Congrats to our dear friends at Shooting People, and special shout out to the indefatigable New Yorker bureau chief Ingrid Kopp, on reaching the decade mark! Let the celebration begin! See all the details inside!

On the 22 November 2008, Shooting People, the institution that director Morgan Spurlock describes as “a necessity for anyone who works, lives and breathes independent film”, celebrates its tenth birthday.

Filmmakers Cath Le Couteur and Jess Search set up Shooting People in 1998 as a bedroom project, after making their first short film. Shooting People launched with a single e-mailed bulletin to 60 of Le Couteur’s and Search’s London filmmaker friends. Via reputation, word of mouth and marketing drives, Shooting People now sends out over half a million of these Bulletins, to over 37,000 Members across the UK, in New York, and California.

Shooting People Patron Mike Figgis (dir: ‘Timecode’, ‘Leaving Las Vegas’) said: “Congratulations to Shooting People! Shooting People continue to be at the forefront of filmmaking and technology. I believe their next ten years will be even more transformational and I want to be along for the ride. Viva independent film!”

And here are. . . . Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Shooting People

1. The Shooting People official anagram is Pigeonhole Post.

2. It took filmmakers Cath Le Couteur and Jess Search all day to think of the name Shooting People in a messy bedroom in 1998 when they launched the network with 60 filmmaker friends signed up to help each other make films.

3. Shooting People shares its birthday with 349 of its Members on 22 November. That makes Shooting People Sagittarius. Sagittarians are sometimes distracted, but this is only because they are so forward thinking that they forget about the present.

4. Director Shane Meadows (‘Room for Romeo Brass’, ‘This Is England’) was the first guest to speak at a Shooting People event – in 1999. He had to sit on the bar with a microphone because there was no stage. Cheers, Shane.

5. Someone once posted in asking for a flea-training expert. They got one.

6. 1.3m people have watched Shooting People’s Watch Film facility since its launch last December.

7. Shooting People has crewed up over 50,000 films in the last 10 years – fiction, animation, documentary, and music videos every week.

8. As far as we know NO ONE has ever got married because of Shooting People. Sorry.

9. Shooting People sends out 7,500,000 packed email bulletins to Members a year. That’s a lot of envelopes to lick.

10. Shooting People is celebrating its tenth birthday this year, just like Google. Shooting People acknowledges that Google is a slightly bigger brand and wishes them all the best.

Ten Shooter Success Stories

1. Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor’s [Members since 2003] debut feature film, ‘Helen’ had its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival where it was nominated for a Michael Powell award, and had its international premiere at the Sydney Film Festival. It recently screened at the Times BFI’s London Film Festival, where it has been nominated for the Sutherland Trophy. Their award-winning short ‘Who Killed Brown Owl?’ is on Shooting People’s Best v Best DVD collection.

2. Paul Andrew Williams [Member since 2004] won awards for ‘London to Brighton’ at the Edinburgh, Dinard and Raindance Festivals, as well as a BAFTA nomination. Paul used Shooting People to begin pre-production on ‘The Cottage’ before deciding to make ‘London to Brighton’ his debut feature.

3. Pawe? Pawlikowski [Member since 1999] won BAFTAs for both ‘Last Resort’ and ‘My Summer of Love’. In 1999 Pawlikowski posted into the Shooting People Bulletins looking for help on a “low budget feature length drama to be shot in the Margate/Ramsgate area” - this became ‘Last Resort’.

4. Vito Rocco [Member since 2003] won the MySpace Movie Mash-Up, and went on to direct ‘Faintheart’ due for release in the UK in February 2009.

5. Mark and Nick Francis [Members since 2002] received multiple nominations for their feature ‘Black Gold’ including the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and a win at the British Independent Film Awards.

6. Paul Taylor [director – Member since 2007] and Teddy Leifer [producer – Member since 2002] received a massive 12 awards for their debut documentary feature ‘We Are Together’, including Edinburgh International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival, and International Documentary Association.

7. Arin Crumley’s [Member since 2004] film, ‘Four Eyed Monsters’ (co-directed with Susan Buice) was the first feature length film to be uploaded to YouTube in its entirety and premiered at Slamdance in 2005. Arin and Susan then went on to pursue an innovative distribution strategy. Arin speaks regularly at conferences and festivals about collaborative and innovative filmmaking.

8. Writer and director Kara Miller’s [Member since 2002] award-winning short films have aired on HBO and the BBC. They have also screened internationally, including at the Sundance, Berlin, and London Film Festivals. This year Kara won a Breakthrough Brit Award, the Hitchcock Award, the Screen Nation Best Emerging Talent Award and was shortlisted for the BBC’s New Filmmaker Award.

9. Jamie King [Member since 2006], together with his “shadowy League Of Noble Peers” produced ‘Steal This Film I & II’ - pro-filesharing documentaries that have been downloaded 1.85m times via BitTorrent.

10. Darrin Grimwood [Member since 2006] received the opportunity to write the screenplay for ‘Cornered!’ after seeing it posted in the Screenwriters bulletin by US director and Shooter Daniel Maze [member since 2002]. ‘Cornered!’ was filmed this year starring Steve Guttenberg and James Duval.