As I’ve attended the virtual Toronto Film Festival this week, I’ve seen many movies and attended many panels and held virtual meetings, but one thing has been missing. Ask any film professional what they miss most about film festivals, and the answer you’ll get is not the movies, or the travel, but the informal, in-between, moments of serendipitous/chance encounters. The people you meet in line for the film. The old business acquaintance you run into on the bus to a screening venue. The perfect connection you make between an old friend and a new one while walking through the supermarket at Sundance. The volunteer you met at the press office who now runs an important company. The executive way too important to speak with you, but who you met smoking pot on some balcony, and is now an old friend you can contact if needed.
These informal meetings, that always took place on the margins of the festival, are the most important ones we have, usually lead to the majority of your industry/career contacts and are (seemingly) impossible to replicate online. Every industry professional I speak with misses these moments the most, and most are also aware that while this absence is a nuisance for most of us who are established in our careers, it’s detrimental to those just starting out. An established executive can likely schedule all of the meetings they need during an online fest/market and not worry too much about missed opportunities. But if you are a rising/junior executive, or just trying to break-in, those meetings will be harder to snag. And you may not even know who to try to meet – I’ve always argued that the only benefit of festival panels is putting a face with a name, so you can meet them later at the after-parties (the uselessness of most festival panels is another important topic, but for another post). You most certainly won’t randomly meet someone, and getting shepherded around the festival “lobby” is almost impossible online, even if your mentor is pretty tech-savvy. Sure, many markets are doing a good job of arranging meetings for folks, but again, how many times has your most important meeting at a market been the formal meeting? Odds are, it’s been the informal ones that ended up paying off the most – or even the follow-up over a chance coffee/beer later.
 These informal meetings have also, always, been very elitist and discriminatory. I’m pretty sure that greater than 50% of my US business contacts were met on some roof bar in Austin during SXSW (pre-2008 when it was still navigable). But I also know many BIPOC filmmakers who never even apply to, much less attend, SXSW, thinking it’s not a festival for them. At most festivals, getting in to the parties where most of these informal meetings take place is extremely tough – guest lists, doormen, being left off the list because you’re “just a producer, not a director” of the film, or not one of the A-list cast being shuttled in and “taken care-of” by the hospitality coordinators. Hell, one of my best friends in the business is someone I only met because we were both stuck in lines trying to sneak into parties we weren’t even invited to over and over again in Park City (now we can avoid those parties altogether). But access is about more than getting into parties, it’s also about power – as Gary Chou (who I met via an informal network intro) says in this excellent video (at about 18 min) “success for any creator… is a function of whether or not you have access to the relevant networks you need. Money, information, power, people flow through that.”
These informal meetings are also where you meet potential creative partners. Directors might meet their next producer, but it’s also where you meet your next editor, or composer, or sometimes, even an actor. Heck, you often even meet critics and reporters, some of whom might start following your career. Or the publicist who will make sure they follow you. You get the point; the possibilities are endless. In Real Life.
But online, we’re not seeing this replicated, because it isn’t easy. I’ve attended festivals with open Zoom parties, and those that try to help arrange side-meetings, but even these seem to be few and far between. Most festivals are so busy saving their asses and running their festival that these smaller hospitality items are getting lost, and no one (?) has time to dream up innovative new ways for serendipity. I was on the jury for a festival recently, and the winning filmmaker had to reach out to me on their own initiative via LinkedIn to make a connection. No one from the festival tried to set up that meeting, and once the fest was over, I was more than happy to speak with them and try to help them make some connections.
Perhaps this absence of “the margins” in the online fest world is a good thing – if we could duplicate every aspect of a festival online, who would go back? It’s good to have some irreplaceable things, of course. But given how important these informal meetings are to our collective careers, I think it’s worth exploring some possible replacements.
I’ve mentioned to a few friends that perhaps LunchClub could be one replacement (that link should give you an invite, if you want one). LunchClub is a start-up that arranges random meetings via algorithm. Being a Silicon Valley start-up, it’s a bit focused on business networking – finding a co-founder, or a VC, etc (and its valuation just topped $100M during covid). But a festival version of this could be interesting to explore – maybe as a subset of LunchClub, or a system built just for this vertical. In fact, that should be part of their business model – arranging meetings within existing event networks (hint, hint). TechCrunch also has this list of the different ways people can network at their Disrupt Conference. I especially like that they have two different mechanisms, via App, to network – one that matches you with potential meetings via AI, and another that is completely random – you just join a queue, and get merged into different random video chat rooms. None of these are perfect, but they seem better than anything I’ve seen or heard of from the film world. Let me know if you’ve heard of – or can think of – any better ideas.
(photos: Top courtesy Hot Docs; Middle, me, Sundance 2020)
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Film
The Doc Producer's Alliance releases Guidelines for the Equity Waterfall: The DPA has released its guidelines for the doc equity waterfall - how you divide up the potential profits of any documentary film. They spent three years, consulted a lot of experts, and the core team who put this together are some of the smartest folks in the business. I think that makes it worth a read and consideration from all doc producers, financiers and industry. I have to be honest - I'm not 100% in agreement with their recommendations, but I appreciate the effort, and enough people endorsed this, that I hope it sets some new trends in the sector. Check it out here.
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Attend the Virtual Premiere of The Dark Divide: I've been lucky to have been working with the team on this film for almost a year now - as a consultant with REI Co-Op Studios, who are sponsoring this film, and in working with Tom Putnam (the director) and Jeff Abramson (a distribution consultant) on the distribution plan for the film. It's a great project, and you don't want to miss David Cross, trust me! The film releases in over 100 select theaters (thanks covid) and online as a virtual theatrical starting September 18th. Get all of the details here. This is one of the first narrative features coming from REI Co-Op Studios, and it's a perfect film for any REI member, lover of the outdoors, or more importantly perhaps - anyone who aspires to get outdoors more often.
The Dark Divide is based on the true story of renowned butterfly expert Dr. Robert Pyle’s (David Cross) perilous 1995 journey across one of America’s largest undeveloped wildlands. At the urging of his dying wife Thea (Debra Messing), the shy author finds himself in over his head on an epic, life-changing expedition through Washington’s Gifford Pinchot National Forest in search of new species of butterflies. Over the course of his six-week adventure Pyle battles self-doubt, the grueling trail, and the people and creatures who call this forest home. And, somewhere deep in the heart of The Dark Divide, he makes a discovery that challenges everything he knows about the natural world.
Check out the film and spread the word.
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Starts on Nov. 26. 2020. Get a special "SubGenre" friends 15% discount with coupon code: MSG20
Registrations are open now. Learn more here: https://archivevalley.com/masterclass/
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Branded Content
YETI Coolers Launches 8 Short Film Fest Online - The Yeti Coolers team just launched 8 short films online. Read about the films and the launch in FastCo, and watch them here. Yeti was planning a big film tour pre-covid, but this is their distanced option - online - plus they're doing some drive-ins. I worked with Yeti on the start of this program and know the team well - and they know how to make and distribute some great content.
USPS Dear Santa feature doc sells to IFCFilms - Deadline Reports - IFC Films has bought the new USPS sponsored film, Dear Santa, by Dana Nachman. The film tracks the annual letter writing program which the Postal Service has run for 100 years. It will release - wait for it - just in time for Christmas.
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