You made a great film. Now give it a great run.
Angela Tucker at IFP’s Resources Blog:
In this new era of digital downloads, film festivals are one of the few ways that you can see your film with an audience. Film festivals are like colleges – you need to apply to a wide range. And if you find that you need to have that icky conversation where you have to turn a festival down because another one offers you a premiere that is more ideal for you film, there are worse problems to have.
Charles Judson of the Atlanta Film Festival, writing for CinemATL.
Programmers are no different than anyone else. Just as it is with audiences going to a local multiplex, we look at trailers and we instantly decide if films are ones we think we want to see, as programmers and as film lovers, if we think will enjoy them.
. . .
Unfortunately, too many films submitted to festivals either have misleading trailers–stop playing by the Hollywood big budget marketing playbook and you would be much better off. Or they do not have strong trailers at all.
So far this season I’ve seen at least three films that a filmmaker sent me a trailer for that had me pumped, and I walked away a little disappointed that the film was nothing like the trailer.
I’m in favor of cutting a trailer for your film and as a screener for festivals I rarely watch the trailer first.
Read How Your Trailer May Kill Your Chances of Being Accepted.
Long, scrolling infographics like the one linked here have become a bit of a fad – the best ones tell an engaging story by visualizing related information in ways that make that information easier to understand. This one doesn’t quite reach the heights that I’ve seen in really great infographics – it’s too monochromatic, and some of the information isn’t helped by its graphical presentation. Still, there are some good tidbits here. Raising funds through sites like Kickstarter is now an essential part of independent filmmaking so it’s good to know all you can about the phenomenon of “crowdfunding.”
It’s the day after Thanksgiving – let the shopping begin! And don’t forget the filmmaker in your life while you’re at it. Here are some things that are essential to any filmmaker entering the film festival circuit.
5. A good travel bag like the ones made by Crumpler. At a festival a filmmaker needs to carry all sorts of things with her – promotional postcards, screener DVDs, cell phone charger – the list goes on. Crumpler makes some of the best bags I’ve seen. They’re durable, attractive, and well-designed. For a festival day bag I recommend the Western Lawn messenger bag (pictured), but for more room consider The Complete Seed, a mammoth bag that can handle all your laptop/carry-on needs.
4. Submissions fees. Filmmakers spend a lot of money submitting to festivals and they rarely budget for this expense. You can help quite a bit by pledging to cover a submission or two. Fees run anywhere from $20 – $100 depending on the festival and timing (later deadlines are more expensive).
Basil Tsiokos at What (Not) to Doc on the dangers of assuming that your pet cause merits a feature-length documentary:
If you are a filmmaker, and you enjoy making films about things happening in your life, you may feel that your pet cause is as worthy of being filmed as any other issue out there. More power to you. Make your film about why you think male dogs should be forced to wear pants, and enjoy watching the final product with your friends, family, and pets. However, if you think your two-hour long pantalooned dog advocacy project is likely to resonate with the masses, I’d wager you are probably wrong.
I would add to Tsiokos’ sentiments that even if your cause does merit a feature-length doc, be careful not to conflate the film and the cause.
Chances are your film will be rejected from more than a few film festivals. That doesn’t mean that the festival and its staffers don’t believe in the cause – it just means they don’t want to play your film.
In the months and years immediately following Hurricane Katrina, I saw this a lot at various festivals. A fest would reject a film about pets who were orphaned after the storm or the plight of displaced kids and the filmmakers would start hurling accusations.
“You don’t care about starving animals!” they’d say, usually in an hastily (and angrily) composed email. (This charge leveled at one fest was particularly silly, as the head programmer was married to the director of an animal shelter.) The filmmakers just couldn’t wrap their heads around the idea that rejecting a film isn’t the same thing as rejecting the ideas behind it.
If you find yourself in this situation, consider the fact that a documentary doesn’t have to play festivals to benefit the cause. If raising awareness is the goal, getting the film out there online (and perhaps creating a few versions of different lengths) will probably get more eyes on the issue and effect more change.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned this here before, but I write a monthly column on upcoming movies for kids (particularly those showing in Austin, TX) for a web site called Slackerwood. Here’s my column (titled Eenie Meenie Miney Movies) for November 2011.
I’ll start mentioning these here when they go live just for a bit of cross-promotional fun, but since this is the first time I’ve done this, I’d like to talk for a second about local film blogs. If you poke around Slackerwood you’ll notice that it homes in on the Austin audience. Like most other movie blogs it has the usual assortment of reviews and news, but if you live in Austin, it’s an invaluable resource for what to see in town. Since not every town has the same special screenings, finding a local film blog in your area is a great way to discover new things to see. As a filmmaker, your own local film blog can be a great ally – note the special attention Slackerwood pays to local productions and talent at festivals, both near and far. Recruiting local film blogger to support your film is a great way to raise awareness of your film in your own neighborhood, even when you’re screening elsewhere.
Local film & event bloggers are also a great resource when you’re headed out of town. If you have a festival screening in a new town, Google around the town’s name and use phrases like “local events” or “film blog” to zero in on likely suspects. Then fire off a friendly, personal email to introduce yourself and provide the writer(s) with the details of your film’s screening and a short synopsis and/or link to your trailer. It’s up to you whether you want to offer an advance screener, but I definitely recommend it. Why? Because like the local TV news, the local film bloggers may not mean much to you but they definitely have the ears and eyes of the local audience. When you’re trying to put butts in seats, that’s help that you want.
OK, enough of that. If you have kids and want to know what family films you’ll be taking them to over the Thanksgiving weekend (hint: Muppets!), check out the latest Eenie Meenie Miney Movies.
There are plenty of filmmakers who rush to finish their film for Sundance, fill out the paperwork, send off the DVD, and then… stop. There’s nothing wrong with waiting anxiously to hear from what is arguably the world’s most famous film festival, but if you’re not submitting to other festivals while you wait you could miss out on the entire Spring season. Break out your list of target festivals (see chapter one of Film Festival Secrets for more on this) and get cracking. Here’s a handy (but by no means complete) list of festivals with upcoming deadlines. Check each festival’s web site for their late deadlines, submission rules, etc.
I picked these festivals for their relative prominence and for the fact that their deadlines come before the Sundance notification date (around Thanksgiving). If you’re a festival director and would like to post your own upcoming deadline in the comments, please feel free.
A thoughtful, fascinating look at the history of creativity and innovation. This is part three of a series comprising four ten- (or so) minute episodes. See them all at everythingisaremix.info.
Film Festival Secrets: A Handbook for Independent Filmmakers
Written especially for people trying to navigate the film festival circuit. Start reading now or buy a copy of your very own.