10 Tips for Film Fest Success

I help out with a local film festival and every year I'm sad to see new, brilliant film-makers hobbled by the same mistakes. Here are 10 things I wish every film-maker/screenwriter would consider BEFORE they submit their entries.

1. The first 30 seconds are critical. Your film may be brilliant, but with thousands of submissions, if the first 30 seconds are hard to see, suffer sound problems, are unoriginal or just plain dull, screeners won't go any further. Your masterpiece will more than likely end up in the reject pile. (Tip, most festivals use a panel of pre-screeners before your entry ever sees a judge.)
2. Win in the first 10. That's right, whether it's a film or screenplay or anything in between, the first ten pages/minutes matter most. Again, most screeners/readers will bail out if that first 10 doesn't win them. Hook us, then worry about explaining who your characters are. We won't care about exposition if we're already interested in finding out what happens next. If your short film is only ten minutes long, make sure that first minute is brilliant.
3. Plan for the big screen. One of my (current) all-time favorite film festival entries (Republic of Rick) could've been a box office success if only it had been shot in the right format. 24 frames per second is a bare minimum (48-60 preferred), as is making sure you've selected the correct widescreen format and are ready to package to DCP. Once upon a time, you needed a bevy of $100,000 cameras to get there. Today, I can get pretty close with my $850 Canon Rebel Digital SLR and a stack of top-notch SD cards. In other words, budget isn't an excuse. Between the low cost of storage, (check out services like Microsoft's Azure, which actually hosted the data for Avatar during production), and the ease of converting your film onto Blu-Ray from almost any PC, there's no reason your film fest entry shouldn't be ready to hit theaters should it catch the attention of distributors.
4. Pay attention to light and sound consistency. As an independent film maker, keeping conditions the same over a period of time can be pretty tough on a shoe-string budget. However, post-production software is fairly low cost and can be used to level out both audio and light differentiations. Consistency in general can also be a real killer in an otherwise good film. I remember one film last year that was pretty decent overall, but suffered terrible consistency issues that left audience members shaking their heads. (I.e. a car driving through the rain but being completely dry when shot from the exterior, female actor's hair colors changing drastically between scenes, you get the picture.)
5. Skip the effects. Unless your digital effects are outstanding quality, they can really detract from an otherwise excellent film. Of course, student film categories are far more forgiving than the other categories at most festivals. If you can't afford the time, effort and/or talent to produce at least mediocre quality effects, skip them. We may not really need to see that space ship to know it's there, and might actually even be more intrigued by a film that cleverly avoids showing it to us.
6. Follow submission guidelines. Enter your submission in the right category and make sure it's complete and ready to go. If the film festival requires "premier" or "first run" in a particular category - don't submit a film that's already been shown at other festivals. (Usually there are categories for both types of film.) Submit in the right format, too. This varies by film festival. Some require printed screenplays, others PDF, others Word. For films, most prefer DVDs or Blu-Rays these days. Some may require you upload directly to a streaming service they use. Make sure your entry doesn't violate any intellectual property laws, either. Plagiarism may only get you kicked out if you do it in school, but it can result in a law suit when it comes to your film festival submission.
7. Stock footage should be unfamiliar or used in new, creative ways. Everyone has seen MLK's "I have a dream" speech over and over, along with "One small step for man..." Find other ways to get your point across if at all possible.
8. Skip the corny, tired dialog. Every time I hear a character utter the words "He is the BEST <insert description> I've ever known," (or any variation thereof), I dismiss the film right away. (Yes, big budget films make the same dumb mistakes, but they have 7-figure ad budgets and 8-figure stars to help them overcome bad dialog.) The key to a great screenplay or film is a modicum of originality. I don't need you to tell me he's the best cop ever. I figured that out the minute Will Smith's "Jay" ran down the insane alien in the early minutes of "MIB." Not once did you hear Tommy Lee Jones' "Agent K" tell us he was the best ever, even if he does reference the successful chase. Watch a few popular films in your category. If you hear similar lines, avoid them like the plague.
9. Submit early. While you may make the deadline with a last-minute entry, there's a good chance judges will have already formed an attachment to early favorites.
10. If you get accepted, show up to the festival and "sell" your film. Festivals are not only attended by the other entrants, but other industry insiders. I've often attended viewings of films I hadn't intended to see simply because the film maker was at the opening party and sold me on his or her film. If you're an artist in the industry, whether it's an actor, writer, sound mixer, effects artist, producer, whatever - show up and do some hand shaking. You just might actually find your next great collaborator or even a paid gig on an upcoming project.

I hope you find this information useful. Best of luck with your next festival entry!

Indie Life: Spark Session

I recently decided to leap back into acting/filmmaking after a VERY long hiatus. Thanks to the magic of the internet, it's been pretty easy to connect to others in the industry locally, and that's a wonderful thing.

Just this week I got to spend a few hours with a group of filmmakers and actors, some experienced, some aspiring, to discuss a joint project. Nothing big, just a little music video, but what joy the whole creative process brings! Unlike a typical corporate sales planning session, we were all naturally marching in the direction of the same goal. No idea was ignored. Everyone was positive and supportive, and within 2 hours we had a solid, scriptable outline of our video on paper and next steps to keep the project moving. We were all there for the love of the art form. That's how great art is born.

Granted, no funding was involved. No one to demand we earn back our production costs within xx weeks of release. And that is exactly why working in the indie world is such a gift. Sometimes money can really get in the way of the creative process. But not today. Not in Houston, TX where most films are made by non-union-members and nameless independent "studios."

Now, to find a sound stage, 3d animator and some decent lights on a $0 budget...

The Real Reasons "Pixels" Underperformed

It seems like every 30 minutes Variety or some other "V" named media outlet is publishing another editorial about how "Pixels" $24 million opening weekend proves Adam Sandler is no longer relevant. Most of these opinions run the range from accusations of dated, sexist humor to his failure to create variety in his film plotlines.

Frankly, most of these editorials are just some individual writer's attempts to push their own agenda onto a film that failed to earn back it's production budget on the first weekend. Most of the opinions are, frankly, ill-conceived and bordering on ridiculous.

The truth is, the movie is the kind of funny that causes audience members to blow soda out of their noses on several occasions. Sure, it's primary subject is a washed up 80's gaming star, (played by an almost washed up 90's movie star), finding love and fame when an alien invader brings back 80's gaming technology - greatly enhanced - to kick our butts in a "to the death" real-life video game match. A bit of a stretch, yes, but then so is a superhero with a suit that makes him ant-sized.

So why would such a funny movie go largely unnoticed by a culture that worships video games and summer-time explosions?

The primary reasons I see are timing and audience. First of all, Adam Sandler as a leading man is mainly going to appeal to the same people who loved him and his man-child, SNL-born sense of humor in "Happy Gilmore." That means the bulk of his fans today are adults in their forties, maybe early fifties. Most of this audience has matured, as have their tastes. Matured, but not died. We still love Adam and a good laugh. But now we're dragging kids behind us like magnetic mines most weekends. Our kids are typically pre-teens to young twenty-somethings at this point. (Mostly pre-teens since us early GenX'ers had a tendency to wait until we hit 30 to procreate.)

Which leads us to a conflict between audience and content. Sure, we loved his politically incorrect, disgusting sexual referencing jokes when we were in our twenties and it was still okay to make a joke that involved a junior high view of sex or the opposite gender. Unfortunately for "Pixels", we sure as hell don't want our sixth grade kids asking us what a Martha-Serena sandwich means. However, the presence of Pac Man and Qbert in the trailer is highly attractive to our 8 to 12 year-old kids who have grown to love the modern versions of these classic games thanks to their mobile apps. For older kids, these same apps are too childish and too easy to play to draw their attention, automatically alienating the 13 to 18 crowd who would never admit to their zombie-killing friends that they love Pac Man. Nope, better go see "Ant Man" again instead because, let's face it, you're not a cool teen if you don't catch the latest Marvel flick. You're even more uncool if you admit you like those "baby" games based on 80's titles.

Which again brings us to timing. "Pixels" would've done much better in the fall, when younger fare is scarce as Oscars season leads to a rush of more adult-focused fare. (Not to be confused with "adult films.") Why on earth they timed the release against guaranteed blockbusters like the latest Marvel superhero release is beyond me. No one else was dumb enough to take on the Disney juggernaut - not even Illumination Entertainment and their guaranteed-success "Minions." (Note they released the week before.)

If only Adam Sandler had cut most of the unnecessary and stomach-turning Fire Blaster sex jokes and released it around late August/early September, he would've drawn in a much larger pre-teen/tween audience with parental blessing. That would've likely turned this mediocre disappointment into an unexpected hit. Sigh.