Hey Scott,
Thanks for the mention.
Here's a bit of clarification re: the counterintuitive thing:
1 - Festivals are a good thing for some (the audience, some films).
2 - DIY filmmakers who self-distribute can do without film festivals when it comes to successfully showing & selling their films to audiences (i have done this, so has Lance Weiler, and so has Kelley Baker - although the last two guys mentioned do participate in fests from time to time, but most of their success comes from self-distribution, including touring, as far as i can tell from what has been reported by the two in posts & websites & other news items & from conversations i've had with them).
3 - My main objection to festivals as they exist now is that when they can relatively easily (i think) be a source of revenue to indie filmmakers, they are not. Because festivals do not share a % of their ticket sales from screenings with the filmmakers who made the movies (at least not openly, i hear it is done/or a fee is paid in some cases, quietly, in order to secure films that will bring a big draw of audiences to a fest). Indie theaters that book indie/DIY movies, on the other hand, do pay a % of tix sales to filmmakers, and that is the sensible thing to do - both the exhibitor & the filmmaker makes money when tickets are sold. Indie film fests are an avenue of film exhibition, are revenue generating businesses, even if they are officially non-profit organizations and even if many of them may not make a gigantic profit or may not even break even in the end. The main purpose of indie film fests, the reason that they exist, are obviously indie films. So, I feel that if any money is exchanging hands, then the makers of the films, as a matter of basic common sense, should receive a part of that money. Free festivals (free to watch movies/no tix are sold to the audience), benefit events, fundraisers, decisions by individual filmmakers to opt out of getting paid & the such are excluded from that view.
4 - several indie film fest programmers in previous discussion of this issue have said that it is very difficult to both pay the filmmakers a % of tix sales and to pay for all the expenses that come with putting on a film fest. so i am going to try to do a film festival where the filmmakers get a % of tix sales plus their travel & room & food covered fully or partially, to see if it can be done & if it can be done well. If the experiment turns out to be a colossal (sp?) failure, then I may back off from advocating that indie filmmakers should receive a % of tix sales from screenings of their films at fests. If it turns out to be a success, I'll share notes on how it was done.
5. As things stand, it may be useful to submit to & play film festivals once the DVD of the film is available for sale - this is for DIY/self-distributing filmmakers. Provided that the DVD is not being marketed & sold massively nation wide, making it difficult for the festival to draw an audience for the film. If the DVD is just being sold through the filmmaker's website, it may work out well financially for the filmmaker to submit to fests & have the fests play the film even if there is no revenue from fest play because the publicity & the awareness generated from the festival play may help sell some DVDs.
6. I am in favor of indie filmakers becoming financially self-sufficient instead of waiting on Hollywood & Indiewood to pick up the tab at the end of a long & hard process/a thing that does not happen to the vast majority of indie filmmakers (they don't get "picked up" & many that do don't see much money out iof it - i hear). All activity related to that goal, including advocating for revenue sharing among filmmakers & fests, is a good use of some of my time I think. A financially self-sufficient indie film scene is likely to produce more interesting work, since they will no longer have to worry about what aquisition execs are into buying. Speaking as an audience member who pays to watch "indie" movies; if indie films are going to look, sound, & feel just like Hollywood movies - what's the purpose of there being an indie film scene/realm of activity/industry. Is it just for people who want to make Hollywood movies but are not yet allowed to? Or is it for people who want to make movies whether Hollywood likes them/thinks they are good enough to buy & sell or not? I think it would be more interesting for there to be a healthy segment of the indie film world where Hollywood/Indiewood tastes/buying habits are not an issue. Financial self-succiency will make such a stance easier to adopt for many indie filmmakers.
7. Bottom line - I am glad festivals exist - i like their semi-commerciality & the fact that they help popularize the idea of indie film/media. But I think they can do better in that "sharing a % of tix sales with filmmakers while retaining other benefits filmmakers receive area". So I am going to produce a festival that will practice the change that I advocate to see if it can be done & to see how it can be done.
Thanks!
- Sujewa
ps: a festival screening to an indie film, a screening that sells 1000 tickets let's say, can generate $8000 - $10,000 or more in revenue based on the price of the individual ticket. If the festival were to share 10% of the revenue generated with the makers of the film, some filmmakers will be able to partially pay for the production of a whole other feature. Of course sold out 1000 audience member screenings are few, but nevertheless, the idea of revenue sharing is a good one for the filmmakers - & perhaps for the fests too, maybe if they know they are gonna make some money from the screenings, the filmmakers may think harder about how to successfully market their films. Anyway, let me stop here before I go on & on :)
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posted by The Sujewa @ 3/21/2007 1:35 AM
Thanks for the extended response.
Speaking with my producer hat on, I tend to be pretty mercenary about film festivals in that I only really put my energy towards getting my films into the festivals that I think will help the films with regards to business. That is, a festival that will give it a great premiere in front of industry and audiences; a festival that will position it appropriately with regards to critics and other festival programmers; a festival with a record of good acquisitons activity; or, perhaps, a festival with a particular hook (regional identity, etc.) that goes well with the film; or an international festival that will help secure a sale in its particular territory.
For these festivals, I don't worry so much about not getting paid. But what is hard for me to do is service all the small regional and international festivals where there is little long-term payoff for the filmmaker. And I'm not the only one here -- the French sales agent Wild Bunch made a big stink a couple of years ago by arguing that filmmakers were losing revenue due to the preponderance of free festival screenings. And, I think the big sales agents do demand some kind of screening fees to offset the cost of servicing smaller festivals.
If a film I produced has a distributor, the distributor will usually service the regional festivals as its a cost-effective way of getting press for the film's eventual release. But if the film doesn't have a distributor, I will agree that its hard and financially difficult to send your film all over the country without any offsetting income.
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posted by Scott Macaulay @ 3/21/2007 2:48 PM
Good info. Scott. Glad to know that I am not on some completely wild & irrelevant tangent in thinking that indie filmmakers deserve a share of the $s generated from fest screenings.
And yes, if a fest is gonna get your film a ton of media exposure, markets the film to distributors (given that your film is one that makes sense for distributors to acquire) it makes sense to play it for free. But, those festivals also have the big 1000+ audience member screenings. I think if small festivals & or medium sized festivals adopt the policy of paying a % of revenue to filmmakers or some other financial compensation scheme, then eventually that may become the norm in the festival industry, even affecting the biggest of festivals.
We will have to see.
- Sujewa
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posted by The Sujewa @ 3/21/2007 3:40 PM
The festival - The Kensington Real Independent Film Festival - KRIFF, will be happening September 6 - 9 in Kensington, MD. Here is a post with all the relevant info., for now:
http://diyfilmmaker.blogspot.com/2007/03/update-on-my-fest-kensington-real.html
more info. & a website coming soon.
Thanks!
- Sujewa
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posted by The Sujewa @ 3/24/2007 5:45 PM
