Article about my film getting rejected by Hoboken Film Festival

Thanks guys, I really appreciate that. Actually, criticism doesn't bother me at all, I work as an editor in television and the network notes on a cut range from scathing to downright ignorant and rude... it can be brutal. You can't take it personal and have to constantly find compromises that don't water things down too much and keep some sense of your own creativity.

DCP - That's awesome that you got something out of the festivals, especially meeting other filmmakers and making connections, which I think is the most important purpose they currently serve. It's not the rejection that bothers me as much as the fact that they represent themselves as this haven for filmmaking art and yet there's some very questionable stuff going on that they don't care to admit publicly. Hollywood is Hollywood, there are a million books, anecdotes, television shows and movies you can watch to learn their game... they're pretty upfront about it, really. With festivals, I don't care what your selection process is, just be honest and upfront about it so I can take my $50 elsewhere if I don't like the odds. However, I do think the tide is turning in favor of the filmmaker as more and more figure out the rules of the festival game. I think JonathanLB's attitude towards his film is a step in the right direction... we need to reclaim ownership of our work, how it's exhibited, and where it takes us.

I'll always take an honest rejection over one that came about because so-and-so's friend's film got in or any other nonsense that has nothing to do with the quality of the films. Festivals are the one place where quality should (and once did, I believe) trump all other considerations... isn't that, by and large, why they started? Again, this is an area where I agree with JonathanLB regarding the snobbery of the selections. I truly believe the bigger festivals have marginalized themselves and THAT'S why distribution has dried up, not because there's no audience or money out there. It's why I think it's so important that an above board, highly visible festival that focuses exclusively on micro-budget films and puts the judging on more equal footing would be an important step in true indie films regaining lost ground. The 'establishment' on the festival circuit doesn't want that however... because it would mean taking thousands in submission fees (and possibly sponsorships) away from them and taking the power away from the pretentious hipster wannabe intellectuals that currently run many of the important fests. There is definitely a vacuum right now that could be filled and get tremendous visibility if all the unempowered but talented micro-budget filmmakers banded together and only put out their best stuff in an agreed upon venue. There are definitely ways to iron out problems that aren't even being tried yet.

DALE - I thought the exact same thing about Avatar making nearly three billion dollars... like GOOD, eat this armchair critics! Good for Cameron... stuff like that only happens very, very few times and I'm happy I was alive to witness someone blowing the roof off the joint by following up an impossibly difficult to surpass feat like Titanic with ANOTHER impossibly difficult to surpass feat like Avatar. Another thing that gets me going is a quote from Michael Jackson after he felt ignored by his peers/The Grammys with "Off The Wall" - 'Wait until next time - they won't be able to ignore the next album.' Like the attitude was, 'Ok, ok... I get it now. I'm gonna shut up and get to work on the next one.'
 
Frank thanks for coming back to this thread. You mentioned how you might allocate resources if you were going the festival route again (5k to make the film and 10k to promote it). It makes one think about the wisdom of the festival trail versus a few local or regional screenings. In the last few years I've seen some god awful locally produced films screened in commercial and arthouse cinemas (north east Indiana not Austin). Do you (or other members) think some filmakers might be better served skipping the festival trail all together?
 
Others probably know more about this than I do and would hopefully chime in, but I'd say that if you can spare the money in your budget, from what I've heard is that a big festival can work wonders if your film is horror or science fiction.... in other words, highly marketable. I'm honestly not even sure what a publicist to one of these things cost, but I'd guess somewhere between $5k and $10k for one or two major festivals.

And this is all assuming that you have a really great film that has something different about it that's easy to market. Like that film 'Frozen' had an angle to it with the whole movie taking place on a ski lift so there's a built-in way to market it. However, I saw 'Frozen' and I just find it hard to believe that was the best horror/thriller submitted to Sundance. I'd imagine what goes on there is the usual... they need a genre film for those midnight slots, that director has a track record and has been to the festival, so it's the safe bet. Voila! No need to scour the other 10,000 films for a new voice/something fresh!

But yeah, getting a 'team' together and setting the money aside early is probably really important these days if you have no other connections to a major festival and you have an expectation of your film setting you up to make another movie (either through the studio system or being able to secure a good producer/further financing for the follow-up). The D.P. on a short film that I did a while back told me about this horror film that he worked on that played Sundance. I thought the film was well done but not the greatest thing ever (certainly wouldn't think it good enough for Sundance), and I checked into the background and it turns out they played a sister festival (in that it shared one of the programmers) to Sundance prior to that and they befriended the programmer who then championed their next film and got it to play Sundance.

All of my research points to either knowing someone inside the festival or GETTING to know someone inside a major festival by hiring a well connected publicist. If you check into any micro-budget feature you hear about getting into a major festival, they either have a prior relationship with the fest or some X factor that go them in. There's hardly ever a blind submission that someone comes across by accident while watching DVD's for 12 hours a day. I mean... there's a doc called "Official Rejection" for God's sake, this is a slow realization many are having about the way these things operate... big and small. I guess it's possible, but I haven't heard of any cases where the filmmakers didn't hedge their bets prior to submitting the film. I'd say the only thing the film itself HAS to have is it must be watchable... i.e. - decent acting, good sound, and technically well made... and even that last one isn't always important, which is kind of depressing, but wouldn't you rather know the truth? Any time I hear actual programmers address such questions these days, everything is couched in political double-talk and an awkward defensive/justifying defense for the way things are.

As far as bypassing festivals altogether, I did it and it got me somewhere. I think the web is a good place to serialize content in short chunks and experiment to see if your idea has any merit with a regular audience. Besides that, like I said, the short film as calling card route is becoming popular again as filmmakers pour resources into making the perfect 7-9 minute film versus running the marathon of making a feature followed by the grind of the festival circuit. I think it allows you to concentrate on getting across a concept or a snippet of a much larger and more complex story. Besides the sizzle reel for this television series, I'm also developing a sci-fi short that I plan to shoot later in the year... I just don't have the resources to go back and make another feature AND have money to spare for a publicist.

Hope that helps!
 
Thanks Frank. Thanks for confirming some of my beliefs about the festival circuit. I was cut out of a major film that played Sundance a few years ago (the money was really good so I can't complain)(lots of nominations in the cast). Every filmaker I know personally who has had a film get into Sundance had some prior relationship with someone in charge, student academy award, prior winner of another festival, major actor in the cast, Sundance involved in the script development. I don't think its rigged and I'm sure unknown films get in on their merits but if you don't have any of those factors Frank discussed your odds go way down for sure.
 
Frank:

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”

You're attitude will allow you to achieve great things... always keep it and you'll look back on Hoboken as the festival that made you better.

-Dale
 
It's definitely an odds game, it isn't at all like getting distribution, where there are mathematical formulas involved and at least a sense of like, "Ok this is a well made film with marketable elements, we can sell this," etc. It's so esoteric which festivals you get into and which reject you, I definitely think there is a lot more inside maneuvering going on than people realize.
 
No problem! That's been my experience is that distribution and 'the system' just makes more sense or at least you can get into a mindset of figuring out what they want while also pleasing yourself. I don' think it's anywyere near as vague as the festivals.

In favor of the festivals, though, it seems like for all the films being made, we should be seeing at least a few more great indies than five or ten years ago, but I'm not sure that's the case. I'm not even sure that festivals truly are ignoring stuff that's far better than what gets in. I don't know how we can be 100% positive about that until we see concrete proof of flat-out ignorance, i.e. - "How could XYZ film possibly fall through the cracks?" You might say that about Paranormal Activity, which was rejected by Sundance, but you could also say they went down that road with Blair Witch, thought it was a rehash, and were looking for something fresh... I can buy that. Like I said, a highly visible festival with a more honest and transparent selection process would go a long way towards repairing an increasingly suspicious relationship between festivals and filmmakers. Everything seems to be building to some kind of 'new way'... exactly what that new way is is the million dollar question.
 
Hey Frank,

Did you see this
[video]http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/389738/june-15-2011/the-word---shock-the-vote[/video]
 
Wow... what do you even say to that? While putting together this sci-fi short (yes... still in pre-production over a year later), I've run into a few people who have worked with him and let's just say he's not well liked. I have to say, though, the production value in the clip looks a lot better than his previous work. But it still amazes me that he runs the film festival in the city that gave us On the Waterfront, Frank Sinatra, and Cake Boss. Only in New Jersey. Epic fail...
 
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