The Founder of Festival Formula, a consultancy company focusing on filmmakers covering film festival strategy, crowdfunding, and social media presence. She’s hosted workshops and seminars for a broad range of audiences over the past eight years. Selected appearances include: Encounters Film Festival, Shooting People, LOCO – London Comedy Film Festival, YouTube Pro-Panel Series, Falmouth University, East End Film Festival, ICO, MetFilm School, and several training events at the BFI.
aim high... but be realistic - going online is an option
For me and our company's the main issue that we want to talk to filmmakers about is knowing what they want from the Festival Circuit, if their film is suitable to go onto the circuit. Sometimes filmmakers are making content to go straight online. So that doesn't mean it's not warranted that you cannot put on to the festival as well, but some filmmakers prefer to put their stuff straight online, not worrying about the festival circuit.
I think for us the important thing is knowing what you want and also knowing that you have the budget to make it happen. It takes time to submit to the festival circuit, and it also costs money to submit.
prep your strategy - always have a budget
It could be any other reason. The reason that we have this conversation with our clients is because it helps us put together their strategy for their film, but also it gauges the expectations of the filmmaker once they put their film onto the circuit.
don't play Jack of all trades - have some distance
What we're finding is that a lot of filmmakers are doing everything themselves. They're writing, directing, and self-producing. But then it means they don't have any distance when it comes to putting it onto the circuit. If they want to go to the festivals. Then they're a bit too close to it, and that's when people forget deadlines, forget festivals that are really obvious that they should submit their film to. So, it's kind of handy to have an outside eye to have that distance from it and not be too emotionally attached.
don't send the working version - have your time to do your best
We get a lot of people coming to us where it's just not finished. It hasn't got a grade, the sound is a bit shoddy, and also it has no credits on it. What's the point in making a film if you're not going to tell people: who was involved? We would say that we can send work as a work-in-progress to festivals, but at least it has to be picture locked. The reason for that is very obvious - people tend to forget this - is that as a programmer, you have a limited amount of time that you need to show films in. So if you submit work in progress and your film is 10 minutes, and the program is great, I like it, we're going to schedule it in. When the film's finished, send it to us. If you then send a 20-minute film, you're going to completely screw with their programming, and they're not going to be very happy. But what we would suggest is sending your film as best as possibly finished as you can.
provide all needed materials - better safe than sorry
We always make our clients aware that if you're going to submit a film to a festival, you need to be able to provide everything the festival needs. I think it's more a case of if somebody submits their film and then they get their rejection, that's when they kick back and they kind of go straight to the festival and kind of go: "Why did you reject my film?"
content is the king - the length plays a role
Length is very important in the film world. And the reason we talked about length - at great length - at Festival Formula is there still seems to be this kind of stigma that a festival film is a particular length, which is not correct. We've had short films that are 15 seconds, we've had short films out of 42 minutes, and they've all received screenings in their own individual right. What I would say is make sure that your film is the length the narrative needs to be. We get a lot of people coming to us with a 15-minute short, and somebody has whispered in their ear, "Oh, it'd be great if it was 10 minutes, it will play more at the festivals." So you start trying to hack away at their film, and it might look really pretty, but there's no narrative whatsoever. And a programmer is always going to go for narrative, not because it's short on a nice camera.
programmers want diversity - shorter film has advantage
The programmers that we've spoken to, that we've interviewed, I mean, they have a very tough job because they have to represent as many filmmakers as they can, and they only have, say, a 90-minute program to do that. So, of course, if they're getting an insane amount of films submitted to them, they have to kind of look through them, sift them, and make sure that they're doing a nice broad range of filmmakers. And which is why time is a slight issue. If you've got a longer film, say over 30 minutes, and depending on what kind of a medium it is, like a documentary, it's different because we have longer documentaries or feature, but the longer documentaries tend to be like 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes.
highlight what is unique - don't exploit too much
This is a really simple task that we do for every single client individually. But, as a filmmaker putting together your own strategy, it is something to remember: collecting the issues within your film, both in front of and behind the camera. If you're a female, black, or Asian filmmaker, there are specific festivals that focus on those, but also there are specific categories. It's important to know what you want and, when I say 'exploit,' I mean it in a good way, kind of draw around, expand upon.
notice the requirements - know your limitations
Whenever a festival puts their submission call out, it will have specific requirements you need to fulfil, so it needs to be made with a production date in mind. So some festivals will stipulate they only want films made after December 1, 2013. If your film was made beforehand, there's no point in submitting it. Some specify a maximum duration, like no more than 20 or 40 minutes. Another will specify a particular theme in mind, which kind of gets the filmmaker to think "Is my film really suitable for this festival?" Whereas other festivals don't necessarily have a theme in mind. They just saw opening it up to short films and then they'll kind of select and then program as they go on. So if you look at some festivals, they have strands that deal with different issues and which may sometimes come out from when they're actually programming in the films.
networking is a contact sport - don't be shy to reach out
The first thing I always stressed out to people is that networking shouldn't really be called networking, because it makes it a horrible industry in a kind of cold approach. Call it talking with a drink in your hand. This is what it is. Don't talk about work, because you'll get round to it. If you kind of click with someone you'll end up like "So do you even got a film around here, in the festival?" and then that's when you talk about it. The thing is that networking is great for you, but the reason why these people are cold is because it always feels like a hard sell. You always feel like you're having to go in there - all singing, all dancing - kind of like throwing up business cards like ninjas. And it shouldn't be like that. It should be more like you know a person behind. And you know, I've got clients who are ridiculously shy, but then I've got clients who are particularly open and they do kind of fumble their way through to really like the people that are really outgoing. Do you find it hard just as much as people are shy? I think in terms of what you can do is to go to film festivals. I think the experience as a filmmaker of seeing your film in front of an audience you don't know is both terrifying, but exhilarating at the same time. Because that's why you do it. The idea is your aspirations: you make a film, because you want it to be seen by the audience.
If you don't have the exhibition company who may reach out to the festival and say "Do you have any spare funds?" Because some festivals will do that if they desperately want to show your film. They'll make sure that they'll be there in a position to help you. Or you can look to your own funding within your own country. Because I know that in the UK we have the British Film Council, which can help with elements like that. And it might be possible that you could look somewhere there and it will help you, because it's in their benefit. You're a national filmmaker from their country and you're going across the water or wherever so it kind of goes with anything.
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