RØDE Microphones’ short film competition, My RØDE Reel is back for its 5th year. RØDE claims it is the world’s largest short film competition, and if that’s judged just based on the monetary value of the prizes it’s probably hard to debate – this year’s prize pool is now worth a massive $1,000,000 with over 30 prize categories.
This is a great opportunity for any filmmaker who is looking to kickstart (or bolster) their career with plenty of prizes up for grabs including cameras, lighting kits, support systems and other accessories. In recent years we have seen short films that may not have the most impressive equipment take out some of the big prizes, so don’t be afraid to enter just because you won’t be shooting in 8K on a RED Epic-W.
How do I Enter?
As with previous years, all you need to enter is to create a short film up to three minutes in length with an accompanying behind-the-scenes video which showcases a RØDE product being used in the creation of your short film. This includes anything from their on-camera microphones to the studio microphones and even their smartphone microphones.
To get started, you can download the free My RØDE Reel entry pack which includes a few pre-production templates like a storyboard and script and the title card to add to the beginning of your videos. Competition sponsor MZed has offered a free copy of Philip Bloom’s hour-long lesson on Visual Storytelling (valued at $79 USD) from his Cinematic Masterclass for everyone that downloads the entry pack, to help with your storytelling fundamentals if needed.
$1 MILLION IN PRIZES
This year sees the prize pool valued at $1,000,000 and include gear from Blackmagic Design, Zhiyun, Musicbed, MZed, Blastwave FX, FuzzMeasure, Movcam, Rhino, Miller, Astora, Angelbird, Freefly, CamCaddie, FilmConvert, Lowepro, Red Giant, Moment, Atomos, iOgrapher, Adobe, JOBY, Michael Wiese Productions, APHEX and SoundField. As with the previous years, there is also a voting component which decides who wins the People’s Choice Award.
This year the 6 MAJOR PRIZES return, including:
- Judges’ Film Award for the best short film, chosen by the 2018 panel of judges
- People’s Choice Award for the most popular short film
- Female Filmmaker Award for the best short film by a female filmmaker. This award was introduced in 2016 to encourage and celebrate women in the film industry
- Young Filmmaker Award for the best short film by an entrant under 18 years
The best behind-the-scenes film awards include:
- Educational BTS Award for the most informative behind-the-scenes
- Entertaining BTS Award for the most entertaining behind-the-scenes
The Pitch
This year also sees the introduction of “The Pitch“, the chance to win a year-long, all-expenses-paid job as a Video Content Producer at RØDE HQ in Sydney, Australia. Now there’s some specific T&Cs around visas but seeing that it’s based in Sydney, Australia, and entries are open to people worldwide then you’d expect this. To enter this category, creators need to send a 3-minute showreel or “Pitch” to explain why they should work at RØDE. Since you can submit multiple short films, you won’t be using up your entry and can still enter the other traditional prize categories with a short film.
All-new Judging Panel
This year’s judging panel consists of four incredible individuals involved in the film industry.
Grace Randolph is host and creator of Beyond The Trailer on YouTube, which currently has an incredible 500 million views and 700K subscribers.
Clara Chong is an Australian writer and director at Main Course Films. She has made documentaries, television and varied content, including Wild Squad Adventures (2017) and From the Outback to the World (2011).
Julia Swain is an acclaimed cinematographer, with a resume that boasts Women of Light (2018) and Goodnight, Gracie (2017)
Kirsty Whalley is an acclaimed music and score mixer/editor, with over 120 films to her credit, including this year’s Best Picture Oscar Winner The Shape of Water (2017) and Justice League (2017).
It’s great to see a company like RØDE (and its numerous partners) supporting filmmakers in this way. Of course there’s a marketing angle to it, but at the end of the day they’re spending a lot of time and money encouraging people to get out and shoot, and looking back on the last four years of winners there’s a lot of people that must be very glad that they did.
So looks like it’s time to get cracking. RØDE give you quite some time to get your film in – entries close July 31st, but keep in mind that’s Aussie time, which is ahead of the US and Europe.
Have you entered My RØDE Reel before? What do you think of it as an opportunity for filmmakers? Let us know in the comments section.
