What’s one of your film festival experiences? It could be something like winning at a festival, a filmmaking tip you picked up, or a mistake you learned from. Post your experience in the comments. It could help others who are looking to submit their films to festivals.
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Hi Maurice, I went to one, cool experience called Be Film Underground
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Hi, Billy Kwack. Thanks for sharing. Where was that festival? And did you submit a film to the festival or were you there watching the films?
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Hi Maurice, I think midtown Manhattan. I did camera work for Dimitris Athos, he was running the festival. A lot of good work
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Cool, Billy Kwack. I looked at Dimitris' IMDb page. He worked on Uncharted: Live Action Fan Film. I wonder if there are festivals for fan films.
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I found a festival for fan films, Billy Kwack. https://filmfreeway.com/FanFilmAwards
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Hi Maurice, cool, I haven't seen him in many years. I'll check it out, thanks
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You're welcome, Billy Kwack.
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The first little indie film I wrote, produced and directed premiered at the Newport Beach Film Festival. It was a smaller festival and my biggest take away was to not be afraid of radical self-promotion and not take anything for granted. We made ourselves and the film visible, we took hours each day to hand out fliers to the screenings not just at the festival but at malls and heavy foot traffic areas and we tried everything to pull an audience in believing a packed house would pay dividends. We filled the room and that brought some positive energy to the film and experience. It took elbow grease to make the film so we used some for any chance we had to screen it.
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Great takeaways, Sam Sokolow! You mentioned making yourselves and the film visible. That's really important no matter what area of the industry we're in! I like that you all handed out fliers at the festival AND at malls and heavy foot traffic areas. The extra work is worth it, as you all saw by the turnout. Filmmakers can also build up hype for their films on social media, at events, with radio ads, etc. Thanks for sharing!
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Well, it's always sound with me. But the first film festival I attended (for a film I composed and did the sound design for), was held in a hotel. The screening room didn't have cinema quality sound and a lot of the lower and upper ranges were lost. The film was still good, but (in my opinion) a lot of the dramatics from the sound were lost so I would advise asking film makers what festivals/screenings they are aiming for and if in doubt, produce 2 versions of the sound. One at cinema quality and one that is a little more condensed
Great suggestion, Hannah Woolmer! Thanks for sharing it! Poor sound can ruin a movie for me, probably more than a poor story.
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Probably my favorite festival experience was at the H P Lovecraft Film Festival. I felt like I’d found my people. Literate audiences and filmmakers with a taste for dark humor and horror.
I’ve also enjoyed whenever I’ve had the chance to do Q&A, even moderated a couple.
For a couple years I was on a shorts selection committee, which was an interesting challenge. You get pretty good at recognizing quality quickly.
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Two film events come to mind. One as a film maker and the other as an audience member. One of my animated shorts played at the Ottawa International Film Festival, back in 2006, maybe 2008, a long time ago. The festival payed for my hotel, and I got to network and meet a lot of people in the industry. My other memorable festival experience, this time as an audience member, was back in the 90's. During the Toronto Film Festival, a bunch of small side festivals pop up, people cashing in on all the tourists visiting the city. One of those festivals was a Russ Meyer festival. It lasted for about to weeks, and they screened a different Russ Meyer movie each day. My girlfriend and I went to about ten of the screenings. Had a blast. At that time, the only film of his I was familiar with was Faster, Pussy Cat! Kill! Kill!
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In 1991 I was in grad school and I submitted a short film to the Cascade Awards Festival (no longer extant). This was a PNW festival hosted in Portland, OR. My film was a finalist so I went. Well... it turns out my film was in competition with Gus Van Sant's short film. I didn't win, but I got to meet Gus and sit at the same table with him. Note: He was super shy and so was I, so we didn't say much and I never told him I had written a long paper analyzing his film Drug Store Cowboy.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Mike Boas. Did you know all the questions ahead of time when you moderated the Q&As, or did you also come up with questions on the spot?
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It sounds like you had a fantastic time at the festivals, Zee Risek! Appreciate you sharing your experiences. What was networking at the Ottawa International Film Festival like? Did you have a few minutes to talk with each person, did you ask about their projects, talk about animation, give out business cards, etc.?
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Hey, Tucker Teague. Thanks for sharing. That's great that you met and talked with Gus Van Sant! He's a top-tier director! Did you expect him to be super shy?
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Maurice Vaughan I thought he might be somewhat subdued because I had seen an interview or two with him, but I did not expect him to be shy almost to the point of insecurity. I think he grew out of that since then.
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Hey Maurice. I did hand out my business cards and receive a lot of cards too. Networking was very casual. Okay, here's a good story. When I got accepted into the festival, I received a hand book which had a bio of all the executives in attendance... including a photo. I saw that someone from The Cartoon Network was going to be there. Anyway, I made it my personal mission to meet her and pitch an idea to her. I basically stalked her all weekend at the Festival. A part of the Festival was a boat cruise for the executives, I saw she was walking with a huge group of execs toward the cruise boat, so I got on the boat, curtesy of a free boat pass for having my short in the festival. During the cruise she was with a group of about 5 people, just talking and laughing. I stood next to her, as if I was part of this group she was talking to. She noticed my name tag, with my name and my company, 'ZEE RISEK- Flying Iguana Animation' She turned to me and said, "Flying Iguana? I love reptiles!" That was it! That was my 'IN'. So I told her a hilarious story about my iguana. She laughed. So I told her another story about a reptile I once had. She laughed at that too. I made a plan to 'accidentally' bump into her all weekend and regale her with another lizard story each time. So that's exactly what I did. I 'accidently' and 'coincidentally' bumped into her in the lounge of the hotel, at the party, in the conference room, on her way to lunch, on her way back from lunch, on her way to a panel discussion, at a film screening, and on the shuttle bus that took us to the picnic. Each time making her laugh with another crazy story. While at the picnic, I was sitting by myself. She was with a group of a dozen people about 50 yards away. Then she left the group and walked toward me. She approached me and told me she thought I was really funny. Then she said, "Why don't you come over to the Cartoon Network and pitch something to me?" I said , "Yeah, sure. I'd love to. Thanks." Then she went back to her group. My plan worked out even better than I could have hoped. I didn't even have to ask her if I could pitch to her, she approached me and asked me to pitch to her. Long story short, I went to L.A., pitched an idea to her, but it was for a younger audience than what they were looking for. So nothing ever came of it. But the experience was priceless... and I have a good story to tell out of it.
Great story, Zee Risek! Thanks for sharing it. Your story proves that even if creatives don’t have weeks and months to build relationships with people, they can still take some time to build relationships, and it could lead to opportunities.