DEADLINE IS MIDNIGHT (PAC), MARCH 30TH.

GUIDELINES, FAQ’s and BEST PRACTICES
TO BE USED/READ BEFORE APPLYING TO CHICKEN & EGG PICTURES

Abbreviations:
CE = Chicken & Egg Pictures
LOI = Letter of Inquiry

THREE STEPS YOU SHOULD TAKE BEFORE APPLYING TO C&E PICTURES:

STEP #1: Take your time. Make this process work for your project.

Review the “Letter of Inquiry” (LOI) thoroughly: evaluate the time factor; how much of your material can be easily consolidated into our form/questions and what is relatively new and will require more time? Write down anything that is confusing and note the due date – we have to be strict about the deadline. Please note that you are unable to save and return to your application. Please prepare in another format and then copy and paste.

If you are filling this out at the last minute know that there are some questions that might make you frustrated because they are best answered after having a consultation with our partner organizations in community engagement and sustainability/alternative energy. These partners are Working Films (community & audience engagement) and Brighter Planet (eco-footprint/CO2 offsets). It takes time to go through their processes and for you to incorporate their insight/ideas/feedback and/or numbers into your own vision, proposal and budget.

We hope you can get started on this LOI way before the due date so that you can give yourself a grace period to write, ponder, consider what kind of material you send us (ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE APPLYING FOR DEVELOPMENT) and have time to re-read, spell-check and word count long before you hit send. Since this all takes work our BIG HOPE is that the thinking/writing process for this LOI is useful to you and your fundraising/project development work whether we are able to support you or not.

STEP #2: Please take a very thorough look at www.chickeneggpics.org,
BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE FILMS WE HAVE FUNDED THUS FAR, THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF GRANTS THAT WE PROVIDE AND OUR STATED INTERESTS/CATEGORIES.

Being a woman filmmaker is only half of what we are looking for:

  • Does your project fit well within CHICKEN & EGG PICTURES’ stated mission?
  • Are you traversing the story/issue, personal/universal divide?
  • Are you as committed to craft, experimenting with style, storytelling and tone as you are to justice?
  • Are you striving to go beyond the standard formulas to explore and offer your story in a unique way?
  • Are you thinking about intent, audience and how your film will be USED IN THE WORLD early on, concurrently, as you conceive of your story?
  • Are you interested in mentorship—both in receiving it and when appropriate, offering it?
  • Are you considering different ways to use the media/medium? If not, could you? SHORTS are the new tall and we, like many, are interested in how multiple platforms/social media can be used vs. just the long form (more expensive/time intensive feature)
  • Do you like the idea of being part of a community of women filmmakers that are primed to give back to the field, help the next one “up” and when possible, useful or necessary meet/work as a group?

We have recently launched a new dedicated fund, THE WHICH CAME FIRST ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FUND, that is just focused on environmental filmmaking. There is a box you can tick off on the LOI to alert us should you want to be considered for this fund.

Read through our blog – which we strive to update regularly with useful information, reports from the field and community building opportunities.

All of this content should offer you enough up-to-date information about Chicken & Egg Pictures, what we are looking for in our grantees and what we are striving to create as an organization, to inform your decision -- in how you apply, what you apply for, how you let us into your world and story and the materials you decide to include with your submission.

STEP #3: OUR PARTNERSHIPS SUPPORT & STRENGTHEN THE WORK OF OUR FILMMAKERS

Please go to the websites of our PARTNERS.
Check out what they do and what they/we mean by
Community Engagement & CO2 offsets – lightening our cine-footprint.
WORKING FILMS www.workingfilms.org
BRIGHTER PLANET www.brighterplanet.com

Before tackling the Community Engagement section in our LOI we suggest that you read through the Working Films website www.workingfilms.org. We have been collaborating with Working Films since we launched five years ago. To sign up for a free consultation. go to the section marked FILMMAKERS SERVICES. Make sure to mark the box that asks if you are applying to Chicken & Egg Pictures. Leave ample time apply, get a consult and have it. There is often a two-week wait and they can’t drop everything if you are working against the clock.

UPDATE! Working Films doesn't have any more slots open from now until the Open Call. We still recommend that you sign-up and update us after you have had your consultation. Please still take a look at their website for all the wonderful resources you will find to help you start to think about your audience engagement.

Chicken & Egg recently joined Brighter Planet, a website that helps individuals, non-profits and companies calculate and then offset their carbon footprint. It is easy to navigate, reasonable in price and is part of a nationwide movement to do your business and support cleaner energy all at once. At Chicken & Egg Pictures we are striving to offset our travel (land/air/ground), postage/courier and energy costs. We are trying to support our grantees to “green” up and offset their productions and are making this Open Call process as environmentally efficient as possible (with online applications, discouraging extra materials at the initial stage and paper cases requested for DVDs). As part of this effort we encourage you to calculate your carbon footprint, using their website and offset your omissions. Brighter Planet and incorporate your carbon footprint offset figure as a line item in your budget.

Useful guidelines

Supported Film Genres

  • Non-fiction feature, Non-fiction Short, Animation, Hybrid, Webisode, New Media/Multiple Platforms, other.

Genre:

  • Non-fiction (unless otherwise solicited) - both short and feature length, “webisodes”, animation, experimental, and multiplatform new-media hybrids.

Gender:

  • The director must be a woman; we also fund co-directing female/male partnerships.

501(c)3 Status & Geography:

  • We only fund filmmakers who have a 501(c)3 status or who have fiscal sponsorship with a U.S.-based 501(c)3 non-profits. (See FAQs below for more info.)
  • We are starting to support projects outside the U.S., but in light of our funding restrictions and capacity at this moment, these are by invitation only.

What we DON’T support:

  • Outreach and community engagement funds for projects we have not already provided funding to (production, post-production and completion funding).
  • Fiction, unless otherwise solicited.
  • Student projects.

Regranting:

  • If you are a current grantee of CE and wish to apply for more funding, there are specific questions for you on the LOI.

FAQs

How does CE find the work it supports?

Chicken and Egg acquires projects in three ways:

  1. Open Call.
  2. Active solicitation and outreach by CE co-founders, staff and advisors.
  3. Recommendations by other artists/filmmakers, arts professionals, arts institutions, foundations and festival programmers.

How many applications are actually funded per open call?

CE is only able to fund approximately 8-10% of submitted projects per open call.

How big are your grants?

CE grants range from $2,500 to $25,000 for non-Executive Produced projects. The average grant is around $10,000.

Do I need to have a fiscal sponsor to apply?

No, but you must have a fiscal sponsor to receive a grant from CE, and most other granting organizations. We urge you to start your 501(c)3 application process early in your fundraising.

Examples of 501(c)3 organizations include: Women Make Movies, Center for Independent Documentary, San Francisco Film Society, Kartemquin Films and others...

Can I apply for a particular grant (ie. I BELIEVE IN YOU vs. LIBERTY)?

No. There is ample room on the LOI form for us to identify the production phase of your project at the time of application.

Can I apply to be Executive Produced?

CE takes on executive producing roles on a case-by-case basis, out of existing relationships with current grantees.

Do supplementary materials have to be postmarked or received by the Deadline?

All materials for projects must be received by the deadline, March 30th.

Does my proposal have to be in English?

Yes.

Will the fund return my paper materials, DVDs or tapes?

Unfortunately CE is unable to return your materials.

When will I be notified if my project has been awarded a CE grant?

Filmmakers will be notified of a CE grant in June 2010. You WILL receive an email, either way. Please keep checking our blog around this time for up-to-date information and news.

If my project has been declined, will staff provide feedback?

Due to the limited capacity of CE staff and resources, we are generally unable to provide one-on-one feedback. However, because we know how important feedback is, are constantly re-assessing our capacity to be able to accommodate giving out more personal feedback.

What we can commit to is feedback via group workshops, which are also open to past and future CE applicants. These workshops will focus on what makes an effective CE submission—from proposal language to “trailer”-- utilizing examples of previously funded projects. On a first-come-first-serve basis filmmakers will have the opportunity to screen their work-in-progress excerpts and trailers and get on-the spot feedback. On a case-by-case basis we are open to giving feedback to applicants who are unable to attend a CE best-practices workshop because they live in remote regions of the USA and have little access to a filmmaking community. We are striving to be able to utilize the web in order to create one and/or carry out a best practices workshop via a webinar. Stay tuned to our blog for more on this in the future.

If I am a first time director and have not shot anything yet for the proposed project, but I have a great idea, a character and access, what should I do?

  • 1. YOU MUST submit SOMETHING for your proposed project. Even if it is a “sketch” with a small digital camera or “phone,” a collage of photographs, a storyboard. We need to see what you see. For example; we have been moved to support projects that needed development funding based on selects from interviews they shot themselves with a small digital camera and no crew. Be bold. Be creative.
  • 2. You must submit an example of "prior work." In the case of a first-time director, “prior work” = experience gained working on other people’s projects. We accept excerpts from films where you served as A.D, cinematographer, editor, sound recordist, producer, including: co-producer, consulting producer, line or coordinator or even as an outreach/audience engagement coordinator. Please be sure to describe your role in the creation of the completed work submitted.

If rejected can I reapply?

You can reapply if your project has evolved and developed since your last submission and that is clearly evident in both your proposal and work-in-progress.

LOI CHECKLIST

  1. Submit via our website an online Letter of Inquiry.
  2. Please submit a work sample (“trailer”/rough-cut/selected scenes and/or excerpts from your “prior work”) via one of two ways:
    1. Paste an URL link to your work sample in the appropriate field on the LOI. The video sharing website needs to be to the quality and size of Vimeo and Youtube. We encourage you to submit via this method. Consider that yousendit.com links run out-of-date before we have a chance to review them.
    2. If an internet link is not possible, mail 3 copies of each DVD (in paper cases) to our NYC office at 162 Fifth Avenue, Suite 901, New York, NY 10010.

    NOTE: Every DVD submitted should be labeled with the following:

    • Name of Proposed Project,
    • Director’s Name,
    • Date,
    • Type of Sample (trailer/rough-cut, selects, prior work etc),
    • and total running time (TRT).

    If you are sending us a completed “prior work”, be sure to identify a chapter or ten-minute scene and link to your proposed project.

    DVDs should be submitted in paper cases.

  3. Your overall budget if you are in development, pre-production or production. A post-budget is acceptable if you are applying for completion funds/Liberty Grant.
    You can attach this to your online "letter of inquiry." Try to include a line item which addresses your carbon offsets.

Please note: If you are submitting a trailer but have selects or are at a rough cut stage, consider submitting more materials and/or using the storytelling and work sample description areas to give us a sense of where you are and how your story will evolve into what you perpetuate in the synopsis.

DO NOT include other materials at this time, we will ask for these when necessary and usually over email.

We know that many applications are filled out at the last minute due to very understandable factors. We know this because we raise the majority of the grant money we give away by writing grants/and filling out LOI’s; we know this because as working filmmakers we write the same kind of proposals that you do…and often at the last minute. We know the pressure you are under and we, thankfully, have also come to know what it is like to write and produce when you have some time to think. It goes without saying the latter is preferable.

If you have any additional questions, contact Natalie Difford, Senior Program Officer, via email at natalie@chickeneggpics.org. Please include your project title name in the subject line of any email sent to CE.