#yegfilm’s First (micro) Grant

#yegfilm’s First (Micro) Grant

A couple days ago #yegfilm won its first grant—a microgrant from the Edmonton Arts Council—to partially pay for shooting a short film.

What grant?

The Edmonton Arts Council Micro-grant. It’s a continous grant, unlike most which only happen once or twice per year, and it wil give out a maximum of $1000. There are a few qualifications, like having lived in Edmonton for at least a year, so make sure to read the documentation if you are considering applying.

Who was involved in the grant?

The three main people in the grant were myself as producer, Adam Bentley as writer/director, and Chase Gardiner as Director of Photography.

Other key contributors were Geeta Sehgal, a wonderful editor who cleaned up the application for us, and Dylan Pearce and Larry Kelly who contributed letters of support.

What are we going to do with the money?

The money is going towards the production of a short film called TEENAGE DANCE which shows the obstacles young people face with respect to gender identity.

It’s important to note that the grant is only about 20% of the total cost of the project, with the other 80% coming from in-kind contributions in terms of volunteer time and in some cases equipment, so not cash but something very valuable—time.

This is not any different than any other extremely low-budget film—most of the money to make the film actually comes from people’s volunteered time, but I think it’s important to put a dollar value on that contribution.

How does this help other #yegfilm-ites and Edmonton Filmmakers?

While I don’t have a lot of experience writing grant proposals, I am dedicated to making sure that I communicate what I and other people involved in #yegfilm learn, and in fact help other filmmakers be successful making films, if I can. There will be future in-depth posts on this grant process, as well as others.

So if you are writing an application and want some help, please put it into a Google doc and share it with curtis.c.alexander@gmail.com and I will do my best to give you some input and suggestions, and, just like notes on a film script, you can take them…or not. :)

Thanks to the Edmonton Arts Council

I want to take a second to thank the Edmonton Arts Council for the micro-grant program, and also for putting their application process online so that I don’t have to fill out paper forms and mail them in. I was happily surprised to find out that the application could be done all online.

Thanks,
Curtis.

Posted by: yegfilm on Thu, Oct 25, 2012