As content creators ourselves, we understand what a long journey it can be to develop your own original ideas into successful projects. And we know how important it is to have the right forms of support along the way. There are not many organizations out there who are dedicated to helping emerging artists.

The Alliance for Family Entertainment who have been involved with getting such shows as “Gilmore Girls”, “Everybody Hates Chris” and “Friday Night Lights” on the air are sponsoring a FREE contest. (Full Disclosure: UC is involved with this project! YAY!) They’re looking for comedy screenplays having to do with the modern American family.

The winner will receive $5000, guidance and input from John Wells, whose work includes ER, Third Watch and The West Wing.

Dust off that :30 minute screenplay you polished last year or finish up on the one you started a couple weeks ago. THIS IS WIDE OPEN AND READY FOR THE TAKING!!!!

Submit and additional details here: ComedyWriterContest.com

DEADLINE: October 28th at 11:59 am ET.

The photographer has collaborated with his “super tech friend” Craig Swanson to launch creativeLIVE.com, which is hosting the first Live creative instruction on the ‘net.  Offering everything from Watercolor 101 to Adobe CS5, they claim that what keeps the classes free is that after they air you have to pay to download or re-visit them.  While I recall my BFA from NYU costing slightly more than the iTunes .mp3 of RBL Posse’s A Lesson to be Learned, I’m a sucker for making arts education more accessible.

So the next time you write off professional instruction due to budgetary concerns, remember–no more excuses.

mRelease is the dopest app I’ve seen yet, or most relevant to media creators that is:

Once you have entered basic information about your shoot, for each release you just add some quick details about your subject, an image from the built-in camera or photo library, and get a touch-screen signature – it is that easy! The app creates, stores, and emails you a pdf file of the signed release, including the embedded photo of your subject.

We’re currently looking into the legality of the releases and how they hold up, becasue this is a true game changer.

Link via Alison Davis, thanks.

At least designing a card is the fun part, regardless of what it says. I’d love to get this book, MyOwnBusinessCard, a collection of real designers’ own business cards, published by Marc Praquin at Design and Design. There’s something voyeuristic about scoping the intimate details of creative professionals’ cards, but since they’re designers they really know what they’re doing. My favorite is painter/street artist Matt W. Moore’s (I learned about the book via his blog), which is both a card and a sick sticker.

Sound good? Then check this out– the Open Video Alliance wants you to explain what Open Video means to you in a 60 second video, for the chance to win a free trip and pass to SXSW Interactive this year. Get the details here, and let us know if you enter– we’ll post your entry on Urgensia.

“You’re laughing at me, aren’t you?” she said.
“Err, uh, huh?”
“You’ve seen my video, and you’re laughing…”
“I’m sorry, I have no clue what you’re talking about.”  I really didn’t.
“Goto YouTube, type 3 words… ‘3 times platinum’”

I couldn’t wait to get back from my bike ride to see what awesomeness was in store for me.  God was I intrigued.  Only in this day and age can your mail lady be on her way to Internet famous.  I fucking love the internet…. and Sassy Kool.

So, young indie band, someone in your crew is going to have to sit down and take 20-40 hours to program your song for Rock Band. And if people like it, and buy from the Rock Band store to play it, and maybe wind up becoming an actual fan of your music, then maybe, just maybe, your band has a slim chance of being a somewhat viable project in future. If you take the time, however, and the Rock Band version of your lead single generates no traction, I’m not suggesting you have absolutely no shot. I’m just suggesting you may want to take some time to figure out how to suck less.

(via Joystiq)