New Cut! on monialainen hanke, joka pyrkii edistämään suomalaisten luovien alojen kansainvälistä toimintaa New Yorkissa ja Yhdysvalloissa. Avoimessa haussa etsitään osallistuvia toimijoita ja yrityksiä mukaan rakentamaan yhteistyössä newyorkilaisten tahojen kanssa uusia lähestymistapoja kansainväliseen luovaan liiketoimintaan ja sisältöjä syksyn 2013 New Cut! –tapahtumaan New Yorkissa. Hankkeessa käytetään työkielenä englantia hankkeen kansainvälisen luonteen takia.

Ready to take your creative business to New York?

Have you always dreamed of making it big in New York? Do you run a prospective creative business with the strong motivation to expand to the US market but haven’t yet found the right allies or the right approach? Do you have the itch to create something truly exciting with the New York audience instead of just exporting and showing the same stuff made here in Finland? If the answer is yes, there’s a good chance that New Cut! is for you.

Q&A

1) What’s New Cut!

New Cut! is a movement and a program to enable the Finnish film & TV, fashion, music and design industries to enhance their international presence and develop new business in the US. New Cut! is not going to create another event or an exhibition to just showcase Finnish creative work but rather aims to build bridges between Helsinki and New York with a fresh take.

We are inviting creative professionals and companies to further develop their US/New York related ideas in a cooperative manner and discover new ways to do international work and business. The plan is to connect people across creative fields from both cities and explore the idea of open culture in an open exchange.

In practice, this means an opportunity for Finnish creative professionals and businesses:

to connect with new people and partners
to create a strategy and a concrete approach to enter to the US market
to develop locally meaningful and attention-grabbing content for the New Cut! event
to generate blossoming new business in New York – both via common New Cut! activities, as well as via companies’ own activities partly funded through New Cut!

2) What’s the timeline for New Cut! activities?

New Cut! will happen in three phases in 2013:

Launch event in New York
Sessions in Helsinki & New York
New Cut! event in New York

In addition to this, New Cut! is aiming to support companies’ own business development activities in New York.

3) What does New Cut! Offer?

New Cut! provides creative professionals and businesses with:

a peer network of likeminded professionals
a structured approach and a series of events to co-create a strategy and a concrete approach for entering the US market
sessions for learning new ways to operate in the US
partial funding for the selected projects
documentation of the activities (video, photos, book, etc)
access to a digital marketing channel
genuine visibility in the saturated New York market.

We expect the longer-term benefits to include considerable commercial success – but of course, this is up to you.

4) Is there a cost for participation?

There is always a cost for a business to expand to a new market. New Cut! aims to lower this cost and make the effort more feasible and desirable.

The actual costs for participation can vary according to your project. If you want to ship a truckload of stuff to New York, it will certainly cost more than creating a live experience with local resources.

New Cut! has searched and will search for funding for the selected projects. We estimate the funding to be around 50% of the costs. Costs may need to be paid partially or fully by the participating company at first, and reimbursement can be applied for afterwards from a funding organization.

5) Can I participate?

Yes, if your business / project fulfills the following criteria:

You are working in the field of film & TV, fashion, music, or design, or your work is closely related to these fields.
You’ve already done or are about to do some groundbreaking work in your field.
You have a concept, project or product that is ready for New Cut! and New York.
Your business or organization is registered in Finland and has a good reputation in the official records.

We welcome forward thinking ideas and initiatives that focus specifically on exploring open culture in open exchange. We expect New Cut! projects to be made in collaboration across creative disciplines and with local partners in New York.

6) Who’s behind New Cut!?

New Cut! has been developed in the fall 2012 in open collaboration with creative professionals and businesses to truly understand the new needs of the creative sector and provide a flexible launch pad for various creative businesses to go global. The program is supported by Favex – Finnish Film & Audiovisual Export, Design Forum Finland and Music Finland.

The projects submitted in the Open Call will be reviewed by a working group consisting of representatives of the above-mentioned organizations as well as New York-based mentors specializing in each of the creative fields.

Important dates

Open Call starts on January 8^th.
Open Call closes at midnight on January 28^th.
Selected participants contacted at the latest by February 28^th.

Questions?

If you have questions, please send them to contact@newcut.fi.

Manifesto

We believe in openness.
New Cut! explores open culture in open exchange. We have a strong Nordic cultural heritage and a vast supply of inclusive, honest and accessible ideas that are ripe for export.
We raise questions.
New Cut! encourages critical discussion about the current state of affairs within and through the project. We make questions through words, actions and art – they can be complicated and pleasurable at once.
We collaborate to the max.
We collaborate, co-create and co-operate like never before. We will find the best partners and work across cultural, geographical and disciplinary borders towards a shared goal.
We go big with digital.
New Cut! projects and events are seeds for something bigger. We will use the best available means and neatest digital tools to document, share and communicate the work and expand its impact.
We don’t stop.
New Cut! is not just a series of events. We aim to create a movement for continuous international cultural collaboration and enable flourishing new creative business.