IFW DAY TWO: STRATEGY AND SUSTAINABILITY
Today’s panels will continue exploring Making Your First Feature, concentrating on post-picture lock tasks that today’s indie filmmaker must pay heed to in order to get his or her project completed and out into the world. As most of today’s panelists will tell us, there are key things to think long and hard about in pre-production stage; the decisions you make along the way will greatly impact the potential success of your film. In today’s marketplace, strategizing on your festival and sales possibilities cannot come too early in the process.
Hiring an outreach producer, outreach manager, outreach coordinator–whatever you want to call this fairly new and highly-in-demand position for audience-building–is fairly de rigueur now, particularly with documentaries, and even more particularly with social-issue documentaries, where audience-building and partnerships with organizations and other entities with close ties to your subject are really key. More and more nonfiction features want to have theatrical runs post-festival and pre-broadcast. This is where today’s film pioneers can teach us to diversify within the industry with approaches to both the art and business of indie cinema. There is an opportunity to learn about and take advantage of alternate revenue streams to generate funds, not only for a current project, but the one to follow.
Growing a fan base is not a revolutionary idea anymore; however, with several projects that have shown a modicum of success using this method, more and more of us are realizing the necessity of creating and utilizing what amounts to a political campaign to get the word out, gain support, raise money and get people to show up in droves at the movie theater when you début at the IFC Center.
Mark Elijah Rosenberg moderates a panel called Art House & Alternative Venue Programming. There are thousands of wonderful venues all across this country in which to show films. In fact, recently, PBS’ Independent Lens published a handy Google map of arthouse theaters all across the US and Canada. One can build one’s own database and have the 411 on programmers, bookers and theater owners at one’s fingertips. It’s all about bringing people out of their homes and experiencing the magic of collective movie-watching again. There is a lot of opportunity out there and there is also money to be made–imagine.
Next up, the vivacious Esther Robinson, who has a column now for FILMMAKER, moderates a panel called Paying the Bills: Sustaining Your Film Career. In fact, you can read her excellent compilation of comments from many of today’s most successful independent filmmakers on doing just that by clicking here. Robinson really walks the walk about this stuff and has started a non-profit called ArtHome, its mission to help artists build assets and equity through “financial literacy, home ownership, self-sufficiency and the responsible use of credit,” filling a hugely vital niche in helping creative people manage their money better.
FILMMAKER Magazine sponsors today’s A Conversation With . . ., the first of three one-on-one talks during IFW. Today’s conversation will be with Peter Saraf, co-founder Big Beach Films. Later in the week, there will be opportunities to listen to filmmakers Mira Nair, director of Amelia, and RJ Cutler, director of The September Issue, one of this year’s documentaries that is realizing exceedingly good box office numbers.
Don’t forget tonight’s free public screening showcasing excerpts from the 20 projects from IFP’s 2009 documentary and narrative labs at Fulton-Ferry Park under the Brooklyn Bridge. Doors open at 8:00 p.m.
Tomorrow, along with panels all day (every day through Thursday), the micro-cinemas will open to screen project forum works-in-progress from the 116 films in the market on the lower level of the F.I.T.
