CONGRATULATIONS!

Those of you receiving this newsletter are our Official Project Twenty1 Teams!  Our Teams this year hail from 8 different states spanning the East Coast and extending as far as Hawaii and Japan!  Already we have built a community of over 3,000 individuals and organizations from all over the world, and all of them will be receiving every piece of news regarding YOUR status as the competition progresses towards its thrilling conclusion in December with the screenings, and in January with the Awards announcements and official Wrap Party!

Please pass this newsletter on to all essential cast and crew on your Team.  Don’t have all your essential cast & crew yet?  No problem!  Read on below…

INFORMATION REQUIRED

Okay, so there’s a little information we need from you before you continue. We would ask that each Team Leader email us as soon as possible with the following information:

1)    Your Team Leader’s Name
2)    Your Official Team Name
3)    Whether you are making a live-action film or an animation (we will not be revealing this information to the other Teams, it is simply to help us equally distribute your films across our Red & Blue screenings.)

Okay, now email this information to projecttwenty1@gmail.com.  Do it NOW!  Okay. You did it? Thank you! Then please continue…

FINDING TEAM MEMBERS

We will instruct interested individuals to visit our Message Board, where actors have already been posting their information and crafty Teams have been posting calls for contributors.

For those of you in the Philadelphia area, we can also recommend our friends at the Film.org hotline.  Use of the Hotline is free for anybody who is providing work in the Philadelphia area. Other cities have resources like TheBuzzNYC.com, whose listings reach thousands of actors all across the country. Even Craigslist.com is a great resource!  Those of you who don’t have a MySpace, feel free to create one!  It’s free and an excellent networking tool!

THE LAUNCH EVENT

Project Twenty1 is happy to announce a new partnership with the Philadelphia University of the Arts. UArts, located on South Broad St. (The Avenue of the Arts) in Philadelphia, will be hosting the Project Twenty1 Launch Event on November 11th!  Representatives from each Team who are able to attend will meet at the location below to ask final questions, fill out and hand in the Participant’s Agreement, and learn the secret “Element”.  We have a significant number of local Teams, and all those who are able are encouraged to attend and meet your hosts (and your competition)!

For those who are UNABLE to attend the Launch, all Teams will also be automatically emailed the secret “Element” that night.  We’d still love to see as many of you as possible at the Launch, and this includes anyone that is interested in joining a Team but hasn’t yet found one!  Many Teams will be there, so what better way to get involved than to introduce yourself in person?

Important Note: For reasons of fairness to our national (and international!) participants, attendance at the Launch Event is NOT required, BUT anyone who is NOT able to attend the Launch Event must mail, email or fax us their signed Participant’s Agreement on or before this Saturday, November 11th or we reserve the right to disqualify you!!  Please email your signed Participant’s Agreement to this projecttwenty1@gmail.com or FAX 216-689-4403.

DROP EVENT & LOCAL “AMBASSADORS”

We seem to have a decent number of Out-of-Towners onboard, so we wanted to restate this specific point.  Unlike other festivals in which you can mail your tapes provided you hit a given postmark, Project Twenty1 will be screening your films a mere two days after your tapes are to be delivered to us.  For this and many other reasons, each Team will need to have a local Participant (or somebody willing to make the hike to Philly) who is able to attend the Drop Event on December 2nd, to physically hand us your tape, any additional materials you wish to provide us, and signed copies of the Certification and Promotional Forms (see our Forms Page to download these documents).

If you are from outside Philadelphia and are having trouble finding an Ambassador, contact us and we will help you locate one from our ever-expanding network!  We don’t want your film and forms getting lost in the mail on their way to us, and besides, if we don’t have your film by the Drop date, we can’t put it into the screening!

RULES & MESSAGE BOARD

Now would be a good time for everybody to go over the Official Rules one last time.  The more seamlessly you manage to incorporate the Element, the better your chances of winning Awards!  If our Judges get the impression that anything was shot prior to the 21 Days, they are instructed to judge your film more harshly (and besides, it’s just plain bad sportsmanship.)

Between now and the Launch Event, please feel free to ask us questions!  As we’ve been saying all along, we are here to help you!  We are happy to clarify our rules if necessary, or provide you with advice or tips on how to make your film the best it can be! Questions will be answered via email, phone, MySpace messages, or the Message Boards on our website, and we will make every effort to address your pressing concerns in a timely manner.

MUSIC AND WAIVERS

One rule deserves immediate reiteration, and that is in regards to music rights.  We encourage all our filmmakers to include original compositions in your film to heighten emotion, build suspense, or highlight comedic moments. And while it’s okay to use pre-recorded music you MUST possess the rights to EVERYTHING that appears in your film, and this includes the music. We do not want to see films featuring Jimmy Hendrix or Nirvana music unless you can back it up with a waiver from the estates of Mr. Hendrix or Mr. Cobain stating you are allowed to use them.  By all means, put up posts seeking composers or bands (there are a TON of them in our community who would be happy to comply), get their consent on a waiver, and place their music in your films. You have time, do this right, and do it NOW!

Although we will not be collecting every individual waiver from you, if we get the sense that you may not have the rights to something, we may ask you to prove us wrong.  And the Certification Form that you will hand us at the Drop Event states that you possess the rights to everything in your film.

It is your responsibility as a filmmaker to always have release forms from all your musicians, actors, crew, etc. (And this is for all your future productions, not only the film you will be making for Project Twenty1.)  You don’t want to have your entire production shut down because of a simple misunderstanding with no legal documentation to protect you.

WELCOME TO PROJECT TWENTY1!

All of you are about to embark on something completely original, and will have the honor of saying you were one of the very first Twenty1.  Thank you for your participating, and again, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us.

We’ll see you (or be in touch) November 11th, the night of The Launch!  Until then, gather your cast and crew, get your locations and music lined up, and prepare your schedule as best you can.

Best of luck to everybody!

Sincerely,

The Project Twenty1 Producers,

Stephanie Yuhas
Quang Ly
Matt Conant