NANLITE & NANLUX have announced their 2nd Project Spark competition, offering filmmakers a chance to turn their short film pitch into reality with mentorship and $20,000 USD of funding.
The theme this year is ‘Shining through’, and it is open to narrative or experimental submissions. Four finalists will receive a $15,000 USD production budget and $5,000 USD of equipment rental support.
Following on from last year’s successful Project Spark the competition returns with the continuing aim of supporting the next generation of filmmakers, not just with money, but also advice and assistance in origination, shooting and post-production.
Behind the scenes of last year’s successful project ‘Floodgate’
This year the theme is ‘Shining through’, which can be interpreted however the creators wish. Submissions based on this theme can be either narrative or experimental. In the Global section (outside China) there will be four pitches selected in total for funding: two narrative shorts and two experimental shorts.The contests in the Global section and Chinese section will run in parallel.
Selection for the project has several stages. The first stage is registration with a basic pitch outline. Once inspected by the Project Spark team, the submission progresses to the next stage where a proposal, full script, storyboard, budget and concept art must be submitted. From these submissions, 5 shortlists will be selected from each of the two categories of narrative shorts and experimental shorts. Each shortlisted entrant will then be interviewed online by the judges, who will select the two narrative and two experimental winners, who then have their chance to go on and make their funded project.Each entrant needs to submit the following via the Project Spark webpage:
(1) Completed registration form on the event page of the Nanlite website
(2) Exposition for the submission (up to 200 words in English)
(3) Story synopsis (up to 100 words in English)
(4) Script outline (between 300 and 2000 words in English)
(5) No less than 10 reference video clips (see spec below)
(6) Examples of previous work.
After an entry has been inspected by the Project Spark team, the following must then be submitted for consideration:
(1) Complete Script
(2) Storyboard
(3) Project Proposal
(4) Production Budget Sheet
(5) Concept Poster
- The work should be an original project that has not been previously submitted, or derived from submissions for other events.
- Filming on any submission should not have commenced, nor should it have received any prior investment or lighting support.
- The solicited projects can be either narrative shorts or experimental shorts, with an expected duration of 3-20 minutes.·
- There are no restrictions on age, country or region. This contest is open to creators all over the world
The full rules and requirements for entry can be read here.
You can learn more and enter Project Spark via the competition webpage.
