Sugar rush hour from Bianca Consunji on Vimeo.
This is admirable filmmaking: a documentary exactly as long as it needs to be, and not a second more. There are filmmakers out there who would try to make a feature-length doc out of this but documentarian Bianca Consunji sums up a man's life in two exquisite minutes. I don't know if this was submitted to film festivals but it could play a ton of them.
At some point in the near future I may write up a semi-serious response to this video, but for now – just watch.
A thoughtful, fascinating look at the history of creativity and innovation. This is part three of a series comprising four ten- (or so) minute episodes. See them all at everythingisaremix.info.
Ronen's Adventure: Trapped in an iPhone from Ronen V on Vimeo.
Clever, clever stuff from Ronen V in New York. I quite like one of his other videos too: How to Cook Beef Stroganoff and Fight Off a Ninja.
Thanks to @rebfef for the link.
This documentary short was posted to YouTube about a year ago but it's taken a while for it to reach my notice. In the film, doc filmmakers Steve Rosen and Terry DiBono chronicle what they expect to be an exciting and productive trip to the Swansea Bay International Film Festival to exhibit their doc feature, Boyhood Shadows. Unfortunately they (and other filmmakers depicted in the short) felt that the festival failed to deliver on its promises.
Of course this is the story of a festival as viewed through the eyes of these filmmakers, but it certainly seems like a haphazard event that doesn't represent the good that festivals can do. There are always filmmakers who feel entitled to certain perks from festivals but that doesn't seem to be the case here. The loss of both Michael Sheen and Catherine Zeta Jones as festival patrons doesn't bode well either. It's too bad – Swansea Bay seems like a beautiful place to attend a festival.
(Shameless plug - the 7 Days to a Festival Strategy Seminar includes a section on how to spot scam festivals.)
Audience reaction videos are common in Hollywood film advertising, but you rarely see them for indie films. With a little bit of preparation, however, you can use an enthusiastic audience fresh from a screening to build buzz for your film.
It seems to be working for my clients Joke & Biagio, who made Dying to Do Letterman – after their sold-out screenings at Cinequest they went on to win the audience award at that festival. Then they did it again at the Cleveland Film Fest. I hear they have more festival screenings on the way.
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Dying to do Letterman: Audience Reactions at Cinequest from Joke and Biagio on Vimeo.
The Ballad of Friday and June (2009) from Jollyville Pictures on Vimeo.
This was a big favorite of mine on the festival circuit last year. It's short, funny, poignant, heartfelt, and other adjectives that mean "wonderful."
Now you can watch it in its entirety online and see what I mean.
Jennifer Amman, Festival Production Manager for the Telluride Film Festival, leaves her position with this rather public message. I've never met Jennifer or been to Telluride, but the video provides a glimpse into the problems (and backstage tensions) that exist at many film festivals these days. Sponsors are harder to come by these days and money is tight all over. It's tempting to side automatically with Jennifer, but as Sarasota Film Festival programming director Tom Hall rightfully points out:
. . . cutbacks to festival budgets are an absolute reality right now, and that one of the main issues facing any non-profit at this time is setting new, adjusted priorities and getting organizational buy-in for those changes. I don’t think there is anyone working at festival today, from a Board President to a volunteer, who has faced down a change to the landscape and hasn’t thought to themselves “This is the last straw.” I know I have, I know everyone has; it’s all part of being under-paid, over-worked and deeply passionate about the integrity of the event you’re putting on.
That said, finding savings in the morning meals of your volunteers (if true) makes you an easy target for ridicule.
This could easily be a film festival screening committee. Thank heaven this one's a joke. Films like this film-within-a-film starring Cliff get submitted all the time without a hint of irony.
Breathe. Focus. Octopus. from Jon Gann on Vimeo.
If you ever wanted to see the kind of short film a festival programmer would make, here's your chance. Jon Gann is the driving force behind the D.C. Shorts Film Festival. Jon and his team made this film as part of the Washington D.C. edition of the 48 Hour Film Project.
All of the bumps at Sundance this year were interesting, but as usual there was a clear favorite. This year it was "The Pitch," which features all of our favorite film clichés. (You might recognize some of them from the list of clichés in chapter 1 of Film Festival Secrets.) This year's bumps were produced by creative agency Buck – check out the Sundance mini-site where they document the process of creating these shorts.
Yet another in our series of South by Southwest 2010 videos, this time with Brian Chirls, creator of Crowd Controls. This venture is based on his work with Four-Eyed Monsters and is currently powering some of the fan engagement with Iron Sky.
Thanks to Mark Potts for shooting and editing this video.
The third in our series of South by Southwest 2010 videos features Managing Director of IFF Boston Brian Tamm. Brian talks about the reasons he and other IFF Boston staff members attend other festivals like SXSW.
The Independent Film Festival of Boston starts tonight with their opening night film, The Extra Man. Kevin Kline will be at the Somerville Theater after the screening to receive a career achievement award from the festival. If you live in the Boston area and you hadn't made plans to attend, I highly recommend showing up.
Thanks to Mark Potts for shooting and editing this video.
The second in our series of South by Southwest 2010 videos, this time with journalist Jette Kernion (Cinematical, Slackerwood). See all of Slackerwood's SXSW 2010 coverage here.
Thanks again to Mark Potts for shooting and editing.
Trevor was kind enough to duck out of the convention center and spend a few minutes talking with me about the first Sundance on his watch as Director of Programming, and about some of his favorite festival moments.
Kudos to Mark Potts for shooting and editing this series of videos.
Tate English and Lynn Mikeska (writer/director and star, respectively, of The Ballad of Friday and June) spent some time at the Oxford Film Festival recording a series of webisodes to document their festival trip. Rather than making the series a simple travelogue, however, they went out of their way to make each episode funny in a self-deprecating way. Well-made webisodes like these capture some of the local flavor of a festival town and involve fellow attending filmmakers involved whenever possible. (You want to give people a reason to link to your videos, right?) Off-the-cuff video blog entries are a fun, inexpensive way to build a fan base and to draw attention to your film's festival run.
See more Oxford FF travel videos at the Ballad of Friday and June blog.
And now, a very special message from Film Festival Secrets and SingleTree Productions: Copies of Film Festival Secrets are available from Amazon.com.
A smart move from the Festivus Film Festival; this series of YouTube videos presents volunteer screeners talking about the films they pulled from the stacks and got through to programming. It's a great way highlight the films in your festival, present yourself as an organization that keeps its filmmakers' interests in mind, and draw attention to your event in the process. There's a bunch of these on the Festivus FF Youtube channel.
Lucas Martell's podcast is a companion to the launch of his short animated film, Pigeon Impossible. Each episode is entertaining in its own way (check out episode 2, "Writing is Rewriting") and most of them focus on the animation process, but episode 12 speaks directly to the festival circuit. In particular listen to Martell's advice about output formats and why the extra expense of converting your short to 35mm film might give you a leg up on the competition. Now that's what I call a film festival secret.
 | The Better Film Festival Submissions Toolkit has a very simple purpose: to help you improve the way you submit your work to film festivals.
Divided into 7 core tasks with a discussion of each task, the 16-page Toolkit is designed for quick reading and gives you concrete, actionable tasks to make your film submissions package better. Best of all, you'll get the insight you need to better understand what programmers look for and how to submit with confidence. |