Getty Images Brings Partnership And Prizes to Tropfest NZ

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
4 September 2014

Getty Images Brings Partnership And Prizes to Tropfest NZ

Getty Images, the global leader in digital media, is now the Official Photography, Video and Production Music Partner for Tropfest NZ, providing free access to its library of content for competition entrants.

“For the first time, Tropfest NZ filmmakers can draw from Getty Images’ library of award winning video, music and multimedia content to use in their Tropfest films,” said Tropfest CEO Suzanne Porter. “It’s a fantastic resource.”

“Getty Images is the engine driving a more image-rich digital world, and we firmly believe in the power of visual content to tell stories, evoke emotion and ultimately drive change. That’s why we are delighted to have the opportunity to work with the Tropfest NZ Short Film Festival and to help talented New Zealand filmmakers fulfill their creative visions,” said Arran Birchenough, Country Manager of Getty Images New Zealand.

“We understand the difficulties creatives face in getting their projects made,” added Birchenough. “We welcome the use of our content for Tropfest NZ and we are really looking forward to seeing what this year’s entrants will produce.”

Getty Images will also add to the prize pool for Tropfest NZ with an annual iStock Signature image subscription worth NZ$4,000 to the runner-up, a new service bringing greater simplicity and value to high volume content users. Each of the other 15 finalists will receive a one-month iStock Signature subscription to the value of $500 each.

Birchenough will join Tropfest Roughcut NZ as a presenter, speaking on the use of stock video in production and the latest on pre-produced content for production.

Tropfest Roughcut is a forum of conversation about creativity in the film industry for emerging filmmakers that will be held on 4 September 2014 from 6PM at Auckland’s Q Theatre.

Event Details:

WHEN: Thursday 4 September 2014
TIME: Half-hour consultations with Sheri Candler 9AM – 4PM
Roughcut Film Symposium 6 – 8PM
Taste of Tropfest 8 – 9PM
Drinks & canapés (included in ticket price) 9 – 9:30PM
WHERE: Q Theatre, 305 Queen Street, Auckland
TICKETS: Roughcut - $30 per Roughcut ticket ($25 early bird), on sale 25 July through Q Theatre www.qtheatre.co.nz
One-on-One Consultations - $50pp

Presenter Profiles

Arran Birchenough, Country Manager, Getty Images New Zealand

Arran learned his trade as a picture editor for a UK publisher, before launching a photo agency representing the world's best ski and snowboard photographers.

He then joined Getty Images in September 2001, launching Getty Images’ News and Entertainment service in the United Kingdom. During his time there Arran assumed responsibility for all Getty Images products: Editorial photography and the company’s Creative images portfolio for the UK Newspaper and Magazines sector, including the Mirror Group, News Ltd, Express Group, National Magazine and all other major print media networks.

In 2005, Arran returned home to Auckland to manage Getty Images New Zealand. In a short time he helped to grow the company from a limited local offering with no full time photographers, to extensive national coverage capabilities and increased staff.

He has a management degree, a wife and three children, and a passion for skiing.

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Tony Briggs Profile
Tony Briggs works as an actor in theatre, film and television. He has starred in the acclaimed series The Slap, playing the role of Bilal. His other film and television credits include "Howzat: Kerry Packer's war", where he played the role of cricket legend ‘Clive Lloyd'. He has also appeared in The Circuit, Bran Nue Day, Australian Rules, On the Nose, Joey and The Life of Harry Dare. Tony has most recently completed filming the role of Travis in the Australian feature film Healing.
His theatre credits include The Memory of Water, and The Female of the Species for the State Theatre Company of South Australia; for Black Swan theatre: Jandamarra, and The Female of the Species; for Melbourne Workers Theatre: Yanagai Yanagai, Fever, Who’s Afraid of the Working Class and Up the Ladder. Stolen for Playbox, and Coranderrk: "We will Show the Country" for Ilbijerri. His music Theatre credits include Nathaniel Storm for the NIDA Company; Walkabout for Chamber Made and Corrugation Road for Black Swan. Tony has also been a member of the NYID Physical theatre company of actors for which he has performed in various national and international productions.
Tony's writing credits include the feature film The Sapphires. Released in August 2012, the film had its world premier at the 65th Cannes international film festival and was one of Australia's most popular and successful films of the year.
Tony and his co-writer Keith Thompson were awarded the Major AWGIE Award for the most outstanding script of 2012 and also the AWGIE for Feature Film Adaption for The Sapphires. The Sapphires went on to win 11 AACTA Awards in 2013 including Best Film. Tony won the award for ‘Best adapted Screenplay’ with co-writer Keith Thompson. Tony also received the 2013 Greg Tepper Award for outstanding achievement with The Sapphires.
The Sapphires theatre show enjoyed triumphant seasons at the Melbourne Theatre Company and Company B, winning two Helpmann Awards for Best New Australian Work & Best Play (2005).
Tony is currently developing a new eight part television series with acclaimed director/ producer Robert Connelly of ArenaMedia, called The Athletes. He is also working on his next feature The Grip with the support of Screen Australia.

Sheri Candler Profile
Sheri Candler directs digital marketing strategy for The Film Collaborative (TFC), promoting their work as an educational resource for independent filmmakers, a fiscal sponsor and a nonprofit film sales and distribution company. She also consults with TFC members on using social media to build audiences so that their distribution efforts will be successful as well as working directly with productions to help gather an audience. Film represented by The Film Collaborative include award winning documentaries "The Invisible War" (Oscar nominated 2013), "I Am Divine," "Cesar's Last Fast" and "Valentine Road;" and narrative films "Appropriate Behavior," "Boy Meets Girl," "Red Hook Summer," and "Weekend."

She is the co-author of two books of case studies for filmmakers called "Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul" and “Selling Your Film Outside the US” which chronicle the different paths filmmakers are taking to bring their films to audiences around the world.
She regularly writes, speaks and teaches creators about using social media and has presented at industry events including American Film Market, Directors Guild of American East, National Screen Institute of Canada, Binger Film Lab Amsterdam, and was the keynote speaker at the Federation of European Film Directors (FERA) annual meeting & Screen Directors Guild of Ireland annual meeting.

She can be reached on her own website www.shericandler.com, The Film Collaborative’s website www.thefilmcollaborative.org, Twitter: @shericandler, Facebook: Sheri Candler Marketing and Publicity, & her Google+ community http://bit.ly/VzROCj.

Max Currie

After graduating Victoria University of Wellington with a BA in Political Science, Max got his break as the openly gay host and director of New Zealand's groundbreaking GLBT television show, Queer Nation. He went on to make an award-winning short protesting Proposition 8 in the USA (Some of My Best Friends Are American) then started writing drama series for NZ television. Since 2008, Max has written for Shortland Street, and more recently, the comedy-drama series Step Dave. In 2012 he transitioned into feature film directing, participating in Melbourne Film Festival's director programme, Accelerator, before shooting his first feature, Everything We Loved. Acclaimed by The Hollywood Reporter, Everything We Loved continues its strong 2014 festival run after being nominated three times for best picture by an emerging director at Palm Springs, Transylvania and Munich film festivals. Max is a Berlinale Talent 2014, and the recipient of a 2014 Goethe scholarship to further his love of all things German - including the NZ/German co-production he's currently developing, Life In Subtitles. Max does a lot of his best writing while house-and-dog sitting, and manages the social media and copywriting for three Auckland restaurant brands. Information on his feature film can be found at www.everythingweloved.com

About Getty Images
Getty Images is the world’s leader in visual communication, with over 170 million assets available through its premium content site www.gettyimages.com and its leading stock content site www.istock.com. With its advanced search and image recognition technology, Getty Images serves business customers in more than 100 countries and is the first place creative and media professionals turn to discover, purchase and manage images and other digital content. Its award-winning photographers and content creators help customers produce inspiring work which appears every day in the world’s most influential newspapers, magazines, advertising campaigns, films, television programs, books and online media. Visit Getty Images at www.gettyimages.com to learn more about how the company is advancing the unique role of digital media in communications and business, and enabling creative ideas to come to life. For company news and announcements, visit press.gettyimages.com, and for the stories, innovation and inspiration behind our content, visit InFocus http://infocus.gettyimages.com/. Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/gettyimages and Twitter at https://twitter.com/GettyImages.

About Roughcut
Tropfest Roughcut was launched in Australia in 2012 by Tropfest founder John Polson as a way of nurturing budding and experienced filmmakers through the experiences of others in the industry.

In New Zealand, Roughcut launched together with the inaugural Tropfest NZ Short Film Festival competition in 2013.

About Tropfest
Tropfest began in Sydney 22 years ago when director John Polson showed a six-minute film he made for under $100 at his local café (‘The Tropicana’) in Sydney for 200 friends and family. Today the free Australian event is attended annually by a live audience of around 150,000 film-lovers and hundreds of thousands more watching via its live national TV broadcast and other platforms.

In the past two decades, Tropfest has become recognised as one of the world's most exciting launchpads for emerging filmmakers. Tropfest is also known for securing the support of some of the biggest names in the international film community including Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Geoffrey Rush, Liev Schreiber and Tobey Maguire. Tropfest launched last year in New Zealand, Arabia and in the USA with Tropfest Las Vegas and Tropfest New York.

The Tropfest YouTube Channel. Past Finalist films can be viewed at Tropfest’s YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/tropfest. The channel has more than 50,000 subscribers and the films have been viewed over than 25 million times.

The first Tropfest NZ event was held in 2012. In 2013 the Tropfest NZ competition began and was attended by 8,000 people. The winner was a short film called ‘Cappuccino Tango’, directed by Taranaki local Dave Smith. An estimated 8,000 audience turned out in February 2014 to see director Andrew Cooper declared the Tropfest NZ 2014 winner for his short film ‘Help’.

For 2015, Tropfest NZ has added $10,000 in cash to the best film prize of a return trip to meet film executives in Los Angeles, including attendance at the US’s largest industry gathering, the American Film Market.
TROPFEST NZ – The world’s largest short film festival, now in New Zealand – Saturday 14 February 2015, TSB Bowl of Brooklands, New Plymouth, Taranaki

www.tropfest.co.nz www.facebook.com/tropfestnz

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