KIDS FIRST! News

When you submit a title to KIDS FIRST!, who knows where it can take you? The award-winning producers of “The Tillamook Treasure” can tell you since their film was picked up for distribution through their KIDS FIRST! connections.Independent title, “The Tillamook Treasure” won the Moving Pictures Magazine award at the KIDS FIRST! Best Award ceremony in October of 2007. Equally impressive, the film was created mostly by a single family. Mom, Jane Beaumont Hall is the Director, Dad, Richard Doyon is the Executive Producer and their daughters, Suzanne Marie and Janine Doyon, played major roles in the movie. Jane Hall took a few moments to share with us what KIDS FIRST! has done for them and their film:We saw that KIDS FIRST! was making quality children’s programming available to many children by traveling around the country. Our film is about a young girl whose family is breaking up, and she discovers what really matters as she hunts for a buried treasure. Our movie was right in line with the good values that KIDS FIRST! promotes – wholesome and fun.KIDS FIRST! sent our film out to many festivals which increased the awareness of the movie. Then, as a surprise, they asked if they could rep the movie for distribution purposes. We said “yes” and they arranged with Maitland Primrose for North American distribution. Since distribution is the name of the game in filmmaking, they were tremendously helpful on the business end of our movie as well as the festival promotion. Maitland Primrose also cares about social values, but it is unlikely we would have connected to them without KIDS FIRST!’s assistance.I think the biggest piece of advice I could offer new independent producers is in the writing. Get the best script you can before starting pre-production because time becomes a factor after you start. Also, our casting director, Dino Ladki, was of immeasurable help in finding quality actors to star in our production. The bigger the stars, the easier distribution is to secure. We had an amazing cohesive team that got stronger as time went on. Obviously, the Director of Photography is a huge factor and Rene Jung of Jurifilm, is a saint to work with. He made the pictures sing even with the budgetary factors we were constrained by. But bottom line it is the writing.We are so pleased to have won the Best Independent Film Award from KIDS FIRST! Having this kind of endorsement from as well respected an organization as KIDS FIRST! means a lot in letting the viewing public know that the movie is family material and well worth seeing. Not only that, but the Awards Ceremony was great fun!**Remember, the deadline for festival submissions for the Second Quarter 2008 is January 15! Details and applications can be found on the KIDS FIRST! web site.

The worm is turning in the movie industry as filmmakers listen to parent’s pleas for family-friendly entertainment. Common Sense Media founder, Jim Steyer, feels that the popularity of PG- and G-rated films is a trend–a good trend. Read more about it here.

A destination for families and kids alike with Storybooksondvd.com!

Looking for the best in children’s entertainment online? Look no further than Storybooksondvd.com, the newly launched home of Scholastic Storybook Treasures™, the #1 award-winning line of kids entertainment in the DVD marketplace. Just in time for the 2007 holiday season, it’s a one-stop shop offering the acclaimed line of DVDs from Scholastic Storybook Treasures ™ – a line featuring hundreds of classic, award-winning animated adaptations from legendary production house, Weston Woods.

Aside from e-commerce, the site also offers families a destination filled with information and activities. For parents, the easily navigable, community-oriented site features resources such as author/illustrator interviews, parent product reviews, video clips, and easily searchable product categories such as “Stories for Learning” and “Classic Fairytales” among others. For kids, there’s a cornucopia of free, printable coloring sheets, featuring loveable line art starring some of kidlit’s biggest stars like “Curious George,” “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” “Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel” and “Harry the Dirty Dog.” Seeking to create a community of parents invested in giving their preschool and early elementary school children quality programming, Storyvooksondvd.com is a way to both lead your children to books and make reading and learning fun!

The new Scholastic Storybook Treasures ™ line (formerly the Scholastic Video Collection) now offers more digitally-enhanced content than ever – featuring at least an hour of stories on each DVD release, and all value-priced at $14.95SRP. Aside from an enhanced read-along function which highlights the words as they are read, new, kid-friendly features include redesigned authoring for easy navigation and eye-popping packaging. Recent releases include “Knuffle Bunny….and More Great Childhood Adventure Stories” and “Antartic Antics…And More Hilarious Animal Stories.”