Action On The Side is a collaborative weekend filmmaking project designed to get people together and creating one short film in a month.

Week 1: Preproduction
Week 2: Production
Week 3: Postproduction
Week 4: Screening

The project has been running since July 2013. Action On The Side is run by Busy Kiwi Productions Ltd in the United Kingdom.

Making time to shoot
AOTS is structured to allow people who are passionate about film to team up and make films, even if they have to fit it around work or studying. If you want to work on your project throughout the week too then we won’t stop you!

Like-minded people..
..and non-like minded people. Film is a collaborative medium and works best when everybody brings their own areas of expertise to a project. We aim to mix talent from one field with others outside their usual circle of contacts.

Finish it
Lack of a deadline can lead to projects dragging on and on.. The intensive (but not impossible) constraints of AOTS force filmmakers to be realistic with their aims and results in a finished piece of work at the end of the month

CALL FOR SCRIPTS
Submit your SHORT FILM SCRIPT that could be made as part of our next AOTS Weekend Filmmaking Project. This is a great opportunity to develop your pitching skills, gain credits, and grow your network.

Awards & Prizes

The successful script will receive our prize of US$100 and will be MADE into a short film within one month.
The Writer will receive an on-screen credit on all copies of the production.
The short film will be screened at the Action On The Side end-of-project screening and released online on the AOTS Vimeo and YouTube channels.
The writer will receive an IMDb credit and digital download of the film.
The writer can join our private Facebook group for the project and our Alumni group.

Rules & Terms

The script must be a maximum 10 pages. The film must be able to be shot across one weekend with a short preproduction time (5 days) on a microbudget. Consider location, cast, specialist crew which may increase production costs.

Submissions must be accompanied by a pitch video, uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo, maximum 8 mins. In the pitch video:

- introduce yourself
- introduce the concept with a 1-2 sentence logline
- outline key beats in the story
- outline why you think this film should be made by AOTS
- challenges with making this film (e.g. location, actors).

The video pitch does not have to have high production value: speaking to camera or slides with a voice-over are sufficient.

If selected, the Writer may be invited to develop the script for production.

If selected, the Writer will assign to the Producer the sole and exclusive ownership throughout the world and in perpetuity of all rights, title and interest of every kind and nature (including without limitation copyright and the right to create derivative works based on the script) in the script. If not selected, you retain all rights to your script.

Short film scripts must be original content or adapted from a story in the public domain. The writer warrants that the script does not infringe upon or violates the rights of privacy or publicity of, or constitute defamation against, or violate any common law or any other rights of, any person, firm or corporation.

The Producer may, in their sole discretion, use or not use the script or any part thereof, and may make any changes in, deletions from or additions to the script.

In consideration for the sum of $100 USD (the receipt and adequacy of which the Writer acknowledges), the Writer waives their moral rights in and to the Work, and grants express consent for the Producer, the Production Company, Action On The Side and its future assignees to use my name, image, voice, likeness, and biography, in the same project, in all forms of media, current and future, worldwide and in perpetuity.