I recently came across an ad on Chicago Craigslist soliciting shorts for distribution via a new website, and?more importantly?promising payment.
I decided to look into the company in question because I assumed that it must be local. I was wrong. Although Motion Matrix isn’t based here, it has a setup worth hearing about.
Their site, Motionflicks.com, features streamable short films, specialized content aimed at a base of monthly subscribers, filmmaking advice and more.
Founded by Bradley Wynn and Jay Tuli and launched early last summer, Motion Matrix offers short filmmakers exposure, revenue and services?from “script services” and production insurance to digital postproduction facilities and original music composition to help make producing high-quality but budget-conscious short films a little easier.
Motion Matrix also reps a select group of shorts, with an eye toward securing domestic and foreign offline distribution deals for them. They don’t promise to take every film accepted for exhibition on the website, “public” as it were, but they do promise the filmmakers that they’ll do their best. You couldn’t really ask for much more than that.
The key to Motion Matrix seems to be their focus on helping to create or rather assist in the continuing evolution of the new media market they’re doing business in.
“If you want people to adapt to the internet to view this type of content, the quality needs to be on par with more conventional means,” said Motion Matrix co-founder Tuli. “We spend a lot of time encoding, testing and retesting our films. We’d like to be a one-stop shop for filmmakers and film watchers.
“We’d like people to come to Motionflicks.com, watch our films, order them on DVD, learn about the film industry and spread the word.
“Similarly, filmmakers can get help with their latest film project and when that project is completed use Motion Matrix to distribute their film,” Tuli said.
Motion Matrix is open to film submissions of all genres, with a variety of subjects?from horror or documentary to stand-up comedy concert firms to just plain comedies. But. The films need to have running times of 15 minutes or less (two to 15 minutes for dramatic and 20 minutes or less for stand up and doc).
They recommend submitting first generation clones of original masters as QuickTime or avi files to make conversion easier on their technicians.
For applicable forms and more information on how to submit films to Motion Matrix, pay a visit to: www.motionflicks.com .
