Video Screenings for Fun and Fame (page 3)

Electric Eye Cinema is a wonderful real-world example of a monthly public mini-festival. Entering its 3rd season, this standing room only event in the large main room at the Electric Earth Café in Madison, Wisconsin has an innovative approach. Admission is $5 to the not-for-profit event, but folks who bring a submission get in free, so the open slots usually fill up early. Once a month, from 8-9pm, the show screens anything and everything brought in by the audience. Like an open microphone poetry night, the quality of the submissions range from quite good to embarrassing, but the audience is always very supportive. After Open Reel Hour, the show has a brief intermission and then at 9ish (but usually later), the feature presentation rolls. The feature is typically a professional-quality piece from a serious independent producer who is also sometimes in attendance. The Electric Eye event also serves as a popular venue for screening the work of the passionate organizer, Prolefeed Studios: www.prolefeedstudios.com/events/electric_eye/eleceye.htm.

1) Videomaker maintains a list of local video clubs and user groups. To learn about user groups in your area go to the Club Vid section of Videomaker.com and click on "Search for User Groups by Region." For other sources, check local colleges and community colleges for communications courses that focus on video production. These groups are becoming increasingly common in high schools as well.

2) Put a classified in The Weekly Freebie, the community newspaper. It's amazing how many people read those ads.

3) Google. Try searching strings like "video clubs organizations user groups" and your home town. A little verbal ingenuity is sure to round up listings of fellow video mavens.

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