ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

10 years, 6 months ago - Maria Ann Hylton MSc, MA.

Check out the film markets too such as International Short Film Festival - Clermont Ferrand and the Short Film Market at Cannes Film Festival. With my last short film we were able to pick up a short film buyer at Cannes. This short did find a new audience online and we did make some money back on the revenue generated. Both markets provide comprehensive sales list. It's just up to you to contact them all, check out their backgrounds and track records and send them your short to see whether they want to include it in their own company catalogue for either TV, online, apps etc. There is life for your short after the film festival circuit submissions. The advice Kays gave you is great too. Best of luck.

10 years, 6 months ago - Kays Alatrakchi

Hello Michael,

I have given this ample thought as I am coming close to completing a short film myself that I have been working long and hard on. I have some suggestions, but they're a bit different than what you might expect to hear. Whether it's valid and useful for your film, only you can determine.

First of all, on my last short film, I spend roughly $500 in festival entry fees/S&H costs. My short film made it into about 8 or so festivals around the country and the world, won a couple of awards...cool right? Well, not really, let me explain. I attended a few of the festival screenings here in town (Los Angeles), and when possible traveled to another city to attend the screening and Q&A. In my experience, most of the screenings were fairly poorly attended, with the majority of the audience being fellow filmmakers in the shorts program. On average, I counted about 30-50 people at the screenings, X 2 screenings per festival, X 8 festivals = 800 views (being optimistic and using the higher attendance estimate which definitely wasn't the case). In addition, between the normal fees, S&H and travel to a few festivals, meals, etc I spent more than $1000 on my short film's festival run, which means that I paid over $1 for each and every one of these views (once again, the number of actual views might be closer to half that, which means I paid closer to $2 for each view).

As a short film at a festival, I hardly got any press, and despite my active efforts to send out press releases, contact magazines, writers, etc. and hand out promotional schwag; the reality is that most press and reviewers ignore short films.

So what is a filmmaker to do?

Here's my plan with my next short that I am finishing. First of all, my $500-1000 festival budget is actually going to be transformed into a P&A budget. I plan on doing some targeted advertisement on sites that cater to the demographic and interests most in line with my film.

Secondly, I'm not going to put it up on YouTube for free. Putting your hard work out on YouTube is the equivalent of saying that you have such low regard for your film that you're leaving it out on the curb to see if anyone will bother to watch it. Except for a few rare cases, you're going to throw your film into the same mix as crappy cel-phone videos and cats chasing after laser pointers...is that what you want?

Ask yourself...would a film studio do this? Movie studios release crap all the time, yet they ALWAYS expect to get paid for it. They would never think "gee whiz, let's put our $20M feature on YouTube and hope that some kind soul clicks play on it" so why should we?

Now, I'm not suggesting that you four-wall a movie theatre and charge $15 for admission...that would be setting yourself up for failure. But how about $.99 for a high quality HD (or even 4K if you have it) stream on Vimeo Plus? How about you add value to the viewer for that $.99 stream by giving exclusive access to BTS, artwork, etc? In my case, since I did a great deal of VFX work on my short, I might also include a special VFX tutorial or two as an added bonus for purchasing a stream. While you're at it, make sure you have a way for people to purchase t-shirts, posters, stickers, coffee mugs right from the site. If you have a cool t-shirt design, it's possible that someone might purchase it even if they didn't particularly like your film.

In short, start thinking of yourself as a tiny film studio. You're not likely going to recoup money, as a matter of fact I would consider my strategy a success if it can recoup for the Vimeo Plus streaming costs and nothing more. However, at the end of the day I will have:

1. Gotten the word out to more people than festivals alone through targeted advertising and social media.

2. Possibly gotten some blog/press write ups since webzines are more likely to write about something that is also advertising on their site.

3. Possibly sold some merchandise to offset some of my costs.

4. Made it very clear to, not just the public, but also potential future producers and financiers that I take the business side of showbiz very seriously.

5. Likely end up with at least the same amount of views (hopefully more) as if I had gone the festival route, while spending roughly the same amount.

As I said, this is my plan and only you can decide if a similar approach would work for you.

Best of luck!

10 years, 6 months ago - Michael Garrett

Thanks Kays!

Thanks for taking the time to give us all this info. Although we've raised money to enter festivals I can see it being a very costly and time consuming business, particularly attending yourself which I would imagine is a good idea if possible. Merchandise is a great idea too, you often invest so much in associated artwork that its good to make something of it.

Did you find any particular festivals were better value for money than others?

Cheers

Michael

10 years, 6 months ago - Michael Garrett

Thank you Kays and Maria,

Film markets are not something I know anything about so thanks for highlighting that, I'll look into it more.

Great advice from everyone, very much appreciated!

Michael

10 years, 6 months ago - Kays Alatrakchi

"Did you find any particular festivals were better value for money than others?"

The top tier ones can help you get into the smaller ones and waive any fees associated. So if you get into Sundance, you will likely get invited to other minor festivals free of charge. To a lesser degree SXSW, Tribeca and similar ones will open similar doors.

Out of all the ones that I have submitted to, the only one that I don't fully regret spending my entry fee on was the DC Shorts festival in Washington DC, and the reason why is that even if you don't get in, you will get back a detailed feedback document from the people who viewed your film which can be quite useful. I wish all festivals did that.

10 years, 6 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Shorts do not make money, and you say you want to get feedback, so absolutely stick it on youtube for free and invite comments. Of course youtube comments are known for being particularly asinine, but there may be some useful ones.

10 years, 6 months ago - Nicola Gaughan

I found this very useful, thank you. I'm in the process of filming my first ever short that I've written myself and wondered how to promote it, so I found your comments very thought provoking. Do you think your comments about festivals are valid for the UK festivals as well?