[email protected]
www.deadnorth.ca
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Let’s do this.
Welcome to the 2017 Dead North Film Festival!
If you’re reading this, then you are taking the famously tough yet utterly rewarding plunge into the Dead
North Film Festival and we commend you. For four years in a row, we’ve mesmerized the North with our
haunting sub-zero visions and this year promises to be the biggest one yet! Last year the bar was set
extremely high, with 25 films from across the NWT, Nunavut and Yukon. If you are one of our die hard
participants from the very start, we thank you massively for your support over the years. If you are new to
Dead North this year, we welcome you aboard and extend our sincere gratitude for helping us make this
year awesome for everyone.
This should be a great experience for all of us; one that is designed to not only leave you with a solid
production that you can then send out to the world to make you rich and famous, but also one that,
hopefully, leaves a taste in your mouth to get out there and make more flicks in the future. Over the past four
years, over 50 films have been made and played to sold-out audiences. Several have gone on to screen at
major festivals internationally (NY Horror Festival, Fantasia, ALF and Clermont-Ferrand, BFI). The national
genre film industry is watching us with great interest now, so it is not a pipe dream that your film could go on
to screen at a big festival after Dead North, even if it’s your first time.
Dead North will always be rooted in horror, but we know that the North is a strange, ethereal and magical
place, full of legend and myth, and so the festival also welcomes the genres of science fiction, fantasy and
thriller. Please push your creative boundaries this year. We live in an area of the world that is for the most
part completely foreign to the rest of the planet, and they want to see it! Let’s blow the industry’s collective
mind with our unique vision of the world.
We are excited at the prospect of seeing more than 30 films made this year which will see this festival go
from a 2-day event to 4 insane days of screenings, networking, mentorship and all round radness. Mark
February 23-26 off on your calendars right now because you need to be here for this, it will blow your mind.
Mentorship is one of our bigger goals this year too. We really want to do the best we can this year as a
festival to offer mentorship where we can. So this year, we plan to have a more in-depth scriptwriting
mentorship process for each team, online tutorials for audio and other aspects of production before you start
shooting and, fingers crossed, some final colouring and a 1-pass audio mix (on us!) for each film submitted
on time. We want to do our very best to help each one of you succeed at releasing the best possible film you
can.
Dead North is on its way to becoming an internationally recognized circumpolar genre filmMAKING festival,
a rogue film “bootcamp”, that delivers world class cinema. Quite possibly the only one of its kind in the entire
world.
So, without further ado, once more into the fray we go….
Meagan Wohlberg
Dead North, Festival Director
[email protected]
www.deadnorth.ca
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2017 DEAD NORTH FILMMAKING GUIDELINES
**IMPORTANT**​ ​Please read e
​ verything​ below very carefully.
It is only 7 pages/15 minutes of your time. P
​ lease take that time​. We are happy to answer
questions but it would be nice not to have answer those that are already very clearly
explained down below. Also, for those returning to the festival this year, there are new
rules so please read this document as if this is your first year!
Any and all questions can be answered by contacting Meagan: [email protected]
ELIGIBILITY:
- Open to anyone who resides anywhere in the world that is north of the 60th Parallel.
- You do not have to be a professional filmmaker by any means.
- No one is supposed to be paid to work on the films. This encourages collaboration based on merit, talent
and perseverance and discourages some rich person just going out and hiring a film crew to make them a
movie. You get the idea here; you can certainly pay for talent, it’s just not cool to pay someone else to make
a film for you cuz you got fat stacks (which I’m sure applies to none of us!)
- Films that promote a business/product in any way are ​not​ eligible.
REGISTRATION:
- Open now until ​November 30, 2016​. If you miss the deadline of November 30, you’re out.
- Fee is $100 per team/crew. ​Fee is non-refundable​. In case you are wondering, the money goes towards
the promotion of the festival, marketing, screening costs and supplies to make it happen. This year, more
mentorship opportunities for everyone are planned and that is partly where your hard earned cash will go!
- Payable through email bank transfer ​only​. Send $ to: [email protected]
- We don’t want team members sending us $20 each, so get one person on your team to collect all of the
cash and then send the whole amount at once, pretty please.
​ [email protected]​ if you wish to register with the subject heading: ​Dead
m
North 2017 Registration​. P
​ lease include the name and email of the producer (basically the person in
- ​Please contact​
the crew who is willing to take charge throughout the entire project).
*Important*
You/your team will NOT be considered registered until the payment has
been made on or before November 30, 2016.
[email protected]
www.deadnorth.ca
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LENGTH OF FILM:
- 10 minutes maximum. ​This is a hard and fast rule​. Edit your films to be tight and under 10 minutes all in,
credits included. ​TIP: Try making a 1 minute film this year! No one ever said that your film has to be
exactly 10 minutes long...it could be 30 seconds….and ten times more effective!
ACCEPTABLE GENRES: HORROR / FANTASY / SCI-FI / THRILLER
The North is a strange, mysterious and mystical place full of legends and strange tales, so use all of that to
your advantage. Films without these genres as their overriding narrative might not be accepted into the
festival. ​TIP: ​Horror is awesome, it is the backbone of Dead North but feel free to branch out this year!
PROCESS:
Registered teams will be given approximately ​9 weeks to create the best possible film they can from start to
finish. Registration is open until November 30 BUT you can register right now and start writing your script to
submit it early. How you organize your production is all up to you. You can shoot and edit it in one day if you
want or you can take the full 6-9 weeks to finesse it. It’s all up to you, but the festival is attempting to make it
possible for filmmakers to create the best film they can.
Final films are due on: January 31, 2017
WRITING:
Registered teams will be given the writing guidelines ​as soon as they register/pay their registration fee.
Teams will be given two Northern elements that they are ​required to include in their scripts. These will be
created secretly by our festival director and will remain a secret until that day. Each team will have the same
two Northern elements assigned to them. ​They will then have until December 31, 2016 to write the
script and submit them for approval. ​The approval process is there simply to encourage and respect the
writing process, to allow judges to vote on the best screenplay, and to ensure that the two Northern
elements are included. This year though, a more dedicated script mentorship process will happen where
each team will receive a more one-on-one mentorship process to help them finesse their scripts.
- Approval of scripts by Dead North is required in order to move into production and to submit a film to the
screening. ​No submitted script = no film submission.
- All final scripts are due on DECEMBER 31, 2016 but you can submit earlier to get a head start.
- Dead North will take 2-3 days after a script is submitted to respond and greenlight it into production.
PRODUCTION:
As soon as teams have the green-light on their scripts, they can move into production. The sooner you get
us your scripts prior to that date, the more time you have to shoot and edit. Essentially teams have one
month to organize, shoot and edit their films. It is up to you how you spend that time. Again, the overall goal
here is to create original, well written and well produced content more than it is about competing under
crazy, reduced timelines. That said, one month is not a lot of time to shoot a short film, so be efficient,
organized and do good work. Last year the bar was set very high. ​TIP: Pre-Production is the key to
success! Think about everything upfront, plan for everything. Plan for harsh weather, plan for gear not
working in the cold, plan for actors getting cold. Be over-prepared, you’ll thank yourself!
[email protected]
www.deadnorth.ca
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POST-PRODUCTION
Don’t just plan for enough time to slap it together on a timeline. Think about sound design, foley, colouring,
scoring, effects and build the time needed in your production schedule to allow for good work to be done in
all areas. Dead North is hoping to find a way to give each submitted film a free basic colouring and audio
mix pass this year.
ADDITIONAL COMPONENTS
We are not trying to add work to your plate with these two elements. We are trying to set you up to win and
be able to submit your film to any film festival as soon as Dead North 2017 is over. Every film festival will ask
for at least a trailer, a poster and obviously a film. Once the insanity of Dead North 2017 is over, you’ll wake
up on March 1 and realize you suddenly have everything you need to submit your film around the world!
There are Zombear trophies for each of these components...so it’s very worth your time!
TRAILERS
Trailers are a required component. We want to build buzz for your films and also, it doesn’t hurt to have a
trailer cut for other festival submissions after Dead North, so you’ll thank us for making this a requirement.
Trailers must be 60 seconds or less.
POSTERS
Posters are a required component. They are the thing that people see first and will attract people to come
watch your film. They are just as important as a trailers. So be creative, be bold. It’s your job to get butts in
the seats to see YOUR film!
FINAL SUBMISSION:
- All final ​film and trailer ​submissions are due by ​11:59 p.m. TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2017.
- All submissions must be uploaded online. The file exporting formats and precise uploading details will be
provided to you during the first week of production.
- Internet is slow in the North, we all know that so you are highly encouraged to start uploading a day or two
before the submission.
- Late submissions and uploads will still screen as "notable submissions" but ​will not be eligible for jury
selection.
JUDGING:
- All films will be judged based on the exact same criteria by a selection of industry professionals and
Northern filmmakers.
- Films are being judged in all categories (writing to post-production) and judges are looking for bold, original
and visionary filmmaking.
- The judges will be announced in January.
SCREENING and EVENTS:
This year, we are going even bigger! Dead North will be a full four-day festival​, once again at
Yellowknife’s Capitol Theatre.
Screening location: Yellowknife Capitol Theatre
Screening Date: February 23-26, 2017
[email protected]
www.deadnorth.ca
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FILM CONTENT and RELEASES
- Censorship is not our thing at all, but some things get the boot for obvious legal reasons. No pornography,
libel, copyright infringement, or hate speech. There are lots of great ways to terrorize, wow and challenge an
audience’s sensibilities while remaining a decent human being.
- All actors in your films must give written legal consent to appear on camera. If minors are appearing, they
must have the written consent of a legal guardian and your production must strictly follow child actor
practices.
- All location, actor and content releases are the ​full responsibility of the filmmaker/production team. Dead
North, its organizers, board members, sponsors and affiliates are not responsible in any way for any issues
that arise from a crew’s failure to get releases of any kind.
STOCK FOOTAGE:
- Generally this is frowned upon unless its is deemed absolutely necessary for the story. The judges will be
looking for creativity and originality above all, so the use of stock footage has the potential to hurt your
chances of winning. It is not forbidden, but it is not overly encouraged, and all stock footage releases are the
full responsibility of the filmmaker/crew.
GEAR/EQUIPMENT:
Gear is the responsibility of each crew to obtain. Organizations like Western Arctic Moving Pictures in
Yellowknife (​wamp.ca​), the NFVIA in the Yukon (​nfvia.com​) and Ajjiit in Nunavut
(​http://www.ajjiit.ca/i18n/english/contact.html​) are excellent resources for e​verything you might need. Also,
keep in mind that iphones shoot HD, some even 4K now and iMovie is a solid editing program. Expensive
gear or the latest gear doesn’t make a good film. A good idea, hard work and perseverance does.
FILM OWNERSHIP:
- All films are recognized by Dead North/Artless Collective as fully owned by those submitting them.
- While Dead North/Artless Collective does not own any of the content, we reserve the right to use
clips/trailers/portions of each film to generally promote the festival and the Dead North website.
- Also, please let us know if you are willing to allow Dead North to represent your film at film festivals outside
around the world. We are connected to various organizations and producers and will do what we can to help
get the word out there on your behalf. Contact us about this after the festival is over:
[email protected]
MAKE A FILM FESTIVAL SUBMISSION PLAN FOR 2017!!!!!
This year, we want to really encourage EVERYONE to have a plan to submit their films to festivals around
the world as soon as Dead North is over. There are hundreds of free festivals to submit to and hundreds
more that cost $10-$20 each. Dead North/Artless Collective is happy to give you advice on how to go about
this, but in the meantime, sign up to Film Freeway: ​https://filmfreeway.com/
Look through the festivals that are starting after February 2017 and make a list of 20. You literally could be
walking the red carpet in France or Tokyo or London six months from now...It’s happened to several Dead
North film directors to date.
[email protected]
www.deadnorth.ca
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VOTING:
- Like any film festival, the prizes are the trophies (our infamous ‘Zombears’!) and the glorious bragging
rights that go with them. This festival is a labour of love for all of us, not a money making thing.
- These awards will be decided by our panel of judges with our festival director stepping in should there be a
tie in any area.
VOTING CATEGORIES:
1. Best Picture
2. Best Screenplay
3. Best Editing
4. Best Director
5. Best Cinematography
6. Best Actress
7. Best Actor
8. Best Sound
9. Best Death
10. Best Practical FX
11. Best Original Music
12. Best VFX
13. Best Trailer
14. Best Poster
15. Best Shot (northern element)
16. Best Line of Dialogue (northern element)
17. Crowd Favourite
DEAD NORTH SCHEDULE SUMMARY
November 30:​ Registration and payment deadline.
December 31:​ Script submission deadline.
January 31:​ Final films and trailers fully uploaded by 11:59 p.m.
February 23-26:​ DEAD NORTH FILM FESTIVAL
If you are looking for inspiration or are undecided about all of this madness, check out the submissions from
past years of the festival. ​https://vimeo.com/deadnorth/collections
There is some very big talent brewing here and once again, we love each and every one of you who dare to
take part in a filmmaking challenge that encourages you to brave the most brutal part of winter with two
cinematic middle fingers in the air. The world is our stage, so let’s freeze their faces off with our talent.
Dead North Film Festival
[email protected]
www.deadnorth.ca
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