WHAT IS CAM
What is CAM?
What are CAM’s goals?
How does CAM work?
How long has CAM been around?
Why should I join CAM?
MEMBERSHIP
How much does it cost to join?
Can I add dollar-votes to my account?
Does CAM take a percentage of the grants raised on Camgrants.org?
If I cancel my membership can I get back my unused dollar votes?
Can I use a check to pay?
As a visitor I don't seem to be able to see more than short scenarios and a sample proposal. How can I get access to full proposals.?
ABOUT GRANTS and PROPOSALS
Who gets the grants?
How do I submit a proposal?
What kind of proposals are possible?
What is the cost of putting up a proposal?
Can I submit a proposal about anything media related?
How do I know that the movie I supported is going to get made?
MORE ABOUT GRANTS AND PROPOSALS
As a filmmaker I worry about my ideas being ripped off. You want me to post my film on a site visited by thousands of people every month. What is to stop someone from stealing my documentary idea?
How long after I make my proposal can I expect a grant?
Can I get a development grant and make a trailer for my idea and then repost a proposal to get more funding from CAM?
Can CAM actually help me get distribution or " pay for view" web delivery and if so can they fund my project as investors with a "pre-buy" in exchange for screening rights?
Can individual members pre buy a DVD?
Can an individual member communicate directly with a film maker to make a donation or investment?
HOW CAN I HELP
I like your idea and wanna help in addition to being just an ordinary member, is there a category for special (volunteer) member?
I'm a university student, do you need interns?
MEMBER PRIVACY & COMMENTING
Privacy Policy v.1.0
Lots of forums have postings by insulting argumentative ideologues and idiots, and because of this no one feels safe in commenting. What are you doing to prevent this in CAM forums?
As a member will my privacy be affected? Can I select to have certain replies or correspondences and not others?
ADVERTISING ON THE SITE
Tell me about advertising on your site?
If you allow media pros to be members what about corporations?
Can I advertise my company with you but not join?
CAM'S PHILOSOPHY
In what way is this organization truly democratic?
Is this a non-profit organization?
How transparent is your operation?
What does CAM do with the infrastructure $s
and How are you mr wilson?
WHAT IS CAM?
CAM is an online community for people interested in supporting independent
documentaries, video-blogs and web journalism. CAM Members view posted proposals with trailers and can than choose to contribute directly to a Development Grant. The site also features a newsletter, a forum and a resource page of relevant links.
What are CAM’s goals?
To fund and facilitate independent Documentary and Video-Blog production and distribution using a viewer-based democratic model, with the camgrants.org website as our meeting place. We hope to impact the way media gets produced, and so increase citizen awareness of the issues. We will make the world a better place and eat everything on our plates. We plan to do all this and keep our sense of humor.
How does CAM work?
Camgrants.org acts as an online meeting place for established and aspiring media creators, and potential viewers (all are members). When you join CAM a large portion of your membership fee is put into your personal dollar-based voting fund. Media-creating members post proposals of their ideas for Documentaries and Video-Blogs. All members get to comment and/ or vote to support the proposal with dollar-votes from their voting fund. The infrastructure of our organization also provides resources for media creators, and a rapid response from a large sample audience.
In addition to proposals and grant-giving CAM features a newsletter, forums for discussion and networking and a resources area with links to pro members, production and post-production providers, grant and educational opportunities and cool subject related links our members choose to share.
How long has CAM been around?
CAM was envisioned by founder Russ Levine in the winter of 2006. Camgrants.org will be launched April 1 2009.
Why should I join CAM?
-You are into documentaries.
-You think video blogs and independent web journalism are the best means of staying informed and should see support.
-You have a modest proposal that needs $ support and buzz!
-You think that the way documentaries are produced now needs to change. Perhaps you are troubled by media consolidation, and the impact corporate media is having on content, funding for production and what gets distribution.
-You think viewers should have more say in what gets produced and you are willing to "put yer money where yer mouth is."
- There are topics of particular importance to you that you want to see discussed and supported.
-You would like to be able to download content directly from the web in a way you know directly supports the media-maker.
-You have been known to say "I've got a great idea for a documentary!" or " I wish someone would make a documentary about...."
Whatever your interest and involvement with documentary production, CAM provides a powerful, and convenient opportunity for you to become involved or network.
There are many non-profit arts and socially motivated organizations that give grants to documentary filmmakers, but their grant awarding is determined by a board rather than individual citizens. CAM provides media makers with unique direct support from committed member-viewers. CAM intends to directly link documentarians with their veiwing audience.
MEMBERSHIP
How much does it cost to join?
There are two types of memberships to CAM:
Citizen members contribute $19 US per year. Professional members contribute $29 US per year.
A citizen membership includes $7 dues for running the CAM site and $12 placed in a personal grant giving account that we call the "dollar-votes" fund. This fund is used by the member to award to proposals of their choice throughout the year.
The professional membership breaks down to $7 dues to help run the site, $12 dollar-votes credited to the member and $10 to automatically create an advertising link or Logo link for the member to promote their services, products or projects on the Pro member page in our resources area.
If you are a media professional you do not have to join as a Pro member. We just want to offer a simple inexpensive advertising opportunity for our working members and which increases CAM's resource content. You do not have to be a Pro member to post a proposal. Any member can create a proposal for all members to read, critique and possibly support. JOIN!
Can I add dollar-votes to my account?
Yes, you can add dollar-votes to your account at any time, and in fact we encourage you to do so. We hope you are excited by the proposals you see coming to us and want to support the media-makers. Unfortunately we have decided to add a 10 cent surcharge to each additional vote you add to your dollar-vote fund. The 10 cents covers pay-pal and kicks a little to our infrastructure costs. You can go to CAM-BIZ > Transparent CAM to get a complete breakdown of all infrastructure costs.
Add Dollar Votes
Does CAM take a percentage of the grants raised on Camgrants.org?
CAM does not take a percentage of Development grant. The total dollar-votes amount members elect to award to media makers is what their check says. CAM will in the future also give Production grants and helps members do pre-purchases of DVD’s. This will mean more administrative costs and so we will take a cut when we get it working.
If I cancel my membership can I get back my unused dollar votes?
Yes, we will refund the money you have added to your CAM account for donations. The infrastructure dues ($7 for citizen, $17 for pro member) is non-refundable however. For a refund of your dollar-votes click on the Contact CAM link at the bottom of any page and title your message "dollar-votes refund". After we verify your identity we will refund to your credit card, or mail you a check.
Can I pay with a check?
Yea. Go to CAM-BIZ > Buy Membership and select the membership you want, click on the credit card logos and fill out the form provided with all required fields. Click again on the credit card logos and then select the payment option you desire. If you select "Pay By Mail" we will hold all your info untill your check arrives and then we will start your membership.
As a visitor I don't seem to be able to see more than short scenarios and a sample proposal. How can I get access to full proposals.?
JOIN!
ABOUT GRANTS AND PROPOSALS
Who gets the grants?
Members write and submit proposals. These proposals are 3-5 pages long. They include a thorough but short scenario , brief resumes of the creative team that will bring the project to completion, a realistic budget and a Producers Intent that discusses the producers motive and passion, why the proposal is important and relevant and who is the audience.
They enter an agreement with CAM for their proposal to be posted for a specific length of time. Members get to view these proposals, read commentary about the proposal in our forum and then decide if they want to use one or some of their dollar votes. After the proposal voting time is up we at CAM count the dollar votes and put the check in the mail. Thats how it works.
How do I submit a proposal?
Become a member then go to Proposals and click on Create a Proposal. You will give us a few details and be connected to a proposal editor who will give advise , help with revisions and create an agreement about details and responsibilities. Some proposals we will insist be registered with the AWG. ($20). Finally when all ducks are in place the CAM Director will authorize the proposal to be unleashed upon the awaiting membership.
What kind of proposals are possible?
One of our goals at CAM is to have a broad range in media formats that we support. So a proposal could be:
-To expand a video-blog of interviews of people who have returned to New Orleans post-Katrina ($6400 budget)
-Video histories of Japanese-American survivors of internment who lost holdings of valuable farmland for an educational DVD ($33,000 budget)
-A 90 min video documentary about refugee populations world wide ($310,000 budget)
-A pair of school teachers in a remote location want to fund a 2 year program in basic video production and have matching funding from a software provider ($14,500 needed)
-A film student in documentary production wants to purchase critical still and stock footage for their Senior Project that their limited budget cannot afford ($1100 needed)
-A visitor to Bolivia with a masters in journalism wants to do an Armchair Political Travel v- blog on the increasing problem of rural poor moving to urban areas, with interviews of citizens and politicians alike.($10,000 budget)
-A documentary is shot and a good script written but no money is left to edit. Production needs grant of up to $9600 for matching grant with local post-production facility.
-A doc CAM supported with a development grant previously now wishes to have CAM members help buy licensing agreements for web distribution of their finished award winning work.
-A director wants to screen her doc at at IDFA in Amsterdam but needs a grant for travel.
- A photographer with a wide range of work seeks support for photo essay or other personal work.
Clearly a wide range of proposals are possible.
What is the cost of putting up a proposal?
You need to be a member and you may need to pay $20 to AWG thru us to register your proposal. This registration puts a legal date and time on the idea you have with the American Writers Guild to help protect your idea. If you want you can hire our editor to help put your proposal into a form that matches what we like to see. There is a charge for this.
Can I submit a proposal about anything media related?
The proposal writing process is designed to help weed out spurious proposals. Our editor and director will try our best to present all worthy projects for the members consideration.Our editor or director might introduce a proposal and give their written position on the proposals merits. In this way all proposals could be put before the membership and they can vote as they see fit.
To put it another way: if you write a lousy proposal or the topic is un-motivating, you probably will not get any money; but come to us with a creative approach and who knows. As a final word on this know that the CAM Director, Russ Levine, will create policy to best safeguard the growth and goals of CAM Grants LLC.
How do I know that the movie I supported is going to get made?
You don't.
We live in interesting times. Funding for progressive media has never been so tight. As this organization grows, so does the ability of our membership, and the filmmakers they have chosen to support, to affect how independent documentaries get produced. For that to happen we need to support a variety of filmmakers and projects.
A lot of factors are at work in the financing of an independent documentary.
Sadly many good and worthy ideas never get beyond the development stage, and even big name documentarians sometimes a have a hard time getting the money to make their film.
When you vote for a project on camgrants.org, you are, in essence supporting not only the documentary in question, but that documentarians efforts in bringing about change and informing us all of an important topic. Your support enables these filmmakers to go to their other potential financiers and tell them: " Look! I've got my first funding for my idea, from CAM, a viewer-based organization! My Idea has an audience!"
Here at CAM the filmmakers you support detail the journey they make, trying to get their film produced, shot and distributed. Getting to learn directly from their mistakes and triumphs is a great resource to any aspiring documentarist, so even if their film does not make it all the way, we will have all learned something.
The experience they gained from getting as far as they did, with your help, may well give them the knowledge they need to make their next film go all the way.
MORE ABOUT GRANTS
As a filmmaker, I worry about my ideas being ripped off. You want me to post my film on site visited by thousands of people every month. What is stop someone from stealing my documentary idea?
It is the documentarians unique set of perspectives and opportunities, as well as the editorial and stylistic decisions they make, that will tell the story and that is something impossible to steal.
We will be insisting that any proposal coming to us for a doc be registered with the Writers Guild of America. An on-line registering of your proposal costs just $20 and puts a date and authorship to your proposal and idea. While it is not copyright protection it helps protect you from plagiarism.
How long after I make my proposal can I expect to get a grant?
You can expect to see a development grant shortly after the end of the funding window of your proposal.
Can I get a development grant and make a trailer for my idea and then repost a proposal to get more funding from CAM?
This depends on the relationship you negotiate with us. You could decide to have an open-ended time-frame on your proposal with the understanding you would update your proposal. We really want to see people who we support with $s succeed at getting their projects "in the can" but obviously we can only fund a modest percentage of most projects.
Can CAM actually help me get distribution or " pay for view" web delivery and if so can they fund my project as investors with a "pre-buy" in exchange for screening rights?
We're moving in that direction but it will be a little while. There are financial and legal obstructions galore. Until recently people were funding their documentaries with credit-cards and house re-mortgages. You might create a meaningful piece of work without ever begging. However, when it comes time for distribution even with a great piece you will discover you are once again swimming with sharks. The day is coming soon when distribution using pay-for-view web downloading will become a reality. It is not an inexpensive goal to achieve. We at Citizens Alternative Media hope to launch the CAMchannel very soon to provide all our members (both viewers and media creators) with the opportunity to distribute and view CAM supported media.
Can individual members pre buy a DVD?
When a media producer has as their intent to create DVDs of their work then a pre-buy of product may happen. This is a little complicated and when this feature comes online we will inform our membership of how it works. Bear with us.
Can an individual member communicate directly with a film maker to make a donation or investment?
Yes , if the producer chooses to. Also know that to protect the privacy of members no unsolicited contact by producers to individual members can happen. Members entering into private financial relationships with Producers must know that to do so may carry risks for which CAM Grants LLC cannot be held liable.
HOW CAN I HELP?
I like your idea and wanna help in addition to being just an ordinary member. It there a category for special (volunteer) member?
Yes! We need you! We want you! CAM is going to be completely dependent on its Volunteer Members who do a little, to a lot ,more than just join up and give proposals money.
We need forum moderators, proposal editors, newsletter editors, reviewers, reps at festivals, online-realtime Q and A moderators etc...
Learn more by going here: CAM BIZ > Student Interns and Volunteer Members or going here: NEWS > Write for CAM
I'm a university student., do you need interns?
Yes we need interns and you don't have to be just a film school student. You could be a budding writer, political science or journalism student, business major, or you could just be interested in society.
Again, go to CAM BIZ > Volunteer Members and Student Interns. College credit and mondo references await you.
MEMBER PRIVACY & COMMENTING
Privacy Policy v1.0
We respect your right to privacy.
We will not give your name or personal information to third parties.
PayPal processes all of the debit and credit card transactions for CAMGrants. We at CAMGrants do not have access to your credit or debit information from PayPal. If a member elects to pay by mail with a check or money order, CAMGrants will not divulge any information on such a check except as is necessary for collection of a promised payment.
Email
Your email address will not be loaned traded or sold.
We will send you email relating to your personal transactions. We will keep these emails to a minimum.
You will also receive certain email notifications (forwarded messages, etc.), for which you may opt-out.
We may send you service and content related announcements on rare occasions when it is necessary to do so.
Email from fellow members of CAM in a bulk email or spam is not allowed. No member will email another without permission. If you feel you are receiving email promoting another members project or business in an unpermitted way, or cannot remember giving permission to a specific member to email you, please contact CAM.
If you are a pro-member of CAM you may elect to provide members and the public with contact information for which CAM has no means to regulate use. Please be careful and thoughtful in creating your Pro-member profile.
Your user name is private information which CAM does not share, however if you use your user name and link it in any way to an email address or personal information in internal CAM website messaging or on one of CAM's user forums, some of your privacy may be compromised thru no fault of CAM.
We at CAM want you to have all the privacy possible, but remember you may be the one who has brought the wrath of spam upon yourself!
Technology / Security
CAMGrants uses cookies to help (anonymously) recognize you as a repeat visitor and to track traffic patterns on our site. We use this information to make CAM more user-friendly.
CAMGrants may obtain IP addresses from users. We will use this information to monitor and prevent fraud, diagnose problems, and (anonymously) estimate demographic information.
We use a variety of security measures, including encryption and authentication tools, to maintain the confidentiality of your personal information. Your personal information is stored behind firewalls and is only accessible by a limited number of people who are required to keep the information confidential.
When you place orders we receive payment by PayPal or by mail.
Regardless of efforts by us, no data transmission over the public Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, and delay and loss of mail even by our great US Postal Service has been known to occur.
Everyone should remember that we are we are involved in a business that requires networking and marketing… but lets try to be wise and remember we swim with sharks.
Proposal Producers
When submitting a Proposal to CAM members sign of on a Hold Harmless agreement in which they agree to not abuse other users' personal information. Abuse is defined as using personal information for any purpose other than those explicitly specified in the Proposal, or is not related to fulfilling delivery of a product or service explicitly specified in the Proposal
Proposers never receive member's credit or debit card information nor any personal information.
Dollar Votes and "Movie Credits"
All votes for proposals are anonymous.
If you elect to receive a credit on the proposal your vote is no longer anonymous and the proposer will receive some personal information about you.
Wrap-up
CAMGrants reserves the right to update this privacy policy at anytime. Updates to our privacy policy will be sent to the email address that you have provided us or posted prominently on the website.
We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with state and federal laws (such as U.S. Copyright Law).
To modify or delete any or all of the personal information you have provided to us, please login and update your profile.
Questions
If you have questions or suggestions you can contact us at:
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Lots of forums have postings by insulting argumentative ideologues and idiots, and because of this, no one feels safe in commenting. What are you doing to prevent this in CAM forums?
To post on one of our forums you must be a member. Our Miss Manners will be keeping an eye peeled for unsavory written behavior. If you post offensive items you will be first warned, then you may get booted.
As a member will my privacy be affected? Can I select to have certain replies or correspondences and not others?
We will not be selling or loaning out any information about our membership. Your personal info on your initial login page is not available to anyone and can only be accessed by our Director and our web admin Your vote decisions are confidential.
You can decide to have contact with any member, producer or advertiser you chose using the contact info they provide.
You will not be receiving notices about events happening at the CAM site except one renewal reminder notice per year.
ADVERTISING ON THE SITE
Tell me about the advertising on your site?
Camgrants.org does have a tasteful amount of subject specific advertising. We use advertising to subsidize our low membership rates. We do not allow pop up advertising, or spy ware. We strive to work with advertisers that offer products specific to video and media production. To advertise with CAM please go to the Contact CAM link on the bottom of any page and in the subject heading line type "Advertise" and we will contact you pronto. If you have already joined as a pro member you already have some advertising on our Resources page. If any member, pro or citizen, wishes to have an advertising presence on pages other than the Resources page please go to CAM-BIZ > Advertise with CAM
If you allow media pros to be members what about corporations?
This is an organization for Citizens not corporations. If you are self-employed or work for a company as a media professional then by all means join up as a media pro...and we will add your personal link to our resources page... but you are a member as a Citizen with us first and always.
I want to advertise my company with you but not join... can I do it?
Sure we'll take yer money. We hope to be a valuable advertising link for production services, post-production facilities, film and video schools, festivals, regional media centers as well as non- member producers and directors themselves.
Non-member advertisers can go to the contact CAM link on any page. Email us and we will reach you directly.
CAM'S PHILOSOPHY
In what way is this organization truly democratic?
Other than some editing the authorship of proposals is entirely from the ranks of members. So too all members can vote to support any proposal. All proposals go to members. Here is how its not democratic:
The executive director of this organization will create policy that safeguards the growth and goals of the organization.
Is this a non-profit organization?
Not yet. For a little while to come it is a benevolent monarchy. An LLC (Limited Liability Company) just like most production efforts. We will keep you informed.
How transparent is your operation?
After you have joined you can visit accounting and see what's what. You can visit each proposal to see where it stands in dollar votes and you can see a breakdown of ins and outs for the infrastructure side of the organization. We plan to be more transparent than we need to be.
What does CAM do with the infrastructure $s
CAM is an organization in its infancy that we want to see grow. Our financial plan is designed to do four things:
-Pay back startup investors
-Pay staff and for services to maintain and expand our existing web presence
-Develop our distribution capabilities thru pay for view or limited DVD release
-Promote our site to build membership and attract dynamic proposals
How are you mister wilson?
from harvey Ann Maries favorite movie.
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