Anyone know anything about the Berlin Independent Film festival ?

D

donnam

Hi there,
I am new to this forum and so happy to have found you all !
Just a quick question - has anyone had any experience with this festival at all?
It may have been called the European Film festival at one stage.
My film has been accepted and I can't seem to find out a lot about it apart from their website !
Hoping it's legit (how awful to think that but you know how it is !) ;)
Any thoughts wold be much appreciated !

Best
Donna
 
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I know about as much as you but I did find this...

Hi Donna,
I was also accepted into BIFF for my feature screenplay. Congrats on getting accepted btw! What did you make? Feature or short?

It's pretty hard to find much about the Berlin Independent Film Festival (besides their website), but I did find one article that described it as 'prestigious', so it looks legit! You can see it here: http://www.thebigidea.co.nz/news/industry-news/2013/jan/125619-short-film-steams-to-berlin

Also there's a lot of chatter on Twitter from people who were accepted, so you shouldnt be too worried about it.

It's also going on when the European Film Market is happening in Berlin, though it wont have any crossover as far as I know.

Will you be attending? Should be a blast! And good luck!
 
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As I understand it, Berlin's in the top 10 film festivals. I've even heard it being described in the top 5 or 6.

Congrats and good luck!

Are you going over to personally present it?
 
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First off, why did you submit your film to a festival you don't know a lot about? Always do your research before submitting. :D

Also, how did you submit? Through Withoutabox (I've seen it before while browsing there)? It looks legit to me but probably not as famous or not as big.

But yeah, I think the Berlin Independent Film Festival is definitely not the same as the Berlinale (which is the PRESTIGIOUS one).

Good luck my friend! And congrats on the acceptance.
 
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Hi,
thanks for the replies!
Hey Hunter7 congrats to you too ! My film is a feature Johnny Ghost which has been making the rounds on the underground/indie film fest circuit for a year now. As I live in Australia it is a long way to go - but I have some frequent flyer points that I could use so that's why I was asking. Are you going ?? Also, I will have a look on twitter - what hashtag are they using ?
Sweetie, it's not the Berlinale - wow, if I had got into that our gov't run film funding body would be private jetting me over ! :lol:

Justinisfilming - yes, a valid q - why did i send it off not knowing much about it? Normally I cross and double check every fest before entering - it is so important to do this - and this is why I didn't so much with this - I so want to go to Berlin !!!!!

But, what makes me feel that something is up is that there is not much presence about this fest out there apart from their website. I really hope that I am wrong - but so far a search on the director brings up nothing, a search on some of the films shown last year brings up nothing, there is a lot of spam in the comments section of their website that hasn't been taken down.....the list goes on.
Hopefully I am wrong. I FB'd the cinema in which it is playing and they said it is booked and they will get all the films info next week. The acceptance email said to email and tell them if you can make it to intro your film and let them know when a good time would be - I did twice and no answer.

Am I being paranoid??? I so want this FF to be good and, having travelled to a few os fests with my little film, I am a true ambassador for and lover of the little fests.

Hope I am wrong. Will check out twitter now.

And thanks once again for answering me, I am new to these boards and love the global camaraderie that this can bring.
Best
D
 
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Hey Donna, just saw the trailer for your film. Looks good! I look forward to screening it.

I will be attending the festival. I don't live too far away, nothing like Australia! I didnt find any hashtag in twitter, I just searched the name of the festival and multiple tweets popped up, most of them from fellow filmmakers getting accepted.

Btw, the organizer just answered both my emails, so it looks like they're just now getting to them. Must be pretty busy. I also did some checking around, and I found a website dedicated to film festivals in Berlin. I was surprised to find BIFF wasn't on there, so I emailed the admin to see if he knew anything about it. He said that he hadn't. When I asked if it was strange that there wasnt much of an online presence for the fest, he told me that often times for smaller festivals the staff is mostly volunteers, and all the money and staff is focused on other aspects, like selection of films. So that might be why.

Also I didnt realize Berlinale was happening at the same time as BIFF. Berlin will be film crazy that entire 10 days!
 
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Hey Hunter,
Thanks for viewing the trailer! It's the little film that could, such a tiny budget, but has travelled quite a bit!
I am heartened that they contacted you, that's good. I will wait for my email then.
I would really like to attend, and being in Berlin at the same time as the Berlinale and the EFM would be a gas!
I saw the tweets and I tweeted some of them so thanks for that.
Great to have a community like this !
 
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Well, I got that group email with the draft screening times of all the films.
Wow, it looks good ! I only had a look at some of the features but a great selection !
Hunter7, my DOP is Hungarian!
 
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Just out of curiosity, does the BIFF require a different screening version of the film from the entry version? Does anyone have a copy of the delivery specifications of either or preferably both versions, which they would be willing to post?

G
 
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Hi D.

donnam said:
It just said in that email 2 DVDs or blue rays! No specs as such.
Which is your film and are you attending?
Click to expand...

No, I've got no horse in this race and won't be attending, I was just curious.

Film festivals aimed exclusively at the no budget filmmaker which take place in a mid (or larger) sized commercial cinema face a dilemma. While BluRay is within the financial capabilities of many no budget filmmakers and provides for a high enough resolution to look decent on the big screen, standard stereo sound does not work in a cinema. However, to create a 3.0 or full 5.1 sound mix which will work in a cinema is beyond the financial capabilities of the vast majority of no budget filmmakers, hence the dilemma. That is why the more major film festivals, not solely aimed at no budget filmmakers, always require a separate exhibition (screening) version in at least a 3.0 or a surround sound format. So I was just curious as to how/if the BIFF addressed this dilemma.

G
 
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Hi AudiopostExpert,
Yes, such are the perils of the no budget filmmaker.
I have had a small festival run but have only played dvd's !
I made a couple of digibeta exhibition copies when I ordered my deliverables but, alas, haven't had a chance to use them yet.
Because my film is SO low budget, it's not a gulf between it, but if I had used high end cameras it would be diabolical
I think. (i shot on the panasonic P2). I have a wonderful original soundtrack which would be amazing to hear on the equipment that you talk about, but it wasn't designed for that really.

But all this is valuable info. It's something to consider when making a film though, isn't it - where is it going to play and where best is my money spent ?
 
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donnam said:
It's something to consider when making a film though, isn't it - where is it going to play and where best is my money spent ?
Click to expand...

Absolutely, even for film festivals it needs to be a careful consideration. I've seen it happen a number of times, film makers go to all the effort of making a film, enter it into a film festival, do amazingly well to get accepted, only to find they haven't budgeted enough to actually produce an acceptable exhibition copy. I once had a director literally crying and begging me to create a mix to comply with a film festival's audio specs. I had to say no because it needed about 6 weeks of work and I just couldn't afford to do it for the roughly 5 days worth of budget she had, it was heartbreaking!

If/when you start working professionally it's even more important. Some of the TV networks for example have such a complex list of audio deliverables it can increase the audio post budget by up to 50% in some cases. So professionally you often have to almost start backwards compared to most indie workflows: You start with the list of deliverables and tech specs required and base your pre-production and even development to a large degree on meeting those requirements.

G
 
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Hi G,
I do consider myself a professional filmmaker and that question is one of the basics. It's a fundamental part of filmmaking! It's taught in film schools etc but with the rush of blood to make films without a budget, sound is usually the thing that gets compromised. As an audio professional it must be heartbreaking :)
 
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donnam said:
It's taught in film schools etc but with the rush of blood to make films without a budget, sound is usually the thing that gets compromised. As an audio professional it must be heartbreaking :)
Click to expand...

Hi D,

I think that pretty much everything is compromised to some degree when you don't have a budget and most of those compromises become more apparent in the most demanding of film arenas, the cinema (say at a festival). The fact that audio problems are the number one technical reason for both rejection at film festivals and quality control failures for distributors and TV broadcasters, is proof of amateurism. I don't really find that heartbreaking, just strange and ignorant that anyone would start making something for a specific purpose without first finding out what the requirements of that specific purpose are, or how to meet them. Who would build a road car without first knowing what properties it must have to make it drivable on the road?

What I do find heartbreaking is the frequent lack of comprehension that film sound is an art form (with technical requirements), rather than only a technical skill/requirement. It's not just novice filmmakers and many quite experienced filmmakers who lack this comprehension but worse still, the vast majority of film schools teach this fundamental aspect of film sound either very poorly or not at all (!) and that is particularly heartbreaking! BTW, I created a thread, (The Principles of Sound Design) specifically in response to this issue.

G
 
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Hey guys, I know this is an old thread, but has anyone been to the Berlin Independent Film Festival last year? I would be extremely interested in your opinions on the festivals since a few aspects about this event do in fact look strange to me. My movie will be shown there this year. Thank you!
 
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