[Frameworks] Festivals vs Touring

Thu Mar 3 18:48:12 CST 2011

Some points here, a 30" film is - for some festivals - an issue, if its programmed in a 'shorts' selection program most shorts are 10minutes, so do you program a 30 minute film then effectively 'lose' 2 shorts, or do you program it with a feature making a session potentially last 2+ hours?  FYI we screened several 30 minute shorts, but not all festivals can. This may not be an issue to most filmmakers here, but there will be short filmmakers who make 10 minute films who will complain if you program a 30 minute short.

Something else to consider about festivals, a film may be rejected not because of the film but because of the overall program... (I'm sure I said this in a previous post).

Touring is always good, indeed essential, but its not a case of either / or. Filmmakers should engage in festivals, tours, special screenings, four-walling cinemas, dvd distribution and online distribution. 

Regarding audiences, at Revelation our audiences are growing, last year was massive, and thats true of pretty much every festival I know. So yes it is still a way to meet audiences and distributors. 

Jack

On 04/03/2011, at 5:47 AM, Ken Paul Rosenthal wrote:

> Howdy Folks,
> 
> Just returned from a one-month tour on the road with Crooked Beauty, and now catching up on the prescient and problematic issue of entering festivals in the age of social networking. Since September, I've entered 69 festivals, with 10 acceptances, 3 Best of Fests, and 22 I've yet to hear from. Additionally, I intend to enter 22 more from now thru the summer. As you can imagine, this adds up to quite a hefty amount of submission/shipping fees, not to mention my time assembling packages and standing online at the post office. I submit via WOB 99% of the time, and *always* snail mail a dvd screener. Many weeks can go by before the little red dot goes away on WOB, informing me that my submission has been received and processed. When rejected, I've received an email 99% of the time. And when I follow up with the fests that don't contact me one way or the other, I always receive a courteous apology. And to be clear--after 25 years of making films and entering fests, I do an obsessive amount of research on each and every fest--prior years winners, etc--to see if my film had a good shot at being accepted. That said...
> 
> ...I've been shocked and chagrined at the rejection rate, if not because my project is light years beyond my prior work in terms of form and content, then because festivals that have screened my earlier, far less artistically mature work (some like Ann Arbor have even screened *every single film* I've ever made!) completely passed over Crooked Beauty! While there are a number of reasons for this, among them: running length 30"; the film not fitting neatly into traditional expectations of documentary and experimental forms; the subject matter not fitting neatly into a program with complimentary work--I think the primary reason is the gi-normous amount of submissions, both 'good' and 'bad'. This means a lot more brilliant work and well as less mature work that festival staff have to weed thru, and yes that can be exhausting, and lead to work not being given full consideration in lieu of easy acceptances for more familiar artists--though I don't believe that is the rule.
> 
> But here's the rub: the model of reaching one's audience and a potential distributer thru festivals is on the outs--big time! Since September, apart from said 10 festivals, I've presented Crooked Beauty (a poetic mental health documentary) live and in person at:
> 
> - 8 colleges/universities/art schools
> - 5 conferences
> - 5 hospitals
> - 7 Mental Health Non-Profit and Consumer Networks 
> - 2 Jails
> - 10 Collectives, Bookstores, Exhibitions
> - and sold 19 Institutional rate DVD's, and many, many hundreds more to individuals and non-profits
> 
> In short, I'm experiencing success at the grass roots level, meeting my audience face to face. I get flown everywhere and paid quite handsomely, if may add. I've never worked harder, but I making more money as a full-time independent filmmaker than I ever have in my life. And I feel that I'm being true to myself as an artist, while meeting the needs of my audience. Yes, the subject matter accounts for a big part of my project's success. But I'd like to make the point that the internet is a HUGE boon to us independent artists--NOT for screening (IMHO), but for OUTREACH. With an intelligently laid out business plan--identifying your audience, websites constructed to speak to a particular market, purchasing email contact lists, etc--one can circumvent the festival game entirely.
> 
> Although I'll continue to enter festivals, I'm more skeptical than ever before, and will narrow future submissions to festivals that are expressly interested in the TOPIC and THEME of my work, rather than the genre, however much they stress in their public relations materials that they are interested in film as an art form.
> 
> One last plug for self-distribution: you receive 100% of the profit, 'natch, not to mention a direct exchange of information and praise with your audience.
> 
> Ken
> www.crookedbeauty.com
> www.crookedbeautythefilm.com
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