new here

T

Thrift

Hey guys, I'm new here. And I've got a lot of questions about a movie I'm planning on making in about 8 weeks. You'll probably see alot of my posts around here shortly.
 
Hey guys I am new here to. I am working on my second short film called "Brothers" I am planning on taking it to a local film festival next year called "Boonerang film festival". They just had their first one on November 8th I believe? But have plenty of time for next year to edit my final cut. I am filming next weekend.
 
Welcome to both of you!

Virgo - did you attend the festival and see films from your fellow
filmmakers?
 
I'm surprosed how many filmmakers who want to make movies for
festivals don't go to a lot of festivals. You really should support your
fellow filmmakers. You want an audience for your films, you should
be an audience member for others.

If even 10 percent of filmmakers actually attended festivals we would
all have the packed house we want.
 
It also helps to gauge the audience you're going to present to...so you can make a more carefully targeted piece. It may seem like anathema to art, but art without an audience is a bit sad...and the filmgoing audience is a relatively well informed audience for this art form. When we did our first 48 hour, we completely misread the audience (only 2 people on our team of 10ish had ever been to the 48 before...I wasn't one of them) The second year, we missed the deadline, but got much better audience reaction.

If there are other events with alot of the same audience, go see short films with them to see what they respond to in a short film. It'll inform your choices to help you make films better fit to your audience.
 
Funny but i have never seen the point in making a film just for a festival... but then again that could be because I have a heavy commercial focus, but if it does well at a festival but does little elsewhere it seems like a lost effort. I feel the same about shorts also...

Do people REALLY get noticed these days at festivals like they used to?
 
I would assume it depends on the festival...there's lots more than there once were. There's also more of us out there, making it more important that we create with the audience in mind.
 
Especially for short films it's always nice to see your movie with a
paying audience. That's pretty good for a feature, too. I don't think
people are getting job from festival screening, but it's nice to say
you are an award winning filmmaker, it's fun to travel to different
cities with your movie, it's great to meet fellow filmmakers from
around the world and it is an outlet.

Not the best choice for a professional making a living with their
movies, but there are a lot of filmmakers who haven't reached that
point yet, so making a film for the festivals can provide deadlines
and motivation.

And an audience.

But that happens only if we filmmakers actually go.
 
Not really. But still nothing really wrong with getting them either.

For filmmakers working on a different level than you, a festival screening
can be an encouraging, often uplifting, experience. And for short films
a festival screening can often be the only time it will ever be seen in a
theater or by an audience.

Not all filmmakers have a heavy commercial focus. It would be pointless
for you to make a movie for festivals, but not for many other filmmakers.
And I'm someone who really enjoys attending film festivals, so I'm glad
many filmmakers see the point. I've seen many films I would otherwise
never see.
 
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