Their self-description:
"Scary Cow is a film co-op in the San Francisco Bay Area. Open to everyone of any skill level, Scary Cow’s mission is to build a film community that actively learns to make better films by making films. Scary Cow is run by its members and any revenue Scary Cow receives goes back out to its members in the form of screenings, budgets, classes, and more. We’ve made over 200 films and have given out well over $150,000 in budgets since we started in 2007."Scarycow members make short films which are then shown at a recurring screening event at a San Francisco theater. Scarycow charges an annual membership fee of approximately $600, which it uses primarily to feed back into awards given to participating filmmakers. The organization maintains a talent pool database. Most Scarycow events take place in San Francisco.
Web site: scarycow.com
Related sites: facebook.com/scarycow , twitter.com/scarycow
2. Movie Making Throughout the Bay (MMTB)
Their self-description:
"MMTB is a community that meets every second Saturday once a month except during the winter months November & December. Locations can vary throughout the Bay Area. We are randomly placed into groups/teams which consist of a Director, Actors, Writer and Production Assistants. Each group is given at least 5 hours to collaborate on an ideal/story and complete filming on the same day. After filming Directors or Editors have at least a month and a half to submit a finish product for screening in a bay area theater hosted by MMTB."MMTB's core events are their monthly second-Saturday one-day film creation events ("director's challenge") which skip preproduction, jump directly into production, and create short films which are later shown in a theater in Berkeley. They also organize "producer's challenges", in which short film producers have 3 months to build a filmmaking team and go from concept to finished film. Participation fees are nominal, and no experience is required to show up and act in a short film at second-Saturday event.
Web site: moviemakingbay.com
Related sites: facebook.com/MovieMakingBay , twitter.com/mmtbnews , linkedin.com/groups/MMTB-Movie-Making-Throughout-Bay-3984507
3. The Film Clubs: San Jose, San Franciso, Santa Cruz, Berkeley, Carmel, Monterey
Their self-description:
The Film Clubs is a multi-city collective. Each local group holds regular meetings and plans, or collaborates on, short film projects according to the availability of individual members. Short film project teams often draw from members in multiple city groups. Meeting attendance is free."The goal of The Film Clubs is to set up an environment that helps filmmakers finish their projects by going through all the necessary stages from Development to Pre-Production, Production, Post-Production, and finally Marketing & Distribution.
We also have R&R Nights to go to the movies and have a good time as well as field trips to practice shooting in unique locations."
Umbrella web site: thefilmclubs.com
Related sites: Facebook.com/TheFilmClubs , Youtube.com/TheFilmClubs
City-specific sites:
- San Jose: meetup.com/SanJoseFilmClub , facebook.com/pages/San-Jose-Film-Club/212285832229432
- San Francisco: meetup.com/SanFranciscoFilmClub
- Santa Cruz: meetup.com/SantaCruzFilmClub
- Berkeley: meetup.com/BerkeleyFilmClub
- Carmel (does this count as "Bay Area"?): meetup.com/CarmelFilmClub
- Monterey: meetup.com/MontereyFilmClub
4. Silicon Valley LA Film Collective
Their self-description:
"The Silicon Valley LA Film Collective is a group of volunteer filmmakers who produce short films (3-5 minutes each) on an ongoing basis, with the goal of perfecting skills, sharing cross-functional knowledge and producing quality final projects. The group is modeled after Dawn Fields’ LA Film Collective and was created by members of that original organization. As such, an additional goal of the collective is share people and knowledge between LA and Silicon Valley, to grow a strong and lasting core of film makers, writers, actors, production personnel and ultimately indie investors from both regions."This is a new group starting up as of January 2014.
Web site: meetup.com/Silicon-Valley-LA-Film-Collective
5. Movie Makers Unite
Their self-description of a meeting:
Create fun and exciting short films. Pitch Your Idea. Build A team. Set the deadlines.As of January 2014, it's unclear if this group is still functioning, although some Meetup events do appear to be scheduled for early 2014. The Meetup page content appears to have been most recently updated in 2012, the web site was most recently updated in 2011, and the Facebook link from the Meetup page is broken.
Agenda:
30 minutes Networking and MMU Plans and intro.
60 minutes Go around the table:
Any one with a 'completed script' will pitch first and get first priority.
1-2 hours Group or Team discussions.
Then open for networking.
Web site: meetup.com/moviemakersunite
Related sites: moviemakersunite.org , youtube.com/siliwoodmoviemakers
