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cineSOURCE Author’s Style Sheet by cineSOURCE staff
Thanks for your interest in writing for cineSOURCE magazine, the only film/video production and art magazine on the West Coast north of Hollywood, currently averaging 50,000 hits a month.
Magazine Intro
cineSOURCE began publishing in 2008, in Oakland, California, as a web site and tabloid paper until 2010. Now only online, we have had over five million readers over the decade.
We also have a documentary blog by Don Schwarz, a Location of the Month series and a monthly cartoon, for which we accept submissions or suggestions.
Important Initial Facts
• cineSOURCE currently provides no remuneration (hopefully that will change)
• cineSOURCE reserves the right to structurally edit as well as copy correct any submissions
• Please make pieces pithy and with a pronounced point of view
• Please include a one-two sentence bio and your preferred email for inclusion at the end of the article
• Please don't imbed photos or links in your Word Doc; rather submit former as separate images and list the latter in text
• If you receive no response within 48 hours after submitting any material, please check to confirm your material was received and is being properly processed
Submission Procedure
1. Please obtain approval for article by submitting a "query" or “abstract” paragraph or two, covering the subject, treatment and style of proposed article
2. If you are a first-time cineSOURCE writer, please include a resume and writing samples or articles or links to aforementioned
Standard Article Info
1. CS’s standard article length is 750-1500 words, although modest topics can drop to 400 and big stories can expand to 4000 words
2. Please include actual photos, not just links, if possible, and as high resolution as possible; bigger than 300K is best, less than 100K unusable, unless critical image and only version available, in excess of 2MG unnecessary
3. About one photo per 500 words is a good rule of thumb, although you can go to two and can include a few extra for editor’s choice
4. Include links to websites, either the film's or the subject's, in parenthesis near the top of the article—second paragraph is perfect; only one to three links per 500 words
5. Include videos or web sites: select one or two clips from related film or the website of filmmaker or company and provide links
6. If your piece operates in tandem with a video piece, let us know and we will highlight as "video-rich" article
7. For celebrity interviews or high-profile topics, CS may supply a photographer—feel free to inquire
8. Get confirmation from editor of receipt of story, if no response in 48 hours; emails can get spam blocked and on rare occasions entirely blocked
Content Parameters and Style
1. cineSOURCE’s editorial brief is:
A) Anything media related in Northern California and the North-West (from Santa Barbara to Alaska), in other words anything concerning local filmmakers, projects, events, or issues;
B) Anything cinema, video or fine art or philosophy related, or of concern to that community;
C) Webisodes, webdocs or video-rich articles, ie articles with a strong or entirely video component;
D) Reviews of films or other subjects of interest to the N. California media community, although reviews are not our focus, since they are carried by many other periodicals;
E) Anything about the Middle East, which is the teleological opposite of the Far West and in need of enlightened exposure
2. Article can be edited for style, especially the introductory paragraphs, so please stay pithy, on topic and comparatively brief (unless the material is fascinating) to avoid excessive editing
3. Place filmmaker quotes, strong descriptors or odd anecdotes at top of article, push more boring description or exposition 'graphs to bottom
4. Avoid lists
5. For film festivals, focus on three or four films only; get quotes from directors (of films or festival) put summary 'graphs at bottom
6. Headlines and captions can be entirely rewritten to fit with our style, audience research, the magazine the article is going into, although please include your versions and, if appropriate, we will use
7. Include colorful—even edgy—but still brief descriptions of protagonists, events or films but avoid triple adjectives or extensive colorizing
8. Include related facts, historical determinants, web sites and summaries, as needed, again in summary
9. Sum up the film, the filmmaker's philosophy or the article’s implications in a sentence or paragraph at end of the article
10. Have fun, both in a wry playfulness in your text and in your topic and research
Suggested Article Structure
BEGINNING Start with a telling anecdote, observation or quote
INTRO Explain what film we are discussing, with full title and year and introduce the director, the story, the genre
INTRO EXPANDED Talk about the best part of the film, what really makes the film, focus on the characters in the film, film technique, moral implications, etc, what ever is stronger
MIDDLE Various details about the filmmaker, curriculum vitae, the film’s other techs, compare to other films in genre, cover the critics’ comments
ENDING Draw conclusions, add last anecdotes, give preview of future films from this cineaste
NOTE: Do not repeat bits, if you have the same bit in two places, a decision must be made and one must go
NOTE: Don’t repeat statements in different ways (ditto above)
NOTE: Don’t give a lot of your opinion until the end, let the story do the talking
NOTE: Show don’t tell (ditto above)
Grammatical Style
1. Double returns after paragraphs
2. Make paragraphs short, one discrete discussion, two to four sentences, no Faulkner-esque “graphs” please!
3. No double spaces: one space after period (.)
4. Punctuation goes inside the quotes: He said, "And that is that!" Not, "that is that", except film titles: "Casablanca", one of the greatest films ever made, is now showing.
5. Dashes are “m” dashes (dash + cap + option) and no space—before or after; if that is a problem, use double dashes (--) no spaces
6. No italics: If you need emphasis, use ALL CAPS
7. No all caps, except for emphasis, see Note #5
8. Film titles in quotes with the year following in parenthesis: "Casablanca" (1942).
9. Book and article titles also in “quotes” but newspaper, magazine or any other titles are NOT in quotes
10. Capitalize professional titles—Director Alfred Hitchcock, Gofer Ralph Johnson; although sort of pompous, it is an industry standard
11. Commas: Do not use excessively but when inserting a shift in focus, as in this parenthetical remark about remarking, feel free to use or, if the comment is not entirely relevant, try a parenthesis
12. Serial (or Oxford) comma: No, unless it essential to meaning; in other words, only include comma after the last item in a list if it is necessary; also put a comma before a "but" if the following clause is long
13. Use apostrophe and "s" to show possession for a proper noun ending in an s or s sound (Russ’s opinion, Marx’s theories); use an apostrophe and no final s, to show possession of regular nouns or proper noun plurals (the bus’ route, the Williamses’ car)
14. Use modern styling: Drop the periods in LA, SF, NY, am, pm, ie and the hyphen in common words like weekend, postproduction, but not about-face or other less wellknown double words (NOTE: wellknown is a wellknown double word)
15. Spell out numbers until ten; after ten use numerals (ie nine, ten, 11, 12) except for money fractions $2.4 billion, for which please include dollar sign ($)
16. Use brackets [ ] to insert parenthesis into “speech [like this]” or interviews
17. On interviews: No quotes because they are implied for the whole piece; use single quotes when quotes are needed; introduce speaker by full name for first quote only unless there are two interviewees, then reintroduce speaker only when speaker changes
18. Remember to spell check—twice!
19. Please include a one-two sentence bio at the end of your article, the appropriate email, and a photo, if possible
20. Include appropriate websites or links whenever possible (put in parenthesis, we will code in) but only one to three per 500 words, unless crucial
Photographs and Links, additional info
1. Please provide photos, one or two per 500 words, and links, one or three per 500 words of article, although you can provide extra photos to allow choice
2. Please include a brief caption, explaining what is going on in the photo, as well as the photographer’s credit
3. Please send actual photo as attachment rather than just link, although if that is too difficult link is OK
4. Please send or link to photos over 250K, only going under if absolutely nothing else is available, under 100K virtually worthless (CineSource's final size in pixels is 1000 x 750, although submitting bigger is fine)
5. Please don't imbed photos or links in your Word Doc
6. For interviews, always take a full head-toe vertical photo because A) we like those, and B) it will increase your chances of having your article selected for the front-page "Left Hand" article
Videos, additional info
1. Please include links to relevant movies, YouTube clips, Vimeo, etc
2. With our new emphasis on video-rich articles, we also encourage including a video webisode or webdoc, between two and seven minutes, that is tailored exactly to your article (this can be snippets of an interview, trailer from the film you are reviewing, etc)
3. These "Highlighted Links" will be featured at the top of the article with still from the movie with arrow button
4. With a Highlighted Link, be sure to refer to it in your article, explain its references, meaning, implication, etc
Video-Rich Articles
1. cineSOURCE welcomes "video-rich articles" original videos, either doc or fiction, with articles
2. The videos and accompanying articles can be of any length but we recommend 3-10 minutes for the video and 500-1500 for the article, either one explaining or amplifying the other. A perfect application is for an interview: A) film the first part of an interview, B) edit it into an interesting short introduction of the interviewee, their talking style, etc, C) continue the complete interview in print
3. Send us query explaining the video-rich article and if approved a preview of the video and article
4. You will be sent upload passwords to cIneSOURCE's YouTube channel as well as other technical information
Thanks for Your Participation
Please contact cineSOURCE with any problems or questions.