ReelConnect.com Blog

Lots of news and lots of updates here at Reel Connect. We’ve been working hard to become the place for independent filmmakers to get their work seen. Some of our recent additions to the site include an improved film management system which will allows Reel Connect members to view more information about their film and learn about ways they can promote it.

We’re also pleased to announce the release of a new Facebook application which allows you to see a list of films on Reel Connect and recommend films you like to your friends—without leaving Facebook. Click here to add our application to your Facebook account.

We’d like to thank everyone who is helping Reel Connect become a success. We were recently featured on KillerStartups.com and various other websites as well.  You can find two examples of the reviews we’ve receiver here and here.

As part of our effort to help filmmakers get the word out about their films, we have started working with BloggerNews.net and will be posting reviews of films on Reel Connect on a regular basis. You can read our reviews that are already up for “Rain” and “Goobees”.

Congratulations to our most recent Featured Filmmaker, David Skousen. He is an extremely talented filmmaker and has a passion for the business.In the near future, we will be showing more information about our Featured Filmmakers, including interviews.  In the meantime make sure you check our David’s films: “Rain” and “Repressed Melodies.”

That’s it for now. We’ll make sure to keep you updated as more and more exciting things develop for ReelConnect.

We’ve just released a big update on the site.  You can now find all of the independent films in the Films tab. This tab is divided into categories where films are listed.by most views. We have also added a “People” and revamped the categories that people can register as. Right now we have film festivals in the “Group” tab but really they can be any group. If you’re part of a group or guild and would like to have a page that features your work please e-mail me at matt@reelconnect.com. We’ll have group registration automated in the future

The past couple of years there has been some talk about Sundance how it’s gone more “mainstream”. I thought I’d weigh in a little bit about that this week. Living just 20 minutes away from where it’s held, I’ve seen it grow and thrive through the years. There will always be a need for Sundance but the growth that it’s seen in the past 5 years has made it almost another creature entirely. Filmmakers that are starting out without much funding don’t really have a place there anymore. In order to impress the critics more and more money is pumped into independent films so they can fetch a higher pricetag. In the meantime, other film festivals, like Slamdance, will take the place as the true struggling, independent filmmaker’s festival as they grow.

More updates are coming in the next weeks. We should have more tools later to make the film network part of the site function a little better. We hope to be able to have the best parts of a social networkings site as well as the best parts of a professional networking site.

My favorite uploads this week has to be the terrific animated short “Fun Factory” as well as the music-based documentary “Matt Lewis Fireworks”. New featured filmmaker to come soon.

Nearly two weeks have gone by and some exciting things have happened.  We’ve far exceeded what we thought we would be able to accomplish in the first few weeks and are getting the new server up in a few days.  Everything will be faster then, especially the automated upload process.  We’ll soon be able to get more independent films to you much, much faster.

We just had a great opportunity to sponsor the LDS Film Festival in Provo, Utah and are  looking forward to be showing some of the films that were featured there.  Sundance is also upon us and we’ll be having a presence there.  We’ll also soon be featuring the works of the Foursite Film Festival located in Northern Utah.  We’ll be featuring a number of the previous four years worth of entrants to show you what they have to offer.

In the meantime, we’ve got some really great updates coming up in the next few days.  We’ll be streamlining the submission process and are working on making everyone’s profile available outside of the films they’ve worked on.  We’ll also have a much more interactive navigation bar that will help everyone know everything that is available on the site.  The film network section is also getting a much needed boost as we will be adding more tools.

We also have some incredible films on the way.  We have the our first animation and documentary films going up this week and we also have our first music videos going up that we’ve placed in the “Other” category.  Keep the submissions coming and remember, we’re still looking for our first “Action” and “Sci-Fi” film.  We accept both feature and short films.

Also we’ve had our first blog entry from “the wild”.  Looks like someone over at the Mind of MJ blog has seen “I’m Not Gay” by writer/director Spencer King and written about their experience with such situations.  Both the move and the blog are cool so check them both out.

Though I haven’t written a post in quite a while things couldn’t be moving along better. The quote above is from Alan Sheppard before they ignited the rocket that would send him to space. I feel that we’re at about that point as we are getting closer and closer to a public beta version of the site.

Things have changed quite a bit since we’ve started the ball rolling on Reel Connect. At first this started out as a resource for filmmakers to put up their videos and not much more. Now the whole world of online film has changed and we’re at the best possible place to fill a variety of filmmaker needs. Until now there hasn’t been much of a resource for filmmakers to connect with each other for advice or collaboration on projects. There are quite a few wonderful forums for people to talk, such as the incredible CreativeCOW.net. There are also sites like the ever-expanding WithoutABox.com that will help you get your film to a festival. There is no place, however, that puts a face to a film or that allows filmmakers to interact with each other on more than just an advice level. That’s the area of ReelConnect.com that we have been expanding the most. When live, we will be the premiere social/professional film network on the internet. I’ve searched for film networks and have had little to no luck finding anything of use. We think that with our site will be unique over all sites currently live and will offer filmmakers a venue to display their works of art proudly and without fear of being lost among the viral videos and webcams found on other sites.

It is with these goals in mind that we are announcing our public beta launch on Monday January 7, 2008 and a call for entries for short films from any filmmaker that want to get in on the ground floor. The version of the site will allow basic registration along with around a dozen short films. You will be able to watch these movies and discover the filmmakers that worked on them. We will be able to accept short films manually during this phase of the site, but soon we will have the process be automated. In the meantime send all inquiries or request for submissions to submissions@reelconnect.com. We will contact you shortly and let you know how to deliver your film to us and what other information is needed.

More information will be posted later. Happy filmmaking and see you January 7th.

Matt

Well it’s about time that we told you what this site is all about. A while ago, I was teaching a class about online marketing and during one particular class many of the students were complaining about how there was no place where they could post their short films where they could show their films to other professionals.  They felt that most of the popular sites were too commercial while most of the “short film” sites were too selective and didn’t really allow filmmakers to tell too much about themselves or other work they’ve done. Short of making their own website, there weren’t any options for these students. This conversation alone is responsible for the idea for ReelConnect.com.

There are 2 fundamental goals of ReelConnect.com: 1) To create a place for people to post and watch quality short films, and 2) To create a resource for potential filmmakers to learn more about filmmaking and to make connections with other filmmakers.

As this site launches we will have dozens of short films available for anyone to watch in a professional and banner-free environment. Everyone that comes to the site can have a free basic membership that will allow them to make one “connection.” “Connections” are how filmmakers attach themselves to films that they’ve worked on; whether they personally upload the film or just attach themselves to a film that’s already been posted doesn’t matter. In addition to one “connection”, the free membership also comes with a basic user page where the user can upload a short demo reel and post basic information.

However, the more advanced “Filmmaker” account is designed specifically for the aspiring director, producer, etc. When you sign up for the more advanced filmmaker package you can have as many “connections” as you want to as many films as you’ve been a part of. In addition to the unlimited connections, you can upload one short film per month. “Filmmakers” will also have a more advanced account page, with detailed film and experience history and also allow them to have a production search, in a future phase, where filmmakers will be able to search for other filmmakers meeting certain film roles, locations, equipment owned, experience, etc. This tool will help more and more as well as better and better films to be made which can then be posted on ReelConnect.com.

Each film will have its own description page and have a section where people that have made “connections” to the film are featured. This will allow many people to attach to a single film so that their role, as editor or actor for example, is highlighted, not just the director or producer. In addition to this, our future viewing tool will allow people to explore the other films produced by people “connected” to the film in a single cohesive viewing experience.

As the site grows, we’ll have more options available. The viewing tool will become more complex. We’ll have contests for filmmakers and also allow more showcasing opportunities for filmmakers. We’d also love to hear more ideas from you and look forward to interacting with all of the film-lovers that come to our site. In the meantime keep making short films and keep checking back with us!

My name is Matthew Wood and ReelConnect.com is the culmination of the past 8 years of my life. Over those years I have tried to learn every aspect of film and multimedia that opportunity would allow. Currently, I live in Provo, Utah and I’m just now finishing up my undergraduate work at BYU.

I started my career working on many short films in the Utah Valley (some good, some not so good) and was able to make a lot of friends in both the Brigham Young University and Utah Valley State College film and multimedia departments. Those connections led to a job at Saffire Games in 1999 where I worked on a Playstation 2 game called Barbarian. I was also introduced to post-production effects and 3D animation and realized there was a whole technological backbone to filmmaking I need to be a part of.

After a while I became the Assistant to the Creative Director for a company called Glyphx Games and learned post-production techniques from one of the best creative geniuses Utah has ever produced, Christopher Salmon. While there I worked on the game Advent Rising, and was able to work with the best artists and 3D animators I have ever seen. Though Advent Rising was a good game, due to politics we never got the sequel and I found myself doing more and more freelance work.

It wasn’t long before I was offered the chance to teach several classes at Utah Valley State College. As a teacher in the multimedia department for Utah Valley State College, I was able to learn from other professors all of the different disciplines that I need to know to make ReelConnect.com an invaluable resource for the film community. I was also able to work with some of the brightest up and coming directors and filmmakers there are in Utah Valley. You will see many of their short films on this site and I consider it a privilege to have taught them.

This summer I began work as the project manager for Square Compass, a web 2.0 application and website development company. Here I am able to work with the technologies that will help to make ReelConnect great.

Since then I began producing my first HD short film. Scraping every favor I’ve ever had from the barrel, my crew has been able to make a great 20-minute comedy called My Homeless Guy. We’re excited about it, and for sure it will be one of the first movies you can watch when we launch.

Hello. I’m Kenny, lead developer here at ReelConnect.com. I’m excited to be part of the amazing stuff we are creating for this web site. I believe we have a great idea and the knowledge to make it a reality. I think the result will be a great website for both film makers and film lovers world-wide.

Let me tell you a bit about myself. I live in Utah and am studying Computer Science. I started making websites in the late 90’s and have more than 5 years of industry experience. I have worked on everything from blogs and static web pages to full web applications with audio and video integration. Some examples of my work include the BYU Independent Study web site, UtahsTrails.com, Considered Sales CRM and ListPipe.com. I am currently developing web 2.0 applications for Square Compass, a web development company in Orem, Utah.

My job, education and experience has kept me on the cutting edge of the web. I can assure you that Reel Connect will be a top-notch web site that is easy and fun to use and professionally designed and developed. Any suggestions, comments or questions about the web site are more than welcome and will help us to build a great site.

I hope you are as excited as we are about the site and come back soon to keep up-to-date on the latest that is happening.

Thanks for your time,

Kenny Foisy
Lead Developer

Welcome to something very exciting for anyone who’s made a movie, dreamt about making a movie, or even just seen a movie. If you’re reading this and it’s not in the archives then you’ve probably gotten here by word of mouth. Let me just welcome you and tell you that you’re getting in on the ground floor of something that could change the way we watch movies on the internet.

Reel Connect is a website for filmmakers by filmmakers. Too many of the mainstream places for directors and producers to put their independent films online are either excessively selective or allow anyone to post any video of any kind so that movie — a movie that several people have probably put their heart and soul into — gets lost among the “webcams” and “phone camera” videos that are infesting the internet. That’s where we come in. At Reel Connect you can place your short film, your graduate project, even your demo reel and show it in a place that you will be proud to direct people to. If you want more options than just placing one film, we’ll have several for you and want to hear from you , the future star directors and producers about what you want. We personally will answer most e-mails we get and take them into careful consideration for the future phases.

Our vision is for ReelConnect.com to become a place where anybody in the film industry will be proud to show off their work; from directors and producers to 3D animators and special effects artists to hair and makeup artists. We want anybody that has something to contribute to be able to and provide a website where these artists can collaborate together to make something great. We’re excited about what’s ahead. I personally have worked on dozens of products from video games to websites to short films and none of them have had the steam and the power going into the beginning stages that this site has. We’ll make sure to introduce ourselves to you later, but just know how passionate we are about this site. In the meantime keep checking back at least once a week to see what we’ll have to offer and when we’ll be launching.

Matthew Wood
Owner