You made a great film. Now give it a great run.
The Ballad of Friday and June (2009) from Jollyville Pictures on Vimeo.
This was a big favorite of mine on the festival circuit last year. It’s short, funny, poignant, heartfelt, and other adjectives that mean “wonderful.”
Now you can watch it in its entirety online and see what I mean.
Breathe. Focus. Octopus. from Jon Gann on Vimeo.
If you ever wanted to see the kind of short film a festival programmer would make, here’s your chance. Jon Gann is the driving force behind the D.C. Shorts Film Festival. Jon and his team made this film as part of the Washington D.C. edition of the 48 Hour Film Project.
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.
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.
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.
A clever bit of marketing from the Atlanta Film Festival — interviews with indie film insiders (including yours truly) on the streets of Austin during SXSW, singing the praises of both Atlanta and Atlanta Film Fest. Fest director Gabe Wardell and his peeps shot the video using tiny Flip cameras. Festivals often use video to promote their events through film trailers and the occasional “festival trailer,” but creative projects like this one really accentuate the fact that there are other ways to use the medium.
And speaking of video projects, I’m long overdue to plug parts 3 and 4 of Mark Potts’ series of ads for the Film Festival Secrets book. I’ll embed each of them here soon but if you were too lazy to go look for them yourself I didn’t want to deny you the pleasure of watching them any longer. Part 4 is fabulously tasteless.
For those of you on the outside of this particular in-joke, here’s the Wikipedia entry on the mumblecore “movement.”
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.
