You made a great film. Now give it a great run.
Trevor was kind enough to duck out of the convention center and spend a few minutes talking with me about the first Sundance on his watch as Director of Programming, and about some of his favorite festival moments.
Kudos to Mark Potts for shooting and editing this series of videos.
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.
See more Oxford FF travel videos at the Ballad of Friday and June blog.
And now, a very special message from Film Festival Secrets and SingleTree Productions:
Copies of Film Festival Secrets are available from Amazon.com.
A smart move from the Festivus Film Festival; this series of YouTube videos presents volunteer screeners talking about the films they pulled from the stacks and got through to programming. It’s a great way highlight the films in your festival, present yourself as an organization that keeps its filmmakers’ interests in mind, and draw attention to your event in the process. There’s a bunch of these on the Festivus FF Youtube channel.
Last Day Dream [HD] from Chris Milk on Vimeo.
Produced for the 42 Second Dream Film Festival.
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.
Hot Docs uploads a series of videos about its programming to YouTube. Here’s one of my faves, starring Ben Steinbauer of Winnebago Man.
(Via Agnes Varnum.)
Seven excellent minutes from filmmaker Zak Forsman on why you want to show up at festivals and what you should work to get out of them. This video starts a “virtual panel session” from filmmakers in the Workbook Project.
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.