How will we choose just ten amazing films?

The deadline for submissions has passed and we have been bowled over by the volume and quality of proposals that we have received. Choosing just ten is going to be incredibly hard.

 

Over the next week or so we’ll be processing submissions and Loading Docs Executive Producers Julia Parnell and Anna Jackson will make an initial shortlist. These finalists will be submitted to our advisory team and representatives from NZ On Air and The New Zealand Film Commission who will collaborate on the final ten.

 

Here’s what we will be looking for when we make our selection:

 

• Originality, creativity and innovation: unique stories or a fresh approach to telling a story.
• Concepts and treatments that will work successfully in a three-minute format.
• Achievability: with a short timeframe for production we need to be sure that proposals can be realised, that access has been secured, there are no issues with rights and that budgets are realistic.
• Diversity: we want to have a range of films with different subjects, styles, tone, people and places.
• Coherency: we want each documentary to be different, but we will also consider how well the selected films work together as a group.

 

It is clear already how much work has gone into each proposal so we will honour that by providing feedback on each project. This won’t happen immediately after the final ten films are announced, but we promise we will respond with feedback as soon as possible.

 

With so many amazing proposals, we wish we could select more than ten. That’s not possible at the moment, but we’re working towards future rounds of Loading Docs and focused on building a vibrant community to support New Zealand documentary shorts.

 

The ten documentaries selected will be announced in mid-December, but in the meantime, stay in touch via our blog, mailing list, Twitter and Facebook.

 

Thank you to all the amazing documentary makers who took the time to submit to Loading Docs.

posted: 26th Nov 2013 by