© 2010 Openfilm, LLC
2. What can I expect from Openfilm?
3. Why should I register on Openfilm?
4. Does Openfilm produce its own content?
6. How do I make money on Openfilm?
1. How can I submit content on your site?
2. What types of videos can I post?
3. What file formats does Openfilm accept?
4. What is the file size limit?
5. What is the recommended format and encoding to achieve the best quality on your site?
6. Is there maximum number of films I can post?
1. Do you prescreen all submissions?
2. How do you determine that a video is good enough for Openfilm?
3. How long does it take for my submission to be processed and published?
4. Will Openfilm alter my video or description information?
5. What does "custom conversion" mean?
6. Can I appeal if my video has been rejected?
7. How can I make sure my work doesn’t get removed?
1. How does the search bar work on Openfilm?
2. How do I refine my search results?
1. What information can I find on a typical video playback page?
2. What settings can I change in the video player menu?
3. How can I share Openfilm films?
4. Where can I find information about a film?
5. What is the "HQ" button for?
6. Do all the films have subtitles?
7. What can I do with my favorite films?
1. What options can I get from the Dashboard?
2. Why should I specify my account type?
3. How do Favorites and Playlists work?
5. How do I create and edit my descriptions?
6. How can I manage my e-mail settings?
8. How can I delete my account?
1. What is in the Reviews section?
2. What kind of stuff can I find in Blogs section?
3. What is the Film Festivals section designed for?
4. How can I communicate with content providers?
5. What are these cool stick figure characters on your informational pages?
1. Do I retain the copyright and other legal rights to my work?
2. Can I post my video if it's already licensed for distribution elsewhere?
4. What if I have been falsely accused of copyright infringement?
5. What if I have a question that was not covered here?
1. Can anyone submit a question?
2. How are the questions selected?
3. What if my question isn’t in the top 10?
4. Do you read all the submitted questions?
5. Is there a limit as to how many questions a Pro User can submit?
6. Can I submit my question(s) more than once to increase my chances of selection?
7. When does the question submission process end?
8. Can my question cover any topic related to independent film?
9. Can I direct my question to a specific Advisory Board Member?
10. Do you have advice to increase my chances of selection?
11. What constitutes a good question?
12. If your question is chosen, does this eradicate your chances for future question selection?
13. Are double (or two part) questions accepted?
14. Can I ask about my personal project in my question?
Openfilm is the place for user-generated, independent films of high quality and artistic merit. It is a platform for shorts, animated films, web series and features.
Openfilm provides a venue for users to watch premium films in high resolution, as well as for filmmakers to exhibit their works, and to enjoy a full-featured, social networking forum between viewers and creators, reviews and blogs, coverage of industry events, and online databases of film festivals.
We concentrate more on quality than quantity. We Strive to make sure every title on our site exemplifies thorough development, production and editing. Whether you are in the mood for new series, a great short film or animation, Openfilm is your destination.
This is currently available in English, Spanish, French, German and Italian. For a more detailed overview of the website, please visit the Quick Tour section.
Viewers' benefits:
Filmmakers' benefits:
Having a free account on Openfilm lets you create your own Channel, upload films and photos, interact with others by commenting and rating videos and channels, subscribe to your favorite creators, send and receive messages from other users, create your favorite works collections (playlists, quick lists, favorites etc) and many other things, and many other things.
Yes, we do. At our production facilities, in Greenwich Studios, Miami, FL, we produce a variety of web shows (known as "Openfilm Originals") which are published alongside user content. All of our shows can be viewed by going to the Videos section and selecting Openfilm Originals in the Categories menu. Our filmmaker staff members also publish blogs where they cover news from the world of film and web video as well as share technical knowledge. These blogs are available in the Blogs section.
Yes, having an Openfilm account doesn't cost anything. Create one now. But we also have premium accounts, which offer a lot of additional features, most of which are not found anywhere else on the internet.
Every premium account member who submits content to our site is eligible to earn money for their work. It is up to your complete discretion to set the sale price for downloadable versions. No matter what you decide to charge, we will only take $.69 for each sale. Also, when you garner advertisement for your film(s), we will split that revenue with you 50/50. You can find more detailed info about our revenue sharing program in our Member Agreement.
In order to post your original video, you must submit it for review. You can do that by logging in, clicking SUBMIT in the main menu or Submit Video in My Videos section of your Dashboard menu. You have three Submit Options: direct upload, FTP transfer or mail-in DVD.
If you want to submit file up to 2GB choose "Upload", select the file and fill in all the required fields in the upload form.
To upload video files larger than 2GB safely you may use a "FTP transfer". Access to your Openfilm FTP space is the same as your account login.
We also accept submissions via mail-in DVD. This may be DVD Videos or DVD ROMs with video files on them. All hard copies of content must be accompanied by our submission form for acceptance.
You can submit any original films, documentaries or animation. We also encourage web series with multiple episodes as they tend to develop an audience and encourage professional social networking. However, please review our Member Agreement for some restrictions.
We accept all commonly used video formats including .avi, .mpg, .mpeg, .mov, .wmv. If you have a file format which you believe our system does not accept, you can write us at review@openfilm.com or simply mail us your DVD.
There is none. You can submit films of any size or runtime. Files up to 2 GB can be uploaded through the standard upload form. If you wish to submit files larger than 2 GB, you can use an FTP client to access a special FTP server with your Openfilm login there you can place submissions of any size and length. To be accepted, you must also include a filled out form with the video info. You can also mail us a DVD. For more details, please email us at review@openfilm.com.
Use the highest-quality version of your film and make sure the file is in a "standard" format with appropriate settings. We use the term "standard" to refer to formats most commonly installed on Mac & PC systems, such as Quicktime Movie, Video for Windows, Windows Media Video. The video must have a minimum resolution of 640x360, but there is no limit to how high it can be. Feel free to submit HD files.
You can read more details about our file formats, aspect ratio, resolution and bitrate on
http://www.openfilm.com/dashboard/upload_help/
No. We do not limit your creativity or ability to produce or submit. The more you submit, the higher the earning potential!
Openfilm welcomes all submissions and screens each and every film for technical and production quality and violations of our Terms of Use before acceptance and publication to the site.
1. We check that your submission has appropriately high picture and sound quality.
2. We determine how complete and substantial the submission is. A 10-second clip of an exploding statue of a squirrel set to a popular song and shot in poor focus will probably be rejected.
We strive to screen videos as fast as possible, but due to overwhelming amount of submissions it can be as long as 24 hours before your video is published. If you don't see your video within 24 hours and have not received a response from us, please write us to review@openfilm.com.
No. We believe in freedom of self expression, but if we suspect you made a mistake in your submission, we will notify you with our proposed changes which you can accept or decline.
We provide this feature for films that have some visual or audio defects. Our team can perform sophisticated corrections to fix quality problems. In some cases, we can also do tasteful censoring of mature content. All of this is ONLY done with the consent of the author.
Yes. Please send your concerns to review@openfilm.com.
In order to ensure that your work remains published on our site, you must not violate our Member Agreement and Copyright Notices.
When you click on the drop-down menu of the search bar at the top of any page, you can choose to search for videos, channels, people, reviews, blogs or festivals. You may press Enter or click on the magnifying glass icon to start your search.
When results are displayed you have many filtering options on the left to find exactly what you're looking for. You can narrow results by Runtime, Type, Categories, Subtitles or Dialogue as well as sort them by Editor's Picks, Most Popular, Top Rated and Most Recent. You can also switch between any of the filtering options – Videos, Channels, People, Reviews, Blogs or Festivals - without starting a new search.
The video playback page provides you with user profile details, cast and crew information and detailed video description. You can also find custom production photos, More Videos and More Channels sections and manage selected videos. The most significant part of the page is our large video player with plenty of cool features, described below.
You can change video size from player menu. You have three options available: normal, big (default) and full-size (640x360 and 920x518 for SD videos with 16:9 aspect ratio, 640:480 and 690x518 for SD videos with 4:3 aspect ratio and 1280x720 for HD videos). Please note that changing resolution may be disabled for certain films that, in rare cases, do not have a higher resolution version. The player also has "From This Channel", "Related Videos", "Playlist" and "Editor's Picks" menus inside for convenient browsing.
We provide you with an embedding code to post our player elsewhere on the Internet. You may also quickly share any film via the social networking sites we are friends with or via e-mail using the player menu.
The player menu provides you with a brief description of the film you are viewing. You can also find more information about the film in the "About this video" section below the player on the playback page. This section includes cast and crew information, statistics and more.
"HQ" activates high-resolution mode for videos in HD. Combine that with full-screen display and enjoy superior video quality!
We are working on transcribing ALL films to make them more accessible. We already offer subtitling in English and Spanish. Some foreign films also have subtitles that translate the audio from its native language. You can activate subtitles and choose English or Spanish simply by clicking the "CC" button.
You can rate videos (5 star rating), add them to the Playlist or Favorites and comment on the video's playback page. You can also reply to the comments of other users on your video playback page or channel by clicking "Reply".
Our dashboard allows you to control your profile, check your Inbox, write and send messages, edit channel information, upload photos, review subscriptions, view history, note statistics and manage favorites, quicklists and playlists. In the My Videos section you can easily check your submission status, upload new films and edit your descriptions and thumbnails.
Specifying your account type helps other members find your films easier and faster. Standard is the default option, but we encourage you to choose a more specific option (animator, comedian, director, musician, film festival, film school) to maximize your audience and overall Openfilm community experience.
When you see a film you like and want to recommend it to others, you can add it to a list of Favorites. This list is displayed in your profile for public view. You can also add films to your Playlist. The Playlist is similar to favorites except that no one but you can see it unless you indicate it as a public playlist.
The Quicklist is a type of Playlist to which you can easily add films by clicking on the bottom right corner of any work. This is a fun and easy way to keep track of films you wish to view at a later time.
You can easily update your profile and change your channel description by selecting the "Channel info" section in the Dashboard.
Click Email Options in My Account section of the Dashboard and select the email notifications you want to receive.
You can remove your content anytime going to the My Videos section in the Dashboard, and selecting Published Videos. Click "Edit" next to the video and then click "Remove". You can also send a removal request to us by writing to remove@openfilm.com.
My Account section of your Dashboard allows you to delete your account. After clicking on Delete Account you will need to confirm your password and specify the reason for deleting your account.
In this section, we take a look at some of the most remarkable contributions to Openfilm and give them constructive reviews. We hope to provide some insight into the filmmaking process and highlight the creativity of our contributors. Read and enjoy!
You can get to know some of the individuals that make up the Openfilm Team through our staff blogs. Whether we're sharing some sought-after production knowledge, covering an industry news item or just plain venting about life, we hope you enjoy our articles and leave comments!
We strive to keep you aware of what's going on in the independent film industry and provide you with the most recent events coverage. If you are a creator, you can gain valuable information and schedule your production to participate in festivals. You can also use the Modify button to help us keep the info updated or suggest a new entry if you know film festival which is not in the database so far.
Communication tools are located below each video on the Video Playback, Channel and Profile page. Every member has a profile. Using the communication tools, you can send them personal messages, subscribe to their films or post comments. Other users can reply to you privately or post answers next to your comment or question. Or you can also send messages from the Dashboard.
These little guys are small sculptures created by an Australian artist and photographer named Jenny Rollo.
Yes, we do not ask for exclusive rights. All we need from you is a limited license to display your content. You can find more detailed information in our Member Agreement.
Yes, as long as it doesn't violate any agreements with other distributors.
If we become aware that you have posted a film containing work that is not your own we will immediately remove it from our site. Your account/profile is also subject to suspension or deletion in cases of multiple copyright violations.
Please email us at review@openfilm.com.
Please email us at info@openfilm.com.
Any Openfilm Pro Account member may submit a question to an Advisory Board Member or special webcam chat guest. To get your Pro Account, click here. Any Openfilm registered user can view and vote on the webcam chat questions. Openfim Pro Account members will have access to a limited number of webcam chats throughout the year. We will notify the community of the upcoming webcam chats schedule.
The live webcam chats are for the Openfilm community, so it’s the community that selects the questions. All Openfilm registered members will be able to vote, up or down, one time on any or all questions. The top 10 questions selected will determine which users are invited into the live webcam chat.
Openfilm will select 10 additional Pro Account members by random lottery to participate in the live webcam chat. Those members will receive an email, and it will be up to them to join in. Replacement members will not be selected for any invited/selected members who cannot participate. If you are not participating inside of the live webcam chat room, you and your fellow Openfilm Pro Account members will still be able to watch the webcam chat live and chat amongst each other.
Every question is read to confirm appropriate content before publishing.
At this time Openfilm has not implemented a limit on questions from one user for a specific webcam chat. If we determine that Pro Account members are spamming the questioning process with multiples of the same question, or submitting more questions than what we determine reasonable, we will unfortunately have to limit all Pro Account members. For now we believe it is in everyone’s best interest to allow the community to self govern.
Yes. Openfilm has not implemented a limit on the number of questions from one user for a specific webcam chat, but moderation is suggested. The Openfilm registered user community is responsible for voting questions up and down, and can react accordingly if one user has submitted more questions than is deemed reasonable.
The question submission end time is indicated on each webcam chat page.
You may submit any question related to the film industry, filmmaking, film festivals, film history and relating to the professional history and experiences of the webcam chat participant. Please note that we will not accept any questions pertaining to or inquiring about the personal details of Advisory Board and/or other Openfilm members. Also, we will reject questions that contain profanity, threats or insults of any form.
Submitted questions should be directed to the webcam chat member indicated for that specific webcam chat.
Question selection is determined by votes from the Openfilm registered user community. Watch the voting results to determine what they find are relevant questions.
Is it important to you and relevant to the film industry? If yes, it’s a good question.
Question selection is determined by votes from the Openfilm registered user community. Openfilm has not built a limit on the number of times a user’s question can be voted into the top 10.
Openfilm will only actively reject questions pertaining to or inquiring about the personal details of Advisory Board and/or other Openfilm members or questions that contain profanity, threats or insults of any form.
You may ask a specific question that pertains to your work, but we encourage questions that benefit the entire Openfilm community.
© 2010 Openfilm, LLC
