This week we wanted to share our experience participating in a video contest. These types of contests are generally open to the public and can be a great way to test your production skills in number of areas such as budget, schedule, cinematography and creativity. Incentives for participating in these types of contests include cash prizes, merchandise and of course bragging rights. To see a full list of video contests available at any time visit onlinevideocontests.com.
While we’ve participated in competitions before, this was our first video contest that carried a $10,000 grand prize. One of our hurdles was that we didn’t find out about it until 2 weeks prior to the submission date. If two weeks sounds like a lot of time, it isn’t. Think about making a video for $10,000, how much time would you need to plan, shoot and edit that video?
The good news for us is that we’ve been working as a team for years so dividing up tasks and streamlining our process. Our reasons to participate in this contest were not just about the possibility of winning a prize. We do them to sharpen our skill set or push us to do something more creativity and adhering to parameters like you would if you were doing commercial video production for a client.
Genie Garage Door Video Contest Submission
The video was submitted on February 4th, 2018 and we’d love feedback from other filmmakers. What would you have done? How could you improve this video? Leave us feedback in the comments.
The Parameters
While some may feel like parameters are a hindrance to creativity, I would suggest that parameters spawn creativity by making you think clearly about achieving certain objectives or goals. Here are the requirements for the Genie Garage Door video contest we entered.
ENTRY, VIDEO AND FINALIST VIDEO REQUIREMENTS & CONDITIONS: All Entries, Videos and Finalist Videos must comply with the following minimum guidelines to be eligible: (this is just a summary, there were 25 conditions that had to be met)
Video and Finalist Videos must feature or describe a Genie Garage Door Opener and/or its features or capabilities.
Video and Finalist Videos must include a standard size single or double residential garage door that is compatible with any Genie Garage Door Opener models
Entrant must have express written permission from the owner of the garage to use the owner’s property in the Video/Finalist Video.
Individuals other than the entrant may not appear in the Video or Finalist Video, without express written permission.
The maximum file size is 150MB for videos submitted to the Contest Website. Video/Finalist Video must not exceed 90 seconds in length.
Entry and Video/Finalist Video cannot contain or depict visible phone numbers, website links, street addresses, e-mail addresses or license plate numbers.
Tom Jennings is an award winning documentary filmmaker and journalist. Tom has written, directed and produced more than 400 hours of programming on a variety of topics including politics, religion, history, crime and sports to name a few. His documentaries have been seen on channels like National Geographic and The History Channel.
The best way to sum up our interview with Tom was that it was like taking a masterclass in documentary film making. We reached out Tom’s production company 1895 Films to talk about his latest release on Netflix, Diana: In Her Own Words that was produced for the 20th anniversary of Princess Diana’s passing. The journey of producing a documentary of this magnitude is a true test in problem solving and ingenuity that every filmmaker should take notes on.
Tom stresses you need to love what you do to be a documentary filmmaker. There are growing numbers of documentary television programming but Tom think it’s probably easier to sell a reality show. Don’t ever give up. If one network doesn’t want your story, maybe you can tailor for someone else. Sometimes you just have to step up and figure out how to make things work the best you can.
Before becoming a filmmaker, Tom Jennings was a journalist in Washington D.C.
Having moved to Los Angeles, Tom ended up covering the O.J. Simpson criminal trial and got burned out
Cable television networks were taking off and needed writers to write non-fiction television with Discovery and History
Writing led into producing which led to directing
Tom sold his first project in 2004 to the Discovery Channel and had his own company since then
Learning to Make Documentaries On His Own
Tom didn’t go to film school and had no film background
His education came from being in the field and learning from the crew
“People like to talk about what they do if you show a genuine interest in what they do.”
This is how he learned how to put non-fiction documentary television together
Tom admits he would have failed film theory classes but he knows how to get the right material in the can to make for a good documentary
Selling His First Documentary About Roanoke Island
Tom’s first project was for the History Channel about the lost colony of Roanoke Island
This was at the time when networks like History were interested in cool stories
Today, having a cool story doesn’t cut it. There has to be something new, information that was never known before
By complete luck, every year in the town of Roanoke Island actors recreate the story in a play
Tom was able to get the actors to participate in the documentary and the rest is history…pun intended
Tom also notes, recreations can be poorly done if you’re not careful
For his first film, Tom had interviews, a great mystery and on top of it these great images to go with it
Diana: In Her Own Words
This film commissioned by National Graphic is now available on Netflix
It’s a difficult type of programming to do in film making because there are no interviews or narrator
Archival footage and audio was the only content used to make Diana: In Her Own Words
The archive they got for the Diana story was from author Andrew Morton who wrote Diana: Her True Story
It consisted of private interviews of Princess Diana through tapes that were made for Andrew Morton through a mutual friend
When they approached Andrew Morton about the tapes Andrew’s response was get in line
Tom explained this would be a film about Diana, narrated by Diana which was something that had never been done before
There were many rules put in place by Tom and his team to in regards to the use of imagery when talking about particular time periods
Watch Diana: In Her Words
Telling A Story With Archival Footage
Depending on the source material available, every production is different
For Diana: In Her Own Words, there were 7 hours of audio that they mapped out as storyboards
They listed all of the story beats she talked about at length or momentary asides
There were 140 story cards stuck on a board at that time
Tom and his team knew they had to tell the broad strokes of the story people knew about Princess Di
Then they found the stories they knew people had not heard before
The story works so well because Tom purposely chose story beats where they could find footage of the event
Winning an Emmy for Best Documentary Research
Whether its a feature film or a documentary, filmmakers always need to think outside the box
The Challenger story had been told many times before but not in this way
Tom received 30 beta tapes from the NASA archive and having gone through 28 of them they found gold of Christa McAuliffe rehearsing her lesson plans aboard The Challenger
When they called NASA to tell them what they had found, NASA had no idea that footage existed because nobody else had gone through the tapes before
Remembering Christa McAuliffe was from New Hampshire, Tom called a local radio station who had kept all the footage of her training and their news director was actually on the launch pad broadcasting live
All of this added to the most unique coverage of the events of the Challenger disaster in decades which ended up winning an Emmy for Best Documentary Research
Today’s guest is Robert Sciglimpaglia, an actor and accomplished voice over artist who is also a practicing attorney has been producing his own feature films as an Executive Producer. the past few years. We had the pleasure of meeting Robert at the American Film Market in 2017 where we spoke about film funding and film distribution. What we learn in today’s interview is that there is a delicate balance between financing, casting and distribution that may lead to the success of your next independent film.
In the early days, Robert hosted a local radio program back in the mid 1990’s called “The Law Show”, and more recently, hosted a radio show called “Ask the Lawyer.” Robert’s first venture into the acting field was a show called “American Experience: Hijacked!” which aired nationally on PBS-TV and was narrated by Campbell Scott. Since that time, he has appeared in numerous national projects with many big name stars, both in acting and voice overs. His latest project in post-production is an independent feature film, called One, featuring Lance Henriksen.
Follow Robert Sciglimpaglia’s Independent Film Projects
This week’s guest on the Imperfect Podcast is Director, Fran Strine who created the music documentary Hired Gun now available on Netflix. Fran captures the stories of the music industries elite musicians who are only “20 feet from stardom” yet rarely receive credit for their work. Featured in the documentary are Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, Liberty DeVitto (Billy Joel), Ray Parker Jr. (Ghostbusters), Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot), Jason Newsted (Metallica) and dozens more.
Fran Strine talks with us about his passion for music and why telling this story was important. As a touring music photographer for bands like Staind, Nickelback, Shinedown & Seether he lived alongside some of the greatest musicians in the world. From finding investors to shooting 2 years of footage to having the music produced at Skywalker Ranch this interview is both inspiring and educational for filmmakers looking to break into the documentary world.
Hired Gun worked so well as a documentary because someone like Fran was so passionate and dedicated to the story and seeing the vision through to completion. There is no substitute for hard work when it comes to making a documentary of this magnitude and with the caliber of talent that was involved on and off screen.
Watch Hired Gun
Fran Strine Interview Highlights
The Motivation for Filming Hired Gun
Fran Strine was a touring music photographer for years
After being on the road for 20 years and ready to take a break, Five Finger Death Punch made him an offer he couldn’t refuse
When the tour wrapped, Fran was about to turn 50 years old and he decided to take his chances and make a film
He had no formal training as a photographer or videographer, just a lot of hard work and dedication
Getting started in Film
Fran was the photographer for the Tattoo the Earth tour in 2000 with a bunch of metal bands
He happened to bring a video camera with him and started shooting the bands live
While in Atlanta with Sevendust the head of A&R approached him about doing a Bonus DVD for the making of the album
Fran took the upfront money they gave him, bought a camera, a Mac and Final Cut for Dummies which is how he launched his film career
That led to more music videos
Battlefield of the Mind
In 2012 Fran filmed Battlefield of the Mind
A documentary focusing on homeless Veterans that suffer from PTSD.
How can this happen in the wealthiest country in the world?
What can we do as citizens?
That’s what this film explores.
Hired Gun: Concept to Production
Fran had seen 20 feet from stardom and it really touched him
He knew there was another story there and was aware of the “hired gun” from touring with musicians for 2 decades
After making a sizzle reel, he found an investor who was a good friend he met through Battlefield of the Mind
The budget was less than $1 Million
Production on Hired Gun lasted 2 years while waiting for musicians to come off the road
How Do You Tell A Cohesive Story With So Much Footage
Fran’s goal was to get the best stories from everyone involved
The first musician he reached out to was Liberty Devitto because he couldn’t believe his story as Billy Joel’s drummer was real
After interviewing Rudy Sarzo Fran knew he’d be a big part of the documentary
In total, 65 musicians were interviewed to make Hired Gun
Gavin Fisher was the editor on almost 90% of the film
Music Licensing for Hired Gun
Julie Glaze Houlihan was the music supervisor responsible for clearing the music
There are two sides to licensing a song
Publishing rights that belong to the song writer
Master recording that belongs to the record label
Donald Fagan and Walter Becker gave us permission to use a Steely Dan song however the record label denied us
Jay Gradon was brought in to re-record the guitar solo from Peg just for the documentary on the same guitar and amps used on the original recording
Assembling the Ultimate Jam Band
Everyone in the band was interviewed for Hired Gun
All of the musicians happened to be in town for NAMM that weekend
One day of rehearsals and 3 days at the studio
It was a nightmare to assemble but there were no egos and watching it live gave Fran chills
Distributing a Music Documentary
We didn’t have a distributor going into the world premiere at SXSW
Vision Films setup Hired Gun a screening at over 300 theaters nationwide
In August of 2017 we launched on VOD and then received worldwide distribution working with Sony
The Netflix deal came early on after a screening at the SOHO House
Mixing Audio at Skywalker Ranch
Spending two weeks in Los Angeles to mix the film was not appealing
On a whim, Fran sent an unsolicited email to Skywalker Ranch with the sizzle reel and synopsis
The response from Skywalker Ranch was “Can we submit a bid?” which shows how much they believed in the project
For Fran Strine, he accomplished everything he had hoped for Hired Gun elevating his career to the next level. We wish Fran much success in his future endeavors. Have more questions for Fran? Leave them in the comments and we’ll make sure answers them.
A critically acclaimed actor, Tom Malloy wowed Hollywood with his stunning turn in the indie-cult favorite Gravesend in 1998, which was produced by Oliver Stone. Tom became a trend setter as one of the first successful triple-hyphenate Actor/Writer/Producers and made it his business to learn as much about the filmmaking industry as possible. Over the years, Tom has raised more than $25 million in private equity from independent financiers and has written, produced and starred or co-starred in nearly all the films that his company Trick Candle Productions has made.
Tom Malloy is the author of the book Bankroll that is a must read for filmmakers, actors and producers that want to finance their independent feature films. Tom has now turned Bankroll into a video course for filmmakers as a new approach financing feature films. Get the Course. In our interview you can hear Tom talk about his experiences financing films and the great stories he has to share from behind and in front of the camera.
Tom wanted to be an actor and thought that’s what he wanted to pursue
He was cast for the movie Gravesend in 1998 that was filmed in Brooklyn
Gravesend was picked up by Oliver Stone he thought he’d made it
When he didn’t become an overnight success he started learning every other aspect of the business
Tom Malloy has now produced 15 movies and written over 20 screenplays
The book Bankroll is considered the gold standard for film financing that he wrote in 2009
Being a Dancer
If you can do martial arts you can be a dancer
It’s similar to martial arts in learning patters, forms and moves
Tom took a job as a ballroom dancer when he was preparing for the movie Love N Dancing with co-star Amy Smart
Dancing is something he thinks anyone can do
Becoming a Producer
Producing became a means to an end
Tom discovered he was good at raising money by persistence and motivation
It took 6 movies before he was confident enough to produce
“If you do it long enough people start to trust you.”
How Do You Raise Money For Film
Network with people that are outside of the movie business
Act as a conduit for them to get into the movie business
Everyone wants to be part of the movie business.
They want to have celebrity friends. If you can be the person to bring that to the investor you’re in great shape.
The book Bankroll had two editions and Tom didn’t want to write a third. Working with Jason Brubaker, their video course contains 85 videos on funding a feature film. Get the Course. In this course Tom is giving away all of his secrets about how he personally raised $25 million to finance feature films.
This week’s guest is Jon Foley from the Las Cruces Film Office in New Mexico. We met Jon at the American Film Market in 2017 and decided to pick his brain on why filmmakers should contact a film office for their next movie. Many filmmakers don’t realize the benefits working with a local film office can have including incentives, locations and a local crew. Filming in a location like Las Cruces may surprise with its vast landscapes, mountains, deserts and miles of pecan trees.
Jon Foley began his journey into film & video production at the age of 11 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. His path has had many detours; Digital Video Content Manager for an online ethical hacking university, video production company owner, 1 feature and countless smaller projects as a Director of Photography, Producer of short films premiering at festivals like Festival de Cannes, Brussels Short Film Festival, and Hollyshorts, viral content creation (5+ million views across the web), landscape photographer, and the list goes on. Currently, he is the Film Liaison for Las Cruces and has his full attention on bringing more film and television productions to his area.
Have an interesting story about working with your local film office or film commission? Share it with us in the comments
The Las Cruces Film Office is about to be certified to become a film commission
Jon’s job is to market the city of Las Cruces New Mexico film producers, location scouts and anyone looking to shoot television, film, commercial work or anything video related that will get local crew members work and the area seen.
The film office also helps with permits, facilitating locations or working with local departments such fire and police.
What are the benefits of filming in Las Cruces?
One major benefit is not having to pay for permits and Jon usually turns them around in 1 to 2 days.
If you’re doing a non-union shoot, Jon has access to over 60 local crew members ready to work including camera operators, grips and production assistants.
Las Cruces has an abandoned court house / prison you can shoot at for free for the next year! Dona Ana Detention Center
Visit Film Las Cruces to see their database of locations available.
What are the qualifications for shooting in Las Cruces?
Jon helps everyone from the micro budget indie film to Hollywood sized budgets.
There is no minimum spend as long as you are willing to fill out the paperwork.
There is a 25% film rebate as long as you keep track of the money spent.
How does the film rebate work?
The rebate is processed through the New Mexico Tax & Revenue department.
As a filmmaker you’ll be buying the lumber, paying for locations, food, gas and transportation.
In 2016 there was $505 million spent on TV & Film in the state of New Mexico.
How do you acquire locations?
Jon drives around taking pictures of city property to add to the database regularly.
Who you know and how you get to know helps in acquiring private property.
Find locations across the United States using LocationsHub powered by Reel-Scout.
Fun Fact: The car crash in “Due Date” was filmed in Las Cruces
We are back from the American Film Market in sunny Santa Monica, California where we spent three days learning, pitching and meeting the film industries biggest players from around the world. The American Film Market hosts one of the industries biggest events for film makers, screenwriters and distributors. We also interviewed 8 film industry heavy hitters.
Our #1 tip for success at the American Film Market is preparation. Setup your meetings in advance, don’t wait for the last minute to schedule them because the likelihood of getting into a meeting without an appointment is very low. Even if you have an appointment the odds of it being on time may dwindle the later you wait to make that meeting. Not only do you have to prepared to schedule meetings with buyers and distributors, you have to be prepared with your pitch. You need to be professional and have a plan and understand why your film may be saleable and even more importantly what aspects of your film may not be saleable.
Tip #2 for success at the American Film Market is having a completed project. Nobody wants to hear about your concept or idea. Everyone has ideas. Distributors won’t even touch you if you don’t have a completed production. Screenwriters need completed scripts. Networking and building relationships take time. If you’re a first time filmmaker, nobody is going to hand you a check after a 15 minute pitch meeting. If they do, we’d love to hear about it on our podcast!
Interviews at the American Film Market
Pilar Alessandra
Creator of On The Page Script Consultation Company. Pilar is the director of the screenwriting and TV writing program On the Page®, host of the popular On the Page Podcast and author of the top-selling book “The Coffee Break Screenwriter. She was at AFM as the moderator of the Pitch Conference for the 2nd year in a row. The Pitch Conference at AFM was eye opening to us. If you’re a screenwriter her podcast is invaluable.
We submitted our pitch for Seymour the Unfortunate Vampire and while we weren’t selected to pitch live, we learned how to craft and deliver a pitch for the meetings we were about to take.
Alex Ferrari
Filmmaker and Creator of Indie Film Hustle. Alex shares what he’s learned over the years as a writer, director, producer and post production/VFX supervisor. We were excited to finally meet Alex in person after having him as a guest on our podcast. Alex was more than generous with his time and shared a ton of insights with us. Look for his interview with AFM Director Jonathan Wolf on Indie Film Hustle.
Jason is a Los Angeles based movie distribution executive specializing in direct to consumer distribution strategies. He is the Vice President of Worldwide Sales at Distribber. Jason is also the founder of Filmmaking Stuff, a professional resource for independent filmmakers and provides tips on screenwriting, producing, crowdfunding, directing, movie marketing and film distribution.
Branscombe Richmond
A Native American actor, stuntman and singer most known for his role in Renegade with Lorenzo Lamas. Branscombe stands at 6′ 3″ and has been on the receiving end of the fists of Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando (1985), gotten pummeled by Carl Weathers in Action Jackson (1988) and tangled with Steven Seagal in Hard to Kill (1990). At the American Film Market we saw a different while he was there to represent the Southern Kentucky Film Commission.
The most fun about meeting Branscombe is that he is long time friends with Marshall Teague who was on our show as well. Check out our Interview with Marshall Teague.
Susan Yang
General Manager of Shanghai Pusheng Translation Co. Susan was there as a translator helping a producer navigate the film market.
Paul Ayre
Paul has been writing and creating comedy for 15 years now and has worked with some of the biggest names in comedy – including Jeff Goldblum, SketchShe and toured with The Umbilical Brothers through Germany, Denmark, Austria, Slovenia and Sweden. He won the biggest prize in webseries history: $70,000 for The Justice Lease in which he acted, wrote and produced. We caught up with Paul at the pitch conference where he delivered one of the most animated pitches at the AFM. Check out his work at http://severecomedy.com
Sean Crayne
Sean was another dynamic presenter at the AFM Pitch Conference where he asked the audience “Would you kill for fame?” For more on Sean and his film Twisted check out https://www.twistedthefilm.com/home. Sean also organized an indie horror filmmaker meetup on Saturday night which was a great place to meet other like minded filmmakers.
Mike Lippert
Michael Lippert is an Ontario-based Writer/Director/Producer. He was at the AFM shopping his debut feature film called Expecting. Mike had a great story to share about how managed to get Lloyd Kaufman to do a cameo in his film.
Mark Belasco
Mark is the Vice President of Sales & Acquisition at Adler & Associates Entertainment. They pride themselves on being a true indie company, one with a risk-taking spirit and an unbiased eye for new talent from around the globe. If you’re an indie filmmaker looking for distribution and a true partner we recommend a conversation with Adler & Associates Entertainment.
Share Your American Film Market Experiences
If you’ve attended the American Film Market and want to share your story, tell us in the comments. If you have questions about AFM and whether or not its right for you give us a shout on Twitter or Facebook and we will answer anything you want to know!
Have a question for our guests on this episode of the Imperfect Podcast? Leave it in the comments and we’ll make sure they answer it for you.
Cupids is the latest comedy short film from Angelo Calarco. Cupids is currently on its festival run and was recently featured at the Soho International Film Festival and will be in New York again at the Gold Coast Film Festival. We discuss the challenges of filming dialogue with 4 people on screen and how to not make it feel boring. Angelo has a unique perspective using visuals and sound, crossing from fantasy to reality to keep the audience engaged.
Angelo Calarco is an Italian freelance Producer/Director living in London operating under the name of Beware Of The Dog Films. His career started as a comedy writer and an award winning stand-up comedian. Angelo moved to London in 2010 and learned the art of filmmaking by working as a Production Assistant, Marketing Assistant, Assistant Producer and Assistant Script Editor for several Film Production companies in London such as JetSet Films, Wo-Ho! Productions and One Eyed Dog Films while also experimenting with his own passion projects.
This week’s guest is your humble host, Alex Ferrari, known for his film making blog and podcast Indie Film Hustle. With his 20 years of experience in the industry Alex dishes the straight line on making it in the film business. He shared his experiences with us as a film maker, making the rounds at every film festival imaginable and why film festivals may or may not be a good idea for film makers. This year he put his money where is his mouth is and shot the micro budget feature film This is Meg starring Jill-Michelle Melean who also co-wrote the film with Alex.
Indie Film Hustle Roots And Why Alex Started the Popular Film Making Blog
Alex talks about escaping Miami to Hollywood and cutting his teeth as an editor. Remember what cutting ¾” tape was like?
He talks about running garage sales as early as the age of 10 and walking around with a wad of cash
Listening, watching, reading for a year Alex studied the business of an online business, creating content and SEO
His rise was quick his content on Indie Film Hustle was resonating because Alex wasn’t afraid to tell filmmakers the truth.
Providing value is his number 1 priority because he was tired of seeing filmmakers get beat up and ripped off in the film industry.
Where do You Find Time To Create That Much Content?
Alex admits he has 150 unpublished blog articles and 50 videos just waiting!
“There’s a lot of time in the day”
Over the course of 2 years he’s learned how to process all of the content efficiently. Alex says he can put together a podcast in 2 to 2.5 hours.
If he didn’t have a family, Indie Film Hustle might be even be bigger.
Alex puts in 10 to 12 hours a day and rarely works weekends. When he does work, Alex says he’s efficient. He stops every day at 6:30.
Ask most high achieving entrepreneurs and they’ll admit what Alex did to us. He says, “I feel like I’m a slacker, I feel like I’m not doing enough. I feel like I could do better, like I could do more.”
How Do You Feel About Film Festivals For Film Makers?
Alex has been to every film festival you can imagine totally upwards of 500 festivals including Sundance.
Quote: “If you’ve never gone through the experience, it’s magical. The first time you go to a festival and see your film projected, it’s the most amazing thing ever.”
When do you that 500 times and spend a lot of money you realize what its worth.
Alex doesn’t like the cost to many film festivals and feels like they are ripping off the film makers.
After spending $1000 on 35 film festivals he learned how to get into festivals for free and his movie Broken ended up in 150.
If you live in a small town, do it every year because it’s the only place you are going to connect with other local filmmakers, producers & investors.
Watch the Interview with Alex Ferrari on YouTube:
Sundance Film Festival: Alex recounts his experience
His first time at Sundance he had just finished Broken and walked around with a laptop asking people if they wanted to watch a movie
Sundance was like Disneyland. He would just take pictures with every celebrity he could.
Name dropping time!!
What is your opinion of The American Film Market?
This is Meg is going to be screened at The American Film Market
Alex has been to AFM once before but this is the first time he’s heading upstairs with the big boys.
Right now AFM is still the way to do international sales. It’s all about relationships.
Quote: “You can sense that energy when somebody comes up to you and they just want to take and suck from you.”
The bottom line is give more than you get.
Where did the concept for your feature film This is Meg start?
Find out what a scriptment is and why film makers use them.
Alex was tired of waiting for permission to make his first feature film.
He called his co-producer Jill-Michelle Melean and said, “I wanna make a movie and we are gonna do it this way and this is story I want to tell. I wanna tell your story as a comic and actress who is not 21 anymore and who’s been a little famous but is not a household name and what it’s like for you.”
1 week later Jill had a scriptment for This is Meg, 3 days later they locked up the cast and were shooting a few weeks later. This is Meg was shot in 8 days total over 6 weeks.
Alex talks about how much he loved the process because he put absolutely no pressure on himself about the outcome of the film. And never even shot more than 6 to 8 hours.
This is Meg was the most effortless project he’s ever been involved in.
What the trailer for This Is Meg
What was the distribution plan for This is Meg?
Alex admits This is Meg is a dramedy that’s may not be for everyone.
We have wonderful actors that you’ll recognize but we have no bankable stars.
I created a lot of content around the process of making it so I’d be able to sell it to my audience which brings in revenue.
I made a relationship with Distribber to be able to self-distribute the film which can now be seen on Hulu, iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play & Vudu.
Oddly enough, it sold to China, South Africa and have a pending UK deal. Little by little it’s made some money and was a great proof of concept.
If you don’t have an audience there’s no point in self-distributing with something like Distribber.
Alex made a movie within the resources that he had. A lot of filmmakers become too ambitious too early.
This week’s guest is Bill Ostroff, the First Glance Film Festival Director who tells us how indie film festivals have evolved in the past 20 years. Bill shares his insights on festival submission trends, storytelling, camera technology and most importantly marketing. First Glance Films is the creator of the hashtag #SupportIndieFilm that has engaged and united thousands of indie film makers around the world.
William Ostroff, the FirstGlance Film Festival’s creator and director, is a Producer, Independent Media Consultant and DGA Assistant Director who has worked on over 100 film and television productions. He graduated from Temple University in 1993 with a degree in film and video and has since worked with major studios such as Disney, Warner Bros, Universal, Dreamworks, and Paramount on feature films and television series.
As the FirstGlance Film Festival Director, he has produced 37 film festivals to date, has watched over 20,000 indie films and is hands on with programming and decision making of all aspects of the Film Festivals. In 2013, he created the World’s Largest Traveling Comic Con Film Festival, which has screened genre indie films to over 5 million attendees over the 1st fours year in 2 countries, with plans of taking this concept global.
When did you start the First Glance Film Festival?
This is our 20th in Philadelphia. We’ve been doing this since 1996. I wanted to work in movies and I had started the film festival right out of college. When I moved to Los Angeles to make movies I said I’d try to keep the Philly thing going and I did and then I was in LA and said we may as well do one here too.
How has the film festival evolved since you started the First Glance Film Festival?
When we first started it, we would screen on projectors that would run reels of celluloid. Having to mail those back and forth would be very expensive. We would cut and paste our program, literally, cut and paste with Elmers glue and tape. We actually advertised in newspaper and when we started we were pretty much the only independent film festival in Philadelphia. There was no one else here. At the time there was the Festival of World cinema which turned into the Philadephia Film Festival. It’s funny to me because the Philadelphia Film Festival says its 25 years old but it’s not. It’s only 5 years old because it used to be the Festival of World Cinema which forced us to change our name.
I don’t think people really get confused between us and them. We are the Slamdance to Sundance. We are the separate indie arm and don’t get mistaken. It would be nice if a big sponsor would.
Where has the First Glance Film Festival progressed to?
It used to be interesting because every year I’d have to go to IKEA to add to the shelves for the VHS collection. Then the VHS collection turned into the DVD collection. Now almost the entire screening is on a thumb drive. Between DCP’s and thumb drives I figure in the next couple of years we will figure out to stream directly to the projectors. The problem is because we’re an indie film festival we don’t always use state of the art venues. We try to use venues that have great screens and sound but may not be up to snuff with major corporations.
How did you come up with the idea for First Glance Film Festival?
When I was at Temple University I started a theater company with three friends of mine and I was kinda the behind the scenes guy saying we should do something film. I started brainstorming and looking at the film festivals that were around. Sundance was always one that I wanted to go to or have my film in and then Slamdance came. I said to myself I need to come up with something that has a feel like Slamdance or Sundance so we don’t just call ourselves the Philadelphia International Independent Film Festival of America. In my mind and most filmmakers know, the longer the title of the film festival, probably the smaller the venue or they don’t actually exist.
I had a couple of films in school and tended to make things more commercial than the professor wanted. I always seemed to lose out to the slow motion opening of the petal of a flower. You know I’d really like to show my stuff to people instead of classmates. The venue we were showing musical theater in was an underground space. I just decided I have 3 short films I’d like to show and put ads in the newspaper and made flyers and we ended up with about 30 films. This way I didn’t feel like it was my film festival it was their film festival. We screened for 3 nights and I thought that was going to be it.
People started calling and emailing and asking and we continued. I’ve kept continuing now 20 years later. As of next week I’ll have produced 37 film festivals and watched 18,000+ films. As a festival director I have and will always watch every single entry. I also have a screening committee I pull together. If it gets by me then I drop it into their boxes and have them watch a percentage of the films and grade them.
One of the things we do different. I want my screeners to take their jobs seriously. I don’t drop 100s of hours of film on them. They may watch 15 to 20 hours of film over 2 months. It’s not their job. The pre-screening committee and myself do nominations in a whole bunch of categories and we actually do them. Speaking of Film Freeway there are lots of scam festivals that will take your money. It may only be a $5 entry fee but they aren’t really watching your film and then you get an award for Best Costume Design and you’re like huh?
How has marketing the First Glance Film Festival changed?
One of the things I’ve always realized was we are not a huge film festival. We are a weekend independent film festival. Social media has been huge for us. I’ve learned how to use social media quite well including Twitter and Facebook. It’s not only how we cultivate filmmakers but we also teach them how to market. If you ask any of our alumni filmmakers, from the time of acceptance we will get to them and say here’s some of the things you need to do to market your film. People aren’t going to come to your film if they don’t know it exists. I want to educate people. A lot of filmmakers aren’t very good at marketing.
My goal when I was a filmmaker was I yes I want to have a film festival, I want to show my film but I want as many people to see it as possible. How do I make that happen? Before the internet the only way you could do that was call or invite people, make flyers or postcards. What I did was as I was learning Facebook and Twitter I would create a Facebook event and invite everyone. It was us working really hard doing it ourselves.
As we started to grow I knew if I could educate the filmmakers to use Twitter 1/10th as well as I do then they’ll be able to promote. Even if they can’t get people to First Glance if that’s their first showing, by the time they finish their festival circuit they’ll have full rooms and will have their audience. It’s one of the few ways you can build an audience without really spending. You have to spend time but you can build an audience.
When I came up with the idea #SupportIndieFilm hashtag this is when I noticed hashtags were sort of came into being. I noticed big companies like Pepsi using it. I need something to bring the community together to understand indie film is not the kind of indie film Hollywood is talking about made for $25 million and distributed by Sony Classics. LaLa Land is not an independent film.
We threw the hashtag out there and used it every single day. We have thousands of followers that have tagged #SupportIndieFilm in their profiles that use it every day. On average #SupportIndieFilm reaches 15 to 25 million people a day. In the last couple of years I’ve noticed big names starting to use it and companies starting to notice. I think we are on the cusp of something happening. There’s a lot of true indie filmmakers that are making them for $100k to $200k that would sell it to break even. These big giant 20 screen multiplexes and walk in any day and only find 5 people. If these megaplexes would open up one of their screens to someone like me I could put a new project on their screen every day.
What do you look for when screening independent film submissions?
Look at our alumni films on YouTube and watch the trailers. You’ll see a wide variety of content across genres. I’ve always been someone that enjoys all types of entertainment. I look at things for the production value, acting, sound, cinematography. A lot of people will ask if only accept film shot in a certain medium and it’s not about that. It’s about the storytelling. It could be shot on an iPhone and if the story is good and the acting is good and the sound is decent then there is no real criteria other than will an audience enjoy this film in some way. Will you laugh, will you cry, is this a great short film or cutest animation I’ve seen. Is this web series different or original?
When you have a finite amount of time to program it’s hard. I don’t think a lot of people have the knowledge I have. Watching the amount of film I have, I have an eye for it now. I get it, every filmmaker wants to be in a film festival. That’s why film festivals keep popping up left and right. Eventually your film will end up somewhere. Will it end up in First Glance? I don’t know. It depends on the other entries that come in and do we have the time? If it’s a 7 minute short film, it may be a better opportunity. If it’s a 109 minute feature film, it better be good. When we screen, we never screen just one film. We screen a program.
Do you see any trends in film festival submissions?
It’s cyclical. Because technology has made things easier and affordable, I think we are seeing more SciFi and Horror. We are seeing things that are extraordinarily topical. Back in the day when you would shoot on film and edit, if it’s an indie film it could be 2 to 3 years old before it went to festival. We are finding a lot of interesting voices and filmmaking. People are using all types of instruments to shoot.
We even get people who say they’d like to show their Virtual Reality film at the festival and we don’t have the capability to make that happen yet. The theater we are in isn’t going to be able to provide 200 headsets. We tried to do 3D a few years ago and it just didn’t pan out. It’s a hard process and I think VR is in that same position. I couldn’t even watch that Hardcore Henry that came out a few years ago.
Every year it changes depending on the mood of the country. It’s interesting to me. The genre stuff is great and the production value seems amazing and they’ll go after the production value and special fx but the acting is subpar. As a filmmaker and festival director, one of the main things they should look at is getting the right actors before they shoot. If you have to postpone a bit, unless your grandmother is Jane Fonda don’t cast your grandmother in your movie. I understand with time and money but with the magic of editing, you don’t have to shoot grandma at the same time.
I think the trend is also people want to use the most high tech cameras and that doesn’t matter either. I’m looking at the story and I don’t mind if it’s gritty when it calls for it. I’m not dead set on a certain criteria for anything. I can pretty much enjoy anything. If it gets by me it goes to the screeners for the nominations and we go from there. As a backup we usually do a short online contest that runs for 30 days to give the opportunity to other filmmakers and the winner premiers at the next First Glance Film Festival.
