The basic intent of our “iAttachments” film library is to visually tell a story or create a mood with a song which relates to a greeting occasion. The film may or may not have dialog (see our example of “So Long for Now”). If you have a film with no song and only dialog, it might be acceptable if it relates to a greeting occasion where one person wants to share a film with another, with or without a musical underscore.

We are not YouTube: iAttachments isnʼt a self- posting site, and you do get paid. The film maker works with our “content producer”, much like an independent book author works with an editor in order to improve the final product. We assume that film makers have mastered basic film making techniques, so you wonʼt get a comment from one of our content producers like “those ten, one- second jump cuts in a row gave me a headache.”

Films can be live action shorts, 3D motion graphics or a collage with still images (think Ken Burnsʼ “The Civil War”). The film can be something that youʼve previously shot (and just re- cut for one of our songs). It can be a short story or a music video. It can be purely emotional or humorous. The setting can be anywhere, anytime. We just want the overall effect to make people laugh, cry, be inspired, or understand a deeper truth. The music helps a lot. It letʼs the film maker concentrate on visual storytelling.

You can use the whole song, or not. You can raise and lower the volume of the song during the film. You can reprise the song for the credits. If you use your own musical underscore, you must have the rights. Use all the sound effects that you want. The film shouldnʼt be much longer than the length of the song.

Our content producers will generally comment on:

• Direction & overall effect: storytelling (the film should relate to the lyrics), and acting; the length is expected to be not much longer than the song.
• Photography: the basics, special effects, 3D graphics; in the case of live action, we have a preference for HD; no obscenity; when the final film is streamed it will be through a variety of player applications, including Quicktime, Flash 3D and Open Source HD.
• Editing: shot length and transitions, continuity; in some case we may want to see some of the ʻBʼ roll/ out takes.
• Sound: intelligible; if an actor is lip syncing the vocalist of a song, credit must be given.
• Titling: the title of the film can be the title of the song or not; credits should go at the end and be brief; more material about the film can be posted to your bio page on our site; reprise a bit of the song over the credits if necessary, and please include the singer(s), song, songwriter(s) and music publisher in the credits. The title of your film can be the occasion (e.g. “Happy Birthday”) if you want.

There can be more than one short film interpretation per song. Most of the songs lend themselves to multiple interpretations and greeting occasions.

After your brief email application has been accepted and we download the song to you, your first submission can be story boards or a link to the film on your server, a DVD sent through the snail mail or a download. You can also conveniently upload the film and the ʻBʻ roll to our server. Each song has a web page containing the lyrics and some “producerʼs” ideas on the song and potential films.

Over the last two years or so, a sub- genre of film making has emerged for the small (mobile) screen. This basically means changes in framing and set- up (more medium and close- up shots) to show better on a smaller screen. Although we intend to deliver the film to all screens, including mobile, plan on the film normally being viewed on a workstation (12- 15”) diagonal screen. You can use a 16x9 aspect ratio or normal. If a recipient happens to see the film on an iPhone first, theyʼll probably view it a second time on a work station. Some film makers may even extend the story through multiple songs. Also, the film maker should be aware that a song- film combination which straddles more than one traditional greeting occasion (e.g. Valentineʼs Day and birthday) can be made specific with the senderʼs personalized closing (and not anything visually specific within the film).

Like the music, the film itself is not exclusive to iAttachments.com. But when the film is married to one of our songs, it is exclusive to our web site. Thatʼs the basis of the sync rights/ public performance license we obtain from the music publisher.

A word on potential royalties:
In the traditional greeting world of cards and envelopes, Christmas cards and birthday cards generate the largest numbers. Christmas cards will dominate the royalties in the month of December, but not in other months. Because of the behavior of sharing demonstrated on YouTube.com, we expect that a strong song and strong film will generate significant clicks even if matched with an occasion (e.g. St. Patrickʼs Day) which traditionally generates fewer relative cards.