Roy W. Dean Film Grant Finalists Selected for Spring 2022 Grant

Posted on June 25, 2022 by Richard Kaufman

Winner to Receive Cash and Donated Production Services to Help Complete Their Film

Celebrating its 30^th year, the first Roy W. Dean Film Grant for 2022 has chosen its finalists. From the Heart Productions, the 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to helping independent filmmakers get their films funded and grant sponsor, announced that twenty-six films will vie for the grant. Winner will receive $3,500 and thousands more in donated production goods and services.

Roy W. Dean Film Grant Finalists for Spring 2022

“It is a joy and a privilege to be exposed these works by such amazing, talented filmmakers.” said Carole Dean, President of From the Heart Productions. “After three decades, the task of choosing this group continues to challenge us especially when we see such brilliant stories told with passion.”

The cash prized awarded by From the Heart Productions is accompanied donations from film industry professionals and companies. These include 40% deduction on color, editing, and sound & all production services from ProMedia , 30% discount in equipment rental from AbelCine Tech, Inc. NYC , $1,600 value in sound mix session from Silver Sound, and more from many heartfelt film industry donors.

The grant is open to documentaries, narrative features, short films, and web series. Grant is open to filmmakers around the world. Entries to the Roy W. Dean Film Grant for Spring were received from Iran, India, the United Kingdom and South Africa. Winner is expected to be announced in August 2022.

Finalists for the Roy W. Dean Film Grant for Spring 2022 are:

Title	Type	Filmmaker
Regina Doyle Silent Film Starlet	Documentary Feature	David Brown
Van Der Pals	Documentary Feature	Mauricino Gonzalez-Aranda
B-Side: For Taylor	Fiction Short	Christina YR Lim
A Different, Deadly Beast: The 1918 Flu Epidemic in Montana	Documentary Short	Dee Garceau
Ask For Help	Fiction Short	Gina DeAngelis
Blight	Fiction Short	Markus Hoeckner
Going Fine SInce 1889: The Magical Armstrongs	Documentary Feature	Jennifer Stoy
Hunger Surfaced: An American Recipe for Disaster	Documentary Feature	Justin Ross
Voice of Vanilla	Documentary Feature	Maureen Maloney
Chiraku	Documentary Feature	Neelu Bhuman
Acting Like Women	Documentary Feature	Cheri Gaulke
A Thousand Faces	Fiction Feature	Elton Loud
Open Air	Documentary Feature	Judit Sos
Lunchbox	Fiction Short	Anne Hu
Irish Cops Under Siege	Documentary Feature	Mike Houlihan
Viaticus	Documentary Short	Matt Nadel
Silver Screen Dreams	Fiction Feature	William Chen
My Letter to Bergman	Documentary Feature	Helen Beltrame-Linne
Somerset County	Documentary Feature	Katie Cook
Egypt, a Love Story	Documentary Feature	Iris Zaki
Only in Theaters	Documentary Feature	Raphael Sbarge
To Be Free	Documentary Feature	Birgit Gernboeck
Locally Grown Comedy	TV, Web or New Media	Brittany Parker
Catching the Light	Fiction Feature	Koura Linda
Nomads	Documentary Feature	Vanessa Carr
Searching for Onoda	Documentary Feature	Mia Stewart
Invisible Children of LA	Documentary Feature	Maryana Palmer

Each finalist is given the opportunity to post information on their contending film on the From the Heart Productions website. Filmmakers can include an image from the film, filmmaker info, and loglines. If they have available, filmmakers can include a link to their film’s website, Facebook page, or relevant social media connection.

About the Roy W. Dean Grant

Since 1992, the Roy W. Dean Grant has awarded over $2,000,000 in cash and donated film services to independent films. The grant is awarded to films budgeted under $500,000 that are unique and make a contribution to society. Having recently expanded to four grants each year, it has been an important lifeline for independent filmmakers that help to get their projects started or finished. Without assistance from the grant, many excellent and important films may never have been made.

Past winners of the grant include 2021 Emmy winners Belly of the Beast and The Love Bugs , as well as Sundance Film Festival selection Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins, and acclaimed documentary Kusama-Infinity.

About From The Heart Productions

From The Heart Productions is a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to helping filmmakers get their projects funded and made. Besides providing funding through the grant, they offer film fiscal sponsorship to filmmakers. This allows donations made to films they sponsor to be tax deductible. From The Heart has helped independent filmmakers raise over $30 million through their fiscal sponsorship program. President Carole Dean is the best-selling author of The Art of Film Funding: 2^nd Edition, Alternative Financing Concepts and the new online class “How to Fund Your Film”

Roy W. Dean Film Grant Hot Films in the Making for Spring 2022

Posted on June 25, 2022 by Richard Kaufman

36 Films Submitted to Spring Grant from Filmmakers You’ll Be Hearing from in Future

For each Roy W. Dean Film Grant, there are a select group of films submitted with excellent concepts and talented filmmakers, that just miss making our group of finalists. From the Heart Productions, the sponsor of the grant, honors them by designating them Hot Films in the Making. The Roy W. Dean Film Grant for Spring 2022 produced 36 films that share that honor.

“The Sound of Hope”

“The goal of this list is to shine a light on these potentially great films and the brilliant filmmakers who are creating them.” said Carole Dean, President of From the Heart Productions. “We expect them to be in our finals in the future.”

From the Heart Productions showcases these films in the hope that they will find supporters and those ho will champion them on their journey to completion.

The films chosen for Hot Films in the Making include documentary features, fiction features, short films and web series. They represent projects from the United States and around the world.

The Hot Films in the Making for the Roy W. Dean Film Grant for Spring 2022 are:

Title	Type	Filmmaker
Susan	Documentary Feature	Amber Patee
Intent 2 Win	Fiction Feature	Dontai Keith
Family Story	TV,Web or New Media	Joel Clark
Scintilla	Fiction Short	Laura Valtorta
Who the Hell Is Johnny Otis?	Documentary Feature	David Ziegler
SOL	Fiction Short	Taylor Leigh
Miss-Diagnosed	Documentary Short	Yvonne Montoya
The Book Keepers	Documentary Feature	Phil Wall
Dog Walk Home	Documentary Feature	Vicki Topaz
The Sound of Hope	Documentary Feature	Emanuele Michetti
Stronghold	Fiction Feature	Julia Camara
Angels and Saints – Eros and Awe	Documentary Feature	Vic Compher
The Cemetery of Cinema	Documentary Feature	Maud Martin
More Than Our Skin	Documentary Feature	Tonia Magras
Serena	Documentary Feature	Gillian Zinser
Staten Island Graveyard	Documentary Feature	Heather Quinlan
Food Synergy	Documentary Feature	Vivian Davidson
The Insurance Man	Fiction Feature	Alex Lage
Revelations of Divine Love	Fiction Feature	Caroline Golum
Dear Luke, Love, Me	Fiction Feature	Mallie McCown
Trusted Sources	Documentary Feature	Don Calacino
Orchestrated: Ignatz Waghalter and the Negro Symphony Orchestra	Documentary Feature	Natalia Iyudin
Prison Park	Documentary Feature	Juliet Belmas
Zero Hour	Documentary Feature	Cristina Hanes
Community in Conflict: The Santa Fe internment Camp Marker	Documentary Short	Claudia Katayanagi
Last Time On Earth	Fiction Feature	Paromita Dhar
King Luck	Documentary Feature	Emile Graham-Handley
Voice From Behind the Glass	Documentary Feature	Gloria Kurnik
Rolling Chairs	Documentary Feature	David Goodman
Vision of the Ages	Documentary Feature	Chief Phil Lane
Ducey	Fiction Short	Calvin Dutton
The Long Rescue	Documentary Feature	Jennifer Huang
Disposable Humanity	Documentary Short	Cameron Mitchell
Portraits in Black: Honoring Our National Treasures	Fiction Short	Monda Webb
Salsa, A Caribbean Swing (Salsa, un tumbao caribeño)	Documentary Feature	Beni Marquez
Slab City	Documentary Feature	Lauren Vance

About the Roy W. Dean Grant

Now celebrating its 30^th year, the Roy W. Dean Grant has awarded over $2,000,000 in cash and donated film services to independent films. The grant is awarded to films budgeted under $500,000 that are unique and make a contribution to society. It has been an important lifeline for independent filmmakers that help to get their projects started or finished. Without assistance from the grant, many excellent and important films may never have been made.

About From The Heart Productions

Your Beliefs Are Your Greatest Asset

Posted on June 18, 2022 by Richard Kaufman

If you believe you can or if you believe you can’t, your right! – Henry Ford

by Carole Dean

If you think you can’t fund your film or that you will have a hard time funding your film, then you can’t

If you think you can fund your film, then you can.

Beliefs

It is that simple and it all starts with our beliefs. It’s the beliefs that we carry in our mind. We have been creating beliefs since we were children, and we constantly defend these decisions.

Most of us don’t know we have these belief systems running inside us. Most do not know why we created these beliefs but we’re still hanging on to them and our subconsciousness is daily defending these outworn concepts.

If you have carried some things that have caused you to lose self-confidence, then it’s important you recognize this because you can be your own worst enemy.

Review Your Beliefs About Money

If you’re having problems raising money for your film perhaps you should consider, “what are your beliefs about money?”

It is very important for you to believe that you can raise the funding for your project. If you don’t feel it’s possible then no one can help you. It’s up to you to change how you think.

Bruce Lipton is one of my favorite biologists/authors. He says that we have acquired many restrictions on ourselves during our youth that are based on the structure of our lives at that time.

Using Bruce Lipton’s concepts if you put two people raised in different income homes, in the same room, they would see their potential in totally different ways.

For example, if you had a funding party and in the room is a young filmmaker who grew up wealthy in Beverly Hills along with a young filmmaker who grew up disadvantaged in East Los Angeles, the Beverly Hills filmmaker will see money everywhere while the other filmmaker will feel he/she doesn’t belong.

These are based on negative beliefs acquired while young so you may have some of these beliefs and not even know it. The question is what do you do? How do you change these negative or limiting beliefs?

Take an Inventory of Beliefs

You might make a list of your beliefs about money and success. By doing this you, might pull up some stored beliefs that no longer suit you or that are totally inappropriate for you.

We know that the contents of the subconscious mind are very important to us. If the subconscious has acquired beliefs like “it’s hard to make money,” or “it’s hard to raise money,” or “it’s hard to find the budget for the film,” then you can expect those things to come true because that is your belief system.

Bruce Lipton claims that beliefs control human biology rather than DNA and inheritance. That is a powerful statement.

Realizing You Need a New Mindset

While I was touring the world with my book The Art of Film Funding, I found people who had their mind set about funding. They seem to fall into two categories, totally opposite each other.

There were those people who said, “Oh I know I can fund this film. Or those that were totally negative with statements like, “it’s very hard to raise money for films.” This is why I wrote the book, The Art of Manifesting: Creating your future. It’s your beliefs that create your future.

And I often hear: “They have cut the grants and now it’s really hard to win a grant.” They have been cutting grants for 30 years that I know of! However, we still have thousands of grants in the United States available and believe me we have a tremendous amount of people winning grants so why shouldn’t that be you?

When you look at it from this point of view it seems that it should be easy to change your belief system. However, once your subconscious mind has accepted an idea, whether true or not, it will continually feed your thoughts to support that belief.

Changing the Way You Think

Often, we are not encountering resistance from outside sources but from ourselves. If we can accept new beliefs and support them to the extent that our subconscious mind accepts them, then we can create a new reality for ourselves.

The secret to overcoming our belief system, seems to be the ability to recognize that it exists and that we are the one that needs to change the way we think.

Let’s take one of the most our most important things in filmmaking, film funding.

What if you start saying, “people love my film?” Perhaps you talk to some people about your film and get feedback so that you can honestly say to yourself, “people love my film.” Funding my film is easy. Say this in the present tense not future tense.

Going to Bed with Thoughts of Success

The next thing is to believe that it will be easy to fund your film.

To get to that confidence in your ability to raise funds for your film, I suggest the information given by Neville Goddard about the way to reach the subconscious mind and change beliefs.

What he taught us was the fact that the conscious mind is the only way to reach the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind believes everything the conscious mind says.

Knowing this, then consider going to bed at night with a vision of you pitching your film to someone.

This can be an over the shoulder shot where you can see the person you are pitching, and they are listening and nodding and smiling. You feel very confident, in fact it is fun to pitch your film, you are full of passion about your film.

You’re watching this person intently listening to you and then they hand you a check. What’s the amount? You pick the amount. Make it something that is an extraordinary donation for you.

Experience the joy of this moment. Feel the confidence you have from pitching and being rewarded.

Filling Your Subconscious with Confidence

This will instill confidence in the subconscious that you can raise money and your thought at that time that is, “raising money for my film is easy.”

By doing this you’re allowing new information to go into the subconscious mind; you are reprogramming the subconscious mind with the concept that you can raise money and that, “it is easy to raise money.”

Please keep doing this up at night before you go to sleep. Keep creating short films for the conscious mind to play for the unconscious mind to rebuild your belief system.

Carole Dean is president and founder of From the Heart Productions; a 501(c)3 non-profit that offers the Roy W. Dean Film Grants and fiscal sponsorship for independent filmmakers. She hosts the weekly podcast, The Art of Film Funding, interviewing those involved in all aspects of indie film production. She is also the author of The Art of Film Funding, 2nd Edition: Alternative Financing Concepts. See IMDB for producing credits

Creating Your Future With Your Thoughts

Posted on June 18, 2022 by Richard Kaufman

After reading many books on the power of the mind, it is clear that we are much more powerful than we believe

By Carole Dean

We’ve never been taught how to use the power of our minds. It is our most valuable tool in guiding us through life, but did you ever see a class on it in high school? Or a college course on creating your future? Or learning how to use the power of thought? No, they just don’t teach this in schools.

Believe that you are creating your future with your thoughts.

When you look at filmmakers like Spike Lee, Scorsese and Spielberg you wonder what is the common thread. What did they do to become so famous? We know they’re highly talented, but what did they do to propel themselves to their destiny?

They used the power of their mind.

Each knew they were talented and believed in themselves. They studied their craft daily. They put their attention on creating the future they want.

There are some great techniques using the power of the mind that filmmakers can use to achieve success.

Watch Your Thoughts

Believe that you are creating your future with your thoughts. Watch your thoughts so that they’re full of the future you want, not what you don’t want. Believe that thoughts are energy bundles waiting to manifest.

Edit what you think. Stay positive. Watch your thoughts and believe they are manifestors. That each thought is waiting to manifest.

Give more attention to your thoughts, in fact get in control and even “edit” your thoughts. Use your creativity to carve out that future just like you would write a script. Why not?

Take Spike Lee. His grandmother told him from an early age that he would go to college. As he was growing up, he saw her each month put aside money for his education. She assured him that he could do anything he wanted. Spike chose film. Don’t you think he was daydreaming about making films? Sure, he was.

Don’t Dismiss Your Daydreams

Daydreaming is a form of creating your future. Remember how you daydreamed what you wanted for your birthday and you got it? Well, that’s something you can continue to do. You can see your future and daydream about it. Pretend you have the future you want. See yourself living it. Feel yourself on the set directing, producing, loving every minute.

Do not succumb to “where will the money come from? How can I do this?”

You didn’t let the “Where” or the “How” get into your wish for the bicycle you wanted. That was not important. You just saw yourself riding the bike. That’s the same thing you want to do now.

Just cut to the chase. See yourself on the set, see yourself at the premier and most important see yourself getting a coveted award for your film! Yes, create the vision of the future you want then feel it, believe it, and know in your heart this is your future.

Now you have renewed vigor to get up each day and keep developing your project. It can become part of you. It is not a dream; it is a reality.

Let the Child in You Be Your Advisor

This very moment is the time to sit down and book 15 minutes a day for daydreaming time. Yes! Let Google remind you that it is time to turn off your cell, get into a nice quiet place, sit up straight, quiet your mind then start living the future you want by daydreaming.

You are a filmmaker so create stories of how you find the world’s greatest director of photography who can do incredible shots for you. Stories of how you attached the best actors and what joy that brought to you and your crew.

Use your daydreaming time to bring your film to life. Find that child within and let it loose. Let the child in you become your advisor, your advocate.

The best filmmakers on the planet let their little child create their future. It has an unencumbered belief system that all things are possible and believe me, they are!

Using Dreams to Help Fund and Finish Your Film!

Posted on June 18, 2022 by Richard Kaufman

Dreams will tell you when you are stuck, what you’re missing, and where you need to go

By Carole Dean

Carl Jung said, “Dreams will show you where you are and where you are going. They reveal your destiny.”

Using Dreams to Help Fund

In our bi-monthly Film Funding Guidance class for our fiscally sponsored filmmakers, we are now discussing John Kehoe’s best-selling book, Mind Power: In To The 21st Century. John explains how empowering our dreams can be.

Did you know that the oldest written record of dream interpretation is found in the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh recorded on clay tablets in 3000 BC?

“What makes dreams so interesting,” John writes, “is that dreams are where the conscious and the subconscious meet, where the images of day-to-day living encounter the hidden wisdom of the subconscious.”

Dreams Can Help You Find Solutions.

Nobel Prize winner doctor James Watson discovered the properties of the DNA molecule from a dream. He saw two snakes intertwining by wrapping around one another. Upon awakening, he realized that this might be what is happening in the DNA. Perhaps, he thought, it was a double Helix twisting around itself and he was right.

John Kehoe has been analyzing and studying his dreams for years. He believes that his dreams are like a personal wisdom which speaks to him.

Studies show that we dream an average of five to seven times a night. Whether you remember them or not, you are dreaming.

John suggests that we program our mind to say before we go to sleep, “tonight I will dream, and I will remember my dream.” If you repeat this to yourself 20 times before you go to sleep, he says there would be very good chance that you will remember your dream.

Next, he recommends you place a pad of paper and a pen by your night table so that you are demonstrating that you are waiting for your dreams, and you are prepared to acknowledge them and write them down.

You might also use an old handheld tape recorder that you could just turn on and punch a button and start talking without having to get up. This is the most important part, to remember what you dreamt. Be right there in the dream so you can get every nuance, any colors, any faces, any symbols, as these matter.

Learn to Interpret What Your Subconscious is Saying in the Dream.

When you wake up from your dream, don’t jump out of bed, stay still and as your consciousness returns. This is in between time and it is very valuable. It’s the crack between the two worlds, your consciousness and dream state, so stay there and observe it carefully.

Try to bring as much back as possible piece by piece. When you get a part of the dream, rerun the dream in your mind several times adding detail each time. Then, write it down or record it. Now you can start interpreting it.

When you’re start interpreting your dreams you want to think of yourself as an archaeologist digging up clues. You are researching and want to know what’s going on inside you. You want to find these relics and interpret what they mean to you because most of your dreams are not going to make a lot of sense. They may seem like nonsense or some foreign language.

When you persist in thinking about your dreams and try to relate them to your own life, you will have a breakthrough and find what the dream really means to you. John says to remember that the dream used the vocabulary of symbols and allegory to convey the message. He says symbols are to intuition what words are to thoughts.

The language of dreams is more like art and poetry than linguistics. The reason for this that is that this part of your conscious mind predates language.

Once you realize that the dreams are messages from your subconscious and start thinking about how your subconscious wants to show you something about yourself, then this can become a lot of fun.

Dream Analysists Say Dreams are Always About You and Your Circumstances.

Dreams will tell you when you are stuck and what you are avoiding. They can tell you what you’re missing, what you’re ignoring, and they can tell you where you need to go.

95% of the time all the characters, creatures, monsters, and stuff in your dreams represents aspects of yourself. For dream interpretation, please realize that all the people in your dream are you.

An actress friend of mine who studied with a dream therapist for years taught me that. The only exceptions would be if you recognize children or parents or coworkers in your dream. Then, they could be real or they could be another part of you.

John says that a nightmare could be your subconscious trying to shock you into looking at some aspect of your life. Saying to you, “look at this, it’s urgent!”

Dreams that repeat are messages trying to break through. Once you interpret them, they will stop. You keep having them because your subconscious is trying to get its message through.

Here are Some Techniques to Interpret Your Dreams.

Give the dream a name. Or a title. Let your intuition come up with something to name the dream because then that title might give you some clues.

Go back to the dream. Find a quiet spot to think and be sure there are no phones or interruptions. Sit quietly, close your eyes, recreate the dream in your mind now put yourself in the dream and see how you would react.

Example, if you had a dream that you were driving a car recklessly on a curved road, you might put yourself back in that dream behind the wheel and begin to ask yourself questions like, why are you driving so fast? Are you getting away from something? Are you rushing to get someone? Is this good? See what answers you can get from yourself. And you can react any way you want in the dream now that you’re in it. You could slow the car down and feel into this situation. You could decide if you were running away from something or recklessly driving to save someone.

Break your dream down into acts. What is act one? What is the situation and who are you? What is act 2? What is the trouble? What is act 3, the resolution? Ask yourself how you feel in each act in the dream. Feelings are a major information source in dreams. Example, do you feel relieved, confident, terrified, threatened?

What are the symbols in each act that can help you decipher the reason you are driving recklessly?

Perhaps you felt relieved when you took the wheel in the dream and slowed the car down to a reasonable speed. Perhaps you have lost control of some situation in your life. That could be the meaning of the dream. Or it could be that you were trying to get away from something that bothered you. And now your job is to find out what is bothering you that you want to get away from.

Analyzing Your Dreams Can Greatly Benefit You.

You may be able to figure this out quickly if you are open to receiving shocking or sometimes unpleasant news from yourself about your life. Dream interpretation takes focus and so don’t be surprised if you can only decipher 30% of your dreams. You are doing quite well if you can interpret this much of your dreams. Your success will increase as you work on dream interpretation, it is something you can learn.

Don’t be afraid to give time to the analysis of your dream because it is a wonderful way for you to give you important advice. It’s a wonderful way for you to face what you’re not facing in your day-to-day reality.

Going back to the dream of driving recklessly, perhaps you find that you are trying to get away from something. With questions you may find that perhaps you hired a cinematographer that is not the right person and rather than face replacing him/her you’re running away from it.

If you take control of the car in your dream and decide to turn around and go back to where you came from you may be able to find answers. Perhaps by going back you find that you were running away from a decision that you made that was wrong and you need to face it and resolve the situation.

Dreams can be this beneficial. This is a wonderful way to talk to your subconscious. The subconscious is trying to talk to you.

When you stop and listen, magnificent things can happen

You Need to “Feel It” to Achieve It

Posted on April 24, 2022 by Richard Kaufman

It’s not enough to visualize yourself succeeding, you need to seed those visualizations with emotions

by Carole Dean

In our Film Funding Guidance Class for our fiscally sponsored filmmakers, we’re currently reviewing the book, Mind Power by John Kehoe. The book teaches us about the power of visualizations in achieving success and how to apply them in your life.

visualize success

John believes that one of the secrets to achieving success is to visualize everything that would or could happen to you and live as if it really is happening. You should see yourself in situations that normally give you difficulty.

In this visualization, you should see yourself at ease confident and performing well. You might picture your friends and associates complimenting you, congratulating you on your newfound confidence.

“Seeding” Your Visualizations

“Seeding” is adding feelings. Feelings with visuals are like movies with soundtracks. They are more passionate, more emotional and contain lots of good energy.

You should visualize your success using emotions like completion, pride, confidence, enthusiasm, and most importantly, faith. Faith that this will happen, faith that your future belongs to you, and faith that you will successfully manifest your vision.

Remember the film, Bruce Almighty, when Jim Carrey was God and prayers were yellow post its? He would find his room full of those yellow post it’s each morning. Then he would go to work answering prayers. I think that seeding them with emotions would turn the post its from yellow into hot pink so they would stand out.

Emotions are powerful. Please be sure to use emotions when you are visualizing. Send your visions to the universe with tons of “feeling.”

Shakespeare said “My words fly up; my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” Shakespeare knew that you had to have “feelings” with thoughts to bring you the future you want.

Visualize Your Pitch Presentation Before You Pitch.

A few days before you go to pitch your film, you should take the time to start visualizing your meeting. See yourself in an over the shoulder shot. You are pitching your film. Your potential donor is smiling and nodding their head like they’re enjoying and receiving the information you’re sending.

See yourself with pride, enthusiasm, and confidence. You should take this into your meditation and visualize the outcome you want with emotions. Please remember how powerful emotions are and put a lot of emotion in this visualization.

You should be prepared for them to ask you questions. I want you to feel very proud of yourself because you have the answers. To do this, you want to know what your budget is and be able to defend it. You want to know where this film will be distributed. You want to explain where this donor or investor will see your film.

See Your Future and Claim It.

Be fully prepared for all kinds of questions and be totally confident that you will get funded. Live with that belief; that you have what you want.

You need to “feel” successful, to “feel confident.” Let these feelings be part of your vision.

Remember, all we have is the present. Do not say, “I will have,” that puts it in the future. Please pretend it is real this very moment. You are living your dream. You are living with the life you want to live in your mind. Keep that thought as present not future.

In Mind Power, the author tells us how important affirmations are. He is reminding us that our statements and our constant belief in our achievements are important to us.

“Affirmations,” he says, “are simple statements repeated to yourself silently or aloud. You can do them anywhere, like, in your car, waiting in the doctor’s office, while you are walking, when you are lying in bed before you go to sleep.”

Affirmation’s Work!

With affirmations, you are influencing the thoughts in your mind and filling your mind with thoughts that support your goal.

John suggests when you’re doing your affirmations that you have to be consistent. You want to keep your affirmations going until you have achieved what you are affirming.

I suggest that you use the powerful two words “I am” and start with things like:

I am an award-winning filmmaker.
I am fully funded.
I am having a lot of fun making my film.
I am getting weekly donations.
I am receiving surprise donations.
All the mental work that I am sending to the universe brings me money from sources I never expected.
I am fully funded.

He suggests you keep your affirmation short, and I fully agree. Use things like:

I am healthy
I am wealthy
I am happy

I love these affirmations because they will get you through any day with lots of joy.

“I Am the Greatest” Worked for Muhammad Ali. It Will Work for You Too!

This is where we need to remember and not to make statements against ourselves like oh, I never do that right.

I’m so sorry I always get it wrong.

I’m a disaster.

These are things you should remove totally out of your vocabulary.

“I am” are the two most powerful words in the dictionary. Especially when used to create your future because they will bring you what you want.

Love Yourself.

We are very quick to see our failures and not our success. John says that when we get successes, we are happy for a few days and then we go back into forgetting our successes.

Let’s make a point of remembering our successes. Let’s reuse that success energy from past achievements again and again and expect very positive results.

For example, let’s suppose you wanted to get into a Film Festival and succeeded. Even if it was three years ago, think about that energy that you felt when you received the notification you had been accepted. That’s the energy you want around you. You want to keep bringing that up that wonderful memory of acceptance and support.

When you get great compliments or when people give you wonderful feedback, please live on that for a weeks. Take it inside you and feel it. Enjoy it.

Let All the Positive Stuff You Hear Stay with You.

You need to be in the place where you feel that you deserve the donation. Be in the place where you know that you have a brilliant project. Where you know that you will complete the project.

By feeling these things and having them as part of your DNA you become the perfect person to give a donation. That’s what people are looking for. They want to support a winner, a creative, they want to support you.

It’s your job to show them you are that creative, that brilliant artist and you deserve to be funded.

When You Are in My Aura; You are Reading My Mind!

People start picking up your thoughts when they get inside your aura and your aura stands 6 feet from your body. When you sit next to someone to talk to them even if you had a table between you, it would probably still be within six feet. You would be in a place where they can read you and they will know how confident you are.

That’s where they start making decisions. They make decisions from their “inner feelings” about you. UCLA Professor Mehrabian, analyzing what makes a successful pitch, said in his research: that only 7% of what you say affects their decision making. 55% of the decision-making process is based on how you walk, how you talk, how you carry yourself, how much confidence you have.

Did you look them in the eye? Are you positive in your statements? Do you sit up straight? Are you a happy person? Are you excited and enthused about your project? Answer “no” to any of those questions and you probably failed on your pitch.

38% of the decision-making process is your voice, how enthusiastic your voice is, and this is most important because people are reading these signals. If you show any depression and uncertainty or lack of knowledge, if your voice quavers, you are creating a feeling of uncertainty.

Watch how you talk. You do not want to say “you know” you do not want to use eeerrr or ahhhhs. These are the things that work against you. The voice and the things you say are 38% of the decision-making process.

You Can See that the Most Important Thing to Work on is You.

You are the film. Shore up your belief in you. You need full self-confidence to close a donation, to get that discount or to hire that person you want.

Ok, you may be thinking, wow, Carole, this is a lot to do. Yes, I know it is but let’s look at the benefits.

Joseph Campbell says: “When you are on the right path, invisible hands will come to your aid.” That’s the prize you get. Don’t try to figure it out. Don’t ask how, just know it will happen.

This is the most important part of creating your future, faith. Your faith must be relentless.

Recipe for Film Funding Success

Posted on April 24, 2022 by Richard Kaufman

As shown in the new HBO Max Julia Child Series, the ingredients to achieving your goals include a burning desire and belief in yourself

by Carole Dean

I love the film reviews in the New Yorker magazine. Recently they had a review on a new series on HBO Max on Julia Child. It told of her extraordinary rise from a humble housewife who had written a cookbook to the crown jewel of PBS programming slate.

film funding success

Every night my daughter Carole Joyce and our friend Tommy Adams and I watch a movie. I thought this film would be something they wouldn’t like so I started watching it by myself. I found it to be lots of fun and now all of us are watching it.

What is clear from this series is that Julia Child created her future. She wanted that television show. She made it happen.

And the tools she used are available to you to achieve film funding success and get your film made.

Cook Something Up.

It all started when she was invited to go on the PBS station WGBH in Boston to be interviewed for her cookbook. At the interview, Julia walked on to the set with a shopping bag full of stuff and plopped it down next to her chair. When the well-known book intellectual, who was appalled at having to interview her asked the first question, Julia started unpacking her bag.

She promptly crawled on the floor with her rear facing us while she plugged in a hot plate. Then, she began to make an omelet for everyone to see how simple it was.

By doing this, she stole the show.

Ask For What You Want.

This interview happened because a WGBH associate producer at the bottom of the production ladder somehow found Julia and invited her on the show. After this interview, Julia took the initiative and wrote this producer and proposed a cooking show.

That associate producer knew she could have a hit show with Julia. After all, Julia’s impressive creation of a three-egg omelet on camera had generated 13 letters to WGBH from people saying they loved Julia. The associate producer took the letters into a meeting and began pitching a Julia Childs show. She said that the mandate for WGBH was education, and a cooking show would be perfect for them.

The head of WGBH liked Julia and asked the head producer to run the numbers for what it would cost to do a show with her. The head producer did, invited Julia back, and told her it was too expensive for them.

“No, sorry,” she told Julia, “We can’t do the show.”

Julia replied, “Looking like I do, has taught me to never take no for an answer.”

That “no” was the beginning of a negotiation for Julia! What determination that shows us, right?

That’s a good lesson for all of us. Had she not sat there and talked this out with the top producer she would never have gotten that show.

Be Bold and Go for It!

When the producer explained that he said no because of the enormous cost of building a set with a working kitchen, Julia Child said, “I’ll pay for that set if you will do the show. In fact, I’ll pay for the whole show.”

This changed WGBH’s mind. She was set for one show. Now, the problem was that when she agreed to pay for the kitchen set, she did not even look at the budget for the amount.

Once out of the meeting, she saw the cost. She realized that she did not have enough money.

Get Creative Finding Funding.

Even though her father was very rich, she had to do cooking classes on the side. She had to use her cookbook income and still she was in the hole for money.

She told her female friends how much she wanted to cook on TV, and they rallied around and helped her.

To achieve this show, Julia, like all of you found creative ways to get the money. You do the same thing. You find people who love you and love your film and they give you their heart and minds. Right?

The astonishing thing is that Julia didn’t own a TV set. When she went to buy one, the HBO Max series showed Julia standing in front of 20 television sets in a store. Each TV had a different program on them.

As Julia stood there, she began to see herself on TV. Soon, every TV in the store had Julia Child on it.

Send Your Visions to the Universe.

This is the visualization that I discuss with our fiscally sponsored filmmakers in our Film Funding Guidance Class. Our job is to teach you how to visualize to create your future. This is exactly what it takes to create your future.

Julia took the initiative. She wrote the letter she saying she wanted to do a TV show to teach Americans how to cook like the French. She did not take no for an answer. This was her vision; and she was relentless in getting that first show made so much so that WGBH came on board.

Remember, she had to learn how to cook for the camera. She had to learn how to stand in front of hot lights, be original, humorous, and keep our attention while she beat eggs or stirred her cakes. Although she made mistakes, that was the best part of the show. She was human!

She captured us with her honesty. Everyone quotes her for saying, “You are all alone in the kitchen. No one but you knows what goes on.”

We saw chicken parts flying across the room and flambés light up like a three-alarm fire. We saw her cut herself and keep on going while she was bleeding all over the WGBH kitchen.

That’s when Dan Ackroyd began to mimic her on Saturday Night Live. Her career took off like a NASA rocket to the moon.

I found this HBO film, Julia, to be empowering. It is a true representative of what it takes to be an independent filmmaker.

It takes talent and tons of guts. Never give up is a good mantra for all indie filmmakers!

Stuart Harmon Wins Carole Joyce Award for Excellence in Documentary Storytelling

Posted on March 29, 2022 by Richard Kaufman

Documentary “Hangtown” Examines the Problematic History of California Gold Rush Through the Eyes of Three Women Fighting for Their Identities and Communities

Still from “Hangtown”

From the Heart Productions, a top-rated non-profit dedicated to helping independent filmmakers fund their projects, is pleased to announce that Director Stuart Harmon has won the second Carole Joyce Award for Excellence in Documentary Storytelling for his documentary “Hangtown”.

The Carole Joyce Award for Excellence in Documentary Storytelling is awarded to a film submitted to the Roy W. Dean Film Grant and selected as a finalist. The filmmaker will receive $2,500 to help him continue work on this film.

“Stuart’s film is timely and powerful,” commented Carole Dean, president of From the Heart Productions. “He has done a fabulous job of weaving these stories together from a divided community.”

About the Film

“Hangtown,” a documentary film in production, asks some of the most pressing questions around white supremacy in America today, revealing the challenges small towns must face when grappling with a contentious past.

For generations, the noose scrawled on the city seal and swaying effigy in Placerville, CA was a symbol of pride by locals and a kitschy tourist landmark for those headed to Lake Tahoe. Legend has it that the mostly white, former gold mining town’s moniker “Hangtown” came after three outlaws were hung during the Gold Rush for robbing a saloon in 1849 – the first “official” execution in California’s history – and the community’s ethos has been wrapped around the notion of frontier justice ever since.

Drive down main street and you’ll find scores of businesses named “Hangtown.” Hanging contests used to be a favored pastime at summer festivals and nooses adorned the school basketball gym. The area has staked its entire identity on the noose.

But that’s all changed in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. Lizzie Dubose, a 26 year-old struggling college student and one of the few Black residents of the town, has mobilized a team of activists to target the iconography in the fight for racial justice. To her the noose represents more than mining lore – it’s a symbol of white supremacy and perpetuates a false narrative about “law and order” in the American west.

The activists liken their battle to the removal of Confederate monuments across the South and have led weekly protests, the likes of which have never happened in the bucolic town. Their efforts also spark a deeper look into the problematic history of African Americans during the Gold Rush by descendants of the original pioneers.

About the Filmmaker

Carole Joyce Award Stuart Harmon is an award-winning director and producer. He’s produced a wide range of documentary and television projects for PBS, A&E, VICE, New York Times, Fusion, CNN, MTV, and several other networks and outlets. His short film for the NY Times titled “Guns to Gloves” is one of their top viewed documentaries, garnering over 10 million views across several platforms.

He also shot a harrowing TV documentary about the female FARC guerillas of Columbia for the Emmy-nominated VICELAND series “Woman.” His first feature documentary film THE MONEY STONE won the Roy W. Dean Film Grant. It premiered on BBC Africa, won Best Documentary at the Black Star International Film Festival and was given glowing reviews by the BBC and The Boston Globe. Most recently he was nominated for a Deadline Club award for his work with The Intercept and received a fellowship with the Logan Nonfiction Program.

About the Roy W. Dean Grant

Past winners of the grant include the Emmy winning Mia: A Dancer’s Journey, 2019 Sundance Film Festival selection Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins, Emmy winner and Peabody Award nominee Belly of the Beast, as well as the acclaimed documentary Kusama-Infinity.

Previous winner of the Carole Joyce Award for Excellence in Documentary Storytelling was Alexandra Hildago for A Family of Stories.

About From the Heart Productions

From The Heart Productions is a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to helping filmmakers get their projects funded and made. Besides providing funding through the grant, they offer film fiscal sponsorship to filmmakers. This allows donations made to films they sponsor to be tax deductible. From The Heart has helped independent filmmakers raise over $30 million through its fiscal sponsorship program. President Carole Dean is the best-selling author of The Art of Film Funding: 2^nd Edition, Alternative Financing Concepts and the new online class “How to Fund Your Film”.

Final 2021 Britt Penrod Award Won by Fiction Feature “Separation”

Posted on March 26, 2022 by Richard Kaufman

Kurdish Filmmaker Receives Award for a Film That is Unique and That Makes an Exceptional Contribution to Society

From the Heart Productions , the top-rated non-profit dedicated to helping indie filmmakers get their films funded, has selected Producer/Director/Writer Hasan Demirtas as winner of Britt Penrod Award for his feature “Separation”.

The award goes to a project was submitted to the Roy W. Dean Film Grant for Fall of 2021 and selected as a finalist. Hassan will receive a $750 prize that will help support his effort in completing this film.

Britt Penrod Award

“This is a great filmmaker who is tremendously dedicated to finishing this touching story,” said Carole Dean, President of From the Heart Productions.

“Separation,” tells the story of Grandfather Hamit who lives in Eastern Turkey in a village in the Kurdish region. Grandfather Hamit is a venerable person for the villagers because of his knowledge about health treatments. Hamit’s wife died years ago, but he still daily visits her grave. Grandfather Hamit’s son Mehmet and his family, live with Hamit.

The political situation goes bad in Eastern Turkey because a group of Kurdish people rebel against the Turkish government. The government’s rules get worse and the Kurdish language and culture is banned. The government gives two choices to villagers. Join the Turkish army or leave their villages.

For Hamit, that would mean leaving his wife’s grave that he has visited every day for 5 years.

About the Filmmaker

Britt Penrod Award Hasan Demirtas received his BA from Marmara University in Istanbul. His short films won awards from film festivals and participated in international Film Festivals including the Cannes Film Festival and Oscar Academy Award Qualifying Film Festival, 42nd Atlanta Film Festival, Atlanta, USA.

Demirtas graduated from Northwestern University with a Documentary Media MFA. His first documentary You Name It participated in many Film Festivals including Treasure Coast Film Festival in the USA, the International TV Broadcasters and Independent Producers Festival SIMFEST in Romania, and Thessaloniki Documentary Festival Marketing. You Name It received Best Documentary Feature film from Collected Voices Film Festival in the USA.

About the Britt Penrod Award

The award is presented to a finalist for the 2021 Roy W. Dean Grants. It goes to a film is unique and makes an exceptional contribution to society. The Britt Penrod Award was made possible by a donation from longtime friend of 501(c)3 non-profit From the Heart Productions and the Roy W. Dean Grants, Britt Penrod. Results of the award have no bearing on the eventual winner of any of the Roy W. Dean Grants.

Winners for 2021 include the documentary 26 Seconds, the short film The Fog Catcher, and The Bridge Ministry.

Britt is president of Giant Entertainment & Management Inc. (G.E.M.) is a Los Angeles based Film & Television Studio design and development company with in depth experience in the United States, Europe and Asia.

G.E.M. delivers knowledgeable business foundations to Studio development projects that include; Market Analysis, Site Planning, Operating Financial Evaluation, Construction, MEP & Value Engineering, Start-up of Operations and ongoing Management Services for stage-based entertainment properties.

About the Roy W. Dean Grant

Now in its 30^th year, the Roy W. Dean Grant has awarded over $2,000,000 in cash and donated film services to independent films. The grant is awarded to films budgeted under $500,000 that are unique and that make a contribution to society. It has been an important lifeline for independent filmmakers that help to get their projects started or finished. Without assistance from the grant, many excellent and important films may never have been made.

Past winners of the grant include new Emmy Winners Belly of the Beast and The Love Bugs, 2019 Sundance Film Festival selection Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins, as well as acclaimed documentary Kusama-Infinity.

About From the Heart Productions

From The Heart Productions is a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to helping filmmakers get their projects funded and made. Besides providing funding through the grant, they offer film fiscal sponsorship to filmmakers. This allows donations made to films they sponsor to be tax deductible. From The Heart has helped independent filmmakers raise over $30 million through it’s fiscal sponsorship program. President Carole Dean is the best-selling author of The Art of Film Funding: 2^nd Edition, Alternative Financing Concepts and the new online class “How to Fund Your Film”.

For More Information and interview requests, please contact:

Richard Kaufman

richard@fromtheheartproductions.com

www.fromtheheartproductions.com

“Generation Nerd Girl” Wins Roy W. Dean Film Grant

Posted on March 26, 2022 by Richard Kaufman

Character-Driven Feature Documentary Explores Why Record Number of Young Women are Entering STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and Its Impact

Awarded to a film that is unique and makes a contribution to society, the final Roy W. Dean Film Grant of 2021 goes to the documentary Generation Nerd Girl. Presented four times each year by From the Heart Productions, the top-rated non-profit dedicated to helping indie filmmakers get their films funded and completed, the Roy W. Dean Film Grant provides the winner with cash and production services. Producer/Director Karen Johnson and Producer/Writer Bobette Buster will use the grant to help them continue production on their project.

“Karen and Bobette have been researching this film for years. They are passionate and determined to empower women with information on how to get into these fields.” commented Carole Dean, President of From the Heart Productions. “This is just what women need, encouragement and guidance to break through in these high paying jobs.”

In addition to the $3,000 in cash provided by From the Heart Productions the winner will also receive $15,000.00 in original music written by well-known composer David Raikle n, $6,000.00 in animation from Emmy award winner Charlie Canfield, $700 one week DSLR camera package rental from Birns & Sawyer , and more from heart-felt film industry companies and individuals.

About the Film

Generation Nerd Girl is a character-driven feature documentary exploring the exciting generational change taking place for women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) through the lens of one of its bold leaders – Dr. Karen Panetta, Dean of Graduate Education for the School of Engineering at Tufts University and a 2011 Winner of the Presidential Award for Excellence in STEM Mentoring.

The film looks at the history of women in STEM, Dean Panetta’s exceptional vision and mentoring, handling many career challenges in her 20+ years of work to change the opportunities for her mentees, along with other factors contributing to this generational change.

Though recent data from LinkedIn’s millions of platform members shows women are now entering STEM careers in record numbers, Dr. Panetta is focused on the deeper systemic changes that still need to take place to generate lasting change. She has been a bridge to the change, having taught and mentored hundreds of young women from all over the world, encouraging them to pursue and persist in undergraduate and graduate STEM studies and careers.

The importance of this shift towards STEM careers can’t be overstated for the difference it makes in the lives of these women and our greater world. Women in STEM have earnings 105 percentage points higher than women in non-STEM. Many key industries are still nowhere near parity in opportunities for women and BIPOC men. It could take far more generations, if focus is not kept on systemic changes and keep the momentum and awareness going forward now.

A diverse STEM workforce promotes new innovations and solutions that might never come forth, but for the unique lived experiences of women and other underrepresented groups. Dean Panetta is most proud of the outstanding accomplishments of her many mentees working in a wide range of STEM careers, as well as forging new roles as entrepreneurs, environmental evangelists, and technology futurists.

Generation Nerd Girl will show the challenges and perseverance it took for Dean Panetta to break through endemic sexism and will explore the teaching and mentoring insights she specifically developed to help open the path to STEM success for young women and girls. In the process, she also extended the same techniques and opportunities to BIPOC men who have experienced many of the same challenges as women in STEM. Interviews and archival material will introduce some of Dean Panetta’s mentees and highlight the impact of their career choices on their lives and the lives of others.

Producer/Director Karen Johnson has been drawn to the subject of women in STEM for many years after wondering why she never considered becoming a scientist or engineer as a young girl in spite of demonstrating a natural aptitude. What she discovered is that years of research indicates girls have historically lacked both role models to promote awareness of STEM opportunities and the encouragement to pursue them.

Even though great breakthroughs have been made, the STEM professions, and especially engineering, remain white male dominated. A greater bench of cultural support and broader understanding of how to encourage and mentor young women must be maintained to keep up the progress.

About the Filmmakers

Karen Johnson’s mission as a Producer for 20+ years has been to elevate women’s stories and women storytellers, specifically challenging the stereotypes of women and girls via the entertainment media. Generation Nerd Girl will be her directing debut.

With Co-Producer Bobette Buster and Director Midge Costin, they created the feature documentary Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound, which premiered at Cannes and Tribeca Film Festivals and is in distribution around the world.

Karen produced two films that have been awarded the Roy W. Dean Film Grant. She produced director Heather Lenz’s 2018 Sundance documentary feature Kusama: Infinity about the avant-garde Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, distributed domestically by Magnolia Pictures and worldwide by Dogwoof, Ltd. She also produced director Amanda Micheli’s multi-award-winning documentary feature Double Dare about Hollywood stuntwomen, an official selection of the Toronto International Film Festival, distributed worldwide by NBC/Universal.

Generation Nerd Girl Bobette Buster is the Special Projects Adj. Professor at Tufts University, teaching “Finding Your Voice in Science Communication.” She is the Writer/Producer of the feature documentary, Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound, with Karen Johnson and Midge Costin (Director) – 2019 premiers at Cannes, Tribeca, the BFI London Film Festival, and international festivals, earning many nominations and awards.

She is the author of DO STORY: How to Tell Your Story So the World Listens (Do Book Co.UK, 2013; Chronicle Books (US), now in its 13th printing (translated into five languages), and DO LISTEN: Understand What’s Really Being Said, Find A New Way Forwards, Do Book Co (UK) 2018; (translated in French, 2nd printing). lecture. Her TEDx Lecture, The Radical Act of Storytelling, has 250K+ views.

About the Roy W. Dean Grant

From it’s inception in 1992, the Roy W. Dean Grant has awarded over $2,000,000 in cash and donated film services to independent films. The grant is awarded to films budgeted under $500,000 that are unique and make a contribution to society. It has been an important lifeline for independent filmmakers that help to get their projects started or finished. Without assistance from the grant, many excellent and important films may never have been made.

Winners of the grant include recent Emmy Winners Belly of the Beast and The Love Bugs, the award winning narrative feature Cadejo Blanco, 2019 Sundance Film Festival selection Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins, the acclaimed documentary Kusama-Infinity.

About From The Heart Productions

From The Heart Productions is a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to helping filmmakers get their projects funded and made. Besides providing funding through the grant, they offer film fiscal sponsorship to filmmakers. This allows donations made to films they sponsor to be tax deductible. From The Heart has helped independent filmmakers raise over $30 million through it’s fiscal sponsorship program. President Carole Dean is the best-selling author of The Art of Film Funding: 2^nd Edition, Alternative Financing Concepts and the new online class “How to Fund Your Film”.

For More Information and interview requests, please contact:

Richard Kaufman

richard@fromtheheartproductions.com