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The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written!

Happy New Year!

Et une Très Bonne Année 2016!

~ From Moondance, Elizabeth & Georges

MOONDANCE 2016 CALL-FOR-ENTRIES:

Accepting submissions

January 1 through June 30, 2016

PLEASE VISIT THESE PAGES ON THE WEBSITE FOR MORE INFO:

LINK TO SUBMISSION CATEGORIES LIST

LINK TO AWARDS CATEGORIES LIST

LINK TO SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

LINK TO OFFICIAL ENTRY FORM

LINK TO AWARDS BENEFITS

LINK TO MOONDANCE SUCCESSES

LINK TO THE MOONDANCE MISSION STATEMENT

Moondance is a unique, world-class venue for bold and visionary filmmakers, writers and composers to present their work to the cinema-loving public who are looking for quality alternatives to all those blockbuster studio movie projects. Our top-quality film screenings are always of entertaining and thought-provoking indie films, and the film festival attracts the cinema-loving public, filmmakers, writers & musicians, but also international talent, music & literary agents, actors, production companies, film distributors, and established producers.

As we prepare for the 2016 Moondance International Film Festival, our 17^th annual event, and to make our global goals a reality, through entertainment, film, writing & music, there has never been a better or more important time or place to speak up, stand up, and rise up to help make the world a better place for all. We hope you’ll join us and actively participate in our shared to-do list and this important effort now.

WHAT IS IN THIS BLOG:

• MOONDANCE 2016 CALL-FOR-ENTRIES
• GIRL UP!
• THE ART OF OBSERVATION
• YOUR SMART-PHONE…
• SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT TODAY
• 7SEAS PRODUCTIONS CONSULTATION OFFER

MOONDANCE RECOMMENDS & SUPPORTS:

Campaigns like our “Girl Up”, the movement to empower adolescent girls at the United Nations Foundation, are so vitally important. The Foundation’s global goals reaffirm the simple principle that the United Nations Foundation has believed in and worked for since 2010: when girls are educated, healthy, and counted, they can change the world. With the support and guidance of our incredible network of more than half a million adolescent girl leaders around the world, Girl Up has powered critical UN programs in Ethiopia, Guatemala, Liberia, Malawi, and India – just some of the places where it’s hardest to be a girl. These programs help fulfill vital needs like access to quality education and healthcare, advocacy against child marriage, and making sure that girls’ voices are heard.

Learn more about how Girl Up unites girls to change the world in this short video.

It takes all nations and all sectors to make progress on the most important and far-reaching international challenges. The UN Foundation is an advocate for the UN and a platform for connecting people, ideas and resources to help the United Nations solve global problems. http://www.unfoundation.org

THE ART OF OBSERVATION:

Learning to Really Look

Active observation, being mindful of our surroundings, is how we make sense of things; it’s an incredibly valuable tool. By taking the time to observe, without judgment, bias, preference or prejudice, by using your previous knowledge, by noticing changes, you can begin to unravel the mysterious, unlock the problem and with your naturally creative and critical thinking skills, you take the consequent correlations and connections, and begin to form understanding. Like any habit worth forming the ability to observe and make deductions can be improved with deliberate practice. With a creative-thinking, engaged and enquiring mind, the power of observation can be developed by cultivating habits of watching. To writers, filmmakers, musicians, artists, ‘people-watching’ is as important as practicing scales is to a pianist.

Take a few minutes each day to focus outwardly at the world around you, and learn from the interactions, the expressions, the movements, the textures and shades of human life. There is no one-way or right way to do it. By developing our visual sense, our visual literacy we are better able to immerse ourselves in our experience of our surroundings. We spark our imaginations when we notice things. We don’t think in a linear fashion, but instead draw on the network of connections we have created over time.

We were given five senses but without attention, any one of these is flattened and is as useless as a deflated balloon. Pump up your visual sense and your day becomes a brighter place. Look up from your smart phone, look out at the horizon, or zoom in to the nook and crannies, climb to tallest building and look down at people scurrying like ants, or lie in the grass and watch the clouds turn into faces. Sit with a small child and see what they see, look through the glass into the gorilla enclosure and wonder what those intelligent eyes are conveying, search out all the public art or graffiti in your area and stop for a while to contemplate what the artist was thinking when they made it. Take a walk through a forest and see how the branches twist and turn from one tree to the next, like scribbles in the sky. Tramp along a beach and see how many colours you can count in the pebbles or grains of sand.

Peer out of the airplane window when you go on holiday and marvel at the patterns below, then look at the lines on the palms of your hands and see how the DNA of the planet and ourselves are interconnected. Keep a visual journal with you to scribble down what you see, in doodles or notes, and question the make-up of your observations. What more can you learn from what you have seen? How can you use these observations to improve and deepen your writing, filmmaking & music composition? ~ Lou Hamiltion (article condensed & edited by EE)

YOUR iPHONE IS RUINING YOUR POSTURE — AND YOUR MOOD!

By AMY CUDDY, DEC. 12, 2015, NYT

There are plenty of reasons to put our cell-phones down now and then, not least the fact that incessantly checking them takes us out of the present moment and disrupts family dinners around the globe. But here’s one you might not have considered: Smart-phones are ruining our posture. And bad posture doesn’t just mean a stiff neck. It can hurt us in insidious psychological ways.

If you’re in a public place, look around: How many people are hunching over a phone? Technology is transforming how we hold ourselves, contorting our bodies into what the New Zealand physiotherapist Steve August calls the iHunch. I’ve also heard people call it text neck, and in my work I sometimes refer to it as iPosture. When we’re sad, we slouch. We also slouch when we feel scared or powerless. Studies have shown that people with clinical depression adopt a posture that eerily resembles the iHunch.

So, the next time you reach for your phone, remember that it induces slouching, and slouching changes your mood, your memory and even your behavior. Your physical posture sculpts your psychological posture, and could be the key to a happier mood and greater self-confidence. READ MORE

Amy Cuddy is a professor at Harvard Business School and the author of the forthcoming book “Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges.”

SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT TODAY:

“We are each of us angels with only one wing. The only way we can fly is by embracing one another.” ~ Luciano de Crescendo

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“Let our New Year’s resolution be this: we will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word.” ~ Greg Persson

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“If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you back! Much of the best work in the world has been done despite seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done.” ~ Dale Carnegie

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“Let the one who would be grateful think of repaying the kindness while it is being received.” ~ Seneca

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“Love has nothing at all to do with what you are expecting to get – only with what you are expecting to give, which is everything.” ~ Katherine Hepburn

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“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.” ~ Babtunde Olatunji, Nigerian drummer, educator, social activist

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PROFESSIONAL COVERAGE OF YOUR SCRIPT OR FILM!

Ready to get your screenplay or film on the right track? 7seas Productions now offers script reading services, critiques, coverage and edits to all screenwriters, playwrights & filmmakers, and to production companies and agencies, at special discount prices!

Focusing on the elements crucial to creating a compelling and readable script, and/or a winning, marketable film, our helpful comments will allow you to concentrate on solving the problems that will make your material move toward receiving a CONSIDER or a RECOMMENDED from a studio or production company reader, and will assist in advancing your script or film up toward WINNER in screenwriting competitions & film festivals.

An advantage of this low-cost critique service is that we will help you prepare your screenplay before sending it to screenwriting competitions, film producers, agents, managers and others who may have requested it. READ MORE

7seas Productions annually produces theMoondance International Film Festival, and also offers film festival start-up consultations!

~ ELIZABETH ENGLISH ~

[email protected]

Please forward this news-blog to your creative artist colleagues!

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

[email protected]

 

WEBSITE: www.moondancefilmfestival.com

BLOG: www.moondancefilmfestival.com/blog

No trees or natural habitats were harmed in the creation of this news-blog!

Nos coeurs sont avec Paris. Nous sommes unis.

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“Creativity is a magic wand that works two ways. When you set it in action and seek to create something, it does not just brings into existence that object or work, it also raises in your heart a dream, a hope, and a will to achieve that creation.” ~ Jyoti Arora

WHAT’S IN THIS NEWS-BLOG?

• THOUGHTS ON CREATIVE WRITING
• A MOONDANCER WRITES US
• MOONDANCER NEWS
• OFF-BEAT POWER PLAYERS
• MOONDANCE RECOMMENDS & SUPPORTS:
• SUMATRAN TIGERS & CINNAMON?
• A MAN-MADE CRISIS FOR ORANGUTANS
• MARINE MAMMALS IN DANGER
• EMPOWERING THROUGH EDUCATION
• IS THIS THE LIFE YOU’RE MEANT TO LIVE?
• SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

“(Writing is) the carrier of civilization. Without it, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill.” ~ Barbara W. Tuchman

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“It is the function of the arts to renew our perception. What we are familiar with, we fail to see. The writer shapes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see new meaning in it.” ~ Anais Nin

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“What is important – what lasts – in (any) language is not what is said, but what is written. For the essence of an age, we look to its poetry and its prose…” ~ Peter Brodie

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“(Creative) writing preserves you in a state of innocence – a lot passes you by – simply because your attention is otherwise diverted.” ~ Anita Brookner

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“Writing means sharing. It’s part of the human condition to want to share things – thoughts, ideas, opinions.” ~ Paul Coelho

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“Either write something worth reading, or do something worth writing about.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

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“Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader – not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.” ~ E. L. Doctorow

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A MOONDANCER WRITES US:

“Received the Moondance Seahorse Award.  Beautiful!  Will frame and hang it ASAP.  I want to thank you again for including the play in your wonderful festival.  Wish I could have attended.  Now if I can just get someone to produce it…” ~ Fred Perry, playwright (The Ascension of Twyla Potts)

MOONDANCER NEWS:

Christine Tulis and Kem Stone, Having forged a musical partnership based on their shared beliefs, Tulis and Stone have traveled widely to share their music, including performances at the United Nations in New York and Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. They have produced two recordings. Their first CD, “Portal,” won the Gaia Award for Spiritual Music from the Moondance International Film Festival in 2008. They are currently working on their third release at their recording studio in the San Francisco Bay Area. Tulis finds inspiration for her lyrics in the mystical poetry of Rumi, the writings of Saint Theresa of Avila as well as personal experiences. She writes songs to celebrate “the universal qualities of divine love and beauty,” according to a press release. “The harp has an ancient history of being used to facilitate healing and help people connect to the sacred, inner dimensions of their being.” Tulis and Stone, both award-winning composers and musicians, present concerts that highlight the healing qualities of music.

OFF-BEAT POWER PLAYERS:

(Jacob Koffler, Time Magazine: August 17, 2015)

JELLYFISH: Scientists in Sweden have harnessed a protein from glow-in the-dark jellyfish to create miniature fuel cells for electronics, and more.

DANCING: Club Watt in Rotterdam uses floor vibrations, generated by people walking and dancing, to power its light system.

BODY HEAT: The Mall of America. in Minneapolis. has long relied on human shoppers & visitors to help warm its corridors, and now London and Paris are piping heat from crowded subway stations into nearby homes during cold weather.

HUMAN WASTE: Scientists at the University of California at Irvine have developed a method of deriving hydrogen from processed sewage, which is being used to power fuel cells for cars.

MOONDANCE RECOMMENDS & SUPPORTS:

SUMATRAN TIGERS & CINNAMON?

Indonesia—one of the world’s largest rainforests: This region is:

• An important center for global cinnamon production
• One of the last habitats for the critically endangered Sumatran tiger
• About cinnamon: Harvested only once every 10-15 years
• Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farm land is carefully mapped in clusters, forming critical wildlife corridors to protect Sumatran tiger habitat

So the next time you order that cinnamon latte, think about how we’re working to help people, animals and forests thrive in harmony. This is just one piece of the puzzle in our work to protect vital rainforests.

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The forest fires currently raging in Indonesia are a man-made crisis driven by decades of forest destruction by some of the biggest palm oil and paper companies in the world. As you read this, Indonesia’s forests are burning. Orangutans and tigers are losing their homes with nowhere to go. And at the root of this tragedy is one of the greatest environmental crimes of our time: decades of forest destruction by some of the world’s biggest palm oil and paper companies.

Can you join me in taking action today? Greed is winning over the survival of people and amazing wildlife like orangutans and tigers. Millions of people in Indonesia and neighboring countries are suffering from the toxic haze caused by the fires. Please HELP restore and protect Indonesia’s forests and peatlands, and implement an industry-wide ban on trade with companies that destroy forests and peatlands. Around the world, tens of thousands of Greenpeace supporters are building the pressure on the Indonesian Government and company CEOs to act. Take action now: sign the petition to help save Indonesia’s forests, wildlife and people!

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MARINE MAMMALS IN GRAVE DANGER:

DOLPHINS TRAPPED IN GILLNETS… SEA LIONS HOOKED ON LONGLINES… WHALES ENTANGLED IN LOBSTER POTS…

Here’s a truly unimaginable statistic: More than 650,000 whales, dolphins and other marine mammals are killed or seriously injured every year after being hooked, entangled or trapped in commercial fishing gear used by fleets across the globe.

Uncontrolled “bycatch” now threatens the very survival of some of the world’s most endangered marine mammals, including the North Atlantic right whale, the Mexican vaquita and the Mediterranean sperm whale, and others. This needless killing must be stopped! Sign the petition to end this assault on our threatened marine wildlife.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act requires the U.S. to import only fish and fish products that meet U.S. standards for protecting marine mammals — but this lifesaving measure has never been enforced by the federal government. Shockingly, that means that the majority of foreign seafood we eat — from shrimps, to sea bass, to fish sticks — has been caught in violation of federal law. Meanwhile, our planet’s most vulnerable marine mammal species remain in grave danger, and are suffering and dying.

But here’s the good news: the Obama Administration is finalizing new regulations to end this horrendous practice and save marine mammals. These new rules would enforce the existing law, only allowing seafood from foreign fisheries to be imported into the U.S., only if it’s been caught in accordance with U.S. standards for protecting marine mammals. READ MORE:

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Empowering through Education!

THE ROSEMARY PENCIL FOUNDATION believes that all children have the right to an education.  Working with our local partner, Children in the Wilderness, we help transform the lives of children in rural Malawi and Zimbabwe by providing scholarships for them to attend secondary school and pursue higher education.  Although primary school education in these countries is free, secondary school requires tuition fees.  Through the kindness of donors, we are able to expand the opportunities for these children and, by extension, their communities.

Nearly all our students are orphans and without your help would finish elementary school at age 13 or 14 and remain at home in their villages. This is particularly true of the girls. Despite very challenging circumstances, these boys and girls have an incredible spirit and hope for the future.

Since our founding in 2005, more than 100 children have benefited from our program and completed four years of secondary school in Malawi. We currently have more than 70 students at school in Malawi and Zimbabwe as well supporting some former students in higher education, job training and teacher’s training.

In 2013 the Rosemary Pencil Foundation in partnership with Worldreader introduced e-readers to Malawi, giving students more than one hundred African, American and British authors to read and enjoy as well as being able to access the Malawi secondary school curriculum on a Kindles. In 2015, thanks to the gift from one individual donor, we were able  to bring  a  second shipment of e-readers to another  school in Malawi. DONATE NOW!

IS THIS THE LIFE YOU’RE MEANT TO LIVE?

Because most modern people have separated their minds from their bodies, and their souls have been banished from their ordinary lives, they forget that the well-being of all three (body, mind, and spirit) is intimately entwined. Health begins with firmness in body, deepens to emotional stability, then leads to intellectual clarity, wisdom, and, finally, the unveiling of the soul. These are relative to and dependent upon the stage of consciousness we are at.

Your body is the child of the soul. You must nourish and train your child. Physical health is not a commodity to be bargained for, nor can it be swallowed in the form of drugs and pills. You have to create within yourself the experience of beauty, liberation, and infinity. This is health. Healthy plants and trees yield abundant flowers and fruits. Similarly, from a healthy person, smiles and happiness shine forth like the rays of the sun.

Even in simple yoga asanas, one is experiencing the three levels of the quest: the external quest, which brings firmness of the body; the internal quest, which brings steadiness of intelligence; and the innermost quest, which brings benevolence of spirit. As long as the body is not in perfect health, you are caught in body consciousness alone. This distracts you from healing and culturing the mind.

(Excerpted from the book, Light on Life, by B.S.K. Iyengar)

SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT:

“I CHOOSE…to live by choice, not by chance; to make changes, not excuses; to be motivated, not manipulated; to be useful, not used; to excel, not compete. I choose self-esteem, not self-pity. I choose to listen to my inner voice, not the random opinions of others.” ~ Author Unknown

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“I am not what happened to me; I am what I choose to be.” ~ Carl Jung

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“If you give yourself up to unproductive emotions, you cannot focus on your goals.” ~ Anonymous

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“If one dream should fall and break into a thousand pieces, just pick up some of those pieces and begin again.” ~ Flavia Weedn

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“Whatever you want to be, or do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.” ~ Pope Paul VI

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PROFESSIONAL COVERAGE OF YOUR SCRIPT OR FILM!

Ready to get your screenplay or film on the right track? 7seas Productions now offers script reading services, critiques, coverage and edits to all screenwriters, playwrights & filmmakers, and to production companies and agencies, at special discount prices!

Focusing on the elements crucial to creating a compelling and readable script, and/or a winning, marketable film, our helpful comments will allow you to concentrate on solving the problems that will make your material move toward receiving a CONSIDER or a RECOMMENDED from a studio or production company reader, and will assist in advancing your script or film up toward WINNER in screenwriting competitions & film festivals.

An advantage of this low-cost critique service is that we will help you prepare your screenplay before sending it to screenwriting competitions, film producers, agents, managers and others who may have requested it. READ MORE

7seas Productions annually produces the Moondance International Film Festival, and also offers film festival start-up consultations!

~ ELIZABETH ENGLISH ~

[email protected]

Please forward this news-blog to your creative artist colleagues!

 QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

[email protected]

WEBSITE: www.moondancefilmfestival.com

BLOG: www.moondancefilmfestival.com/blog

No trees or natural habitats were harmed in the creation of this news-blog!

Eiffel Tower image by theredish.com

Selected Moondance winning films have been invited to be screened the annual 2015 Canadian International Film & Television festival (CIFTF), which takes place in Richmond & Vancouver, BC, Canada, November 6-8th. Moondance winning films will be screened as a special Moondance Roadshow part of this important event, from November 8-10th. Many of the event’s attendees & invitees are from China, and include the director of the China Film Group in Beijing, who is responsible for all films produced or screened in China. Please consider attending the festival. This is your best chance to network with the powers-that-be in the lucrative Chinese film & television industry! All events and film screenings are free of charge.

Website: www.naimfs.org   Email: [email protected]

THE CRAFT OF WRITING: EXTERNALIZING THE INTERNAL, PART 1

Award-Winning Screenwriter Jacob Krueger

http://www.writeyourscreenplay.com

The extraordinary thing about working in the medium of film is that we get to tell stories with compelling images that capture the imaginations and the emotions of our audiences. And the challenging thing about working in film is that half of the things that exist in the world, we can’t see! We can’t see thoughts and we can’t see feelings.

And that means, as screenwriters, our job is to externalize these internal thoughts and feelings. To take them outside of the mind, and put them into the body and the action of our screenplay. To translate the emotional language of our writing into compelling and visceral action.

As one of my great mentors, Georgi Alexi-Meskhishvili, who is a world-renowned set designer, used to say, “If you want a director to do what you want, you must make him think it is his idea.” And one of the ways we allow directors and producers to do what we want and connect and visualize our movies in the way that we want them to see them is by externalizing the internal: capturing our story in images exactly the way that we are seeing it in our heads.

Similarly, if you want to attract an A-list actor to your film, you need to learn to externalize the internal in a visceral way, so that you can capture their attention from the very first line, stimulate their imaginations, and allow them to see themselves doing all those exciting things that your character is doing, as if they were already playing the role! These are the practical reasons to externalize the internal.

But here is an even deeper artistic reason you want to externalize the internal, which is that often times when you’re not externalizing the internal it’s because you have not actually seen it yet in your own mind’s eye. Which means you are not yet fully serving your own creative vision of the movie, or getting your full talent onto the page. To understand how you can go about externalizing the internal in your own work, in this week’s podcast, we’re going to be looking at one of the best examples of this technique, There Will Be Blood.

International Screenwriters’ Association

MOONDANCERS WRITE US:

“I wanted to thank you for the wonderful opportunity to screen a sneak preview of our film at Moondance. So many wonderful things came out of that screening. It was especially great to have Bill Ury, author of Getting to Yes, and Randy Compton, and Mark Gerzon, Author of American Citizen, Global Citizen: How Expanding Our Identities Makes Us Safer, Stronger, Wiser – And Builds a Better World. They were both very enthusiastic about the film and we look forward to further collaboration with them. We also loved all the great feedback we got on the Audience Comments forms: “I think it’s awesome”  “I love his story, mission, tenacity and love for the future!” “The world will be a better place because Garry was in it.”  “Needs to get out into the world. It will shift consciousness.”  “Like, it’s about time!” In addition to accolades, the audience feedback forms also gave us valuable suggestions for further improving our work-in-progress version.  — which we incorporated into later edits of the film. Several funders also loved the film – we received important donations in Boulder – also building excellent prospects for the future. So again, thank you for who you are and all you do for the world.” ~ Arthur Kanegis, director of The World Is My Country

“I find these (Moondance news-blog) articles so helpful.  Thank you for caring enough to help us first-time screenwriters!” ~ Kentrell Liddell

“This is a very spiritual and moving newsletter. Congratulations! ~ Chris Nebe, award-winning documentary filmmaker, “Mysterious China” series

“If you hadn’t recognised there was something of merit about my stageplay. “Stitched Up”, the production wouldn’t have happened, so, on behalf of Mr Nibbs, Rags, their wonderful palace colleagues, and, of course, myself, many, many thanks for that.” ~ Celine Gibson, award-winning playwright, New Zealand

DO A DOODLE!

By Lou Hamilton

A blank page and a pen is ripe territory for doodling and if you do it while your brain is apparently attending to something else, your ability to broaden your creative thoughts and ideas, make sense of and retain what you are listening to, is hugely increased. “In decision-making, problem-solving and creative thinking we need to engage with at least two of the four learning processes: auditory, visual, reading/writing and kinetic. So in a lecture or in class or on the phone, where information density is high, doodling, simple shapes, mind-maps, grids, nothing tricky, but the act of doodling allows (one) to explore…thoughts, by placing words into the shapes has the benefit of exploiting…decision-making, problem-solving and creative thinking we need to engage with at least two of the four learning processes: auditory, visual, reading/writing and kinetic. Which is why (doodling) is so effective!

The shapes, along with your hand movements, stimulate parts of the brain that allow you to make connections between things that you otherwise would likely have never come up with. It helps you tap into your memory, your emotions, your desires, your intellect….a way of aiding learning, processing, problem-solving, creative thinking and remembering.

Sunni Brown, named one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business” and one of the “10 Most Creative People on Twitter” by Fast Company, is the leader of “The Doodle Revolution” the purpose of which is to “disrupt social norms about visual language and visual thinking, and educate people around the world about doodling’s power and potential.” Using deliberate pen strokes and a vocabulary of abstract patterns, artists and non-artists alike are equally able to focus on their marks with no pre-determined end result, while their attention shifts “to a state that allows fresh thoughts, new perspectives, and creative insights to flow unhindered by anxiety or effort.” Zentangle… is a form of combined doodling and meditation, devised by Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts in 2004 as an elegant system of structured patterns for zoning out. READ MORE

MOONDANCE SUPPORTS & RECOMMENDS:

The Yellow River is called “the cradle of Chinese civilization”, because its basin was the birthplace of ancient Chinese civilization, and is the third-longest river in Asia. Water is the source of ten thousand species, of rich and varied topography and biological species, and the feeding, nourishing, and our civilization. The river is the mother, nurturing the luxuriant creatures & is a natural parent. Human economic and social development has entered a new historical period, and river and water are faced with unprecedented crises and challenges. The Yellow River is one of several rivers that are essential for China’s very existence.

We have a responsibility to have an obligation to action, with reason, courage and strong faith, to maintain the health of the Chinese mother river of life… maintaining river health, life, and river ethics. The CYRF makes the most of the advantages of this non-governmental organization, to promote Chinese civilization, inherit the Yellow River culture, take actions to protect the Mother River, and to involve more people in devoting their time and resources to the protection and maintenance of the endless life of the vital Yellow River. Our mission is: Carrying out regular activities toward the Yellow River protection, and to promote long-term maintenance of the healthy life of the Yellow River. The Yellow River is 5,464 kilometers long, with a total elevation drop of 4480 meters. READ MORE

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A World Without Florida Panthers?

They’re the last of their kind! A mere 180 Florida panthers are all we have left. When we allow places like the Florida Everglades to be torn apart, whittled down and chopped up for commercial purposes, we all lose more than just our beloved landscapes. We lose the migratory pathways the Florida panther and many other animals depend on for survival. Without intact migration corridors, these great cats can’t reach the additional habitat they need in order to survive as a species. They’re trapped and isolated…with nowhere to go to establish healthy populations and thrive. These lands are critical to the recovery of this iconic species and a cornerstone in the plan to support their survival.

Your donation today will help The Nature Conservancy’s vital work to protect and create habitats for threatened animals like the Florida panther — among too many others — who are simply running out of time. You’ll know that your dollars will be hard at work in endangered places like the Everglades. The Nature Conservancy is working to protect 18,529 acres of prime panther habitat that could help make a difference in securing their future. Thank you for helping to protect the lands and waters on which great migrations depend! http://www.nature.org

A World Without Sea Turtles?

Imagine travelling more than 1,000 miles, through danger and hunger and hardship…only to find your destination washed away. Too often, that’s the fate waiting for hawksbill sea turtles at the end of their long migrations. They risk their lives only to find that their habitats have been destroyed and they’re left with nowhere to go. It’s a tragic end to an incredible journey. Today the Pacific nesting beaches hawksbills rely on are in grave danger. Development and sea level rise are shrinking them fast. And as the hawksbill populations are now a mere 20% of what they were 100 years ago, we have to fight for them to make sure that number doesn’t get any lower.

The truth is sad and simple: if more nesting beaches continue to disappear…so will hawksbills. If you’ve ever seen a sea turtle swim, you know it’s like flying under water. They coast along with so much grace, it would make anyone feel peaceful and calm. But their effortlessness hides one of the toughest survival stories on our planet. They’re up against predators, poachers, developers, climate change, and so much more. These animals do everything they can to survive in such desperate conditions, and right now, they need our help. Your gift will help with hands-on conservation like: helping expand the network of protected beaches for hawksbills, bringing together communities to safeguard their beaches & creating more turtle conservation sites so they can finish their migrations in peace. http://www.nature.org

SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT:

“You do not make sculpture because you like wood. You make sculpture because the wood allows you to express something that another material does not allow you to do.” ~ Louise Bourgeois, French-American artist  (This quote can be extrapolated to include creative writing, filmmaking, music, dance, theater, & other arts)

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“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” ~ Soren Kierkegaard

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THE CATCH-22 OF ORIGINALITY:

“Film audiences crave originality – or at least a fresh take – and so it seems do movie distributors. And yet film financiers tend toward the tried and tested. They want to back name actors, proven concepts and known quantities.” Hear from two leading film sales agents how they go about resolving that eternal contradiction: http://info.slated.com/the-catch-22-of-originality/

STUDIO-TYPE COVERAGE OF YOUR SCRIPT OR FILM!

7SEAS PRODUCTIONS

Ready to get your screenplay or film on the right track? 7seas Productions now offers script reading services, critiques, coverage and edits to all screenwriters, playwrights & filmmakers, and to production companies and agencies, at special discount prices!

Focusing on the elements crucial to creating a compelling and readable script, and/or a winning, marketable film, our helpful comments will allow you to concentrate on solving the problems that will make your material move toward receiving a CONSIDER or a RECOMMENDED from a studio or production company reader, and will assist in advancing your script or film up toward WINNER in screenwriting competitions & film festivals.

An advantage of this low-cost critique service is that we will help you prepare your screenplay before sending it to screenwriting competitions, film producers, agents, managers and others who may have requested it. READ MORE

7seas Productions annually produces the Moondance International Film Festival, and also offers film festival start-up consultations!

Please forward this news-blog to your creative artist colleagues!

 QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

[email protected]

WEBSITE: www.moondancefilmfestival.com

BLOG: www.moondancefilmfestival.com/blog

No trees or natural habitats were harmed in the creation of this news-blog!

At Moondance, we don’t just accept differences, innovations, creativity, independence, and uniqueness – we celebrate them, we support them, encourage & inspire them, and we thrive on them for the ultimate benefit of the international film industry, as well as for writers, filmmakers, composers, festival film audiences, and our world community.

READ ON:

• 2015 Festival Photo album request
• 2015 Awards requests
• Moondance news
• Tom Shadyac at Moondance
• Moondancers write us
• Screenwriting: ALL-CAPS on sounds?
• Radio plays
• Moondance recommends
• Some things to think about
• Rules for the blues

The 2015 Moondance PHOTO ALBUM will be online soon!

 ONLY IF YOU send us up to 5 of your best Moondance 2015 photos in .jpg, to: [email protected] with MIFF PIX in the subject line.

ATTENTION MOONDANCE 2015 WINNERS NOT AT THE AWARDS CEREMONY:

If you won an award, but could not attend the event, and want to receive your Moondance Award, Award certificate, & a 2015 Moondance festival program, please use this option to pay only for postage to send it to you:

AWARDS POSTAGE: USA ADDRESS POSTAGE: $10 • FOREIGN ADDRESS POSTAGE: $25 

Send your request now; this offer expires October 1.

MOONDANCE NEWS:

FILMMAKERS: Moondance International Film Festival is now an IMDb Qualifying Festival, granting all eligible film submissions (via Withoutabox), a fast-tracked title page on IMDb.com!

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Moondance 2016 wishes to celebrate the art of DRONE CINEMATOGRAPHY with our newest competition category, and offers an international venue for talented & innovative drone filmmakers from around the world to exhibit their winning work to film industry professionals and to the drone cinema fan audiences, at this world-class film festival.

Film director Tom Shadyac gave a fascinating Q&A at Moondance 2015 to an enthusiastic audience, participated in the productive networking & photo ops, and was presented with the Moondance 2015 Calypso Award!

Watch this video:

CELEBS FAVORITE PLACES ON EARTH: DOUBLE-WIDE: TOM SHADYAC’S LIFE NOW

Read this article on Oprah.com:

FROM MULTIMILLIONAIRE TO MOBILE HOME!

MOONDANCERS WRITE US

“Let me know when the 2016 early, early, early-bird submissions can be sent. I’m itching to send you the “Sock Opera” feature screenplay. I love to write, but this is the first time I actually felt real joy when working on a project. Although animation is probably the most difficult category to break into, I think, after all these years, I may have found my bliss.” ~ Janice MacDonald, 2015 Moondance winner for “The Sock Opera” short musical screenplay

“I am sorry to have missed the 2015 festival, but I see that it was a great success! It is a wonderful service you offer to new writers and filmmakers who are trying to find a way into their chosen profession. I – for one – feel that your input and help has given me the confidence to keep writing, so thank you once again!” ~ Liz Falconer, 2015 winner, short screenplay, “One Door Closes”

NOTE TO SCREENWRITERS: Please, please do NOT put noises & sounds in all-CAPS in your spec screenplay! That formatting is only for final production scripts, when the funding is in place & the Foley editor needs to know what sound effects to include. Your script should be, at this early stage, a reader’s script. All-caps on sounds are very distracting from a smooth read. We certainly already know that a door SLAMS, a gun goes BANG, a dog BARKS, a lion ROARS, cars HONK or CRASH, FOOTSTEPS make a sound & so on! If you are seeing all-caps on sounds in scripts that you may be reading online, you are looking at director’s scripts, or production scripts! To sell this sucker to an agent, actor, producer, director, funder, or distributor, it needs to read almost like a scripted novel. To send out a production script is egotistical, arrogant & un-professional, as if the film is already in production. I have passed on way too many otherwise pretty good spec scripts that are filled with all-caps sounds, in the festival competition. 

RADIO PLAYS ARE MIND-MOVIES!

Radio is sometimes known as the writer’s favorite medium; as Malcolm Bradbury once said, it is “a world made with words shaped into being, without a physical presence.” With radio, you have to use your imagination – something you don’t need when watching TV or movies. We can be whom-ever we want to be, travel wherever we want to go; all in “our mind’s eye”, thanks to radio programs. The stories and scenarios are often planted forever in our memories and in our own personal “theatre of the mind”.

Radio drama has long been a fertile training ground for writers and is a genre in which screenwriters, playwrights and television writers feel at home. It has given voice to generations of writers. From Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and Irish writer Samuel Beckett to Orson Welles and American playwright Harold Pinter; all have been involved with radio drama.

Moondance includes audio drama in our competition categories not merely in order to get the attention of the film industry. We want to promote audio drama for it’s own cultural value, and to encourage writers, storytellers, musicians/composers, audio producers, voice actors & others to create new works for radio & digital listening…whether it’s drama, comedy, kids’ stories, news & info, or documentary, and getting people to use their imaginations, to see the story in their minds, & to visualize, rather than have it shown to them in film, on their digital devices, online, or on TV, while they just sit there, being only consumers, rather than being creators or using their imagination to visualize the story! Consider learning how to write for radio, and revising your screenplay into an audio play! Moondance is dedicated to ensuring that audio drama remains an integral and dynamic part of our international broadcasting and cultural heritage.


MORE INFO: theaudiodramadirectory.com/ • www.audio-drama.com/ • www.artc.org/‎ • audiodramaproduction.com/ • jimfrenchproductions.com/

MOONDANCE RECOMMENDS

Friends of the Earth understands that the challenges facing our planet call for more than half-measures, so we push for radical change, not tweaks to the status quo. This means speaking uncomfortable truths to power and demanding more than people think is possible. It’s hard work. That’s why we’re dedicated to building and organizing a workforce for Earth. Earth H.Q. is an action center where you can tackle some of the biggest challenges facing our planet and discover practical, meaningful ways that all of us can work together to fix them. Let’s get to work! https://earthhq.foe.org

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WHY TALENT WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH IN HOLLYWOOD

From the desk of: Nat Mundel, Founder/CEO of Voyage Media, Los Angeles, CA

Let’s assume for a moment that you’re a great writer, which you likely are… How far has your talent alone gotten you? There are thousands of talented writers creating excellent stories right now in Hollywood…So what is it that separates the great writer who gets projects made from the also-great writer who has a bunch of unsold scripts sitting on the shelf? A professional writer becomes so when he or she learns how to be part of the business of entertainment and drive his or her own projects forward  (not waiting around to be ‘discovered’). Talent is the minimum barrier to entry in entertainment… the real measure of your success is how effective you (the creator) are at building a marketable package for your project. Countless brilliant screenwriters and filmmakers never get their projects made because they don’t understand the importance of packaging their project in a way that speaks to the people who write the checks…

All successful writers and filmmakers in Hollywood know this, but most learned it the hard (and long) way. It doesn’t have to be that way. So to help you get your projects moving, I’m offering you a free copy of my report, “Building A Marketable Package: How To Get The Team You Need In Order To Market To The Audience You Want”. 

Click here for your FREE GIFT:

I hope this free report helps you to drive your project forward and attract the attention it needs in order to get made — and maybe you and I can work on a project together in the future!

 Do great things!

 When you download the report above, I’m also going to give you free access to our popular video training course, “Making the Power Move from Amateur to Pro”, featuring over 4 hours of training from high-powered executives from HBO, CAA, Alcon Entertainment, Wes Craven, the Weinsteins, Dimension Films and others, who are finally spilling their most honest insights on what it takes to get their attention, build a reputation and get your material noticed and bought again and again.

In the past, I’ve sold this course for $297, but today I am giving it to you for free!

SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

 

“I CHOOSE…To live by choice, not by chance. To make changes, not excuses. To be motivated, not manipulated. To be useful, not used. To excel, not compete. I choose self-esteem, not self-pity. I choose to listen to my inner voice, not the opinions of others. I choose to be myself, not someone else’s idea of me.” ~ Author Unknown

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“Here are two options: Make progress or make excuses.” ~ Anonymous

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“The true artist reveals the unseen, and creates that which is new and uniquely his or her own,” ~ Ralph Ellison (excerpted & edited)

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“It does not generally take much strength to do something, but it often requires great strength to decide what to do.” ~ Elbert Hubbard

~~~ RULES FOR THE BLUES ~~~

 

• Most Blues begin, “Woke up this mornin’…”
• “I got a good woman,” is a bad way to begin the Blues, ‘less you 
stick something nasty in the next line, like “I got a good woman with 
the meanest face in town.”
• The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it. 
Then find something that rhymes … sort of: “Got a good woman – with 
the meanest face in town. Got teeth like Margaret Thatcher – and she 
weigh 500 pound.”
• The Blues are not about choice. You stuck in a ditch: You stuck in 
a ditch, ain’t no way out.
• Blues cars: Chevys and Cadillacs and broken down trucks. Blues 
don’t travel in Volvos, BMWs, or Sport Utility Vehicles. Most Blues 
transportation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Jet aircraft and 
state-sponsored motor pools ain’t even in the running. Walkin’ plays a major 
part in the blues lifestyle. So does fixin’ to die.
• Teenagers can’t sing the Blues. They ain’t fixin’ to die yet. Adults sing the 
Blues. In Blues, adulthood means being old enough to get the electric chair 
if you shoot a man in Memphis.
• Blues can take place in New York City, but not in Hawaii or any 
place in Canada. Hard times in St. Paul or Tucson is just depression. 
Chicago, St.Louis, and Kansas City still the best places to have the Blues. 
You cannot have the blues in any place that don’t get rain.
• A man with male pattern baldness ain’t the blues. A woman with male 
pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg cuz you skiing is not the blues.
• Breaking your leg cuz a’ alligator be chomping on it is.
• You can’t have no Blues in an office or a shopping mall. The lighting is 
wrong. Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.
• Good places for the Blues: 
lonesome dirt road or highway, 
jailhouse, 
empty bed
• 
Bad places: 
Ashrams, 
gallery openings, 
Ivy League institutions, 
golf courses
• 
No one will believe it’s the Blues if you wear a suit, ‘less you 
happen to be a’ old black man, and you slept in it.
• 
Do you have the right to sing the Blues? Yes, if: you’re older than dirt, 
you’re blind, 
you shot a man in Memphis, 
you can’t be satisfied.
• No, if: 
you have all your teeth, 
you were once blind but now can see, 
the man in Memphis lived, 
you have a retirement plan or trust fund.
• Blues is not a matter of color. It’s a matter of bad luck. Tiger 
Woods cannot sing the blues. Gary Coleman could. Ugly white people 
also got a leg up on the blues.
• If you ask for water and Baby give you gasoline, it’s the Blues. 
Other acceptable Blues beverages are: bad wine, 
bad whiskey or bad bourbon, 
muddy water, 
black coffee. 
The following are NOT Blues beverages: 
mixed drinks, 
kosher wine, 
Snapple, 
sparkling water.
• 
If it occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it’s a Blues death. 
Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die. So 
is the electric chair, substance abuse, and dying lonely on a broken down 
cot. You can’t have a Blues death if you die during a tennis match, in a spa or hot-tub, or while getting 
liposuction.
• 
Some Blues names for women: Sadie, 
Big Mama, 
Bessie, 
Fat River, Dumpling. 
Some Blues names for men: 
Joe 
Willie, 
Little Willie, 
Big Willie. 
Persons with names like Sierra, Sequoia, and Rainbow can’t sing the 
Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.
• 
Make yer own Blues name (starter kit): name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.) 
first name (see above) plus name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi, etc.) 
last name of President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.) 
For example, Blind Lime Jefferson, or Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc.
• I don’t care how tragic your life is: if you own a computer or cell-phone, you cannot sing 
the blues. You best destroy it – with fire, a spilled bottle of Mad Dog, or get 
out a shotgun. Maybe your big woman just done sat on it.

I don’t care.

From John Morrison’s Swing City website

Please forward this news-blog to your creative artist colleagues!

 QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

[email protected]

[email protected]

WEBSITE: www.moondancefilmfestival.com

BLOG: www.moondancefilmfestival.com/blog

No trees or natural habitats were harmed in the creation of this news-blog!