How to Connect Your Creativity with Audiences & the Global Market Place to Secure Distribution
PRODUCTION ACCELERATOR
✔ 5-Week Online Training
✔ Free Submissions to the Network
✔ Creative & Professional Development
✔ Connect with Audiences
✔ Connect with Sales Agents and Distributors
✔ Package Your Projects for the Market
What is it?
Production Accelerator is a 5-week online course with worksheets, live Q&A calls and free Professional membership to the Lift-Off Global Network. It teaches you how to develop your creativity and connect with the international market.
Network Membership
Production Accelerator students receive free Professional Membership to the Lift-Off Network for one year, this entitles them to free submissions to all Lift-Off events, and free tickets to all festivals, showcases and Network parties.
Who is it for?
Production Accelerator is for indie creatives who want to learn how to develop their professional career to a position where they can connect their work with the market and ultimately generate a revenue from their creativity.
How does it work?
You complete the modules, work on the action items, and use the tools to develop your career in your own time. Support is available via the live Q&A sessions, the FB group, and when you are ready, you can connect your work with the Network.
When does it start?
Production Accelerator is an online course, and it starts as soon as you are ready! The modules are split into 5 weeks, but in reality, the learning will be life long. You can complete it in your own time, and you get lifetime access.
Why does it exist?
Production Accelerator evolved from the collective wisdom of the best examples of success from the Lift-Off Global Network. Film schools often neglect to educate their students on the practical realities of connecting with audiences and the market place. Lift-Off has grown to fill that void.
INTERACTIVE FILMMAKING COMMUNITY
The Lift-Off Network is an energetic community of filmmakers worldwide. Creativity is hard to maintain when you do not have a support Network helping you break through your creative barriers. Get inspired, collaborate and be challenged to create the best work that you can make. Then do it all over again.
EXPERT MENTORSHIP ON DEMAND
Learn from the best examples of successes from the Lift-Off Network. The regular Q&A calls help you connect with what other people are up to, work through any creative issues in your work, and connect you to the broader Network. Most importantly, you can find the support that you need to see you through to creating your best work.
Here's how it works
As Kubrik said, "The best education in film is to make one". But to progress your career to a point where you are creating work of a high enough quality to resonate with audiences and connect with the global market place effectively is quite a challenge. Production Accelerator fills in the gaps left behind by film school and provides a global support Network, to empower the grassroots creative.
LEARNING FROM REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCES
The best examples of the success from the Network have been broken down and systemised. Follow practical step-by-step instructions and track your progress. Move beyond 'thinking' that your work is ready for the market, to absolutely knowing.
FUTURE TECHNOLOGY
The independent film world is changing. New technologies are disrupting old systems and processes. Make sure that you stay ahead of the curve, and harness the power of digital marketing strategies when your work is ready.
CREATIVE CHALLENGE
Your work needs to be of the highest standard possible if you are going to leap into the professional sphere. The Network will challenge you creatively, and you will learn from the best examples of Independent film.
PROFESSIONAL LIFT-OFF NETWORK MEMBERSHIP
Leverage the power of Network membership. Free submissions to festivals, showcases. Your Network membership connects you and your work to the broader Network. Attend exclusive member's parties, join in the Q&A sessions, attend pitching workshops; there is an abundance of ways to establish yourself.
Production Accelerator Course Content
5 Weeks from Hopeless Creative to Creative Professional. Here's how.
Welcome to the Lift-Off Production Accelerator. It's great to have you on board!
In this module, we introduce you to the Lift-Off Network and the training portal. This is the beginning of a remarkable journey together, and we lay out the Network's challenge to you to be great and to make great work.
In this video, we cover:
→ Introduction to the Training Portal
→ General Housekeeping
→ Important Things to Remember
→ Pitfalls to Watch out For
→ 30 thousand ft: Overview of the production accelerator
→ Overview of Your Network Membership
→ The Only Three Things That Matter
Your Vision & Mission are the bedrock of your creativity. They are what give your work meaning and what will ultimately keep you focused and motivated.
All of your creative endeavours should align with your ultimate goal. What change to do you want to affect in the world? In other words, why should the market care about your work?
In this video, we cover:
→ Overview of Week 1
→ Creating the Career That You Want
→ Why Your Vision and Mission Are Crucial
→ What Is Your Vision? Defining the Future You Want
→ What Is Your Mission? Defining How You’ll Get There
→ Crafting Your Mission Statement
Connecting your story and making it land on an audience is vital to your creative career. In this video, we take a look at what it is exactly that makes a project resonate and how you can begin to do this in your own projects.
In this video, we cover:
→ The Network Effect: Connecting Your Work to an Audience
→ Creative Service: Shifting Your Priority to the Audience
→ Defining Your Audience
→ Story Resonance Through Structure
→ The Secret Weapon of Audience-Story Resonance
Learning how to learn is one of the greatest tools that you can have in your life. In this training module, we take a look at exactly this.
Developing your creative processes consciously lets you dramatically improve as an artist, quickly.
This process will shift your focus from 'Am I good enough?' to 'How do I get better?'
In this video, we cover:
→ The Enemy of Creativity
→ Defining Your Creative Map
→ Developing New Creative Theories
→ Testing New Creative Theories
→ Connecting Your Work With an Audience
Following on from the last lesson, in this video, we take a look at some of the key lessons from the Lift-Off Network and look at ideas that you can start to implement inside of your own creative map.
These are constantly emerging patterns that have been observed over the years from the Lift-Off judges. We are ultimately dealing with the question. 'What separates a good film from a 'bad' film'
In this video, we cover:
→ Recap of Week 1
→ Economics of Storytelling
→ Cliche
→ Playing the state
→ The heart of the story
→ Exposition
Worksheets and Q&A calls, support your learning and connect you with the Network.
In this module, we take a look at the habits required to take over the world. Right now there are filmmaking teams across the planet producing content that will metaphorically take over the world.
So why not you?
In this video, we cover:
→ Advancing in the Right Direction
→ Time Management
→ Cultivating Unbreakable Focus
→ Self Awareness & the Patterns to Your Success
→ Developing Self Discipline
In this module, we take a look at the steps and practical tools required to strategically plan out your road forward.
In this video, we cover:
→ Planning Projects
→ Prioritising Projects
→ Relentless Project Execution
→ Principles for Effective Planning and Execution
Most people worry that they don’t know the right people. Turn this weakness into a strength.
In this video, we cover:
→ Introducing Your Lorem Opus - Your ‘Launch Project’
→ Building Your Circle of Influence
→ Identifying Talent
→ Working with Talented and Creative People
Why is it when the cookie comes to be crunched, we sometimes get fearful or find ourselves procrastinating?
Worksheets and Q&A calls, support your learning and connect you with the Network.
The world of independent filmmaking is undergoing a radical shift. Stay on top of the trend and empower yourself.
In this video, we cover:
→ Overview of Week 3
→ Collecting and Nurturing Contacts
→ Festivals Screenings
→ Private screenings
→ Screening Online
→ Marketing Your Screenings
Ideas are worthless. Developing ideas is where the magic happens.
In this module, we take a look at a system developed by the Network to generate ideas, test them with outside input and develop them into fully-fledged projects, ready for pre-production.
In this video, we cover:
→ The Importance of Validating Your Ideas
→ Developing Your Ideas
→ Loglines & Treatments
→ The ‘Greenlighting’ System
→ Working Towards Your Lorem Opus
Utilising digital strategies early on in your career is a powerful way to pour fuel on the fire, and ignite the sparks of your career.
In this module, we take a look at digital strategies to take attention from your audiences and professional networks and put it onto your works.
In this video, we cover:
→ Your Digital Presence & Collecting Contacts - Website and Email
→ Social Media Machines - Setting up LinkedIn & Facebook
→ 10 Ways to Draw Attention to Your Work/Career
→ Nurturing Contacts into Fans
Gathering Feedback from the Lift-Off Gloal Network and beyond.
Worksheets and Q&A calls, support your learning and connect you with the Network.
Correctly packaging and positioning your projects ultimately means increased eyeballs on your work and more chances of it achieving the funding or the partnerships that you are aiming for.
In this module, we take a look at ways that you can creatively package, and pitch your projects for the market.
In this video, we cover:
→ Packaging Your Projects
→ A View Towards the Market
→ Pitching Your Projects
There is nothing easy about raising money. This is the number one reason that people think stands in their way.
In this module, we take a look at ways to stop this.
In this video, we cover:
→ The (basic) Hollywood method (large budgets, with names)
→ Industry Partnerships
→ Film Funds
→ Investors
→ Crowd Funding
→ Executive Producers
In the final module for week 4, we take a look at what is required to produce your launch piece - a product that you will connect with audiences, the wider industry, and that you have positioned to generate revenue and launch your career.
The name of the game is: how do you produce the highest quality product, for the least sunk cost, and beat Hollywood at their own game?
In this video, we cover:
→ Overview of Course so Far
→ Working Towards Your Lorem Opus
→ Scheduling for Efficiency
→ Budget for a $1million Feature Film
→ Delivering Your Lorem Opus
Worksheets and Q&A calls, support your learning and connect you with the Network.
What might a distribution deal look like? We begin week 5 with an overview of the current distribution landscape and take a look at the emerging trends in an everchanging world.
In this video, we cover:
→ The Foundations of the Distribution Deal
→ Changing Models in a Shifting Landscape
→ Costs and Income of a $1m Independent Feature
→ A View Towards the Future
How can you guarantee distribution? This might sound like an unrealistic superlative. But unless you can ensure distribution on some level, what are you going to do if a deal doesn't emerge?
In this video, we cover:
→ Setting Your Foundations First
→ A Roadmap to Distribution
→ Guaranteeing Your Distribution
→ Creative Distribution Case-studies
Worksheets and Q&A calls, support your learning and connect you with the Network.
We've already had other festival selections (outside the Lift-Off Network) as a result of the attention the LA Lift-Off screening generated.
The Lift-Off Global Network is an excellent Festival! Excellent hospitality and a there is a very good quality in the films selection.
They dedicate an enormous amount of personal attention to filmmakers; offering advice, help with distribution and personal consultation.
It's exciting to be part of a Network that has ambition, enthusiasm and shows high quality films to an expanding global audience.
The lift off team are very special, so supportive and genuinely awesome people. I would highly recommend this festival!!
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