Chicago 2018 - Eyes On Your Mission

Eyes On Your Mission Curates Chicagoland Collaboration Between

Key Stakeholders at the Intersection of Arts, Entrepreneurship and Video

After a year of successful programming in Chicago, The Eyes On Your Mission Project is expanding a collaboration between film industry professionals, youth, nonprofits, and social entrepreneurs to get more “eyes on their mission.”

We are reaching out to potential partners who are committed to growing the ecosystem of resources in Chicago for entrepreneurial artists. We believe this project aligns with a trend to create a better future for the city by empowering youth to start their own businesses using artistic media to tell their own story and get ahead.

OUR VISION is to package both a live roadshow and a virtual training accompaniment to target high schoolers, college students, and young professionals. We plan to align with 10 specific sites (schools, community centers, co-working spaces, nonprofit campuses) that could host between 50-100 students for a 90 minute live event, then co-promote a filmmaking contest with $5,000 in cash prizes. To participate in the contest, one needs to attend the live event, then register with $20 to enter a self-produced video promoting themself and their business. Among the prizes will be a job fair to match talented artists with potential business clients who need their freelance skill sets. To teach students how to win the contest, a robust e-learning platform will teach mobile video production, personal branding, and digital media promotion. Once

In the end, our goal is to nurture entrepreneurial talent, prepare them for scalability, and equip them with real life business skills that will allow them to be healthy…intellectually, emotionally and financially.

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This concept builds from a 2017 collaboration between Eyes On Your Mission and Self-Employment in the Arts (SEA), a conference promoting the career success of entrepreneurs in arts related fields. The 5-part series of shorts we produced, called “The Artist/Entrepreneur Conundrum,” featured 5 SEA graduates and used authenticity as a tool to tell the story of their talents, desires and dreams. In doing so, they used those videos to promote their academic/business interests. In short, we taught how to make yourself look like a rockstar.

The Eyes On Your Mission Project (EOYM) grew out of Two Parrot Productions, a Chicago-born production company. With a focus on youth living in marginalized and underserved communities, the Eyes On Your Mission Project partners with other organizations advocating for the same thing we do: Access to education, professional development, entrepreneurial exposure, arts programs, interdisciplinary experiential learning, and bridging the digital divide.

WHO

After a year of successful programming in Chicago, The Eyes On Your Mission Project is expanding a collaboration in the Chicagoland area between film industry professionals, youth, nonprofits, and social entrepreneurs to get more “eyes on their mission.” We are reaching out to potential partners who are committed to growing the ecosystem of resources for entrepreneurial artists. We believe this project aligns with Free Spirit Media’s values of community empowerment, youth arts and education.

The Eyes On Your Mission Project (EOYM) grew out of Two Parrot Productions, a Chicago-born production company.

With a focus on youth living in marginalized and underserved communities, the Eyes On Your Mission Project partners with funders who prioritize access to education, professional development, entrepreneurial exposure, arts programs, creative industry growth, interdisciplinary experiential learning, teacher training, after school opportunities, community based initiatives, and bridging the digital divide.

WHAT & WHERE

The Eyes On Your Mission Academy & Apprenticeship programs for which we are requesting your participation will make a difference in the lives of the participants by providing career training by nurturing mentor relationships with working creative professionals.

The EOYM annual Video Grant provides organizations with free video production and we provide opportunities for aspiring filmmakers through our Filmmaking Academy and paid Apprenticeship Program.

HOW

Last year EOYM partnered with the Coleman Foundation and the Self-Employment in the Arts Conference to provide training and a paid apprenticeship program for SEA graduates. The program produced a 5-part series called, “The Artist/Entrepreneur Conundrum.” We plan to use this series, and the success of the 2017 program, to propel us forward during our 2018-2020 strategic planning.

Attached you will find a creative brief, and a graphic we recently produced to illustrate our 2017 results for programs produced in Chicago and Miami, FL.