Stoking the fire

Campfire news: changing how we add short films

NEWS

There’s a change to how we’re adding new films to the Campfire collection.

The number of films arriving on our doorstep have increased significantly over the past six months. So instead of continuously adding films week by week, we’ve now moved to a quarterly intake, roughly coinciding with the four terms of an Australian school calendar year.

Why?

This gives us the chance to carefully prioritise films, based on the feedback we get from teachers every week. Ultimately, we want films in the collection that are exactly the kinds of films teachers are looking for. 

How do we know what teachers want?

It’s a big question, and one that we’re learning about all the time as we speak to teachers, educators — and yes students — everywhere. If you’re looking for some starter ideas, there’s a list at the bottom of this post to get you going. There’s also our teacher blog which is always focused on addressing the interests and needs of teachers who want to engage their students though short film.

REMINDERS

How do I submit my film?

Easy. Sign in as a filmmaker and submit. It may take 10mins to read through our terms and conditions, but you can get the gist of how it works with our one page “plain English” guide. Also, it’s handy to have your film ready online somewhere — NOT on another hosting service like YouTube or Vimeo, but stored as a file, using a service like DropBox. If you have any other questions about submitting your film, jump onto our FAQs (where you can also add your question) or just get in touch directly. Remember the benefits of having your film at Campfire…

• real impact: your film challenging and engaging students around the world
• value-add: every film that joins us gets notes written for it which help teachers tie it in to their lessons
• award potential: every film has the chance of cinema screening at our yearly awards in May
• money: yep, we pay royalties, based on usage by teachers (patience required — again, see terms & conditions for details)

HOTLIST

The basic rule is: if you have a short film of any genre under 11mins that engages emotionally, intellectually and spiritually, then we can usually find a match for it in the school curriculum somewhere. The following is a list of areas that teachers have been asking for. Remember that our (Australian) member schools cover three sectors: Government, Catholic, Independent which have different needs and priorities. The top three are high-priority areas across ALL sectors, the rest are in no particular order and vary from sector to sector.

• sustainability / environmental issues
• Aboriginal & Torres Straight Islander perspectives, stories and insights
• Asian perspectives, stories and insights (especially as it relates to an Australian audience)
• bullying, friends, relationship issues
• body image
• inspiring / uplifting human stories
• philosophy and why it matters
• Buddhism / Hinduism - insights and stories
• Christian stories and stories with Biblical themes
• heros of faith (various)
• Atheism, agnosticism
• science, the big picture
• history and why it matters
• maths and why it matters (spotting a theme here?!!)
• identity & belonging
• the nature of reality
• encountering conflict
• imaginative landscape
• quality short films for 11 and 12 year-olds

WRAP

Before you give your film away freely online, think about where you can really make a difference. Campfire is already making a difference in young lives with the creative talents of filmmakers…

…but you’ll need patience, knowing that we watch, prioritise and add value to every film that comes to us, also knowing that it’s not a ticket to instant cash.

Our next intake selection starts early September.