4th Annual Digital Filmmaking Workshops announces spring dates

[Received this press release from our friends at the Digital Filmmaking Workshops in Manchester.]

4th Annual Digital Filmmaking Workshops announces spring dates for Producing, Marketing, and Screening Your Independent Film

Popular hands-on production seminar returns to Manchester, NH on the weekend of April 25-26, 2009.

MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Digital Filmmaking Workshops have announced that their popular Producing, Marketing, and Screening Your Independent Film Workshop will be held on the weekend of April 25-26, 2009. The workshops will run from 10:00-6:00 pm on both days and will be held inside the Manchester production studio of Back Lot Films, located at 105 Faltin Drive in Manchester, N.H. The lineup of guest speakers will be announced in the upcoming weeks.

The DFW was founded by Bill Millios of Back Lot Films & Marc Vadeboncoeur of Goodheart Media Services with a philosophy towards instructing students how they can achieve their goals with a ‘no-nonsense do-it-yourself’ approach. Their feature-length films include the regionally shot and distributed Old Man Dogs, Dangerous Crosswinds and the upcoming Death & Glory.

“An ongoing myth for independent filmmakers is that once they complete their first feature, it’ll be accepted into festivals, secure big-money distribution and the filmmaker’s career will be set from that point onward,” said Millios. “That's a fantasy world which occurs to a select few. Our workshops continue to address the reality of independent filmmaking to the student who loves filmmaking but isn’t sure how to proceed. We offer genuine solutions based on our experiences. If a student’s goal is simply filling up their film’s website with photos of their crew posing alongside Hollywood actors then this workshop clearly isn’t for them. However, if that same student would rather have their film’s website include a link to purchasing their DVD, as well as list of film-friendly theaters in the area who would like to screen their film, and then these workshops are perfect.”

Attendees will receive valuable insight into the creative, technical, and marketing strategies essential for filmmaking. Small class size, practical demonstrations, and a wide range of topics will give students the opportunity to expand their knowledge and put it to immediate use. Testimonials from past workshops have been posted on the www.digitalfilmmakingworkshops.com website.

In 2005 Dangerous Crosswinds screened in close to twenty locations in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont, including the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord, N.H., Lebanon Opera House in Lebanon, N.H. and the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Mass. Commentators praised the film as an outstanding example of independent film made outside traditional cinema circles. DVDTalk.com awarded the film a four-star rating, New Hampshire Magazine called Dangerous Crosswinds “provocative – a film which explores the light and dark sides of human nature,” John Clayton of the New Hampshire Union Leader wrote that “this is honest and brave filmmaking,” while Mike Sullivan in the Portsmouth Herald described Dangerous Crosswinds as being “independent filmmaking in its purest form.”

Registration for the two-day seminar is $497. Seats for this popular workshop fill up fast, so interested parties should register early. In addition, attendees will receive complimentary copies of the Digital Filmmaking Workshops Handbook, a DVD of Dangerous Crosswinds and the Discmakers Ultimate Guide to Releasing Your Film on DVD. For more information please call Marc Vadeboncoeur at Goodheart Media Services at 1-978-702-9503 or visit www.digitalfilmmakingworkshops.com.