SET UP A CHANNEL ON A SHARING/SOCIAL NETWORK SITE
Many networking sites let you group several films into your own mini-site. Try linking up with other filmmakers to form a small online TV company, drawing together anything that is common to you all, like you all work in Austin, Texas; or you all do extreme sports; or you all made a movie for under $10. Once you have a shared network of films and filmmakers, you can gather friends to support your channel, and set up viral campaigns: everyone who’s joined your network group sends the film to two other people and asks them to pass it on. But make this stand out from the usual spam-like drive by adding in a request – for instance, that everyone emails you one plot idea for your next film or a reallife story that would make a good film.
FIGURE 31.2 whatever the genre of your movie, there’s a place to get it seen if you aim at the right audience. Shown here, two filmmakers at San Francisco’s International Black women’s Film Festival.
PRESS PACK:
Your press pack is an online resource which anyone who wants to know more about your movie can access, from journalists to fans.
It should include:
Images from your movie including stills and portraits of cast and production stills. These need to be large files, at 300 dpi (print quality), saved as TIFs or JPEGs, and zipped for quick download. Add a note that they need to credit the photographer who took the shot.
Interviews with you and the cast and some crew. Create a covers-allquestions interview which could save the journalist time, with usable quotes if they can’t talk to you direct. Most journalists won’t use a complete interview unless it’s their own, but the quotes can help flesh out a feature.
Synopsis of the movie in about one paragraph.
Background to how the film was made, including a brief summary of where and when it was made. Include production notes and storyboards, designs and sketches.
Clips from the movie, plus a trailer if it’s a longer film (upwards of 45 minutes).
DVD ready to mail out. Have a screening disc (for festivals and events), plus a preview one that has the words “preview only” written permanently across the screen.
Email and telephone contacts for you, the producer and any other collaborators.
Chapter | Thirty-Two
Online Screenings and Festivals
OYERVIEW
Whatever kind of film you make, there is an online festival waiting for it right now – comedy, experimental, zombie, wildlife, documentary and maybe even all of these together. The trick is to know what kind of films get accepted, how to apply and then how to use the screening to pole vault your way in to bigger things.
Use this guide to help you get accepted for online and real-world film festivals, and get a slot on TV.
Experts’ Tips
Kerry David, producer, My Date with Drew, Agent Cody Banks, College Sucks, Los Angeles, USA
“Certainly for short filmmakers the internet is a Godsend. Also there are plenty of short film contests to showcase your work (we have one at IndieProducer now in its seventh year!) and with mobile phones and similar equipment actively looking for entertainment to transmit, it’s a wonderful time to be starting out as a filmmaker.”
www.indieproducer.net
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ONLINE FESTIVALS
If you want to reach a real movie audience, just like you get at film festivals, check out online film festivals. It’s a growth area, replacing real festivals because costs are tiny, organization is not too tough, and you get potentially bigger audiences. Many of them are aimed at new filmmakers, and try to encourage
FIGURE 32.1 This online film festival based in Los Angeles shows movies by emerging and student filmmakers, and has an awards evening.
short films to get seen more widely. They also make more use of new way to view, getting even more exposure for your film. The Babelgum Online Film Festival uses phone and web viewing to gather public votes for films, creating a buzz for your movie, as well as showing it. There are festivals aimed at niche genres, or ones catering for filmmakers at different stages of their careers, like www.studentfilms.com.
Many regular festivals also have an online element, usually aimed at less established filmmakers or first-timers, but also showing parts of the festival schedule too. For example, the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival (www.lashortsfest.com) uses LA Shorts TV to encourage viewers to watch and vote for their favorite short movies.
Check out some online festivals and submit your movie. More festivals appear often, so Google to find out new ones.
www.filmfights.com – Running since 2003, a lively, active place to show your movie based on the concept of a shared title, theme and genre each month.
www.haydenfilms.com – A Los Angeles-based festival with some real cash prizes and probably the most authentic festival vibe.
www.babelgum.com/online-film-festival – An international festival with strong indie background, including an award in honor of Spike Lee.
www.coff.newmediafest.org/blog – European festival aimed at linking real festival locations with an online version.
www.newenglandfilm.com/festival – Regional festival in Boston, but open to submissions from anyone.
www.rebfest.com/ – A Twitter-based film festival popular among emerging filmmakers.
www.bestfestamerica.com – Large student film festival regularly attracting over 500 student entries. Look for BESTFEST festivals in other countries too.
www.cultureunplugged.com/ – Online festival emphasising films on social issues and global problems.
www.nyfa.com – New York’s Film Academy hosts an online festival with UK site www.PutItOn.com.
Table 32.1 Improve your chances of getting selected for festivals – online and off.
Area What to Do
Presentation A good DVD cover, excellent publicity stills and a web presence can all help your film get accepted. “If you are intending to submit your film to any festivals make sure that your presentation lives up to the standard of your film. A little bit of effort in promoting your film will go a long way,” says Andy Roshay, director of the Signals Film Festival.
Film length If you are planning to shoot a film for the festival circuit and it is your first attempt, keep it short: between thirty seconds and one minute. It’s always better to leave the judges wanting more. TV commercials squeeze stories into seconds, so try to steal ideas on how to compress a film into less than a minute.
Produce a press pack Make publicizing your film easy for the festival’s organizers. Give them a movie DVD and CD with production stills, director quotes, resumes, background trivia, and anything they can dish out to the press. If yours is packaged and ready to go then you get the headlines in the write-up.
Music and rights clearance This will be in the application form, but if you use music in your film check that you have written clearance from the performers. And many festivals now prefer it if you have not sold the film already – to a DVD collection or short-films buyer – so they can attract industry sales people.
Use www.withoutabox.com Many festival judges find films in this one-stop buyer’s, seller’s and judge’s site. It allows you to access festivals around the world and send direct to the organizers. You’ll look professional and reliable. The site has huge clout after merging with Film Finders, a US indie bulletin board. “We work with submission service Withoutabox,” says Andy Roshay, of Signals.
Originality Avoid clichés, and be true to yourself and your own vision. “What makes a film successful with an audience is when they can see drive, passion, innovation and enthusiasm on screen,” says Adele Hartley, of Dead By Dawn Festival. Mick Etherton, judge at the Two Days Later Horror Film Festival, says, “We have found that there are always entries that surprise us with their quality and originality, in terms of production values and script.
“We’ve set our judges definitive areas to consider for judging: Concept: The degree to which the production has an original idea and fresh
approach to its theme and/or use of technique(s). Communication: Does the production express its theme/key issues and ideas/emotions clearly. Production: The overall quality of script/storyboard; camerawork; editing; music; special effects and direction. Entertainment: The degree to which the production manages to be interesting and/or enjoyable and/or engaging.”
Keep it simple Avoid a messy film or one that spreads itself too thinly. John Wojowski, of Manchester’s Kino Film Festival, says: “Keep to as short a story as possible; many people make the mistake of making what is essentially a 10-minute short drag out to 20 minutes. [You need] a beginning, a middle and an end, and a precise and clean edit.”
Make a great opening scene A festival favorite will have an opening scene that people. Change your story so that the best shot, with the weirdest angle, and the most impossible outcome is right at the front.
Go to festivals Attend as many festivals as you can, any size, anywhere. “Try to see lots of short films, of all kinds of genres, go to festivals so that you can see films within the context of a program and in front of an audience, meet as many people as you can, get inspired and collaborate,” says Alice Bennett-Leyh, of the Encounters Festival, Bristol, UK.
And if you don’t get in… Only start to fret over it if after 25 entries you fail to get into any festival. “A rejection does not necessarily mean you have made a bad film, there are other factors which many filmmakers, particularly starting out, don’t consider. So, same old story – persistence is everything! Always ask for feedback on a rejection if you genuinely feel that your movie should have been picked, and not just because your ego is bruised. When you get your feedback, listen to what it is saying,” says Adele Hartley, Dead By Dawn Festival.
COMPETITIONS AND CHALLENGES
You’ll see a lot of open competitions aimed at new filmmakers, where you go along and pick up an idea to make a film about, then spend a certain amount of time making it, before returning to show your film to an audience. It’s a great way to make films in a supportive atmosphere; people tend to be appreciative and want to help you succeed. Often the films you make are better than ones where you’ve had weeks to work on them, maybe because you have an aim in sight, an audience already booked in and the desire to make it work.
The most popular events are 12, 24-hour and 48-hour film challenges. Typically, in a 48-hour challenge you turn up at the start to collect a few key ingredients that have to be in your film, like a word, a prop or a place. You then incorporate these into your movie, spending the first day shooting and the final day editing, before a final audience screening.
Online competitions are becoming popular too, with people linking up via the web to watch and share their videos across continents. For instance, one Film in a Day event (1-hour movie) saw filmmakers who made their movie in London later watch responses to the same challenge in Moscow that night. Sometimes theaters or arts centers are linked via the web so large audiences get to watch each other’s movies.
Experts’ Tips
Walter Murch, filmmaker, editor Apocalypse Now!, The Godfather, Cold Mountain.
“It’s amazing how varied [a film challenge event] is. Some people will have an idea they like to do before coming to the event and they shoehorn it into the ideas we give them. It’s very enjoyable to watch, how they add in these extra criteria. I was speaking with a popular feature film director and I said that seeing all the constraints you have to go through, the producers who want certain things, and you take a year and a half to make these big things. And he said no, making a film with constraints like [the 12-hour film challenge] is very much like making a feature film. It brings out things you didn’t really think about.
I want everyone to have a great laugh, and to see representations of what other people have thought of given the same criteria. When you see people come running in with their tapes you get these very varied films, and a sense of fun. There’s no sense of competition. For me it’s amazing to see what people will do. It’s lovely to see people having a brilliant time, and it’s very low-key. It’s a very supportive atmosphere.”
(Walter Murch was instrumental in setting up a 12-hour film challenge, to encourage filmmakers and students to make a film in a day.)
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FIGURE 32.2 Berlin’s International Short Film Festival. Go to short film festivals and meet other filmmakers, watch movies and improve your chances of getting selected.
FIGURE 32.3 New York’s Tribeca Film Festival helps new and independent films get seen, helped by the festival’s founder, Robert De Niro.
OFFLINE SCREENINGS
If you are aiming to get the film seen in the real world as opposed to online, you need to seek out small opportunities locally, then go bigger and bigger as you move on. But if you prefer to risk all on getting your film into some high-profile festivals then avoid every stop below that and instead head directly for the top. A-list festivals won’t show your movie unless it’s a premiere.
Table 32.2 Local, national, and international screening
Type of Screening What to Do
Local and regional screenings Look for arts centers, or local filmmakers’ groups or collectives in your town. Seek out the independent film scene in your area and find out where shorts are being shown. For instance, in the UK, bars show shorts as part of the Future Shorts agency (www.futureshorts.com), which selects shorts and sends a new program out for screenings once a month. Look out for squat screenings – vacant buildings taken over by artists and DJs, where films are shown in group screenings. Check whether your local cinema has occasional slots for shorts by local filmmakers. For example, the Southern Ohio Filmmakers Association (SOFA) meets once a month to show local films from Cincinnati. It also runs Underneath Cincinnati, an occasional festival exclusively for local filmmakers.
National screenings Look for debut screenings running alongside major festivals, where you can show your work on the fringe. Also check out network TV slots where new filmmakers can show shorts to a national audience (see Table 32.3). Or try US network PBS: www.pbs.org/independentlens/getinvolved which runs national screenings across over 50 US cities.
National online screenings Some countries have online players for filmmakers from that country to upload their films. For example, Scottish filmmakers can show their films on a shared BBC/Scottish Screen online player.
National and international festivals Check out www.filmfestivals.com to get the latest information on festivals and how to apply.
Always use www.withoutabox.com to apply – it’s an essential resource for any filmmaker.
Table 32.3 Get your movie on TV.
Name of TV Slot About How to Apply
Movieola Canadian quality short film online channel. www.movieola.ca and download their submission form and wait to see whether they like your movie.
Sundance Channel Branch of the Sundance Festival, a TV and cable showing the best of indie shorts and movies for US viewers. www.sundancechannel.com but you have to email a description and wait to hear back.
IFC Independent Film Channel was the first US channel devoted to features and shorts on 24-hour scheduling. Regular open contests (with cash prizes), and open submissions. Go to www.ifc.com and look for signs to Media Lab.
CBC Reflections Canadian broadcaster with regular slot for new filmmakers’ shorts. Go to www.cbc.ca/reflections and download the submission form from the Producers Guide section.
Flickerfest Australian cable show for short films and interviews. www.flickerfestonextra.com.au
ALSO TRY
Many broadcasters also finance shorts for prime-time screenings. Channel 4 UK pay £4000 for a 3-minute short for its “3 Minute Wonders” series, and Canal Plus in France financed a number of animated shorts for its pay-per-view channel.
Also check out agencies in your country that buy “interstitials” or short fillers for mainstream movie channels.
Section Five: Make Any Movie
MAKE ANY MOVIE
This section takes y
ou through the movies you want to make, and introduces some you might want to try out. These movies are the ones with the most to offer you – some have a big history of cinema to get inspired by and have become the most fertile places to stop at and hone your skills at moviemaking. Others are newer, are big online and are exciting and sometimes challenging movies to try out. A few are just for your downtime, designed to help you make movies whatever your mood and whatever time you have.
Each chapter has the essentials you need to know to make your short stand out, avoiding anything that makes it look dated or random. Find out who watches this movie, what could inspire you, how to use the camera, or edit or create the right theme.
To create something truly different, pick and mix from a few chapters to create fusions of different movies.
Chapter 33: Genre: Drama
Chapter 34: Genre: Horror
Chapter 35: Sci-fi
Chapter 36: Comedy
Chapter 37: Drama: Noir/Thriller
Chapter 38: Documentary
Chapter 39: Music Promo
Chapter 40: Citizens News/Video Journalist
Chapter 41: (Extreme) Sports Movie
Chapter 42: Drama: War Film
Chapter 43: Freecording
Chapter 44: Road Movie
Chapter 45: Drama: Western
Chapter 46: Howcast
Chapter | Thirty-Three
Genre: Drama
Stand-Out Shorts Page 17