Hey everyone, an exciting opportunity for all the budding film-makers in Pakistan! Spread the word around.

FILM COMPETITION CHALLENGE

The prestigious Commonwealth Vision Awards, jointly organised by the Royal Commonwealth Society and the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association, encourages the development of short film production.

 Important changes have been made to the competition.  Broadcasters and independent filmmakers from across the five regions of the Commonwealth are invited to submit a written proposal for a short creative film, between 3 – 4 minutes in length, on the theme for 2008,

‘Global challenges and the new generation’

At the first of a two stage process, film-makers aged up to 35 years old are encouraged to provide a written scenario that demonstrates originality and creativity, is relevant to the theme and overall will impact on audiences world-wide.

Up to fifteen of these entries will be short-listed by a selection panel and awarded £1,000 each to assist in the production of the finished film.

At the second stage, judging of the short-listed films will take place in January 2009 and the awards announced and presented in March.  The winning film-makers will be invited to attend the Awards Ceremony in London, where the winner will receive £2,500 and a trophy and other awards will be made.   The following day, a master class with a leading film director and workshop is planned.

The winning entries will, from January 2009, be broadcast internationally, in both Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth regions, particularly on and around Commonwealth Day (Monday 9 March 2009).

Further information on the competition, an application form and brochure may be received by sending an email to VisionAwards@rcsint.org, or by fax +44 (0) 20 7930 9705 or by writing to: Ms Alice Kawoya, Project Manager, The Commonwealth Vision Awards, c/o The Royal Commonwealth Society, 25 Northumberland Avenue, London WC2N 5AP, United Kingdom.  Applications may also be made online at www.rcsint.org/vision

The closing date for initial applications is: Monday 20 October 2008

Short-listed entries from 2001 – 2007 may be viewed on www.rcsint.org/vision

The initiative is supported by Warburg Pincus, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Commonwealth Foundation, the British Council, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the BBC World Service.  

 Alice Kawoya

Project Manager

Tel: +44 (0)20 7766 9206

Fax: +44 (0)20 7930 9705
www.rcsint.org

“Channels of Change” is a project and an initative to enable the citizens to be at the heart of the media in Pakistan! It’s working with the journalists, the film-makers, the reporters, the news-producers, FM radios and the TV channels to show them how they can bring that essential human element to their work. In the end – it’s all about the ordinary citizen on the street and his or her perception of issues at hand that really matters. The project has initially brought renowned and experienced media experts to Pakistan to showcase media formats and techniques that have emerged in the Western markets over the recent years.

This project will continue for one year, culminating in March 2009. At this point, the British High Commission has already held a Conference Towards a Citizens’ Media for producers and programme makers in Karachi on 14 July 2008;and three New Media Web2.0 Bootcamps for civil society and journalists in both Karachi and Islamabad on 15/17/19 July 2008. All these events have been very rewarding and intenive sessions with about 200 people in Pakistan. They have been shown how they can produce content that is about ordinary citizens and their issues – so it can actually stir debate and bring about social change.

In the coming months, we will work with various TV channels and FM radios so they can eventually produce citizen-based programming using media formats that have not been experimented in Pakistan before.

We hope that this project will eventually become a channel of change for the traditional and new media in Pakistan, so it can connect to the people directly and talk about their issues and their concerns.

We are finally at the last of the three Web2.0 bootcamps in Islamabad today! Its going well and the participants have come up with some really great ideas such as setting up blogs and sites on child rights in Pakistan, pictures of islamabad in all seasons, water conservation etc. The ideas are so diverse and can lead to very scintillating conversation on the web – and i do hope that all these people can set up their blogs and websites and really work on them in the time to come. You can read more about the British High Commission’s “Channels of Change” project here.

Welcome every one to Channels of Change blog. We hope to put more information soon.