Tropfest goes TropWest!
More than 100 screen content creators attended TropWest on November 7 in Parramatta, hosted by the NSW Film and Television Office (FTO), Sony Tropfest and ICE (Information and Cultural Exchange).
Sony Tropfest Project Director, Morgwn Rimel, was impressed by the level of interest in Tropfest and Trop Jr from content creators from Western Sydney.
“The event was about broadening both our filmmaker and
audience base, and answering the questions people had about what to expect when entering shorts in both of these competitions,” Ms Rimel said.
Ms Rimel said she hopes to receive many submissions from Western Sydney by the January 10, 2008 deadline. She added, “Sony TropFest is a wonderful platform for production and exhibition of made-for-Trop shorts, and now Trop Jr is giving youth under 15 a chance to showcase their unique view of the world.”
ICE Director, Lena Nahlous, emphasised to TropWest attendees, the importance of using career-making events like Sony Tropfest to broaden their skills base and experience the phenomenon of huge national and growing international audiences watching their stories.
Ms Nahlous added ICE launched just a few months ago, the Switch
Academy – a fee-based training program for digital media for screens. “The academy is catering for the huge demand from Western Sydney residents who want affordable, local training. This is on top of the free programs and courses available through ICE throughout the year for people who might not usually have access to these resources.”
Wendy Nye, FTO Manager of the Industry and Audience Development grants program that supports Sony TropFest and ICE, reminded creators at TropWest to avoid pitfalls such as music copyright infringement in their submissions that could prevent successful distribution of their work to as many markets and territories as possible, whether or not their shorts were finalists/winners.
Visit the FTO site to see some pictures from TropWest
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