Article by: Edgar Jimz
The following is an article for new filmmakers. However it can be utilized as well by actors and other crew members to better understand the complexity of submitting a project to film festivals.
Three years ago I became a Filmmaker. Yes, I was one of those with a big dream of one day make it to the big screen, and I still am. Back then, I didn’t have a clue on what I was getting into. I had the disposition and the right state of mind to pursue my dream. I just knew, from my acting experience, that I had what it took to put a good short film together. I embarked in an adventure which I didn’t know how addictive would become.
Allow me to explain myself in a simple way. At the time you finish that first project you must proceed with caution. It is such an adrenalin rush that it requires months of intensive detox to get it out of your system. Simply you want to keep filming project after project. It could dig a deep hole in your pocket and even deeper in your personal life.
My experience has been magical in many aspects. In others- it has been a nightmare and a very tough lesson. I have put into it so much of my personal financial resources that I have deprived myself of many great things in life. I reached the extreme of neglecting big time my parental and financial responsibilities and all in the pursue of my dream.
In terms of achievements people would say that I have achieved many goals. That’s truth from certain point of view. But from my personal perspective, that asseveration is half truth. After two award wining short films and a third being nominated, as we speak for multiple awards including internationally, I feel that the effort and sacrifices haven’t pay off yet. Film-making is a very competitive field. At this point in time, you can not afford to film something common. You have to film a really good project that will stand out from the huge crowd of films out there. In the end, all will depend on the film festivals and ultimately on the person designated by the film festival to initially watch your film. This person is called the screener.
For example, if you made an action film and that person (screener) doesn’t like action films; you are dead. Later on in this article, I will elaborate more on how crucial this person is and how you can maximize your chances to catch his attention (from now on “he/his” refers to both sex). There are several objectives behind the filming of a short film. They go from learning the craft, building a resume as an upcoming filmmaker up to the dream of placing that film in the right film festival where the right people will be watching your work. In addition, people make films as a learning experience in order to ascend and finally film a feature; among others. Personally, I do not recommend a feature film as a first project. But that is not the main topic here.
Did I mentioned film festivals? Yes, I did. And that is precisely the topic I want to share with all of you. After months of hard work in pre-production, rehearsals, principal photography and post-production, you may think that the job is done. However the job is only 65% done. Now, the filmmaker needs more money to submit the film to film festivals. If you do not work in an outlet for your project, why did you filmed? You want to show it. Right? Well, it was very hard for me to learn that many film festivals were not what I expected them to be. At the beginning, I thought it was all a social and cultural thing. The reality is that it is a dirty and greedy business. In many cases, it is a way for many people to make some big and easy money. I must mention, that through my experiences as filmmaker, I have met amazing people behind the film festivals operation. People that are very humble and great human beings. But I have also come into contact with the extreme and totally opposite to that.
For example, I submitted my first short film to the Rincon International Film Festival in my native island of Puerto Rico. I wrongly assumed that my film was for sure to be part of the line up. This because it was a great short film with awards and multiple nominations. Besides that, it was my own Puerto Rico. My film was not accepted. After the notification, I quickly emailed the festival’s director who was not Puerto Rican and resides in Atlanta. I told him about my film, its awards, other achievements and that I was Puerto Rican. He replied: “I think we made huge a mistake on this one. If I knew you were Puerto Rican the outcome would have been different. Let me check into it and I will get back to you today”.
I said to myself: “They didn’t watch my film, because if they did, they would have seen that big Puerto Rican flag that I have tattooed on my right arm. On top of that, the film starts at second number one with Salsa Music.” But I waited for his reply. When he replied, he said that my film was great, just that it was a 40 minutes short film and that was too long. He added that short films of that length fall in a <limbo> category.” Before I answered his email, I did some research and found out that in the history of that film festival there has never been a 40 minutes short film in the line up. However, they do advertise in Without-a-box that they accept films up to that length. The rest is history, because I let him know that it was a shame to advertise a film length that they would never accept. That taking struggling filmmaker’s money knowing that their work was not to be considered, or even watched was completely wrong. He replied that they have a film festival to run and it requires funding. I didn’t even ask him for a refund. I was disgusted. This is the kind of business practices I don’t want people to experience. It is painful to work hard in something and them be fooled the way I was. There are some important tips that I want to share with you in order to minimize the potential of getting caught in the claws of merciless businessmen. But in order to do that, it is necessary to explain from top to bottom the process of submitting a film to film festivals.
Film Festivals are in my opinion, like an economical social class is to our community. There is a high, medium and low level. The high level is the one every filmmaker dreams to place and exhibit his work. This means Cannes, TriBeCa, Berlin. Sundance, etc. etc.
WITHOUTABOX WEBSITE
Withoutabox.com is the most complete and advanced website used by filmmakers and film festivals for the processing of submissions. It is affiliated to the corporation that owns IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base). On one side, the filmmaker creates a password protected account and will input all the pertinent information about a project from A to Z to include the uploading of the film into the system. The filmmaker will provide information about actors, crew, biographies, still photos, equipment used to film, sound and edit, synopsis and much more. The filmmaker can return to the account and change or update any information as many times as he wishes. This website is so complete that it will take a skilled filmmaker with experience in the website more than a day to input all the required information. The filmmaker will spend in Without-a-box countless hours checking on the status of the film in film festivals among other things. Here the filmmaker can also conduct searches on film festivals around the world and learn about them in order to decide to which one submit. There are thousands of film festivals running all year around worldwide. When I say thousands, I mean it! This is an over saturated market, and believe me or not, about 90% of them will be operating for years to come. Some will close and new ones will emerge.
On the other side, the film festivals will have accessible all the information they need to know about any film that has been submitted to them. This service is free of charge for the filmmaker. However, the website charges a fee to the film festivals. When the film is submitted and the submission is paid in full, a tracking number is generated automatically. This number is assigned to the film within the respective film festival. Now your film has a name and an identification number for internal purposes.
It is important for you to note your tracking number because it will give you a hint on how many films have been submitted to the festival before yours, and maybe an indication of your real possibilities to be accepted. For example, you are submitting to the 4th Annual MindBender Film Festival. This is, in other words, the 4th year of operations of this particular film festival. Your film was assigned tracking number 4137. That initial number “4”, could be making reference to the 4th year of operation of that festival and the number 137 could be making reference to the fact that your film is the 137th film submitted. There is no general rules for this number assignment. The film festival is the one that will decide if their numbers will start at “0”, or will start with “1” or “2” or “3”. You have to make an assumption based on the submission deadline in which you submitted the film and the number assigned to the film. Making that assumption is not rocket science. As a real example, my latest film was assigned tracking number 13-5006 at the 13th Bare Bones International Film Festival <By the way, amazing people over there in Oklahoma>. It was not that my film was the number 5,006th to be submitted. Actually, it was the 6th film submitted to the festival this year. How do I know that? Because I submitted my film the very first day that the submissions opened. It is impossible that 5,005 people submitted before me in a matter of hours. Not even Sundance or Tribeca get 5,000 films submissions.
The relevance or importance of your tracking number will be crucial when I explain to you the whole process. So, keep every single topic covered from now on clear in your mind.
NOTE: Some film festivals select to create their own submission process using the Internet as a tool and their websites thus avoiding the charges imposed to them by Withoutabox. But these are the exception and not the rule. The majority of film festivals use Withoutabox.com
ON FRIDAY WE WILL GIVE YOU PART 2 Of Director Edgar Jimz Blog!!!!!