different focuses.  Generally, it would make more sense to apply to MediaMaker prior to participating in Producers Institute, as MediaMaker will help you to explore the concepts and approaches to your project.  Producers Institute is more about making those approaches a reality.

What stage of the project should an applicant have attained before submitting?
There is no requirement that you have a film at a rough cut stage before applying to MediaMaker, but a work sample is expected.  Most applicants have something to show when they are applying, which helps the reviewers to envision and understand your project and where you are trying to go with it.  So not having a related work sample or work-in-progress puts you at a disadvantage compared to other applicants.

The application indicates that I must have one other funder for my project before applying.  What counts?  If I’ve already spent some of my own money or time on it is that enough?
The reviewers want to see that your project has the ability to draw funding and move forward to completion. If you are the only person who has invested in your project to date, it will put you at a disadvantage compared to other applicants.  However, if your project has no other funders and the budget is small, or if you have already completed a strong work sample for your project without obtaining other funding, reviewers will take those factors into consideration, so lack of funding is not necessarily a disqualifying point for an otherwise compelling work-in-progress.  The key point is that you must raise the reviewers’ confidence that you will raise your full budget and complete the project in a reasonable amount of time.  Your belief/hope/expectation that you will eventually raise your budget doesn’t do much to increase that confidence.  Your ability to fund and complete past work, and your ability to raise some outside funding for your current project does.

Do I have to have a fiscal sponsor to apply to MediaMaker?
No. MediaMaker is an in-kind package of training, services, equipment and facilities, consultation, and support. The stipend is given to you as a participant and is not itself a grant. If you are accepted to the MediaMaker program and need a fiscal sponsor in order to obtain other trants, BAVC may consider you for BAVC’s fiscal sponsorship program.  BAVC only fiscally sponsors projects that we have some other affiliation with through our creative programs.

Selection process

What is the timeline?

•     Application available: Thursday, December 1, 2011

•     Information session: Tuesday, December 13, 2011 6:00 - 8:00pm at BAVC

•     Application deadline: Monday, January, 16th, 2012 5:00pm

•     Late application deadline: Wednesday, February 1, 2012 5:00pm ($40 entry fee)

•     2012 Fellows announced: Monday, February 13, 2012

•     Workshops and in-kind services begin: March, 2012

Who is on the review committee?
Each year the review panel for MediaMaker is approximately eight reviewers, half of them being BAVC staff members and half being external industry experts such as funders, broadcasters, technologists, and programmers. We do not reveal who the panelists are in advance of the announcement of selected fellows. Jen Gilomen, Director of Independent Media for BAVC, will manage the program beginning in 2012, and will facilitate the application for all applicants but will not serve on the review committee.  Feel free to use her as a resource if your questions are not answered here.  Your producer level BAVC membership also includes a free Creative Consultation which can be useful for assistance in shaping your proposal for MediaMaker and other grants and awards.

What should I submit for my work sample?
You may submit up to two links for your work sample(s). Work from the proposed project is preferred. If you do not have a rough cut or work-in-progress from the project you are proposing, it is to your advantage to submit something visual from it.  Samples can be video content, a web site, images/screen shots, an audiovisual presentation, or anything that aids the reviewer in envisioning your project and your ability to complete it. The description field of the application form has room to explain your work sample, your role on it, and how it is related to the project you are proposing for your MediaMaker fellowship.  If the link is password-protected for privacy, please clearly provide the password in the first line of the description.

How long should my work sample be? How long will reviewers spend reviewing my sample?
Reviewers are instructed to watch up to 10 minutes from each submission.  If necessary, give direction to the reviewers on which portion of a link to view.  For example, if you want them to watch the first two minutes of your first link and eight minutes from your second link, or skip to a specific 10-minute portion of a longer work, please specify so in the description.  If your sample is a web site or something other than video content, please suggest a specific path to navigate or task to perform on the site.

Ready to apply?  Click here to submit your application: http://bavc.org/mediamaker-application.  You may want to copy-and-paste your responses in another document so as not to lose work.