The film’s producers chose to just bypass the whole accept/reject process of the film festival and offer it up to whoever wants it for free. As compensation they will earn money if viewers sign up for a music service for a fee in order to watch the film online. It’s not the first film to set up this kind of structure but it’s obvious the distribution model is going in a different direction. One of the key questions that comes up is; will your film play better on the internet? Meaning, will it find its audience from online viewers versus a theatrical release? If you have a twenty-something post-college comedy [far from a new concept] like this one, your demographic is already sitting in the theater, their laptops. If you have an oddly sweeping, landscaped epic shot with anamorphic lenses on 35mm, maybe not.

Either way it seems that this new process of cutting out the festival middle man might have a serious trickle down effect. There are so many festivals right now, too many to even count [Okay, I'll look it up. Around 4,000 worldwide. Source: FilmFestivals.com.] Will online festivals and distribution put a crimp in real world film festival attendance? It seems that if festivals aren’t programming important, relevant films that need that exposure to push them into the stratosphere you might have an answer sooner than later.

Also, starting tomorrow you can watch festival shorts for free from the Sundance site.

Overall I felt that there is one consistent feeling for the filmmaker attending the Conference — you’re always walking the line of optimism/pessimism. Being wrapped in the climate of this independent world feels empowering. Hearing people speak about projects, running into colleagues. It’s an energy boost for the individual who feels tapped out, disconnected or just temporarily lacking in creative drive. Its a place for intelligent swapping of ideas and an open dialogue.

The downside, we’re all broke. We’re all in the same boat, pushing our projects, saving our pennies and jonesing to make the next or first film. Now with more product, choice and options for exhibition the real estate for new films is harder and harder to attain. Fighting through the clutter has become more of a challenge. It’s a long haul. The obvious thought on everyone’s mind is the validity of internet and how is it going to serve us.

So these are some fast and loose notes regarding the panels I attended. You can refer to the Conference link above for more information on each panel. The panelists listed on the site aren’t all accurate, some speakers were subbed out for others. Like the title says Filmmaker Conference, the following information deals with the world of producing films independently. That word has many different meanings but I think one theme that everyone who attended this Conference agrees upon is we are the driving force, the inertia that will get our films made. Do It Yourself.

There’s a lot of information here and I encourage those who are reading this post and/or attended the Conference to leave comments about what these speakers had to say and/or how it reflects your own experience as a filmmaker. Also, go to the Filmmaker Magazine Blog and CinemaTech and search for more coverage of this event.

Making Your First Feature

Sunday, September 16th, 2007

Getting Started

• Get the script around, let everyone read it. Producers pass on projects all the time but everyone knows everyone so if it’s not right for them it might be right for a producer they know.
• Find a hungry producer but get someone in this position who has some experience doing this and knows the ins and outs of the industry.
• In the beginning especially, the writer/director needs to be the driving force of the project until other principals are brought on board.
• Create three budgets: no, low and the dream.
• Look to possibly altering the screenplay – location, cast, crew if it means getting your film made. Can this film be made in Washington instead of say, Boston?
• If you absolutely need a name actor to be in your film then wait for that to happen, just remember you might be waiting a long time to get the right one. If not, go out and make your film without the name.
• Stay credible in the industry by not allowing your project to get kicked around too long. When a project has been making the rounds amongst producers and companies for 2-3 years and no one is budging it might turn people off asking, why hasn’t anyone bit yet?
• Do your homework – know the film you are making inside and out so you can articulate it succinctly to people you want to get excited. Always be prepared about the facts of your film to anyone you think needs to know.
• Make a smart secure, business plan that is realistic and honest with all parties involved. Don’t promise what you can’t deliver.
• Look at fiscal sponsorship if you think your film can get that kind of support.

Production and Post-Production

• Inertia will get you through production.
• Keep investors in the loop when it comes to finance. Don’t treat them poorly by cashing their check and keeping them out of the loop. They are financing your dreams — treat them with respect. You’re also trying to build a relationship.
• If your project has any SFX of any kind, get those key people involved early.
• DI [Digital Intermediate] – understand it.
• Budget – get the prep correct.
• When making your first feature, trust yourself and your instincts.
• Surround yourself with honest, trusted people. Yes, they are out there.
• Let everyone in on the process (Cronenberg sets up numerous monitors all over the set so everyone can see the action — this is a choice, it’s not for everyone).
• As a director know your strengths and weaknesses and be honest with your key crew members.

Festival/Marketplace

• If you are thinking about getting a sales rep get them in early like right after you complete photography.
• Don’t show anyone anything until the last possible minute.
• Create an exclusivity of your film screening.
• Build a network core.
• Festivals – home field advantage is a plus.
• Don’t forget publicity – photographs from the set, behind the scenes video, blog.
• Find an iconic image that represents your film and use it for poster or press photo.
• Big fish, small pond or small fish in a big pond. What do you want to be?
• Don’t oversell the film to the wrong buyer.

Finding Your Audience

• Many new ways to promote and get your work out there:
• Wholphin DVD – DVD magazine of film content.
• Spout – Online film community.
• Rooftop Films
• If you are a director, theater owners will treat you like shit – create an alter ego of a booking agent and you will be taken seriously (from Guatemalan Handshake director Todd Rohal).
• Have stock of DVD’s ready for sale at your screenings.

John Sayles/Maggie Renzie

• 4 Week shooting schedule for new film Honeydripper.
• Schedule – shooting out of sequence – prioritize what scenes you shoot.
• Give big scenes more time for inexperienced actors.
• Know your locations and the geography – light, time of day etc.
• Planning is everything.
• Bio’s for characters are a good idea for actors and department heads.
• Storyboards.
• Every day write down the scene you are shooting – ask yourself how important the scene is.
• Be careful when a DP makes suggestions about how to shoot the scene – new ideas.
• Weather consistency for scenes.
• Do not get caught up in your coverage. Masters can eat up time and energy.
• Edit on the set – know what you need in post.
• Kill a scene that day of shooting if its not gelling. Take some time to rethink it. It may cost you but if it’s a priority scene you need to redo it.
• Don’t fall in love with the master.
• Give an actor a chance to do their thing – don’t put your actors under pressure about time.
• Using 2 cameras for coverage gives actors more time.
• Ask for actors to tell a story about themselves if they’re new or auditioning.
• Give new actors something to do physically when on screen.
• More from from this panel on Filmmaker Magazine Blog.

Filmmaking 2.0

Monday, September 17th 2007

Turning Your Viewer On

• IndieGoGo

Tony Liano/Crackle [owned by Sony]

• The web is a good place for targeting content.
• Episodic. Comedy. Small. Low cost. Low risk.
• Get involved as a producer. Very DIY.
• No revenue with Crackle as of now.
• 20 million unique users with Crackle.

State of U.S Film Festivals

• Sundance – looking for emerging talent. Demand to be the World Premier for the film to be in competition.
• Tribeca – Same.
• Find what festival fits the needs of your film.
• Big fish, small pond or small fish, big pond.
• Sundance flies in and houses filmmakers.

The Global Market

Tuesday, September 18th, 2007

Producing Films for The Global Market

• Don’t get so obsessed with making a film that you forget to make a good film.
• Understand the market you are focusing on.
• Certain genres sell better overseas.
• Casting is very important. Each country has its own star system.
• Skip the flyers and the postcards and pay a publicist to push the film ($10k is the standard rate).

The Real Deal on Deals

Wednesday, September 19th, 2007

• Casting – have your team together. Th casting director is not your producer.
• Have the right people behind you – serious, organized – financing in place.
• Get a line producer to create a serious budget.
• First money in is the riskiest.
• Look to cast within a month or two before principal photography. Actors schedules change all the time.
• Agencies don’t package films coming in from casting directors.
• Know who you are casting; make sure they know they are in for the long haul.
• Because of the upcoming strike a lot of actors are going for big paydays.
• Meet the assistants to the producers – get them interested in your projects.
• Increase the pedigree of your project. Get into the Sundance Lab, Bluecat etc.
• Partner up with a solid producer who will see your project through to the end.
• Agents and managers are hungry for good material.
• Three reasons why an actor will get attached to a project:
  • Financing is in place
  • A solid team
  • An offer

John Kilik

• IMDb credits
• Exploit the studio distribution system.
• Can’t make a self-serving film that speaks to no one. The audience needs to be considered.
• Define the time when you are going to start shooting and let that be your inertia.

Niche Marketing

• Figure out how to position your film with your sales agent.
• Not everyone needs to love your film.
• The film needs to be an antidote to the big Hollywood monster.
• Get as much press as you can.
• Media outlets are shrinking because of the internet. Print media is in crisis.
• No guarantee of reviews on day of opening.
• Less theaters.
• Create buzz and sustain buzz.
• Don’t let too much lag time exist from release to press to DVD/VOD availability.
• Filmmakers should be out selling films at live events, speaking engagements, screenings to sell film.
• Case study: Teeth. Tough film to sell because of subject matter.
• The internet has created a huge glut for product but you must find a way to rise above the noise.
• Gus Van Zandt used MySpace to cast his new film, Paranoid Park.
• Product placement? Use a product to finance and market.
• Find ways of getting people to write and talk about your film.
• Filmmaker’s diary (blog) like [This Savage Art] for example.
• Be careful how you present your film to the world for the first time.

Digital Download

• Jaman – 30% of gross go to the filmmaker.
• Amazon Unbox is a 50/50 split.
• Juiced – has pledged to own ALL content out there one day.
• Reframe
• Ejunkie as a storefront for downloading for filmmakers.
• Case study – 10 MPH – 4,000 DVD’s sold.
• iTunes will open up the market significantly.
• Sell DVD’s at festival screenings – get e-mail addresses/zip codes of purchasers to build a base.
• Case study: Four Eyed Monsters has built an audience distributors would die for even though they have given it away for free.
• Give away the first five minutes of the film on your website to get people interested in buying screening tickets/download/DVDs.
• Wholphin DVD compilation.

Show Me The Money

• Made in New York Tax Credit – 15% tax break if production meets criteria:
  • Build and shoot on a stage for one day.
  • 75% of location days are within the five boroughs.
• Renew Media – Organization that finds artists and gives them money – artists can’t apply – they find you.
• Grants – Jerome Foundation – Creative Capital.
• Axiom – payroll services has a database of each states film commissions and tax credit situation on their website.
• Individual theater release – Film Forum and IFC Center. Must play for a week to get any real press coverage.
• Foundationcenter.com

The State of Independents

• 600 prints or less is a real definition of an independent.
• People are consuming films in very different ways.
• A lot more films are being released each week which is making it more of a challenge to stay alive and get noticed.
• Is a good film, not a great film, a problem?
• Penetrating an audience has gotten more difficult because of sheer volume of product.
• A film needs to hold onto screens for as long as possible.
• For a distribution company its about packaging the right film, price weekend.
• Screenings at festivals can fail miserably or get lots of attention but its not an indication of what films will do in the market.
• How important is a film festival? Shouldn’t distributors buy the film before it screens at festivals then premier it?
• Filmmakers still need the pedigree of a film festival’s attention.

In Ronnie Bronstein’s valentine to the immediacy of 16mm independent filmmaking, Frownland takes a look at a small circle of socially retarded individuals living on the fringes of white urban twenty-something life. At the center is Keith, an inarticulate brain aneurysm waiting to happen. As he performs his reverse commute out of the city, feebly attempting to sell coupons door-to-door, Keith is challenged by the simple minutia of life. There is so little this character can actually handle but when he attempts to it is pure heartbreak.

To keep in time with the fractured nature of the film let me quickly segue into the quote that sums it up beautifully from heir director:

More succinctly, Frownland is my own small contribution to the sinking barge of the 16mm indie model; both an overripe tomato lobbed with spazmo inaccuracy at the spotless surface of the silver screen and a mad valentine to the craggy tradition of unadulterated cheap-o-independent expression. Its inelegance is its spirit. – Ronald Bronstein

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the way you sell a film. I’m sorry I can’t describe it better than that but I look at this as a good thing. Films that I have had trouble articulating immediately after seeing them are the ones that have never left me like some chip that’s been embedded under my skin. Bad Lieutenant, Lost Highway and now, Frownland. Props to all involved in making this film, selling out the IFC Center screening last Wednesday night and reminding us what it’s really all about.

I still can’t get the snot bubble out of my mind.