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10 years, 4 months ago - Adam Ethan Crow

I gotta say, as someone who has been through the festival circuit I do understand their exclusivity contracts. Film festivals can be hard enough to sell tickets to, so if you can just catch it online or at a local theatre it could have an impact on ticket sales. It's like any movie, why go to the cinema if you can get it on VOD. When your run is done you can release it into the world with all the laurels it has garnered and it will get more attention too. Good luck with it.

10 years, 4 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

@Alève Mine, you're spot on with curation. The quality and styles of shorts vary wildly. Some are little more than experimental effects reels, some will be intense moody dramas, the only thing they have in common is a run time of 7-8 minutes! The audience for one isn't the audience for the other, and so the best festival for one isn't the same as the other. This is why it's so important to be thoughtful about where you send the film!

For instance a recent feature of ours cleaned up all the top awards at a Greek specialist festival with slightly different criteria from one where we got nothing in Portugal. We didn't pay to enter either, they were both invitations BUT the more prestigious of the two (Portugal) required a European premiere. You juggle, you weave, you do deals, you offer a limited premiere (ie for just the region), but what you can't do is drop it on YouTube then expect people to want it. It's just as Adam says, how many times do you go to watch a film at the cinema after watching it on the small screen for free?

Something that can help is having a short short. If you're programming a 2h slot (maybe costing the festival £500 in screen hire), you have to make choices and optimise your opportunity. If a film has a run time of 25' then with blurb, it's a quarter of your event. Does it bring a quarter of the audience?

You can also see how a few larger projects leave you with odd-shaped schedule holes - for instance a 75' feature in a 90' slot. These are where a short short can find unique ground! If you have a 90-second or 2-minuteActuallyth a story arc and maybe a good punchline, you might fill up schedule gaps in much the way Road Runner and Tom and Jerry cartoons used to do on TV.

The world isn't ideal, it's lumpy and imperfect, and that's on a good day! Things take time.

Actually, there is a way to speed it all up - money. If you have money, you can make just about anything happen on your timescales. Want to screen during a particular festival? Money can make that happen - Hollywood does this at Cannes every year, for instance. Want to win an award at a festival? Sponsor a category and do a backroom deal. Want the jury prize at a festival this month? Create your own festival. These aren't made-up ideas, these all happen, regularly. If, however, you're broke, you play by the rules and timescales of those who've got the money!

Response from 10 years, 4 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin SHOW

Response from 10 years, 4 months ago - Alève Mine SHOW

10 years, 4 months ago - Alève Mine

Paddy thanks and congrats on your awards.

Can't afford to go to the cinema either way: technically giving it all to making and spreading works, like many other filmmakers here probably. And putting in the CV what producers seem to want to see in order to make a decision: that method acting training stripped me back down just as I was going to recover from Berlinale. Of last year.

(This also clarifies my position regarding using money to make things happen. But if there is no other solution, I must create one.)

That said I'm currently watching all the FEATURE films I can find on Youtube whenever training in front of the computer-ersatz (can't afford a gym either obviously, but that's okay: got an own system by now), some of which are running in theatres as we speak.

They are there and Youtube's recommendation algorithms are helping.

That makes me hurry up even more, just in case the industry goes down. I've witnessed another industry go down before (music). Due to other unrelated events, I've just about transferred any relevant know-how to film before the ship disappeared in the dark glacial waters, leaving but silence behind. Maybe if a solution is found for films, it can be reverse-engineered to music? That's where I'm coming from. You may understand some of the rush.

Apart from the 2:30 short short currently here at filmofthemonth ("Nat" is begging for thine stars!), we have a 58secs short short that is going to screen at a festival for shorts shortly, not for short gaps as you mention. That probably takes a shorts distributor. Now that you mention it I'll look for that shortly.

The question can take the form of: if there was a way of not making filmmakers reserve their films for a festival for any length of time, which way would it be?

Response from 10 years, 4 months ago - Alève Mine SHOW

10 years, 4 months ago - Alève Mine

Gustavo thanks. How do films in that niche market differentiate from the others?
(Btw our films are our product. Their product is their festival.)

10 years, 4 months ago - Alève Mine

So it's not the film but the curation that makes a film festival-relevant. We're back to curation.
Yes a film is then stamped with a brand built by the festival.

10 years, 3 months ago - Alève Mine

Al, thank you so much, this is great! I'm in.

10 years, 4 months ago - gustavo arteaga

Hi Alève. In my opinion festivals should do as they see fit in order to best promote and protect their product; Our films. If we join them we endorse their exclusivity clauses. In return we get an exclusive "official selection" badge and maybe an award. Hurray! No complains. The thing is weather the festivals' niche market is what your films need. Some films do, some others are far better off cashing in on YouTube. I'd say if the exclusivity thing is getting in the way of reaching your audiences dump the festivals.

10 years, 4 months ago - gustavo arteaga

Well, I guess films in that niche market are carefully curated. Tailored to the "educated" pallet as opposed to the free for all thing going on on the net. Long live YouTube with all its random chaos! As to our films being our product, indeed but while in the hands of the festivals our product is the product they sell with our explicit consent.

10 years, 3 months ago - Al Carretta

I dislike the exclusivity that surrounds festivals. Not being able to show your film until the festival date is archaic and I'm not a fan of fees. Last year I ran the Nightpiece Film Festival in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on an open access, first come, first served, basis with 69 films presented from across the UK and the World. Some had won competitions previously, some were premieres. Submissions opened yesterday for 2015's programme but this year we're curating the content to increase the standard.

Nightpiece Film Festival 2015. (Free to enter.)

https://filmfreeway.com/festival/NightpieceFilmFestival

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