Attending Film festivals: Hollywood dv/hd festival VS. FirstGlance film fest.

abalex

abalex

Well-known member
Has anyone ever attended any of these two festivals before? My short No middle ground has been selected by both fests and I would like to know which one is better regarding networking and buzz.

I wont be able to travel to Cali twice for the same reason so I want to make sure I attend the right festival.

Hollywoood dv/hd festival March 24-30th
FirstGlance Film festival april 11-13th.

thanks for your advice and help

gv.
 
i haven't but the word at the Withoutabox message boards is that FirstGlance is poorly attended, especially for shorts. FirstGlance was started as a franchise opportunity for people who wanted their own festival, so the intentions are a little dubious at best.

here is a post by a guy who WON at the festival:

Hey folks, not only did my partner and I go to the L.A. FirstGlance fest in 2003 but our feature actually won Best Film in 2003. Don't get excited, however, as this is one of those festivals that I would recommend staying away from for the following reasons:

1. They screened at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood which is a fabulous venue (on a studio lot, really nice screening room, great projection and sound). We actually did a test of the Raleigh system the previous year when we were looking for a place to have a cast and crew screening of our feature and it was amazing. But in order to save money the festival used their own cheap DVD player and sound system - 2 stereo speakers up front. Every film we saw and we went to 2 days, was slightly out of focus and blasted out white. The first 5 minutes of our film is dialogue on a computer screen and no one could read the words. We were fuming in our seats. The sound was pathetic. We spent months putting together a kick-*** soundtrack and it was hard to hear the dialogue and the music was almost non-existent. One of the shorts that played before our feature got about a minute into the 12 minute film, had some digital noise on the screen, and they stopped it and just went on to the next short. We were amazed that they didn’t even try to restart it. I mean, it’s a festival, you expect some problems every once in awhile. Take out the DVD and clean it and give it at least one more shot. If it won’t play then there’s nothing you can do but to not even give it a chance? That should be a felony. Sorry guy, here you think you got into some fabulous Hollywood festival but you really didn’t.

2. There was no advertising that I know of, we were looking at various papers the weeks before and if they did advertise we never saw it. Maybe they did, you want to be hopeful, but...

3. None of the directors/filmmakers were given a chance to do a Q&A or EVEN INTRODUCED. They just ran one film after the other. Thank you, goodnight.

4. The opening night gala was two plates of sandwich wraps and a few liters of soda. They may have had some beer but since I don’t drink beer I really can’t remember for sure. The festival founder was introduced to the crowd, of course, but when we went up to speak to him and introduced ourselves he completely blew us off. It seemed to us he was more concerned with getting photos with his friends.

5. They advertise $20,000 worth of prizes in magazines and maybe on their website (haven't been on it lately) and I'm here to tell you the bountiful lot we received: one (1) T-shirt (with the Philly FirstGlance Logo, by the way), two DVD's of old films (The Good Thief and some other bad title I can't remember), a coupon for 10% off a purchase over $300 at productionhub.com, and a budgeting software program that's apparantly still in the beta testing phase as not everything worked like the printing part of it. That's it. And all we could think was, "This is $20,000 worth of prizes?" We were also supposed to receive a Philly cheesecake platter but that never materialized. Big surprise. Oh, and it came about 5-6 months after the festival after I had written countless e-mails to them.

But I also want to offer a few other comments for you. I did end up speaking to the founder, William, at one point. I have seen my film so many times it's hard to sit through it so I decided to take a little break about halfway through. William was manning the door downstairs so even though he blew me off the night before I decided to chat with him. He is a genuinely nice guy who like so many of these festival people would rather be making films but for whatever reason(s) find themselves running a film festival instead. After we talked I actually felt empathy toward him (until we received our “prizes” and then I was pissed again).

Also, this is one of the festivals where the audience votes for the best film. So, if you live in the Los Angeles area and can get a large amount of people to pay the admission price and vote for your film you just may end up the winner. If you don’t plan on attending the festival and/or have no means to gather your own audience I would advise you stay away from this festival altogether.

So in summary; the screening sucked, the prizes were a joke, and I would not call this a worthwhile festival. But I must admit it’s kind of nice to have “Winner Best Film” on our press packet.

Endnote: we do have a short film we’re submitting to various fests this year and FirstGlance is not on our list.
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i don't know anything about the other fest you mentioned but generally, LA fests are very poorly attended. kinda ironic isn't it? it's a testament to where this town's heart is when it comes to the indie filmmaker. the only festival in LA that's really worth a damn for shorts is Dances With Films. they refuse films by "name" filmmakers and SOMEHOW industry folks still populate its screenings every year looking for the next big indie.

as best as i can tell, there are no networking opportunities at FirstGlance because they only hold screenings... no seminars, or press pits, or special filmmaker meet and greet functions or even Q&As after the films. LA is generally the wrong town for fests, imo. here's a great thread with firsthand feedback of dozens of fests...

http://boards.withoutabox.com/showthread.php?t=32565&highlight=firstglance
 
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looking at the HOLLYWOOD DV/HD FESTIVAL's web site, it doesn't look half bad. and they screen three blocks from my apartment at fairfax and beverly blvd!!!
 
Hey Zak thanks for taking the time to research and share the info, it's really helpful.

Thanks for the links!
g.
 
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