My most recent posts have focused on your film’s festival premiere. This time around, let’s move past your first festival and consider how to deal with the festival circuit beyond.

As mentioned previously, often by being included in that first festival, your film will be noticed by other festivals, leading …]]> Dear Filmmakers:

My most recent posts have focused on your film’s festival premiere. This time around, let’s move past your first festival and consider how to deal with the festival circuit beyond.

As mentioned previously, often by being included in that first festival, your film will be noticed by other festivals, leading to invitations to screen (if the other fests’ programmers are in attendance and like the film) or at the very least to submit for consideration (if they couldn’t attend your screenings or the festival itself). This is especially the case if your premiere took place at a high-profile festival like Cannes, Toronto, or Sundance. These events engender a lot of attention from other festivals, and much of their lineups become the wishlist for these other festivals’ own programming. This is also very much the case with niche festivals – part of the challenge of programming an LGBT or Latino/a festival is doing the detective work of finding work that fits the festival’s niche. A niche programmer for a festival in Chicago can look at the lineup for a similar niche festival in NYC or LA that takes place nine months before her own festival and safely assume that the work featured would be appropriate for her festival as well, and invite most of the films to submit. When I ran NewFest: The NY LGBT Film Festival, our sourcelist was regularly requested by other LGBT festivals around the world, and I combed through theirs as well on the hunt for work I wasn’t aware of.

If you are directly contacted by other festivals to submit to their event based on your inclusion in the lineup of your premiere festival, they should, at the very least, offer to waive their submission fee. If they don’t, I would recommend you respond to their inquiry and ask to have the fee waived. This is fairly standard practice, and, as you should know by now, every dollar saved helps.

Before deciding to submit, make sure you take a look at the festival’s website, and, ideally, their past lineups if an archive is available. While I’d venture that most festivals would, at minimum, read the description of your film that your premiere festival used, some may not – instead, they may just blanket invite all films from that premiere festival to submit to their own event, and not all the films will necessarily be appropriate. If it strikes you as odd that you’re being asked to submit your ultra-realist kitchen sink drama to a sci-fi genre festival, you should feel free to respond to their inquiry, briefly clarify what your film is, and question why they think it’s appropriate for their own event. Even if they’ve waived the fee, you would still be spending money on postage, and if there’s virtually no chance that your film would be selected, why bother putting another DVD out there?

Also, as I wrote about in my first post for IFP back in August, before you submit to any festivals, you should consult the database of film festivals you and/or your team have put together. This database should reflect festivals with specialized audiences/interests (ie, niche constituencies that are central to your film, such as African-Americans, women, Christians, Southerners, shorts fests, comedy fests, etc), festivals in target cities that you would especially like to have a presence, and major and minor festivals that could generate significant industry or press interest, etc. Add the festivals inviting you to submit or to screen into your database, and see how they do or don’t fit in with other plans. For example, if you are being wooed by a grassroots LA-based women’s film festival that takes place in March, but you have aspirations to play LA’s Outfest in July, you probably want to think hard about whether screening at the former will preclude you from screening at the latter due to local premiere issues.

Some festivals care about premieres, and others don’t. Much could be written about the fight for film premieres at various levels (world, international, national, regional, and local), and how in some cases, it can force a filmmaker into having to make really difficult decisions. Often, but not always, smaller and niche fests don’t really care about premieres, or aren’t really in a position to be able to enforce premiere restrictions. They are happy to screen the films that they like, that fit their niche-based mission, even if another festival in their same city screened some of the same films a few months ago. Sure, they would love to have the local premieres, but as long as they think they can get an audience for your film, they will generally be flexible. On the other hand, many larger festivals, or mid-sized festivals with grander ambitions, will insist on at least having local premieres (usually the bigger the festival is, the higher level of premiere they will insist upon). One factor here is managing the films that festival can consider – if a larger festival has 40 slots, stipulating that they must have world premieres for those slots might mean receiving 1200 submissions instead of 2400.

All this talk about premieres boils down to you being strategic about where to submit and where to screen your film. If you really want to screen in NYC, there are scores of festivals or film series to consider. You can submit to all of them if you have those funds, but be careful when it comes to where you agree to show. If you are accepted to a smaller festival in February but really want to screen in April in Tribeca, you’re going to have to weigh the likelihood of getting into the larger festival or not. You should notify Tribeca about your selection, but they are not necessarily going to tell you early that you’ll be accepted or rejected. If they feel strongly about your film, they may, but they may also not be ready to extend you a definite slot.

I’ll continue my thoughts about how you should navigate the festival circuit after your premiere in my post next month.

Dear Filmmakers:

This post wraps up my thoughts on how you can maximize your film’s festival premiere for the good of your film, and for your career. Part one addressed …]]>

Director Cameron Yates and documentary subject Jeanette Maier during the Q&A for The Canal Street Madame at its SXSW Premiere, 2010

Dear Filmmakers:

This post wraps up my thoughts on how you can maximize your film’s festival premiere for the good of your film, and for your career. Part one addressed prep work while part two covered some aspects of attending the festival. This post focuses largely on your actual premiere and how you can best position yourself to have successful screenings and interactions with audiences.

Be prepared for your premiere. If your film deals with controversial subject matter, make sure you can speak intelligently about why you’ve chosen to tackle that issue. Run through hardball questions with your trusted advisors, crew, loved ones, etc. Don’t over-practice so everything you say sounds canned, but remind yourself of the key points you want to argue that are likely to come up. If you’re a documentary maker, don’t get so lost in your own stress about the premiere that you forget about your film’s subjects. If they’re traveling with you, make sure that they’re being taken care, are having a good time, are dealing with their own anxiety around their stories being told, and are prepared for public scrutiny. If you’re a narrative filmmaker, don’t forget about your cast and your writer. For all filmmakers, don’t forget about your crews in general – directors tend to get all the perks and attention at festivals, but this is also a premiere for the people who have worked hard for you to realize your vision. Film is collaborative – don’t lose sight of that. Make sure that the various members of your team are acknowledged in an appropriate manner.

Part of being prepared for your premiere is knowing how best to handle the question “what’s next for you?” This is especially true for shorts makers. You might have a really kick-ass short that everyone’s talking about, but given the limited marketplace for shorts distribution in the US or online efforts, there may not be much you can do with your film after your premiere aside from riding out the festival circuit. If you’re a shorts maker and you want to keep making shorts, that’s of course fine. Have your next short lined up and be ready to talk about it. There’s not a ton of resources out there, but you never know – someone who sees your current film may be in the position to help secure financing for your next short, so be prepared to pitch your next project when asked “what’s next?”

On the other hand, if “what’s next” is potentially a feature, then you had better have a script in your back pocket, and a 30 second pitch that you can deliver automatically. I won’t be surprising anyone by saying that the film industry is a fickle beast with a short attention span. If you’ve managed to get noticed for your imaginative 10-minute short at this festival, exploit that notice immediately. Let your suitors know that you’re not a one-trick pony, and that you could get started on your next project as soon as some angel fronts the money. Set up meetings – not just about the present film but about the other ideas floating around in various stages in your mind. Before the festival, practice your pitch. Develop some loglines and treatments. Have these at the ready when you meet with someone who may be in a position to help you.

Director Kevin Smith addresses the crowd at the Eccles Theatre at the premiere of Red State, 2011 Sundance Film Festival

This should go without saying, but you’d be surprised – if you’re at the festival, it’s your responsibility to be at every single one of your screenings. Period. Not just your premiere screening. I don’t care if it’s at 8:30am or 11:59pm – sleep and parties can wait. It’s of the utmost importance that you are physically at the screening representing your film and interacting with the audience. You never know who might be in that audience – perhaps a higher-level industry exec whose junior acquisition person clued her in to take a look after seeing the film at a previous screening. But that’s almost beside the point – the fifth audience for your film at Sundance should be afforded the same opportunity to ask you questions as the first audience had, regardless of if they can purchase your film or not.

Have a plan in place for how to manage invitations to other film festivals/series – depending on the film festival you’re attending, it may draw programmers from other events or perhaps from local film societies, museums, or institutions. Some of these programmers may be on strict deadlines and looking to fill holes in their schedules, and they may really want your film – but don’t let their urgency force you into making hasty decisions about your film’s festival plan. These programmers may have wonderful festivals, but agreeing to screen at them while you’re coming down off your first Q&A does not give you appropriate time to consider if those fests are the best move for your film – you could be agreeing to screen at a smaller festival in the same city in which you’d love to screen at a larger festival. Don’t commit in these situations – instead, accept their compliments, thank them for their interest in the film, and exchange business cards, or, ideally, put them in touch with the member of your team who is handling festival strategy to see if they can work something out.

As a corollary to attending your screenings, make sure you can handle criticism in an appropriate manner. Ideally, everyone will love your film, you’ll get fantastic reviews in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, indieWIRE will love you, etc. But it’s not an ideal world – some critics, and some audience members for that matter, may not like your film. They might write negative things, or even say negative things in public. If you let a bad review incapacitate you, you’re just hurting yourself. If you lash out in a public way, you risk making yourself look bad. Try to take criticism with a grain of salt and remain gracious. Try not to complain in a public setting, because, honestly, you never know who’s around, or who they might know. Acknowledge that tastes are subjective and focus on the positive responses you get instead.

In addition to attending all of your own screenings, you should watch other filmmakers’ films. Take a step outside of yourself and your film, give yourself some breathing room, and remind yourself what you appreciate about filmmaking by seeing someone else’s project. Beyond giving yourself a mental break, this educates you on what other work is out there. You might spot the talent of a new actress or cinematographer who you might want to work with in the future. You may discover that another filmmaker has already developed that germ of an idea for your next documentary project that’s been rolling around in your head for the past few months. Attending other filmmakers’ films also puts you in the position of participating in the key social aspect of the event – the communal experience of cinema-going. You should stand in line or sit in theatres with audience members – the general public, other filmmakers, other festival programmers, the press, etc – and discuss what you’ve been up to so far in a casual setting. This can help you promote your work, but also make real human connections outside of the more structured setting of a theatre Q&A.

As you near the end of your time at the festival, make sure to thank the efforts of the festival staff that you’ve worked closely with – your hospitality coordinator or filmmaker liaison – as well as the festival programming staff who selected your film in the first place. When you get back home, send them a thank you. Ask that they let you know if any industry shares feedback with them. Request links to festival press coverage that mentions your film. Generally, try to leave a good impression, and position yourself as a filmmaker that the festival organizers think fondly about. Festival staffs talk to one another – they’re more than happy to report about the diva antics of a crazy filmmaker – you don’t want to be that filmmaker. Instead be the one that they all agree was a pleasure to have in attendance – the one whose next project they want to make sure to see, and, potentially, to program.

Dear Filmmakers:

This is the second of three posts addressing what you can and should do to make the most of your film festival premiere for your film and for your career. My last post covered essential …]]>

Robert Redford and Bill Gates at the Sundance Director's Brunch, 2010 Sundance Film Festival

Dear Filmmakers:

This is the second of three posts addressing what you can and should do to make the most of your film festival premiere for your film and for your career. My last post covered essential preparation necessary before you bring your film to its festival premiere – including developing a PR/promotion strategy, potentially hiring a publicist, setting up a website, putting together a presskit, utilizing social media, possibly engaging a sales rep, and deciding if you should make DVDs available to the press before or during the festival screenings. This and the next post moves beyond preparation to your time on the ground at the festival, and what you should be doing to maximize your experience.

First of all – if you have gone to the trouble of making your film and sent it around for festival consideration, there should be no question that you should attend your festival premiere. I realize travel and accommodation is expensive, so you should have considered this financial aspect as you formulated your festival strategy. As indicated in previous posts for IFP, you should have done your research and selected reputable festivals that are supportive of filmmakers and their work, and you should have a very clear sense of what the festival’s audience is like, and what you should and should not expect from your time there – ie, it’s a festival that is largely community-focused and there’s no industry to speak of vs it’s a festival set in the heart of a smaller European city that draws a handful of local distributors vs it’s a large discovery festival that is on the calendar of every single film industry professional in NY and LA. It’s important to know what you’re getting yourself into – if you show up to the Smallville Film Festival thinking you’re going to clinch a deal for your next feature, you’re going to be sorely disappointed, but if instead you recognize that you’re playing that particular festival because it’s going to allow you to interact with a grassroots audience that can help spread positive word of mouth about the film, and you’re ready to have a great Q&A and more informal discussions with that audience, you’ll have a much better time.

An important note here – if you’ve perhaps not done your homework sufficiently before submitting to a festival, but you start reading up on the event after you’re accepted, and you don’t like what you’re finding out – ie, past filmmaker participants have written about their terrible experiences, the organizers don’t seem to be particularly interested in film but instead might be bilking filmmakers for submission and participation fees – it’s ok to say “no.” Better you don’t premiere your film for a little while longer than bring it to an event that you’re reasonably sure is not going to be a positive place for either your film or for you.

All this said, let’s assume a reputable festival has chosen your film, and you’ve done your research and have at least some sense of what to expect. If you have questions – and you will – ask your festival representative. Most festivals, as understaffed and volunteer-run as many are, will follow up their acceptance notification with information about who to contact for various things – print trafficking, press/promotion, and hospitality. Make use of these services. Even if they’re extremely limited in what they can do for you, ask them questions. Ask for recommendations on where to stay (if they’re not already offering travel assistance), ask about what press is coming, ask about what industry is coming (if applicable), ask about any special events you should be prepared for – ie galas or filmmaker receptions.

The crowd at the SXSW Film Opening Party, 2008 SXSW

Keep track of all correspondence you receive from the festival. Note the basics – when you should arrive, where and when you can register to pick up your badge and tickets – so you can make sure that you’re clear on what to do from the moment you get to the festival. Pay attention to any advice the festival organizers provide you, especially if it’s coming from the Festival Director or Artistic Director. It’s in these individuals best interest that you have a good experience at their event, and the advice they impart is usually the result of years of experience at their festivals. Don’t take it lightly when John Cooper strongly urges you attend the filmmaker’s brunch at the Sundance resort, or if Janet Pierson recommends you show up at the SXSW awards ceremony.

Some fests are packed with events from day one, others not so much. As a filmmaker you ideally should have access to just about everything and it’s in your best interest to take part in as much as possible – this makes you a visible, and, hopefully approachable, presence at the event; allows you to meet other filmmakers, who might end up being collaborators on a future project, or might be able to introduce you to a future collaborator; and puts you in a position to get to know the festival staff, who might introduce you to significant contacts or do you favors, if your personalities gel. This is important – yes, you’re attending the event to work/network, but try to stay true to yourself. Don’t affect a new personality – especially if you’re at a larger event that draws seasoned industry professionals. Industry vets can spot a fake, and they’re not going to want to work with a fake. Don’t pretend to know things you don’t or people you don’t – chances are the people you’re trying to show off for might really know those things or people, and you don’t want to be caught in a lie when you’re trying to sell your film or make inroads to getting your next one made.

Regarding events, absolutely make sure you take part not only in the giant galas, but also and especially the smaller filmmaker-only events – the retreats, the cocktails, the dinners – whatever special/exclusive events the festival has put together to recognize and honor you. It’s often at these lower-key events that significant friendships or partnerships can be forged, outside of the relative chaos of the larger parties with all of their distractions. Some filmmakers might get a bit freaked out by everything that’s going on. Furthermore, they might have just worked non-stop for the past several weeks to finish their film in time for the premiere and are understandably exhausted. Some filmmakers may just be more introverted and not huge fans of parties. I acknowledge this – know your limits and, again, stay true to yourself. You personally don’t need to be at every single party, but you also can’t retreat completely in your condo/hotel room. Someone from your team – your producers, your actors, your subjects, your friends, even your family – should try to maintain some kind of presence throughout the festival at various events and receptions. This has always been the reality for independent filmmakers, and even moreso in the last five years – you are responsible for actively promoting your work. Your job doesn’t end when you lock picture. The impact of you, or some more outgoing member of your team, attending a party and talking to new people about your film, is hard to measure in a quantitative way, but it’s there. If your team isn’t advocating for your work – the people who know about it intimately – who will?

The next post will focus on your actual premiere, and how you should be prepared to handle both the actual screening, and what comes after.

Previous posts have covered submitting to film festivals, offering advice on what (not) to do as you go through the process of navigating submission forms, promotional materials, and handling rejection or acceptance. This post (and the next) moves beyond the submission phase to focus on the next step – …]]> Dear Filmmakers:

Previous posts have covered submitting to film festivals, offering advice on what (not) to do as you go through the process of navigating submission forms, promotional materials, and handling rejection or acceptance. This post (and the next) moves beyond the submission phase to focus on the next step – premiering your film. Your film has been accepted into a festival – now what? What can you do – what should you do – to maximize the festival experience for your film and for yourself as a filmmaker beyond this specific film? This post will focus on preparation – before you arrive at the festival – while the next one will cover your time there.

Some festivals offer a larger platform for press/media and industry exposure than others – premiering your film at Sundance, Toronto, or Berlin will present specific opportunities and challenges vs. premiering it at a smaller local or regional event. Similarly, the kind of film you have – narrative feature vs. documentary feature vs. experimental short – will likely have some impact on the way you experience your premiere. Keeping these conditions in mind, some of the advice in this post will apply more or less for your project and you at your specific festival, but the general sentiments should still be useful.

As the clock ticks down to your festival premiere, get organized. If your film is not 100% finished, your team might be hustling to finish the post work. Don’t forget that it’s not just about delivering that exhibition tape or print – a lot of other key things need to be ready as well, and someone should be working on them. This includes making sure you have a PR/promotion strategy in place – or at least the beginnings of one. If you are premiering at a larger festival and you feel that you’ll need professional assistance to stand out, or to simply be able to handle the volume of interest you’re likely to generate, consider hiring a publicist. There are many PR professionals specializing in film, with years of experience representing films in festival contexts. You should check with the festival’s press office for recommendations of individuals or firms that they’ve worked with in the past, and also ask around for suggestions from filmmakers who’ve worked with publicists before about their experiences.

At the same time, be realistic about your need for a publicist – it may not make a lot of financial sense to engage one if the festival doesn’t tend to attract much press, or if the press is local and manageable. Make sure to consult with the festival about what they themselves offer in terms of PR assistance – some festivals have a dedicated staff who can facilitate press requests for you. It can be a trade-off though – they might handle all the films in your section, so they might not be able to play favorites and push one film over another one – but in some cases they can get the same amount of press coverage for your film that a hired publicist can, without costing you thousands.

If the festival doesn’t offer much in terms of press assistance, you (or better yet, someone on your team) might be able to handle the PR yourself. If that’s the case – and even if you use an outside publicist or the festival’s press team – you need to have your presskit, stills, website, trailer, and clips ready. While a publicist can revise elements like your synopsis or select the best images to use, you need to provide the raw material with which to work. If you’ve never put a presskit together before, seek out examples from other filmmakers, ask for samples from your publicist, or see what you can find online. Make the electronic version (EPK) available on your website and check with the festival if it makes sense to have physical copies available at their press office or at your screenings – often just having an EPK available is the more practical (and environmental) course to take.

On a related note, make sure you have a website up and running by your festival’s premiere (and ideally well in advance) – beyond having your EPK available on your site, include other background information about the film and your team; contact information so that potential buyers, other festivals, and interested audience members can get in touch; and other ways for people to keep invested in the film – a trailer, potentially clips or behind the scenes teasers, a mailing list sign-up, and social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. If you haven’t already been using social media to build an audience for your project during its production (or pre-production!), it’s a good idea to get that going as soon as possible – this can help get people excited before the premiere and keep them engaged and informed about when they’ll have a chance to see the film at other events or through a theatrical or ancillary release.

Another important decision you will have to make is whether you will seek a sales rep for your film or not. Generally, if you’re premiering your film in a festival that doesn’t attract much industry attention, you probably won’t need one – at least not on the ground at the festival. You may still want to have a rep who shops the film around, using his/her relationships to get different buyers to consider the film, but this would likely be done via screener in this case. If you are premiering your film at  an industry friendly place, a sales agent’s presence can be very much a good idea, and s/he can navigate potential deals much more easily than you probably can, unless you have had experience selling a film before. As with publicists, ask around for recommendations. Find out what projects a potential sales agent has repped in the past. Make sure s/he is the right fit for your specific project. Some filmmakers swear by using sales agents, while others handle this area themselves. There’s no definitive answer, so it’s important to weigh your options and get opinions from people you trust.

Consider the question of DVD screeners and whether you want to make them available to press or industry before your film premieres at the festival. In some cases, it may make sense to send these out in advance – at smaller or niche festivals, local press, for example, may offer highlights from the festival as recommendations for their readers in the form of capsule reviews, and this can help get people into seats. Of course, you run the risk that press may not like the film, but you can try to mitigate that possibility by insisting that no full reviews are run. At higher profile events, you may likely want to maximize the impact of your first screening by not allowing screeners to go out, essentially forcing interested parties (buyers, programmers, press) to have to be there. After that first screening, you then might make screeners available upon request through the festival’s press office or screening library – this can facilitate access to the film, but strongly weigh whether you are ok with press or buyers experiencing your film in a solitary DVD screening vs. a public audience projection.

In the next post, we’ll move over from the lead-up to the main event – your time at the festival, and what you should be doing to have a more fulfilling experience personally and professionally.

In my first blog post for IFP, I briefly addressed the issue of using a specific festival’s deadline as your own film’s production deadline. In this post, I’m going to expand a bit on this topic.

You have to plan out your production schedule anyway, so what’s the problem with …]]> Dear Filmmakers:

In my first blog post for IFP, I briefly addressed the issue of using a specific festival’s deadline as your own film’s production deadline. In this post, I’m going to expand a bit on this topic.

You have to plan out your production schedule anyway, so what’s the problem with using Sundance or Toronto’s final submission deadline as your own deadline for having a showable rough cut or even fine cut? At the basic level, there’s not necessarily anything wrong with this strategy. After all, you do have to finish your film at some time if you want to give it a chance of getting out into the world through festivals or potential distribution. Having a specific date or date range is a great motivator and helps you tackle the daunting process of editing and other post work in a tangible way. I’d frankly be concerned if you didn’t have some sense of when you were planning to be finished.

At the same time, any deadline you set for your film is ultimately an arbitrary date, and one subject to any number of delays and rescheduling both under your control and not. Barring being granted a slight extension by the festival, the submission deadline is not so flexible. As a result, some filmmakers lose sight of their own project and focus on that submission deadline as the end-all, be-all, and force themselves to come up with something, anything in time to get it in to the festival by that date. Putting the metaphorical cart before the horse, these filmmakers are convinced that they have to get into that specific festival, but they haven’t even finished their film properly to actually position it for programming.

If you follow this route, you may end up cutting corners, creating a cut of your film that looks or sounds sloppy, doesn’t make narrative or logical sense, or is missing key sequences, and yet you decide the programmers of a festival in which you desperately want to premiere should see it. If this doesn’t sound like a bad idea already, it should. You’re not doing yourself, your film, or your collaborators any favors by rushing a subpar project for the purposes of a submission deadline.

While programmers, especially those at the top tier fests, are experienced at watching rough cuts and are able to see past the lack of color correction, sound mixing, or even minor missing elements to recognize the potential of the final cut, they can also tell when something they’re watching isn’t nearly ready and could have used a few more weeks, if not months, in the editing suite. Submitting with a cut that’s not there yet can lead some programmers to form a poor opinion on not only your film, but on your sense of judgment regarding your own work. If your film is rejected, and your re-apply the following year, your project may still have a chance at being selected, especially if it’s been improved and hasn’t screened elsewhere in the intervening months, but you also risk the same programmers seeing the re-submission and judging it at least partially on the first impressions they received from the first bad cut they saw.

Let’s say however, that while you rushed to get your film submitted in time, it’s such a promising project that it ends up getting selected. This can be a double-edged sword – it’s fantastic that you’ve made it into your desired festival, but now you have another one of those inflexible deadlines – the festival’s opening date – and your film is not finished. You have perhaps 6-8 weeks between selection notification and the start of the festival to wrap up all post work so that you have a final, completed film to screen at your premiere. Again, delays are inevitable, people and machinery are fallible. Anything that can go wrong likely will go wrong, at least a little bit. Do you have enough time, allotting some room for these kinds of delays, to get your project to the place you envision it needs to be before it meets the public? If you rushed to get your submission in on time, you are now having to rush even faster to get your finished film to your premiere on time. That’s a lot of pressure, and this can exacerbate even the smaller problems that may have been evident in your rough cut, creating a serious flawed final cut. You might end up with a film radically different than what you wanted, and one that ends up being unsuccessful as a result, even if it premieres at Berlin or Cannes.

I don’t mean to be all doom and gloom, but I do want to give you pause for thought. As with every aspect of your work, you should plan ahead and be realistic about what you can and can’t accomplish in a given timeframe. Create a practical timeline for all elements of post-production, including a back-up plan should you run into unforeseen delays that allows for some flexible cushioning by a week or two, just in case. By all means, use your dream festival premiere as the end point of your post, and work backwards from there to see if its feasible time-wise to make it. If you’ve worked out a comfortable 26-week post schedule, and the festival is 16 weeks away, do the math. Bad idea. Don’t become too fixated on the idea that you have to premiere at a particular festival – there are other options that can serve your film just as well, if not better, depending on what kind of a film you have and what kind of exposure the festival is known for providing.

On the other hand, if you are absolutely convinced that your number one choice for a festival premiere is the best for your film, you can make the difficult, but smarter, choice of waiting and submitting the next year rather than compromising on post and submitting this year with an inferior and premature version of your project. Take that extra year to hone your film into being the best that it can be, so that when you do finally get it into programmers’ hands, they will see the film you wanted them to see all along.

Determine the rest of your festival strategy, beyond the premiere. If appropriate, look into sales agents and publicists who can hopefully help sell your film. Spend time on your social media marketing and other promotion to create and expand your fanbase for the project, so that there’s anticipation for its eventual premiere and, hopefully, for its distribution down the line. And, most importantly, take some time to sleep and to breathe – luxuries the other, rushed, scenario doesn’t necessarily provide the opportunity for…

In my last blog post, I took a page out of my own blog and discussed a few things filmmakers should and shouldn’t do when dealing with film festivals. This post continues that general topic, focusing on the submission screener, press kits and promotional materials, and the best (and …]]> Dear Filmmakers:

In my last blog post, I took a page out of my own blog and discussed a few things filmmakers should and shouldn’t do when dealing with film festivals. This post continues that general topic, focusing on the submission screener, press kits and promotional materials, and the best (and worst) ways to respond to rejection or acceptance.

During the submission process, most festivals simply want to see your DVD. Many accept EPKs (electronic press kits) during this period as well, but, honestly, no one’s going to look at them unless and until the film is selected for inclusion. Usually, whoever processes the submission takes the screener and puts it one place, and everything else goes somewhere else. Keep this in mind before you start going crazy with your press materials, spending money and time that could be best served making sure your actual film is the best it can be. What this means: unless the festival explicitly asks for any of the following, you do not need to provide glossy press kit folders, posters, printed stills, or printed loglines, synopses, biographies, etc. To be clear – I’m not saying not to have a press kit. You should organize the electronic versions of all of these things and have them ready to email to the festival upon request. Film stills, in particular, are essential – a huge mistake many filmmakers make is not having a stills photographer around during production to take professional quality, high-resolution stills that can later be used to promote the film. Once again, have these available, but don’t worry about sending them in until the festival needs them.

While press kits serve a promotional purpose, it’s best to think of them as helping the festival promote your film to their audience, not helping you promote your film to the programmer. S/he will be judging whether to select the film or not based on the film itself, not on your promotional material. Which brings us to the issue of promotional materials: some filmmakers send the most unneccesary, and sometimes frankly bizarre things, in their submission packages. Programmers have received t-shirts, mugs, food, shot glasses, naked pictures, fast food gift certificates, stuffed animals, underwear, condoms, signed photos of celebrities completely unrelated to the submitted film, etc etc.

Filmmakers often feel like this kind of stuff will help their film stand out, make them memorable, or maybe function as a bribe to get their film selected. Personally, I feel this is yet another example of wasted resources that could go toward improving your film. You can feel free to send promo materials, but know this – it will not get your film programmed. If you just want to show your creative marketing, great, but wait until you can use it on the right people – potential audience members – at the right time – after you’ve been selected.

What the festival does need is your screener. My recommendation is to submit artwork-free, label-free DVDs. Beyond the practical (paper labels can cause playback issues), the main reason I say this is that your screener artwork/design can make an unintentional first impression. Better to let things stay neutral and submit a simple DVD-R with the film’s title, your name, running time, and contact information, and whatever else the festival requires.

(I go into more detail about this here.)

After you’ve completed your submission, it’s a waiting game. As I noted last time, while some limited communication with the festival is fine for appropriate professional purposes, be sensible. For example, if, since submitting to Festival A, you’ve been selected for Festival B, you should email Festival A to let them know the change to your premiere status – this is courteous and it may be a factor in Festival A’s decision. What’s not sensible? Contacting the festival to ask when they’re going to make their decisions. This info is usually easily available on the fest’s website, and ignoring it makes you a pest.

You’ve waited it out, the decision time has come, and you find out your film has been selected. Congratulations! Recognize that the festival is now dealing with dozens or even hundreds of filmmakers and they’ve anticipated that you have questions. Seasoned fests will have a system in place to provide you with answers – they’ll send out information that you need to read and forms that you need to complete, with deadlines that you need to follow. If, after reading through these, you still have unanswered questions, ask the appropriate person. Notice, I said the appropriate person. The info the fest provides often designates different people who are in charge of discrete areas – print traffickers to deal with your exhibition tape, publicity coordinators to deal with your press questions, hospitality coordinators to deal with your travel, etc. Don’t send the same question to all of these folks. Fest staff members are excited to have you participate in their event and they want to help you – trust that the right person will be able to get to your question and answer it, but have patience and recognize that they are probably receiving inquiries from other filmmakers too.

What happens if your submission unfortunately is not selected? The simplest course of action is to do nothing – accept that, for whatever reason, your film just wasn’t a match for this specific festival’s line-up. Resist the impulse to reply to your rejection notice with a catty comment – your film may not have made it this time, but that doesn’t mean the same programmer might not like your next film. Don’t burn bridges. Know that festivals receive more submissions than they can possibly show. Some are just plain bad, others are bad fits, still others are personally just not to a programmer’s liking, while others are fine or good, but there just aren’t enough slots to accommodate them. Some festivals are able to provide feedback as to why a submission wasn’t selected. Send them a note requesting feedback. Keep in mind that they may not be able to give it to you right this minute, because they have a festival to organize keeping them very busy, but they should be able to respond more fully after their event wraps with at least some general notes. The bottom line: stay professional and don’t take the rejection personally. Every filmmaker has been there.

I recently launched a documentary focused blog entitled what (not) to doc where, among other topics, I discuss things filmmakers should (and shouldn’t) do in their documentaries, from my subjective viewpoint of course. For this month’s IFP blog post, I thought I’d take a similar approach, and address some …]]> Dear Filmmakers:

I recently launched a documentary focused blog entitled what (not) to doc where, among other topics, I discuss things filmmakers should (and shouldn’t) do in their documentaries, from my subjective viewpoint of course. For this month’s IFP blog post, I thought I’d take a similar approach, and address some of the things filmmakers in general should (and shouldn’t) do when dealing with film festivals, especially when you’re seeking your premiere festival screenings. This advice comes from years of dealing with film festival submissions and should serve you well to keep in mind. While you might think some of these tips sound like personal pet peeves, believe me, programmers talk to one another, and I’ve heard similar opinions from a wide range of fest staff.

If you’re a seasoned filmmaker who’s submitted work to lots of festivals before, this first point is probably not for you. As I mentioned in my first blog post for IFP: you have to do your research. Make sure your film is eligible for the festival to which you’re submitting. You shouldn’t blindly submit to any festival – not only is that expensive and time consuming, it could be a big waste of time if the festival won’t ever consider showing your film because it doesn’t fit their criteria. Visit the fest’s website and read their submission guidelines first. I repeat, READ the guidelines first. Do this before you email the festival to ask them questions. I can’t tell you how many times I would get a message from a filmmaker asking for such basic information as what my festival dates were or when the submission deadline was – information that was always available on the website and in the submission guidelines. While programmers are going to judge your film on its own merits, you are making a first impression of sorts personally when you send that email asking really basic questions.

Now, of course, if, after reviewing their website, you still have questions that are unaddressed, by all means, contact the festival. While this is an opportunity for you to potentially whet the programmer’s appetite about your project, it’s a good idea to keep your message brief. Often, but not always, the general informational email addresses that festivals use are answered by interns or administrative staff, and they may or may not have a role in programming, so attaching electronic presskits, photos, and going into great detail about your film is probably not a good idea.

Related to this is the generally naïve advice I’ve heard propagated many times over the years – that filmmakers should contact a film festival in an attempt to establish contact and “get to know” the programmers to give their films a better shot of being selected. Typically this has taken the form of a cold call – an awkward cold call. An awkward phone call that does you no good and, in fact, may have the opposite effect you’re intending, depending on your approach. A lot of festivals receive hundreds, if not thousands, of entries. Programmers simply don’t have time to get on the phone with every single filmmaker submitting a project in order to hear their sales pitches, essentially. I don’t mean that to sound as dismissive as it might – programmers of course should be excited to find out about new films: that’s part of their jobs. However, if you’re going to submit your film already, or if you already have, the festival’s going to see your film. Calling up a programmer to sell him/her on your film almost never results in you forming some special bond – the most the programmer can say is “sounds interesting, I look forward to watching the screener,” and s/he was going to do that anyway. The programmer doesn’t know you or your work, unless you have a track record of which s/he’s aware, and a single phone call isn’t really going to solve that, and, in fact, could take time away from the work the programmer needs to be doing. If you’re especially aggressive or too persistent in calling or emailing, it could also have a reverse effect than what you intended, and make the programmer remember you and dread your project.

A variation of this which I wouldn’t exactly say to do for every festival or for every film, but is a lot more sensible, is to have one of the programmer/festival’s known, trusted advisors (or a filmmaker who is an alumna/e of that fest) contact the fest on your film’s behalf. This is a lot different from you making a cold call – and it’s not because your advocate is someone famous or one of the programmer’s friends, it’s because the programmer has some sense of their taste and can judge accordingly whether to pay attention to their opinion or not. Hearing about a project from them is more of an informed endorsement than a self-serving sales pitch, provided your advocate has actually seen your film – a must before asking them to make contact! Keep in mind you are calling in favors here, so be careful about whom you ask and for which projects.

Once again, ultimately, always remember: your film is going to have to make its case for itself, separate from whatever praise your advocate or you yourself heap upon it. The proof will be in what’s on your screener, and how a programmer reacts to that.

In my next post, I’ll address a few more bits of advice regarding what (not) to do during the submission process, including the role of promotional materials/presskits, how to respond to rejection and to acceptance by a festival.

This issue and many more will undoubtedly come up during IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Conference, September 19-23. Join me on Wednesday, September 22 at Noon as I moderate the panel “Positioning Your Film for Festivals and Buyers.”