Choosing a Festival for your Film...

Now that we've completed a film, what do we do with it? It's a question every producer and director asks themselves right after the wrap party. If it's a documentary, you'll want to know how to get your message out. If it's a short, you'll want people to watch it on a movie screen. If it's a feature you've got to figure out a path to get your investor's money back.

Best Short, Best Documentary and Best Feature are categories found in almost all film festivals. And let's face it, winning an award will definitely help the marketing of your film. Festivals have entry fees and this can become quite costly, especially if you haven't budgeted funds to market your project. I bet you didn't know that many festivals in foreign countries do not require an entry fee. In the US an entry fee is used to offset the costs of selection and in some cases assist in paying for any cash prize. A festival such as Sundance will receive five thousand entries and select under two hundred.

So, how does a filmmaker select the right festival? Each film festival has their own selection process. An experienced film festival has tweaked this process and understands what the community wants to watch and the types of films they want representing their festival. Every filmmaker wants to get into Sundance. According to Roberta Munroe, a former Sundance programmer, Sundance, considered the "Holy Grail" of film festivals, is the toughest to get into. They select only 2% of the films submitted. Even if you are selected it doesn't guarantee fame and fortune for you and your film....Only prestige. As a filmmaker you need to research as many film festivals as possible. www.Withoutabox.com is a fairly good resource and it's free to sign up. You can also cut out the middle man by registering directly through their site and save money off the festivals' entry fee.

What do you need to look for in a festival? How will the festival help the promotion of my film? Where will the film play? Is there an award show? Richard Kraft, who's documentary FINDING KRAFTLAND won Best Documentary at a couple of festivals (including mine) told me he was accepted to twenty five festivals and sent off to a hundred. He told me of several bad experiences including a festival that screened outdoors in a driving rain storm under a tent. He thought he was going to die! Neil Mandt, who's feature film LAST STOP FOR PAUL won more than thirty festival awards, told me many of the festivals "just sling out certificates during the awards presentation." He also told me he chose our festival because he heard the awards show was inspiring and worth the effort to attend. I produce our awards show to inspire filmmakers. I want them to picture themselves someday at the Kodak Theater in LA, accepting an Oscar.

Think about winning a festival and not just screening. It really doesn't help your feature if you didn't make the finals of the BF IOWA Film Festival. Being an "Official Selection" to a more experienced film festival is better than winning a festival where the films were shown on a big screen TV. Use your head! How do you know if your entry to a film festival is really screened and watched by a selection committee? What do you get for your film by entering this particular film festival? Here at the Central Florida Film Festival I make sure our judges, before rejecting a film, critique the film to let the makers understand why. This serves two purposes - 1) It proves we've watched your film and can document it with a specific (not general) critique and 2) It will hopefully help you next time around. Perhaps even make you a better filmmaker.

You might want to start out near home. When I was living and making films in LA we entered our film GOIN' TO CHICAGO to SAN DIEGO, SANTA BARBARA, and SAN FRANCISCO before even thinking about branching out to other festivals. When we were accepted to the Santa Barbara International Film Festival we stopped applying. Santa Barbara was prestigious enough and close enough to help the marketing of our film. We were lucky enough to win Best Picture that year (1990) and I've got to admit "Best Picture" looked better than "Official Selection," on the new poster. To this day I don't know why the other two festivals rejected our film but I'm glad it was good enough for SANTA BARBARA. Hence, the reason, I tell filmmakers why they didn't get into our festival. It stops them from wondering if we watched at all.

Take a look at the films that have previously won at the festival you're thinking of entering. How does your film stand up to previous winners? Look at the production value, the length, the topic anything that can give you an idea of your chances of selection. I bet you didn't know that a five minute film with good production value has a better chance of getting into a festival than a forty minute film with similar production value. The selection thinking is there's always room for a good five minute film. Sometimes funny is better than serious. Many festival pieces are of a serious topic and a good comedic short is a welcome relief. This is true not only for our judges but as a programmer for our audience as well.

Finally, don't let your pocketbook limit your chances of getting into a festival. Once you've won a few awards, other festivals will seek you out and invite you and in many cases waive the fees. Our festival has a "No Waiver" policy but over the years I have invited six films that I believed the residents of the community needed to see. Name value, production value and a resume make a film valuable to a festival programmer.

I hope these pointers have helped and I look forward to seeing you at the movies.

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Academy Awards Rant & Predictions

March 7th is the date the film industry is marking down in it's calendar. The night of the Academy Awards, where Oscar parties will be everywhere with fun, games and of course predictions.

I read some time back that the Academy was going to select ten Best Picture nominees but I didn't think they'd really follow through with it. Ten should be the rating of a hot female attending a festival party, or the amount of commandments we're to follow (unless you're a producer), not the amount of films nominated for Best Picture in 2009. I thought there were mistakes and slights made when they only selected five films. How in the hell can INVICTUS be left out of the top ten? I could understand being slighted at being 6th in a five film field. But UP? Please, just shoot me now!!!

I understand the Academy not wanting to waste time selecting films to finish behind AVATAR in this category but pick four not nine. My selections for Best Picture would have been AVATAR, THE HURT LOCKER, INGLORIOUS BASTARDS, A SERIOUS MAN and UP IN THE AIR. My selection for March 7th is AVATAR, which proved it wasn't just a film but an event.

Rather than go down each category let me list the categories where AVATAR will walk away with the Oscar. They will include, BEST PICTURE, BEST DIRECTOR (Thank goodness Kathryn Bigelow won the DGA award but no shot to beat her ex for the Oscar. I should pick her on looks alone!), EDITING, ORIGINAL SCORE, SOUND MIXING, SOUND EDITING, and VISUAL EFFECTS (why only three nominees?). That's seven Oscars in the bank for AVATAR. My pick for Best Actor is Jeff Bridges, Best Actress is Sandra Bullock, Best Supporting Actor is Christopher Waltz, Best Supporting Actress is Mo'Nique. These selections are the Oscar locks!

Let's move onto the guessing game -

Best Original Screenplay - My Selection = Inglorious Bastards. The reasoning is simple the Academy always liked Tarantino's scripts if not his films. The reason I'm probably wrong, The Hurt Locker and A Serious Man could slip in they both are excellent scripts.

Best Screenplay adaptation - My Selection = District 9. The reasoning is I saw both District 9 and Up in the Air and felt the script for District 9 was better. The reason I'm probably wrong, I didn't see the other three contenders to date.

Best Cinematography - My Selection = Avatar. The reasoning is shooting a film like Avatar had to be a challenge. The reason I'm probably wrong, I'm not sure what constitutes good cinematography. I always thought it was the breathtaking visuals but I'm sure there's more to it. Francis Grumman is my DP and I'm happy when the shot is in focus (sorry, Fran but my readers like to laugh).

Best Art Direction - My Selection = Avatar. The reasoning is ride the band wagon while the film is hot! Nine could take this category but my money is on the Cameron team. Why I'm probably wrong, someone else has to win an award on March 7th, right?

Best Costume Design - My Selection = Nine. I picked the one with the prettiest women. Why I'm probably wrong - The Weinstein's distributed this film which means no one had a chance to see it!

Best Song - My Selection = Down in New Orleans. Reasoning? They will lose the Superbowl and the Academy will feel sorry for them and give them best song. Why I'm probably wrong - Randy Newman is 1 for 20! Need I say more?

Best Documentary
Best Documentary Short Subjects
Best Animated Short
Best Live Action Short

Who cares?

Plus my Mother reads this blog and we have a competition going and I can't give out all my selections.

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Filmmakers, phonies and frauds!

Film makers are a funny breed. They will find an idea they are passionate about and in many cases find a camera, crew, cast and just start shooting. The old expression "we can fix it in post," is more prevalent now than ever before with anyone who owns a PC having the tools to edit.

Year's ago when festival films were still made on film there was more thought behind the process. Just making and finishing a film was an accomplishment in itself. Finding distribution was another feat that was hard to come by. It wasn't until the eighties when distribution opened up to include video and additional cable outlets that a person could make a good living making films and not have one in theaters.

Many films are being made today to get the film maker listed on IMDB. If you're not on IMDB you're not in the business (is the thought process) and films with little merit or production value proudly display their title, cast, crew and other important (not really) IMDB information on the Internet site. Those that haven't created a credit on IMDB can actually purchase them. I've heard an executive producer's credit on a short can go for as little as two or three thousand dollars. These people still think they're film makers and not frauds. "I need the credit to show my investors I have experience," wow, did he just say that? To me it's better to be honest with your investors and create a business plan with elements of the project outlining where the investor's money will travel and hopefully end with it traveling back into his pocket. I had an actress one time refer me to her IMDB site where she had numerous credits. However, next to each credit it said "uncredited." You earn a credit. Having an "uncredited credit" is like have a salary with no money. There's a reason you didn't get a credit and it was probably because you were an extra!

The ironic thing is I have a few credits listed on IMDB and some of the information is incorrect. It's like trying to break a code to get our film festival IMDB credit fixed so it makes any sense. We've got winners listed all the way back to 1994 but our festival started in 2005. It's important for a film maker to create pride in his work and even to embellish his accomplishments. Remember, there is nothing wrong with starting out with a good short or documentary before he tackles a 90 minute plus feature.

Next time I will donate time to find the perfect festival for your film!

Until then....GO COLTS!

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