Thank you for your interest in Milwaukee Spotlight. We are certainly interested in you, your students, and your students’ films. Our new website will go live soon, but until then—when you’ll be able to register as an educator and when you’ll become part of our new online community—we still want to hear from you!

If you came to this, our old website, to find out more about the Milwaukee Spotlight Student Film Festival, here’s what you need to know for now:

Who are we?
Milwaukee Spotlight is the first and only organization dedicated solely to helping Milwaukee’s youth express their visions and their voices through film and to showcase their accomplishments in an annual festival. Last year, the festival featured 40 films from 12 Wisconsin schools and also attracted submissions from students in California, Washington, Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, and New York—all eager to share in our mission. This year, with a dedicated team of students, teachers, community advocates, and festival partners, we are preparing an exciting fall festival. The Grand Prize winning film will automatically be screened at the 2008 Milwaukee International Film Festival, and other incredible prizes will be awarded to the winners of the other categories.

Are your students in high school, in Wisconsin?
The festival is designed specifically to showcase their talents and achievements as high school student filmmakers. To be eligible for awards, they must be 14–19 years old and currently enrolled in high school in Wisconsin.

Are your students in college? Not from Wisconsin?
Their films still deserve to be seen!

• Beyond Wisconsin category. Entries from outside Wisconsin will be eligible for the Beyond Wisconsin Award.
• Spotlight U category. We will also be accepting entries from filmmakers who have graduated from high school and are now developing their talents in college. We hope that our high school student participants will get a taste of what the film world is like beyond 12th grade. These films will be available for the Spotlight U Award.

Categories

• Narrative
• Experimental
• Documentary
• Animation
• Music Video
• Public Service Announcement or Commercial

Rules

• All films must be between 1 and 15 minutes
• All films must be submitted on DVD, and become the property of Milwaukee Spotlight
• All music and video images must be original. Students may request and receive permission to use other people’s music and other filmmakers’ video images, but this is often a lengthy (and costly) process.
  * Suggestions for students: (1) Make and record your own music; (2) Get someone you know to make and record their songs; (3) Use royalty-free music available online (sometimes free, sometimes at minimal cost)
  * All music should be credited in the end credits: (1) Name of songwriter; (2) Name of song; (3) Name of publisher or online source; (4) Copyright date

Submission Fees

• Students may submit as many films as they want, in any category(s)
• Checks may be made out to Bucketworks (and there will most likely be an option to pay online…soon!)
• Submission fee: $10 per entry (discounts will be listed soon for multiple entries!)

Until our new website goes live, teachers should please do the following things:

• Register online right away. Just press the big JOIN SPOTLIGHT button on the home page! You’ll immediately be on our mailing list and receive further information about supporting your students and attending the festival.
• Contact us directly. We want to hear from you and help you out in any way. Thank you so much for your patience!

Sincerely,

Dominic Inouye
Co-founder & Director
director@milwaukeespotlightfilms.org
414–339–9489
 

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