On Film Festivals and how the game is played these days

Drunk and laid? I'm still laughing at that -- great story! Very good points on the FAQ as well.....
I would like our little festival to grow, but at the same time I would like it to have something to offer the regional producers that they can actually use. At the wrap party I went around and asked all the producers present what they needed, all of them said lighting and sound. We gave out over $3,500 cash, so I'm guessing that a few of them might have that already. Meanwhile, I'm going to try to get a grant pushed thru that would allow us to bring in a couple of lighting/sound packages that regional producers could get access to. I have no idea how to run such a program, this topic might work better on another thread.
As for shorts, yeah -- I love 'em and they won't go away. That's all we did this year (tylerfilmfest.com) and they were a runaway hit. The fact that we were in an utterly gorgeous, newly-remodeled historic theater didn't hurt - the excitement level was pretty high. Growing past this first year will be interesting.
For breakout sessions, we did "How To Pitch Your Film" with Leo Wong and "Zombie Makeup" by two of the designers from EdgeCity Efx. We got really lucky on those, and they were huge hits. I would love to have a grip company come over next year and do a few sessions, I'll have to wait and see if I can lure someone in to that. What have you guys seen in breakouts that was memorable?
So - my challenge....to make our little festival attractive to an international audience while not going off and leaving the locals in obscurity. Wish me luck.....
 
NVentive said:
Drunk and laid? I'm still laughing at that -- great story! Very good points on the FAQ as well.....
I would like our little festival to grow, but at the same time I would like it to have something to offer the regional producers that they can actually use. At the wrap party I went around and asked all the producers present what they needed, all of them said lighting and sound. We gave out over $3,500 cash, so I'm guessing that a few of them might have that already. Meanwhile, I'm going to try to get a grant pushed thru that would allow us to bring in a couple of lighting/sound packages that regional producers could get access to. I have no idea how to run such a program, this topic might work better on another thread.
As for shorts, yeah -- I love 'em and they won't go away. That's all we did this year (tylerfilmfest.com) and they were a runaway hit. The fact that we were in an utterly gorgeous, newly-remodeled historic theater didn't hurt - the excitement level was pretty high. Growing past this first year will be interesting.
For breakout sessions, we did "How To Pitch Your Film" with Leo Wong and "Zombie Makeup" by two of the designers from EdgeCity Efx. We got really lucky on those, and they were huge hits. I would love to have a grip company come over next year and do a few sessions, I'll have to wait and see if I can lure someone in to that. What have you guys seen in breakouts that was memorable?
So - my challenge....to make our little festival attractive to an international audience while not going off and leaving the locals in obscurity. Wish me luck.....
Click to expand...

Oh man, I wish I knew about this fest...I would have come to give it a look. I've just moved to Houston from NYC and would love to find some good Texas festivals to submit to and attend.
 
robmneilson said:
Oh man, I wish I knew about this fest...I would have come to give it a look. I've just moved to Houston from NYC and would love to find some good Texas festivals to submit to and attend.
Click to expand...

I am a Houstonian, and have had films in these Texas fests - McAllen Art & Film Festival, Gulf Coast Film Festival, Worldfest Houston, Texandance, and Houston Comedy Film Festival. If you want to PM/email I can give you details. I've heard good things about the Marfa Film Festival though I haven't been in it. I know a guy on the Houston Film Commission who knows the festival scene pretty well, if you want his info.
 
Have someone make a film during the film festival! Yeah!
Gaw im cheeseball.
Also: interactive experience with cell phone text updates
mobile herding the audience around to films.
yeah make your thing ad-vanced!
or mobile game that leads to a secret screeeeeeeening!
oh yeah
i got a million of em!
 
Josh Bass said:
I am a Houstonian, and have had films in these Texas fests - McAllen Art & Film Festival, Gulf Coast Film Festival, Worldfest Houston, Texandance, and Houston Comedy Film Festival. If you want to PM/email I can give you details. I've heard good things about the Marfa Film Festival though I haven't been in it. I know a guy on the Houston Film Commission who knows the festival scene pretty well, if you want his info.
Click to expand...

Hey Josh, I'd love some details on some good Texas film fests. I've submitted to Marfa, and I'd love to get in...heard its a really cool little town, and a nice fest.
 
I can chime in here, i'm a festival director of a second year festival, just happened 2 weeks ago. The primary reason i started this NYC Filmmaker's Festival was when i read up on the Queens international film festival. For those of you who don't know, they were a scam to everyone involved, 12 lawsuits and fox5 problem solvers on their tail last i checked. That made me shake my head enough to start something new.

To answer some of the questions here in MHO:

Festivals SHOULD be useful primarily to promote a hopefully good film, but more importantly promote the filmmaker(s) behind it. You should be selling yourself and your work. That plus networking can lead to new gigs/films/deals/etc..., but you have to be personable.

i say 'should' because i don't view sundance, tribeca, cannes, and any other "festival" that shows hollywood films, films with budgets over 7 digits, or otherwise packed with known actors, to be actual festivals. They simply are not, film festivals are supposed to be for INDEPENDENT films. fox searchlight does not count. independent means independent from a studio of any kind or any flavor. and in my mind a million dollar budget isn't indie either.

I also say SHOULD because many of these festivals can be bought into, and/or are 'programmed' by random nobodys watching stacks of DVDs. you have no idea who they are or what their qualifications are, or that they are even grading the films on any sort of scale or category.

That being said, a few things i do at my festival to improve upon these things. Stephen, you are more then welcome to adapt these such things for your festival:

-I have actual judges, and i tell you who they are and their qualifications. Marc Baron is on the Screen Actor's Guild board of NY. Frank Zagottis headed the DVD production unit of HBO for 15 years.
-These judges are not just told to pick films they like, i give them a score card with a 77 point scale including all the major aspects of a film individually. Their scores are averaged together.
-I as the festival director i do NOT accept films because they are a friends, or want to buy in, etc... i act as a tie-breaker score only
-I spell out exactly what we are looking for, not that most filmmakers bother to read it: http://filmfestny.com/tips.htm
-I'm a technical person, so i make sure i have venues with a large screen, and quality projection and sound
-I professionally design and professionally print programs. Not just xerox off some copy paper with some scribble on it. You can flip through the digital version on http://filmfestny.com
-I don't do individual screenings, because i don't tolerate single digit audiences. I have a mix of shorts and a feature for each Block, so filmmakers share audiences.

I like what everyone is discussing in this thread, because i am always looking for ways to improve and become more useful. If a festival isn't useful, what's the point?

I do also have some very nice prizes, but a prize doesn't further your career. The best comment i've gotten at the first year was that they thought i had been around for at least 3-4 years, and then this year a similar comment of how this was only the second year, but it seemed more established.

It wasn't just easy breezy building it, but all the legwork pays off in how the festival appears to the public. does it feel rushed, or does it feel well thought out? This year i got even more thanks and appreciation from filmmakers, and that makes it worth it for me, i just about break even financially.

And here's the fun part about this year: the dates we had were on the weekend of hurricane Irene :)
Once the NY mta announced its shutdown, i talked with the venue and agreed we needed a reschedule. then blasted an email to everyone stating that we will be rescheduling, that all tickets will be honored for the showtimes, and if anyone couldn't make it for their rescheduled showtime we would refund the tickets. About a month later the festival went on without a hitch. This is a point about caring, organization, communication, and thoroughness. All are needed to run a festival, especially when situations arise.

It's all in the details. And i've ranted a bit too much in one sitting.

And on that note about networking and not knowing what may come of it. one of the filmmakers this year, Kevin Glynn, flew in from Ireland for the festival, and when he asked me where he could rent a boom pole, i asked what he was planning, he said that he would be a fool to be here for a week and not shoot something. THAT's a filmmaker. They next day, the day after the festival, i met up with him with my boom pole and other camera gear and we shot until 1AM. My idea of a good time.

cheerios

http://filmfestny.com/tips.htm
 
Darren, great to see that you're pushing to change the way festivals have 'settled' in. I just hope that your score card doesn't push a film's story into a corner and weed out the true originality (i.e. A human drama hitting it's plot points and inciting incidents doesn't mean it's original or compelling) - 'Barton Fink' or 'Apocalypse Now' might not score well on objective score cards but yet they're legendary and revolutionary films.
 
Quite the contrary actually. Each category has 11 possible points. And just for good measure i weight the story double, because yes if the story is garbage then everything else doesent matter.Interestingly though, double weighting story so far hasnt yielded different rankings. Almost seems as if good stories are taken more seriously when being produced ;)
 
Good comments everybody -- thanks! We were in a brand-new venue, so everything looked great. We had two really nice parties, I'm not sure if anyone got laid..... but since I'm trying to grow our community, and I guess it would not be a bad thing?
An interesting thing we did this year was an 'Audience Choice" award, where people dropped their ticket stubs into film cans that had movie posters their fronts. We had volunteers in the lobby, keeping a watch on to make sure there wasn't any stuffing.....We got some interesting demographic data, and we will probably keep doing it in years to come.
We are going to try to do measured growth, so I doubt we'll be huge next year. Bigger than this year for certain, however. Any and all comments are welcome, both here and on our "Show Us Your Shorts" FB page. I don't even pretend to know what I am doing, but I figure that if we focus on making our festival good for the film-makers, we'll be off to a good start.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top