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Question 1: "Elliot, there are many young filmmakers just starting out now
who have heard about the successes of Blair Witch and Clerks, and how they
came through the
festival route. Many of them will want to follow the same strategy, but may
not throughly understand
the structures and procedures involved. If a film maker has a great film
and wants to take it to film festivals, what options are available to them,
and what are the possible benefits of each avenue?"
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The filmmakers of Clerks and Blair Witch understood how
festival politics worked. They carefully waited until they
were accepted (in both cases) to the prestigious Sundance
film festival. Had they played in another smaller festival
first, they would have eliminated themselves, as
Sundance, like most major film festivals, demands world
premieres.
Once accepted to the festival, a savvy filmmaker
will know how to work the press and create buzz
for their film.
The actual process is quite simple: You find
out what festivals are accepting films when
you have finished your film, either by getting
the BFI's book on film festivals (13UKP) or by
looking at
http://www.filmfestivals.com.
Simply follow the rules and regulations for each
festival and send it in and wait to see if they
liked it enough to screen it.
At Raindance we have an evening course called
Film sales and distribution which details this
process.
For information on Sales and Distribution,
go to
this page.
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Question 2: "It was recently announced on your site that a
film about
miniature Vampires costing only
10K was sold for 80K at Cannes. Could you give us
a quick overview of what
the likely chain of events would have been
for the directors involved, from
deciding to enter Cannes, all the way through to
selling the film?"
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Ankle Biters was not included in the
Cannes Film festival, but in the Marche du Film -
a film market that happens to run concurrently
with the festival.
There were over 1500 film titles on sale in the
market: everything from Insomnia (Chris Nolan's new film)
to the woody Allen film that opened the festival to the
lowly Ankle Biters - a fine film about miniature vampires.
The director and producer would have shown the film
to a number of sales agents, one of whom would have
then agreed to represent the
film at the film market - much in the same way you might
instruct an agent to sell your mansion. At the market
the sales agent attempts to sell the rights to the film to
as many different territories as possible. Bowling
for Columbine was sold to United artists for millions -
and that was for the rights in the USA only. Ankle Biters sold
to a whole series of countires, including the UK (3500 USD),
to make a grand total of 85K USD
Raindance does an excellent course explaining how to
make and sell a quality feature film and make money from
it called Lo-To-No Budget filmmaking. Details on
this page.
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Question 3: "In a recent interview with Tom Fogg for
Netribution, you
mentioned how everything
you know about film has come from either learning on the
job, or watching
others. With this in mind,
what 'tricks' have you picked up in your time for
increasing the chances of
selling a movie at a film
festival?"
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Ooooh. Thats a tough one. Sometimes I think I've learned a
lot - other times I think I haven't learned a thing.
One thing they say in the film industry is that
'nobody knows anything'. Every single project I have
ever worked on has been totally different. My advice is to
realise that at the end of the day, most filmmaking
combines good common sense with basic secretarial
organizational skills!
Remember that it is the entertainment
industry and people expect to be entertained.
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Question 4: "What cautionary points would you
press upon any film maker who
was considering taking
their film on the festival circuit?"
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Taking your film to a festival is a wonderful experience.
Film festivals exist to provide you with an audience
to adore and appreciate your work. Before you attend
a festival, make sure you know why you are going. Is
it to get an award? To get an interview? To sell your film?
Or to get pulled? Either way is fine. When you have made
your decision about why you want to go, make sure you
do your homework so you can attend as prepared as
possible. Have Fun!
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