Tate English and Lynn Mikeska (writer/director and star, respectively, of The Ballad of Friday and June) spent some time at the Oxford Film Festival recording a series of webisodes to document their festival trip. Rather than making the series a simple travelogue, however, they went out of their way to make each episode funny in a self-deprecating way. Well-made webisodes like these capture some of the local flavor of a festival town and involve fellow attending filmmakers involved whenever possible. (You want to give people a reason to link to your videos, right?) Off-the-cuff video blog entries are a fun, inexpensive way to build a fan base and to draw attention to your film’s festival run.
Lucas Martell’s podcast is a companion to the launch of his short animated film, Pigeon Impossible. Each episode is entertaining in its own way (check out episode 2, “Writing is Rewriting”) and most of them focus on the animation process, but episode 12 speaks directly to the festival circuit. In particular listen to Martell’s advice about output formats and why the extra expense of converting your short to 35mm film might give you a leg up on the competition. Now that’s what I call a film festival secret.
Lately I’ve had the privilege of sitting on a couple of panels with Heidi van Lier, filmmaker and author of The Indie Film Rule Book. Heidi’s advice is no-nonsense, funny, and wastes no time. If you’re not reading her blog at the Film Independent web site, you should be. There she dispenses similar wisdom; I’ve linked to a few recent samples below.
I got this excellent email “out of office” autoresponder from a festival contact recently:
Absence Alert! I’m out of the office and returning Monday, April 13.
I’ll be warm and dry playing outside dressed in my Patagonia Cold Track jacket, Polartec fleece, OR hat and gloves and New Balance Shoes. I’ll use my Deuter pack to carry extra gear and supplies from Gore-Tex, Mountain Hardwear, OR, Petzl and Mountain Equipment Co-op. You can find me in the beautiful pristince Yellowstone to Yukon region, making tracks at Mount Engadine Lodge, or skiing one of the fantastic areas of Resorts of the Canadian Rockies. Following a great day outdoors I’ll relax with a Big Rock ale or a glass of Redwood Creek wine and enjoy reading about travel, exploration and adventure in National Geographic Adventure magazine. I may fantasize about tripping away with World Expeditions or Canadian Mountain Holidays.
I will check and reply to email only sporadicaly. If you need immediate assistance please contact [snipped for privacy].
Laurie Harvey Manager, Strategic Partnerships Mountain Culture, The Banff Centre
Laurie not only turned her everyday vacation message into something funny, she also mentioned her strategic partners (aka “sponsors”), guaranteeing that existing sponsors would smile and that prospective partners would get the message: even when Laurie is on vacation, she’s doing her job.
If you’re a filmmaker, you can use vacation auto-responders to send messages in a similar way. Set one up to cover your email while you’re away at a festival, and be sure to include the screening times of all of your upcoming festivals while you’re at it. Add a link to your trailer so that everyone who emails you will get a chance to check out your film — even if they’re just trying to sell you “mal3 en#anc3ment” products.
Festival directors reading this can steal the idea outright, but filmmakers may need a little more creativity to make it work for them. Either way, it’s a clever and subversive way to boost your Twitter followers – the Atlanta Film Festival withheld the details about one of their parties, releasing the details only on Twitter. (You can find them at twitter.com/atlantafilmfest.)
Below is a quick snap of the party page of the Atlanta Film Festival’s program guide.
While doing some research I came across this entry on the Environmental Defense Fund blog:
At the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, the jury of film experts chose Forty Shades of Blue as the best dramatic film. The Audience Award went to Hustle & Flow. I don’t know which was a better film, but I do know Hustle & Flow went on to earn $20 million in wide release in the U.S., while Forty Shades of Blue topped out at $75,000. I’m sure it doesn’t always happen that way, but it goes to show that the experts don’t always know what will succeed in the marketplace of ideas.
We at Environmental Defense Fund just finished something a bit like a film festival — a competition that challenged participants to make a 30 second ad that explains how capping greenhouse gas pollution will help cure our national addition to oil. This week we announced two winners, one selected by our staff and another chosen by thousands of voters online. Like at Sundance, the voters and the judges chose different winners…in fact, the video chosen by us “experts” came in dead last in the online voting.
This in essence, is the guiding philosophy behind distributor (and my employer) B-Side Entertainment: the audience is never wrong. When putting together your own festival and distribution plan, polling a wide audience (who doesn’t know you) through test screenings is essential. Even when you can’t trust yourself or your friends to evaluate whether your film is good or bad likely to appeal to festival audiences, your test audiences will tell you.
(Edited after Alex Orr rightly pointed out that sometimes “audience-pleasing” doesn’t always equal “good.”)
This is a great example of what I call “next-level” humor in short films. So many comedies make jokes that only play on the obvious and go in the expected directions. Trevor’s in Heaven lulls you into thinking you know what’s going to happen next and then slaps you around for a bit, always escalating the humor to the next level. Just watch.
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While doing some research I came across this entry on the Environmental Defense Fund blog:
