Los Angeles Art House Film Festival Is A Scam!

W

Weather_Girl

Hi Guys,

I really, really want to warn everyone about this festival. I know a few members have posted about it on here mentioning they entered through Withoutabox.

Please help me get them removed from WAB as they have still got them listed and are still allowing filmmakers to get ripped off even though I have warned them of the scammers.

The entry fee is between $34-55 USD. I unfortunately paid $55 and am demanding a refund from WAB as they have a responsibility to filmmakers to research these festivals before allowing them to post on their site.

http://laartfilmfest.com/Home.html

If your outraged like I am that we have to put up with this kind of BS when we are struggling enough to make our films them write to Withoutbox support and demand they remove this festival and refund all filmmakers.

Thanks
Alice
 
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Flicker Pictures said:
Madeline / Weather_Girl,
I replied to your email and Cd'ed the festival on this matter. Thanks for your concern and let's hope for the best!
Regards,
Jeff
Click to expand...

Thanks Jeff as you mentioned in your email you do not want me to contact you so I am surprised that you responded on here again.

You cc'd the festival your response to me? Sorry can you tell me what you mean, I don't understand.
 
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I do, I must have come across as a troll and I realize it was my mistake for not giving enough details.

I am happy to say I have had over six filmmakers contact me from WAB with concerns about this festival and they all are demanding some answers as well. Hopefully it turns out to be an amazing festival that exposes new talent and we all live happily ever after.

Thanks for responding to my post. I will update if anyone is still interested.


directorik said:
I hope you understand that based on your first post to this
community we couldn't just jump in and trust you. Your
subsequent posts have been excellent. On all message boards
people post in anger about some festival or filmmaker. More
often than not it's a "drive by" post so it's understandable that
the board regulars would be cautious and have questions before
joining in.


I'm sorry this is the impression you have gotten. We all care.
Every one of us who has posted on this thread cares. Flicker
posted about this on Twitter and sent an email, I did some on
line research and even called the theater. We care.

I agree with you that this "festival" seems sketchy and from
reading the replies from Cracker, Flicker and Uranium I get the
impression all four of us not only care, but agree with you. I
hope you re-read the posts and change your opinion that no one
here cares. We care.


Not foolish at all. It happens to all of us. Lesson learned. As the
saying goes, "Caveat emptor". I bet you never send your money
to anyone ever again without doing a little research. And that's a
good thing in the long run.

I hope you get your money back.
Click to expand...
 
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Speaking subjectively: this festival doesn't seem nearly as scamlike as some others that have been exposed in the past. You might very well be right about it, but I think it is unfair to judge it to so harshly when they are stillmin the collecting entries phase.

Sure, the theatre where they're going to be shown might be small but these festivals make very little money and cinema rental in LA is bound to be expensive. If, after the date of the festival, there're still no word then your concerns are, of course, legitimate. But other than that I think it's up to each filmmaker and WAB user to decide which festivals are right for their submission, and which ones won't give them the exposure that they think their $50 merits.
 
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Hey Madeline, your concerns are with the festival, not with me, so please keep fighting and doing what you need to do. I'm all for it, I just don't need to be directly involved.

I have submitted to dozens of festivals over the years and, sadly, not all of them are legit, but most are. That's how it goes. Caveat emptor indeed.

Keep us all posted here!

Best,

Jeff
 
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Heh, hilarious clip, Funk-Meister :lol:

Back to OP...

I'm not saying suck it up and move on. Noone else is, either.

I would not use the size of the theater to judge a festival's "worthiness", though.

I'd definitely use the information they provide, however. The information from both WAB & their own website tells us absolutely nothing, aside from how to send them money.

For my own curiosity, why did you decide to enter this particular festival? Actually, Flicker, too?

Another q: let's assume it's one of those "everyone's a winner!" festivals, and the film gets a token "award". Would you use that award to further promote your film? Using the leaf-logo & fest-name, etc even though it's worthless... or is it?

I'm not implying anything with these q's. I just always have why on my mind.
 
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Cracker Funk said:
One of my favorite scenes from a supremely underrated movie:
Click to expand...

How is Bronx Tale underrated? I thought everyone loved this classic piece of cinematic perfection?

(not sarcastic)

About the film festival.

It can be tough to tell the difference between a scammer, and something just starting up.

By some of your criteria, I probably would look like a scammer, but I'm an honest and reliable business person

The rough news about all festivals is that they are pre-selling 10,000 boxes of hope per year and there are only 20 actual boxes out there.
 
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I wanted to update everyone who is interested on the current situation of The Los Angeles Art House Film Festival and wrap this up in a pretty little bow.

First off, it looks like the film festival will go ahead on the dates and the theatre mentioned on their website. I am writing this post because I want to just point out some facts and figures those who wish to take the facts and make the sensible judgement can and for everyone else who still think this is worth while... well... lucky I have a brick wall in my apartment to bang my head against.

Jake Smollett is a 22 year old actor with his last credits from 2009 on IMdB, on a short film. He appears to be running it and/or is the registered owner of the domain name and also finally replied to my email directly after I requested a direct name after receiving emails signed off by 'Staff Member'.

The website claims to be giving out over 100 prizes. This means that there had to be more than 100 entries. I will make a guess and yes this is only a guess that they would have received maybe 200. The entry fees were between $35-$100 USD. So lets just take the $55 as an average fee and do some math, 200 x 55 = $11 000. Very nice. Now none of the prizes are cash prizes, well at least the website does not state this so thats a nice tidy profit there. Thats if there were only 200 entries it could be more.

The festival is selling tickets at $12 USD. Okay, so the theatre has 58 seats, there is still no marketing online anywhere that the festival has done. Except they have got a event listing with a payment option attached to the side, this is not a promotion for the festival just a ticket purchase page. With no promo I am guessing at a 58 seat cinema with over 30 films screening over 2 days the only people who will be attending are friends and family of the filmmakers and the filmmakers themselves. So the filmmakers friends and family will pay $12 each to attend. Lets do some more maths.... lets say the cinema is half full and sells 29 seats so 12 x 29 is $348 per film. There are 30 films showing $10,400 profit. Very nice.

I understand that these are all estimates. I am not claiming to know the real figures, these are just to give an idea of what the festival could be making of this two day event.

So Jake Smollett a 22 year old actor and the festival director who no one can get in touch with and has no info online, has possibly made over $20 000 USD. Without forking out any money for advertising just the cost to rent a domain name and open some envelopes. I am in the wrong job.

This isn't illegal and I am not saying it is. What I have a problem with is the misrepresentation of the festival and the fact that they are really just people who are working in the industry here and there as sometimes employed writers and actors and yet claiming to be industry professionals alluding to some high up status in the industry.

The festivals address is a post office box in Burbank yet they use it to sign off their 'Staff' emails.

The emails were signed off without names in all my contact until it became clear to them I was the one questioning their legitimacy.

The number I was given to contact them on did not work, however I was calling from overseas and they made not have had the ability to receive overseas phone calls so this is not confirmed.

They have not done any promotion but are charging huge fees.

The festival director does not seems to exist in the film world unless they have changed their name or are using a different name for this event, which is very unusual.

The theatre the festival will screen at has 58 seats but 30 films will be playing in two days... its going to have to be a tightly run ship.

The festival used The Oscars statue on their website and posters of Pulp Fiction and Scarface... films that have nothing to do with the festival.


Other facts worth mentioning, I did get a refund and Jim a member of this site who forwarded my emails that I wrote to him to the festival or Cc'd the festival or something along those lines has had his music video accepted. Congratulations Jim.

So there the details. Those who are attending enjoy the films and popcorn.

Peace and Love.
 
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Thanks for the update.

I really admire anyone who can put together a festival. It’s a lot
of hard work and takes time, dedication and a little money. You
called this festival a scam - it doesn’t appear to be a scam. You
even got your entry fee back. In my book that means they are a
legit group. Or if it’s being run by one, 22 year old aspiring
actor, then he is an upstanding guy.

Frankly, you coming back to to let us know the outcome was a very
good thing, too. I admire that.

I’m going to go Sunday to support this festival being run by a 22
year old actor with only one credit to his name. He’s getting $22
from me.

BTW - tickets are $11 and not being sold per movie but per
“block”. Looks like he’s got a feature and some shorts in each of
the 7 blocks. If he totally sells out all 7 blocks that’s about
$4,400. If he sells half (more likely) that’s $2,200. I hope he
made some money on entry fees because that’s not enough to cover
the theater rental and staff for the weekend.
 
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Got to see Blocks 3 & 4 on Saturday, with Mr FlickerPictures. :cool:

Was expecting to see at least some super-dodgy entries, but all were top-notch films & music vids. Sure, a few had their structural faults, but that was just good material to debate the rest of the night.

Won't be able to make it on Sunday, but I'm dyin' to see the short called The Clone and the Tree of Life. Anything involving mad scientists cloning Hitler in an attempt for world domination sounds just too good to miss. :lol:

Small event, yah. Theater about 1/2 full, with about 50% of that being cast/crew of the feature in the block. Just my estimate.

The hostess doing the Q&A was pretty good, too. Always had a few q's up her sleeve when the audience wasn't piping up.

Could have used a better quality projector, but it was good enough for the small theater.

Btw, FlickerPictures' music video of the band Grey Mouse was pretty trippy. Held off on watching it online, to see it on the big screen. Good job, sir!
smiley_tiphat.gif
 
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Sounds like a success. Good for them. It's hard to run a fest, especially when you have people calling it a scam when it apparently is just the opposite, a true indie fest.
 
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Oh, for anyone going on Sunday - Block 1 looks to be the weakest choice. A single 3-hour screening of the latest Zeitgeist offering, which is fine & dandy if you rely Alex Jones or Coast To Coast AM as your sole news sources, I 'spose. :lol:

No shorts in that block, either. Try block 2 or 3 for best value.

http://bit.ly/n0M5CW

Sounds like a success. Good for them. It's hard to run a fest
Click to expand...

Yup, but still... they really did do a poor job of presenting their online image. 90% of their credibility issues could have been resolved by hiring a web-monkey for $200 to design the few pages on their website.

At any rate, it was great to see a whole slew of films that you just don't get to exposed to anywhere else. :cool:
 
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