Jane Clark Blog - April 10th
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I've just sat through my first 20 screeners, short and feature, narrative and doc -- submissions for the Woods Hole Film Festival. I have been friends with Judy Laster, the program director, since my first short played there in 2004. After my second short screened Judy asked if I would be interested in programming. I was thrilled. This year I have voluntarily addedfundraiser to my duties, because I have come to love this festival and the people involved and to respect their commitment and integrity for the event, and I want to do my part to help them grow.
As a filmmaker this experience has been enlightening and educational. With this early batch of screeners on my mind I thought perhaps I could pass on a little of what I have learned to you, my fellow filmmakers.
Clearly, my experience is limited, and I'm sure each festival has differences in the way they operate, the money they have to function, the number of submissions they get and their programming philosophy. But in addition to Woods Hole, I am friends with several other program directors at other festivals and can say with some assurance that the similarities outweigh the differences.
First, I want to briefly address the functioning of a festival. Starting with the staff. These people work with a film festival because they absolutely love film and filmmakers. This would have to be true, because outside of a few large operations (ie Sundance, Tribeca, NY Film Festival, Floriday, SXSW, LA FilmFestival, etc) most festival workers get paid nothing to do a very time consuming and thankless job. (By the way, thank you's go a long way with the festival staff. Kindness, patience and understanding are appreciated too.)
I would add that most festivals operate on very tight budgets, and are funded primarily by grants, private donations, sponsors and state arts funding. The field is competetive and there isn't that much money to go around. Some cashflow is brought in by ticket sales and submission fees, but no matter how much money israised, by the end of each festival there is very little left over, which means each year the organization has to start over from scratch. Now on to selection and programming.
Does every film submitted get watched? When a filmmaker isn't accepted into a festival they are hot for, it is natural to want to blame something or someone. I have heard filmmakers say, for instance, "my film was never screened at such and such a festival. They just took my money," or whatever...I've heard some interesting complaints. So for those of you doubters, I can tellyou that chances are every film gets watched at every festival. In our case, each submission gets watched by two people and if there is a disparity in the scoring a third person will watch and be the tie breaker. No one's work is tossed aside or ignored. That's not the business of a film festival. The business of a film festival is to find the best material for each festivalaudience. That means no one's movie can be ignored, because that next film in the pile might be the best thing submitted that year. A programmer can't know that if they don't put the disc in the DVD player.
How are films selected? I am sure, there are variations between festivals on this one, but in general here are some thoughts. When deciding where to submit your film, do a little research on the community where the festival resides. You can tell a lot about festival taste by looking to their potential audience.This is logical, because a festival is only successful if it can put butts in the seats. Also look at past programming. For instance, Woods Hole has strong experimental and animated short categories with very eclectic films (Bill Plimpton is a regular attendee), in addition to the more standard comedic or dramaticshort programs. We're strong on docs. Our narrative features tend towards more widely appealing storylines.
One of our venues is called Project Greenscreen, and it screens select projects outdoors at night on a solar powered projector. The films screened at the venue suit the nature of the venue and projection. All of these things are indicative, again, of the audience we draw and their tastes. Knowing an even superficial amount about each festival can help you decide which are bestfor your project.
Does the packaging of your project have any impact? This is probably one of those things that vary as well. At Woods Hole, as a programmer I don't see any information beyond the jacket cover and what is written on the disc. Basically, films are chosen on their scoring. Last year we took films scored at 8 and above(on a 1 - 10 scale). But if that grouping needs to be narrowed further outside elements might be an influence. We give extra consideration to a New England filmmaker, because that is one of our mandates. Someone who has screened with us before might take priority.
Are there holes that could be filled themically or stylistically? And at some point production value might have an influence above and beyond the creative elements.
One thing that can work against an otherwise wonderful film is bad sound. Even if a filmmaker puts down that sound mix is pending, it is difficult to judge a project separate from the sound. If your sound is bad, find away to fix it, and if you miss a festival submission deadline while that is happening, then youdo. There's always another festival. You could end up wasting your money otherwise, and potentially you could have wasted an opportunity to play at that festival the following year. In fact, in general, I recommend that you hold off on submitting your project to any film festival until it is completely through post and locked, even if they say they take works in progress.
Visually, I think HD has really upped the ante in terms of production value. I'm sure it helps that I have an HD TV. An HD screener viewed on an HD TV is standout. But, there is a caveat to this. It doesn't matter how pretty the picture if the dp doesn't know how to light, the production designer doesn't fill the environment convincingly, the sound is bad, the story is weak or the actors untalented. In this first batch of screeners, the short I liked best and scored the highest, wasn't as slick with production values as some other projects, but the story was imaginative and charming, the actors were appealing and talented and the director was smartly creative with what little money they had to work with.
Matt Toffolo, who runs this site (and a monthly shorts fest) could probably add a thing or two, but I hope my limited experiences can still be helpful. I know it will be helpful to me, next fall, when I'm ready to submit my next short!
Jane Clark
Director/Producer
FilmMcQueen - an independent film company
www.filmmcqueen.com; 323/654-0115
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