What do I do with my short film?

[Liam]

It's a script i actually believe in, AND i had the resources. it's turning out better than i expected. My restrictions led to some creativity in the look. Anyway, I'm taking it really seriously and wondered what to do with it. Been doing my own research, of course, and had some thoughts, but thought I'd look for advice here too

A lot of festivals now let you enter while your film is also released online, which is very cool. I figured i may put it on vimeo, send it to some groups on there, "shout" it to some channels like "short of the week", just hope to get some views. Maybe enter it in a couple of the big festivals just in case (not risking too much) and some just close to me that are somewhat cool. I wouldn't  be looking for like a film deal. The best thing i think would be connections with people near me on the same wavelength who i could maybe team up with. Should i not risk it being online because of the fine print of the little film festivals nearer to me? Is vimeo even a great place for it? I've  been doing a lot of browsing.. the staff picks are all the same, bigger and more symmetrical than my film will be, with less of a story

Any other filmmaker communities online to look at? Any hidden groups in vimeo to find cool stuff and might be a good place to share a film as well? Should i release it on vimeo on demand with a good thumbnail and promote the crap out of it, making up for the lack of connections with a couple of bucks? I figure even without connections, trying to cast anyone near me with a decent film on vimeo under my belt would be a good start

I don't know, i can only assume there's a lot i haven't considered. This is also very chickens before they hatch.. but if i ever finish anything, I'll want to have thought of this

[fuzzynormal]

Having a decent script is awesome. It's always a challenge to make a great movie, regardless of a strong written foundation.  Hope you can pull it off!

Regarding Vimeo: my wife and I made a very very modest documentary that we put on Vimeo, and we see a trickle of income from it.  We've never bothered to promote it, but it's a topic that has a niche so orders keep floating in.  If you hook into a supporting community, they will prop you up a little bit, which is certainly nice.

If you think your film is good enough for the upper echelon film festivals, then yeah, give it a shot.  

As an active member of a small SoCal film fest I can tell you, we're desperate for films with a creative POV, from filmmakers that have an actual voice.  There's plenty of decently crafted films that we see, (because of the democratization of production gear) but not a heck of a lot that are truly accomplished with compelling and creative cinematic storytelling.  

I'll be completely honest here (so don't tell anyone I wrote this)  --it's personally a bit frustrating to screen some of the films we screen.  But ultimately that's cool.  That's all part of it.  My tastes in film doesn't exactly jibe with the rest of our selection committee's POV.  To put it diplomatically: We're "diverse."  To state it realistically: We put average films in the festival.

1. because we need the programming. 

2. particular topics, rather than cinematic creativity, will appeal to our selection committee.  (This is not necessarily a bad thing, I'm just acknowledging a typical situation of film fests)

As it happens, almost all good films that get submitted to our festival will get into our festival. (there's some ideological politics involved as well that go into the submission decisions --that's the nature of a committee)  But, be that as it may, we're a film festival that's incredibly embraced by our community.  Every single screening during our 5 day festival sees attendance of 150-200 people...and this is in a proper theatre venue that officially seats 185.

So, if you ever get accepted to film festival be wise and do your research regarding what sort of event they present. 

It's a bit much to travel across the nation to attend, go to your screening, and then it's you the filmmaker and only 4 other people in a sunlit conference room with a LCD projector... Experience that firsthand and you'll get a rude awakening of the sad state of some so-called film "festivals" these days.  This doesn't even take into account the festivals that exist solely to generate submission income and then dole out laurels and empty awards, while never even holding physical screenings.  

Our festival may be small, but at least it's legit.

At any rate, PM if you're interested.  I'd like to hear what you got going.  Also:  Good luck in general!

[Viet Bach Bui]

Put it on Amazon Direct? I think you have a better chance of actually making some bucks there.

[fuzzynormal]

1 hour ago, Viet Bach Bui said:

Put it on Amazon Direct? I think you have a better chance of actually making some bucks there.

You can do that, and I have.  Just be aware that under their revenue sharing agreement you'd have to move a lot of units to make decent money.  If you have a broad entertainment film with the necessary metrics to accomplish a bunch of spontaneous general sales then it's a huge market to tap into and may make sense.  If you're more of a niche player and you need to lead specialists viewers to your film, then a place like Vimeo might be a better option.

[Brad Bjornstad]

12 hours ago, fuzzynormal said:

Having a decent script is awesome. It's always a challenge to make a great movie, regardless of a strong written foundation.  Hope you can pull it off!

Regarding Vimeo: my wife and I made a very very modest documentary that we put on Vimeo, and we see a trickle of income from it.  We've never bothered to promote it, but it's a topic that has a niche so orders keep floating in.  If you hook into a supporting community, they will prop you up a little bit, which is certainly nice.

If you think your film is good enough for the upper echelon film festivals, then yeah, give it a shot.  

As an active member of a small SoCal film fest I can tell you, we're desperate for films with a creative POV, from filmmakers that have an actual voice.  There's plenty of decently crafted films that we see, (because of the democratization of production gear) but not a heck of a lot that are truly accomplished with compelling and creative cinematic storytelling.  

I'll be completely honest here (so don't tell anyone I wrote this)  --it's personally a bit frustrating to screen some of the films we screen.  But ultimately that's cool.  That's all part of it.  My tastes in film doesn't exactly jibe with the rest of our selection committee's POV.  To put it diplomatically: We're "diverse."  To state it realistically: We put average films in the festival.

1. because we need the programming. 

2. particular topics, rather than cinematic creativity, will appeal to our selection committee.  (This is not necessarily a bad thing, I'm just acknowledging a typical situation of film fests)

As it happens, almost all good films that get submitted to our festival will get into our festival. (there's some ideological politics involved as well that go into the submission decisions --that's the nature of a committee)  But, be that as it may, we're a film festival that's incredibly embraced by our community.  Every single screening during our 5 day festival sees attendance of 150-200 people...and this is in a proper theatre venue that officially seats 185.

So, if you ever get accepted to film festival be wise and do your research regarding what sort of event they present. 

It's a bit much to travel across the nation to attend, go to your screening, and then it's you the filmmaker and only 4 other people in a sunlit conference room with a LCD projector... Experience that firsthand and you'll get a rude awakening of the sad state of some so-called film "festivals" these days.  This doesn't even take into account the festivals that exist solely to generate submission income and then dole out laurels and empty awards, while never even holding physical screenings.  

Our festival may be small, but at least it's legit.

At any rate, PM if you're interested.  I'd like to hear what you got going.  Also:  Good luck in general!

Lots of great advice here!

I'm very curious about your film festival. Do you accept music videos? I have a project very close to my heart. It's a music video that is a dedication to my wife Kari whom passed away from Cystic Fibrosis. It's in honor of her and for CF awareness. I'm trying to get it out to festivals and different places around the globe to get as much outreach and awareness for the disease. 

The artist of the song wrote my wife's and my favorite song and we became good friends over the years. We collaborated on this special project for her.

Let me know if it sounds like something your festival might be interested in. 

Best wishes,

Bradley

[sanveer]

IMHO (random order, except 1):
1. First let an unbiased friend, preferably with some film knowledge judge your film, for what can be re-worked on, in post (sound, editing, effects, etc).
2. Work on what needs to be worked on above.
3. Send it to one of the Big Film Festivals. Nothing like a Big name to a Film Project. 
4. Make a list of All Film Festivals based on the time of the year, and on entry fee. Lots of them are free, and they could be a gr8 place to start. After your film does a round of one of the Big Festivals.
5. Don't put it out on the Internet or sent it to Film Festivals if you wanna send it to the Bigger Ones. 
6. Read applicable rules, and send it across. 
7. Send it to as many Film Festivals, As Possible.
8. Try to en-cash on the Film Festival names (if selected). Create a commercial model around your film (vimeo/ amazon/ iTunes etc), or just put it on YouTube, and try and make money from the views (dunno how much they pay).
9. Show your film around your town, at some small theatre. Try and make everyone you know see it. 

Best of Luck. 

 

[Liam]

28 minutes ago, sanveer said:

IMHO (random order, except 1):
1. First let an unbiased friend, preferably with some film knowledge judge your film, for what can be re-worked on, in post (sound, editing, effects, etc).
2. Work on what needs to be worked on above.
3. Send it to one of the Big Film Festivals. Nothing like a Big name to a Film Project. 
4. Make a list of All Film Festivals based on the time of the year, and on entry fee. Lots of them are free, and they could be a gr8 place to start. After your film does a round of one of the Big Festivals.
5. Don't put it out on the Internet or sent it to Film Festivals if you wanna send it to the Bigger Ones. 
6. Read applicable rules, and send it across. 
7. Send it to as many Film Festivals, As Possible.
8. Try to en-cash on the Film Festival names (if selected). Create a commercial model around your film (vimeo/ amazon/ iTunes etc), or just put it on YouTube, and try and make money from the views (dunno how much they pay).
9. Show your film around your town, at some small theatre. Try and make everyone you know see it. 

Best of Luck. 

 

Thanks, Sanveer, that makes a lot of sense. Would you change your suggestions if I was less worried about making money from it? Is there a trick to catch on earlier if it's just not "good enough" for the bigger festivals or just not what they'd show, so I don't waste hundreds of dollars there? Like if I get rejected by three of the big dogs.. is that a bad sign necessarily? I assume it varies.

[mercer]

Look at the shorts that were accepted into past festival years, and then be honest with yourself. Some of the 1st tier festivals have shorts playing in them with a hundred thousand dollar budgets shot on Alexas. Now that doesn't mean your short wouldn't do well at such a festival, but if you look at the competition from previous years, you can sometimes gauge what type of material they're looking for. Or if you want a good gauge of your short, you can always enter it smaller international or foreign festivals as that usually has no affect on the US premiere that the majors are after. Or you could also show it here with a password protected link to get some opinions, then ask for PM critiques. 

[fuzzynormal]

1 hour ago, Liam said:

Thanks, Sanveer, that makes a lot of sense. Would you change your suggestions if I was less worried about making money from it? Is there a trick to catch on earlier if it's just not "good enough" for the bigger festivals or just not what they'd show, so I don't waste hundreds of dollars there? Like if I get rejected by three of the big dogs.. is that a bad sign necessarily? I assume it varies.

By all means, if you finish the thing and are proud of it, and it doesn't interfere with your film fest ambitions, go out of your way to arrange a screening at a local theater. You can't replicate the cinema experience any other way.  It's a bit of work but always a lot of fun since you'll probably pack the place with friends and family.  BTW, some theaters that knows attendance will be high and will often embrace a one-off showing of a local film.

I made an absolutely horrible horror film years ago.  The biggest redeeming thing about the whole process was the ridiculous opening night!

[Liam]

Yeah we've got kind of an indie theatre here which occasionally does stuff like that. That's been something I'd been thinking would be cool. I'd probably want some sort of achievement already by then to help make the deal

1 hour ago, mercer said:

Look at the shorts that were accepted into past festival years, and then be honest with yourself. Some of the 1st tier festivals have shorts playing in them with a hundred thousand dollar budgets shot on Alexas. Now that doesn't mean your short wouldn't do well at such a festival, but if you look at the competition from previous years, you can sometimes gauge what type of material they're looking for. Or if you want a good gauge of your short, you can always enter it smaller international or foreign festivals as that usually has no affect on the US premiere that the majors are after. Or you could also show it here with a password protected link to get some opinions, then ask for PM critiques. 

Good call, yeah probably gonna post it here first. Not sure of people I know personally who could critique..

[kaylee]

@Liam ive been meaning to repsond to this thread ive just been busy. its awesome to hear what youre working on. you clearly have a lot of fighting spirit – making films is really hard! dont give up. keep doing it

question: are you able to say in a word what your film is like, or what its about...?

my thought is that any kind of cross-promotional marketing you can do might be really helpful. example: the film is about a pro wrestler, so you flyer an indie wrestling show. you get them to post on their facebook. your film is about a skateboarder, so you send the short to famous skateboarders on twitter, and one of them puts it over to his 3.7 million followers

a lot of wise comments above about film festivals and the reality of all that. depends on your goals i guess, as well as your tolerance for paying hundreds of dollars to be ignored lol

anyway, it sounds like you have an accurate, sober view of whats going on, which is more than a lot of people. go get em!!

[Liam]

38 minutes ago, kaylee said:

@Liam ive been meaning to repsond to this thread ive just been busy. its awesome to hear what youre working on. you clearly have a lot of fighting spirit – making films is really hard! dont give up. keep doing it

question: are you able to say in a word what your film is like, or what its about...?

my thought is that any kind of cross-promotional marketing you can do might be really helpful. example: the film is about a pro wrestler, so you flyer an indie wrestling show. you get them to post on their facebook. your film is about a skateboarder, so you send the short to famous skateboarders on twitter, and one of them puts it over to his 3.7 million followers

a lot of wise comments above about film festivals and the reality of all that. depends on your goals i guess, as well as your tolerance for paying hundreds of dollars to be ignored lol

anyway, it sounds like you have an accurate, sober view of whats going on, which is more than a lot of people. go get em!!

Thanks for the encouragement!

That's a great idea. There's not much of like a public interest theme.. it's just a really stupid conversation between two friends haha. but there's a filmmaker I love who's active on twitter, and this is slightly along his advice for noobs. Tweeting him might get a return

[sanveer]

12 hours ago, Liam said:

Thanks, Sanveer, that makes a lot of sense. Would you change your suggestions if I was less worried about making money from it? Is there a trick to catch on earlier if it's just not "good enough" for the bigger festivals or just not what they'd show, so I don't waste hundreds of dollars there? Like if I get rejected by three of the big dogs.. is that a bad sign necessarily? I assume it varies.

I have a huge collection of short films from big Film Festivals, and most of them are Absolute Rubbish. I am guessing, it's more of creating hype and propaganda, and getting an agent, or becoming one, that gets you through. For most things. Also, while some films have excellent cinematography, or other technical bits, their stories and direction are good for toddlers, at best. 

Start systematically. Ensure the edit is good. Most often, faster cuts (and large angled camera shots, where faces aren't so visible for bad actors) can make an average film seem good. Also, ensure the sound is good. Check ADR as an option, and put in a good background score. Good coloring and grading are also necessary. 
Also, good posters, and working stills (along with a good trailer) would be a great idea.


Make a list of Film Festivals like this:
1. Ones closest to your house. Like within a radius you can travel to (like 100-500 kms) with your parents or friends. 
2. The ones that are Free. Or have very low entry fees. Sundance charges $40 for early bird entries for their Short Films. SOTC (short of the week) charges $29. The $11 isn't exactly huge, by any standard. And, many famous film festivals charges almost nothing, many even less than Sundance. Do your research. There must be atleast 30-50 like these. 
3. The ones, whose owners, producers you can meet and discuss, and get some mileage out of, for showing in their festivals.
4. Film Festivals where you can meet and intereact with people for showcasing of your film, and taking their feedback. Sundance seems like a great place for meeting people, learning from them, and maybe even collaborating with them.
5. Do a round of as many film festivals as you can. Give yourself a budget. Of like "$100-whatever" to do a round of all possible film festivals. Don't spend more than 50% of that cost for the big ones, because they may or may not take a film (read my first para above). There is no criteria for them selecting a film. 
6. Rejection means nothing. I am quite dismissive of many famous people. One should never discover how they made it big (as opposed to their version of the truth). Also, most people in the films festival circuit didn't either think much of Paranormal Activity or hadn't even heard of it. As a matter of fact, Sundance rejected it outright. So, like I said, rejection means nothing. 
7. Show the world your film. You job is not to sit in judgment of it. Let the others do that. Just push it down everyone's throat. Whether they want to, or not. That's your job. 

I hope this helps with the timelines, and the Fee/ No Fee option :

http://www.thetakes.com/festivals/#.V3zbhbh97IU