The Production Fund
The Production Fund provides partial grants for advanced film and video projects, including theses, in the department. These awards are administered departmentally by the Production Directorate, which consists of two full-time faculty members and the chairperson. Projects are evaluated on the basis of merit of the script, practicality of budget, as well as the student’s previous experience. Specifically excluded are grants for projects in classes in the first three semesters of graduate work. Applications are considered on a pre-arranged schedule throughout the academic year. Deadline and application information is available from the department office. For more information, see the Production Fund page.
The Production Fund of the Columbia College Chicago Film and Video Department is a resource dedicated to assisting advanced film and video projects that are being produced by undergraduate and graduate students. Over the past decade, it has awarded as much as $100,000 per year to worthwhile productions.
A wide range of high quality films and videos have benefited from Production Fund awards. Recent examples include Samantha Sanders’ film, Gypsy Blood (which was a regional finalist for the Student Academy Awards, Catherine Crouch’s drama, One Small Step (which has shown at numerous film festivals), Shanra Kehl’s Paradise Lounge, also showing at a number of national film festivals and Merrin Trantum’s graduate thesis, Plain and Simple, which is the first student film in the country to be shot on HD 24, the same digital video system used by George Lucas for his latest Star Wars project.
Awards are given for projects in development, pre-production, production and post-production. The maximum award per project is $3,000.
Please allow three to six weeks after the deadline for notification of awards.
Deadlines for the Production Fund are November 1, March 1 and May 1.
For further information regarding The Production Fund and and other funding opportunities please contact the Film & Video Department:
Film & Video Department
Mary Novak
Phone: (312) 369-6713
e-mail: mnovak@colum.edu