Why were you rejected, will you be accepted - fest service needed
Free idea to anyone who wants to launch it. We need a festival advisory service that helps filmmakers (and brands) figure out whether their film is good enough for film festivals (and which ones), and what would make it stronger – and it needs to be made up of festival programmers.
I work with a lot of filmmakers and brands, and one of the things I do is help them with their edit, and with submitting to film festivals. And when possible, I try to advise them on how good their film really is, and what I think its chances are for different festivals, and how they should strategically approach their festival run. But I can only do it for so many clients, I might be wrong, and sometimes people are going to submit even if they shouldn’t. In addition, when you get rejected from a festival, almost none of them will give you any feedback as to why – and they really can’t, as they get thousands to tens of thousands of entries. But at least once a month (as acceptance/rejection letters go out, or a deadline hits), I get a flurry of emails wondering about whether they should submit to X festival, or why they didn’t get into Y festival, or which one of two to accept. Should we hold it for this special fest, or ask this one to watch it, when we really want this earlier one. Etc. Etc.
And there’s another couple of problems I know about – most festival programmers are underpaid and doing this job as a labor of love. And they are opinionated, but usually afraid of speaking to filmmakers they reject. Everyone wants to be loved. So why not aggregate a group of respected festival programmers (and former programmers too), and start a service where you can submit your film for review, and get solid feedback on what works, what doesn’t, what you could do to make it work better, and what might be the best strategy for your film – no holds barred, honest advice from people doing this day to day at the best festivals. For a fee of course, which would then be shared with these programmer/reviewers. And of course, the reviewers would be kept anonymous, but the service would list the overall portfolio of festival programmers represented and prove that they are working with good folks. And to make it fair, every programmer would agree to watch any submitted film with “fresh eyes” if it ends up submitting to their festival (I know many ED’s will shut this down anyway, but I can hope), because hopefully the films will get stronger.
I know a few people who have offered somewhat similar services – but usually it’s feedback from one person or two people at most. And it’s not unbiased, and not coming from current programmers. Someone please start this, as I’ll send you five clients a month, minimum, and will use it for my own films too.
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Film
Streaming kills Physical Media - notes the WSJ. But Richard Lorber of KinoLorber begs to disagree: “Around here we say, ‘Blu-rays are forever...I would be a fool to claim that it’s a growth business, but for certain types of collectible films of enduring value, people really want to own them for so many reasons." But that's not true for everyone. Check out the arguments for and against at the WSJ.
AMC Theaters launches its own VOD Store - The NYT reports, and its about time. While I doubt they’ll do this well, AMC really could do something cool here by combining its data on movie-going with Stubs rewards and more. If my subscription got me movies in theaters and online… that would be a winner.
Watch the Exodus of talent from Hollywood to Streamers - the LAT mapped it in a great little animation. And they are right, it is stunning.
Film Delivery Demystified - Hey NYC area producers - delivering your film to a distributor is quite a pain. Luckily, Cinepointe and Goldcrest have two upcoming classes on that for you - check them out
With Distribber going out of business, Peter Broderick writes a nice update on what filmmakers can do if they were snagged in this fiasco, as well as some good general rules for working with distributors.
Coming up in a few weeks at DocNYC- SEARCHING FOR MR. RUGOFF - by Ira Deutchman - I've seen a rough cut of this film, and highly recommend it to anyone interested in the history of indie/arthouse film in NYC - or any of the issues around such things.
From DocNYC: Searching for Mr. Rugoff reveals the untold story of the creative genius behind 1960s-’70s film distribution company Cinema 5. Filmmakers, critics, collaborators and family members paint a vivid portrait of Donald Rugoff, a volatile, self-destructive and fearless champion of independent and art films. Drawing from a rich archive and colorful interviews, veteran distributor, producer and former Rugoff employee Ira Deutchman brings us closer to his legendary and controversial mentor, who took risks and fought for great cinema while facing personal battles of his own
FIlm to support: Dan Mirvish, co-founder of Slamdance, and a friend, has a new film project that is raising funds on Seed & Spark, and it looks pretty cool. Check it out:
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Branded Content
Facebook Watch is expanding internationally - and The Drum has the story. I’ve yet to meet anyone who has ever watched, Watch, but know plenty of people who have made content for it, and been unimpressed with the experience. Let’s see if going international helps the Book at all?
5 Movies that altered Advertising - not branded content per se, but from AdWeek - a look at five films that changed how we think of film and advertising, including the first product placement, the first trailer, and of course, the Blair Witch.
For Axios, TV is its brand of original content - According to DigiDay, Axios is skipping the masses online and in standard editorial video and making quality TV with HBO and others. Smart move.
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