From film festivals to school video clubs, everything has become a virtual experience today as the entire world is facing the threat of a pandemic. While we’re practicing social distancing and doing our part to keep ourselves and our community members healthy, creativity and learning can still flourish. We all may need to step up our games a notch, adopting some new technologies, because most of us will be enjoying school and work from home for the foreseeable future.  

At PTZOptics, we’ve been sharing our vision for several years about the values of video conferencing and live streaming for both collaboration and engagement.  With Zoom Video Communications, live streaming technologies and the right content delivery networks, school clubs can meet and projects can be shared with others. During these changing times it’s a good idea to learn about the different uses for video conferencing and live streaming to make learning and collaborating with teachers and peers more effective. For example, everyone has learned how to use Zoom in the past couple of weeks but did you know that you can embed a Zoom meeting onto your website? You may find the weekly StreamGeeks broadcasts helpful, too, where the team shares tutorials on hosting a Zoom party with trivia games and live streaming.

As a resource to Student Filmmakers, we interviewed a southeastern Pa.-based filmmaker, Amy Theorin of Something’s Awry Productions. She shared with us some tips for finding virtual film festivals and for keeping busy during this time. Paul Richards, the Chief Streaming Officer at PTZOptics has released a free ebook called The Virtual Ticket as well. This book can help your next film festival learn how to live stream and charge for access to a virtual event.

Below are a list of resources that students may find helpful during this time of quarantine and home-based creation. In the meantime, feel free to check out our own Resource Library that includes free downloadable books and other helpful tools to get you started today with video production and live streaming. 

1. Film Freeway: This site is searchable for hundreds of film festivals. The search tool includes an option for “online festivals/award event events.”
2. National Film Festival for Talented Youth: This is known as one of the world’s largest and most influential festivals for emerging filmmakers. The in-person event will be held in late October this year.
3. All American High School Film Festival: Known as the premier destination for emerging filmmakers from all over the world, the site is chock full of resources, including a free music library. 
4. Stage 32: This site provides webinars, classes and even podcasts, many of which are offered completely free! 
5. Sundance: Now offering free, film school resources and learning at its site.
6. Vimeo Staff Picks: There’s really no excuse to be bored at home. This site shows the best short films on the Internet, as chosen by Vimeo’s staff.

Consider continuing your education and learning how to use video production, live streaming, and video communication tools with the free StreamGeeks courses available on Udemy here. The StreamGeeks offer a free course on Green Screens and Virtual Sets, Introduction to Live Streaming, Accelerated Broadcast Club Curriculums and much more.