Thoughts on festivals - Any tips?

Alphie

Alphie

I am in the home stretch with our first-feature's first festival circuit and am getting very frustrated (I know ... every filmmaker goes through these emotions). Honestly, I didn't expect to get into Sundance but I was hopeful for Slamdance. Didn't get into those two.

Or, Miami, SXSW, Tromadance, Syracuse, nor Cinequest.

We entered to roughly 25 festivals and are becoming very used to opening the "thanks but no thanks" email from the "festival director."

Ok. Again, this happens.

When we got rejected from 5 reps and 10 distributors because our movie was not a "genre" and didn't have named actors, they all recommended we wait to see what happens at festival (since it's actually a very well-written, well-acted, high-quality movie). So far ... I'm not optimistic. I was really thinking the festivals would react well to this artsy hitman movie but they aren't. It's actually a GOOD movie ... I swear!

Then ... I thought I'd try to connection angle. Entered one festival where we had about a dozen connections. They turned us down. Entered another festival in the city my FATHER is a State Congressman (and running for governor) in and I'm fairly certain we didn't make that one. Entered one festival where the band that sang our opening credit song hails from ... didn't make that one either.

So the question: Does the movie need to have the "artistic merits" they ask for or the "connections" to the festival they ask for? Because our movie has both and it's not getting accepted.

There. Done venting.

Back to WAB board to see what festival turned us down this week.

:weird:
 
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sometimes the film just doesn't take...you gotta think about market trends and what are people currently looking for...docs and mind-trips are hot right now...hitmen aren't...I am sure it's a great film, and recommend you keep going and applying everywhere...even if you get into a rinky-dink festival, your press kit will have an 'official selection' on it, and that gives it a bit more merit and more people will take a look at it. (odds are they didn't have an actual screening to decide if it was good or not) Anyways, like I said, just KEEP APPLYING!
 
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We would keep applying but we've A) Run out of money and; b) Run out of confidence. On one hand we're told to submit to every single festival we can afford to submit to (which is what we did, starting with the TOP 10) and on the other hand we're being told to be exclusive and make sure the festival "matches" our movie (like there is a "Funny Drama Hit Man Film Festival" held in Buffalo NY annually).

I realize likes and dislikes by judges come into play but what infuriates me is when I see movies that make these festivals (large and small) that really aren't very good. Again, "good" is a matter of taste (although I would love to know who likes movies with poor lighting, bad audio and terrible acting).

We're down to SIX. If we don't make any of these we've run the circuit and our movie is "dead." I will try to talk the director into cutting it into a short and re-releasing it in black and white (just to make it DIFFERENT enough to run the circuit in '07). At least then we have a chance of getting some recognition for all the time and money we put into our feature.

I am venting.
 
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I am in the home stretch with our first-feature's first festival circuit and am getting very frustrated (I know ... every filmmaker goes through these emotions). Honestly, I didn't expect to get into Sundance but I was hopeful for Slamdance. Didn't get into those two.

Or, Miami, SXSW, Tromadance, Syracuse, nor Cinequest.

We entered to roughly 25 festivals and are becoming very used to opening the "thanks but no thanks" email from the "festival director."

Ok. Again, this happens.

When we got rejected from 5 reps and 10 distributors because our movie was not a "genre" and didn't have named actors, they all recommended we wait to see what happens at festival (since it's actually a very well-written, well-acted, high-quality movie). So far ... I'm not optimistic. I was really thinking the festivals would react well to this artsy hitman movie but they aren't. It's actually a GOOD movie ... I swear!

Then ... I thought I'd try to connection angle. Entered one festival where we had about a dozen connections. They turned us down. Entered another festival in the city my FATHER is a State Congressman (and running for governor) in and I'm fairly certain we didn't make that one. Entered one festival where the band that sang our opening credit song hails from ... didn't make that one either.
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No advice, but I know where you are coming from. We've had fifteen months of exaclty the same thing.

Cannes (No), Berlinale (No), well we must get into Edinburgh (No), ....

Sometimes no matter how good the film or how much you spend, it just doesn't hit the right spot with either the judges of festivals, sales agents or distributors. It is disheartening, especially when you know you've made a good film.

And, as you said there comes a point where you start to wonder whether you're just throwing good money after bad.

This is one of the reasons that I'm shying aware from looking to investors to finance my next movie. The problem is that without pre-sales any movie isn't so much an investment, so much as a gamble. I'd rather work with no budget than have to explain to an investor that they'll never see any return on their $30,000. At least with a next to zero budget I can recoup expenses via direct sales.
 
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Clive,

I want to jump across the pond and give you a hug (not a "Brokeback" hug ... just a guy-to-guy kind of thing). I am in the same head as you exactly. Our investors are NOT beating down the door or even bothering me for the return but I, of course, feel obligated. When "Alphie" gets turned down once a day I start to realize I don't need this stress about "making money" on the movie. I would rather make movies for the creative process and let other people borrow money FOR me.

With "Waiting on Alphie" I walked into the role of Producer (as opposed to Director). In order to be a successful Producer (and I would argue with ANYONE on this) you have to sell your movie. You have to make money on money. ANYONE can do the rest of the role of a Producer ... it's completing this circle that is the proof of your worth.

I know our movie will sell one day with or without festival recognition. It's too good NOT to sell. But at this point I am approaching creative projects CREATIVELY and not trying to raise another $250,000 that investors might never see again. I'll let someone else take on that headache.

Meanwhile, I'll direct. I'll write. I'll do the creative roles.

Ah. I'm feeling better after all this venting.
 
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I know our movie will sell one day with or without festival recognition. It's too good NOT to sell. But at this point I am approaching creative projects CREATIVELY and not trying to raise another $250,000 that investors might never see again. I'll let someone else take on that headache.
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I feel exactly the same. The trick is not to let the lack of sales undermine your belief in yourself. I know earlier in the year I just lost faith in my abilites and turned my back on the industry (For about a week), only to discover that I still had films I wanted to make.

One of the thinkgs that makes this industry difficult is that there is a bottle neck between the film-maker and the public; the festival judge, the sales agent, the distributor all make selections based on their understanding of public taste. So, when we make a film in real terms our customers are not the billions of film-viewers worldwide, but in fact a small selection of maybe four or five hundred people who make the decisions about what to distribute and what to not.

This fact makes speculative film-making a massively high risk activity. The customer base is so very, very small - and also so very, very unpredictable. This is the reason that I'm constantly looking at alternative distribution and marketing methods: I'd like to get to the point where I can remove the bottle neck from the equasion and open up my potential client base to the entire film-viewing public.
 
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