A friend of mine asked me to help him make some connections to get started with a film project. He was already an accomplished film maker, but he was not familiar with the Central Florida film community. Here's what I wrote to him, and I invite others to include more information or edit this page as they wish.
TONIGHT at McRaney's Tavern (between 17-92 and I-4 on Fairbanks), there is a filmmakers meetup - 7PM I think.
http://filmind.meetup.com/267/calendar/7084702/t/nr1p_rt
I am the first person to say that most groups on meetup.com are total crap, but this is the only one I know of that is worth a damn. Everyone who comes to this group is actively involved with the film community, and there is a healthy attendance of 15+ people every time. McRaney's used to have a big screen TV where people could show trailers, shorts or works in progress and that was a nice part of the meetups.
I also highly recommend sending a DVD of your film to the Enzian FilmSLAM guys - this used to be John Theissen and Brian Feldman, but I think one of them has left. They accept submissions until the 1st of the month (you can submit several pieces) and then they try to put together a coherent program based around a theme or sometimes just length. If your film is voted up you can get shown at Brouhaha in December, and the winner of that slam gets played at Florida Film Fest (films from this year would make it into the 2009 festival).
http://www.enzian.org/films/filmslam.html
Maybe you know about filmslam already, but it's very much worth it - except having to pay $5 to see your own film, because I don't think they comp. tickets -- still, that's a great place to meet people, and I've been thinking about having a second Florida Creatives meetup after Filmslam on a regular basis.
As far as getting money - that is the ultimate question in film. If your film has a large enough budget, you can apply for reimbursement from the state - but it's mostly good for huge films.
http://filminflorida.com/
It's also good to look into professional development grants from groups like United Arts. They do these at least once a year and they provide 3-to-1 matching fro funds. If you put in $100, they give you $300. The limit is $1500 for them to give, and you have to show receipts.
http://unitedarts.cc/
Creative guides Film Orlando