Marie Castaldo, 52, of Queens, New York, was arraigned on Tuesday night on charges of first-degree scheme to defraud, third- and fourth-degree grand larceny, petit larceny, third- and fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and second-degree harassment. “The defendant is accused of duping advertising and film industry vendors into providing their services for free to her film festival by – in most cases – making a small up-front payment and then refusing to make any further payments,” Brown said.
It’s always a good idea when submitting to any festival to do some research on the festival in question – using Google’s blog search tool and looking for the name of the festival with the words “scam” or “rip-off” is a quick way to find out if there have been complaints in the past.
Check out this new instructional video on preparing your film and submitting it to film fests. Some good interviews with filmmakers and festival staffers about how to get ready. It’s a fine companion to Film Festival Secrets.
Life In A Day is a historic global experiment to create the world’s largest user-generated feature film: a documentary, shot in a single day, by you. On July 24, you have 24 hours to capture a glimpse of your life on camera. The most compelling and distinctive footage will be edited into an experimental documentary film, executive produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin Macdonald.
This week Film Festival Secrets got a facelift: the main site and the blog are now consolidated here at filmfestivalsecrets.com. I’ll be retiring the blogspot.com blog and working to refresh the extras pages.
There’s still some work to be done but I’m happy to be working on a single platform with a new look, thanks to designer/web guru Roger Tinch, aka @cinevegas. If you’re looking for help in the graphic design or web site construction department, I highly recommend Roger’s work. (He also designed the cover for the print edition of Film Festival Secrets.)
I’m currently in Memphis, Tennessee for the Indie Memphis film festival. The festival staffers have kindly invited me to speak on two of their “Café Conversation” panels. Both talks take place outside the Malco Studio theater at the Festival Café tent. The events are free to the public so even if you weren’t planning to attend the festival itself (and you should), you can stop by and soak up a little knowledge without spending a dime.
I would say that only three of the ten “insights” are ideas that haven’t been flogged to death in the indie film press over the last couple of years, but there are a couple of interesting quotes in there if you can wade through the redundant muck.
Every town has a film festival, there are film festivals of every possible genre, every possible niche that you can think of. And so now we’re kind of entering this world where nontraditional distribution platforms are starting to emerge and film festivals are definitely coping with and struggling with that new world. There’s real fear, I think, of obliteration. People think that technology will obliterate anything that came before it and I don’t believe that at all. I do think that film fess have to recalibrate, reboot, what their role is and why they’re important beyond simply promoting a sponsor’s product or beyond being a good junket for a few celebrities prior to the theatrical release of a big film. – Christian Gaines, Withoutabox
Trevor Groth is taking over the reins as Director of Programming for the Sundance Film Festival effective immediately. Groth takes the position after John Cooper, who previously held the position, was appointed Director of the Sundance Film Festival following the departure of longtime event head Geoff Gilmore to the Tribeca Film Institute in March.
No word yet on how this will affect Groth’s duties as Artistic Director of CineVegas.
IFP (formerly known as the Independent Feature Project) is on the hunt for a new Community Manager, someone with a strong background in marketing and web savvy.
Full-time position available immediately for high energy, organized individual with managerial, marketing and web experience. Must have excellent project management and strong social media expertise – this includes managing forums and online communities for at least 3 years and/or maintaining successful blog for at least 2 years.
BASIC DUTIES
The Community Manger is responsible for building an online presence for IFP and its publications and programs. Their primary job will be the maintenance and continuity of information about the organization both internally and externally, acting as a strong community advocate who represents the organization online and off, working to build IFP brand awareness in both directions. They will be in charge of all membership management, online content development and design, and management and marketing of IFP publications, programs and events. The position reports directly to IFP’s Deputy Director and works closely with IFP’s Programming staff members and Gotham Awards Producer.
Festival consulting is available at reasonable rates. Whether you just need a few answers or want a complete strategy for your film, I'm here to help. Read more >>
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I would say that only three of the ten “insights” are ideas that haven’t been flogged to death in the indie film press over the last couple of years, but there are a couple of interesting quotes in there if you can wade through the redundant muck.
