The second edition of Film Festival Secrets: A Handbook for Independent Filmmakers is under construction. (If you’re new here, you can check out the first edition – it’s still relevant, I promise.)
Make sure the new version answers your questions by joining the community that will guide its creation. It all starts Thursday, June 11th with a webinar at 9pm ET.
I’ve known for about a year now that a second edition of Film Festival Secrets is overdue. There are a lot of festival fundamentals in the book that may never grow old, but changes have come to the festival world and to the business of indie film just as they have to the rest of the planet. To stay relevant, the book needs to reflect those changes.
I like to joke that there’s a reference to MySpace in the first edition that I’m desperate to remove, but the truth is that technology is just one facet of the festival scene that feels different. A lot of the rewrite will discuss new technical realities in submissions and exhibition, sure (so long, not-so-beloved DVD screeners), but also key changes in the way marketing and distribution are accomplished, in the way films are selected, and in what filmmakers can realistically expect to gain from a festival run.
Thursday night I'll turn on the web cam and join you online to talk about those changes and what's likely to end up in the new edition of the book, as well as the crowdfunding campaign on Seed & Spark that will make the new version possible (in addition to the online community, webinars, and podcast episodes that will precede it).
After that brief introduction we'll jump into what these changes mean for you and you'll be able to ask me about any aspect of the festival circuit that concerns you. To get things started I’ll reveal three of the most common questions I get from filmmakers and the best answers I’ve come up with – so far.
Curious about how the Film Festival Secrets 2.0 Group will work? See the campaign page here.
