Episode Transcript
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Kent (00:21):
Hi, everyone.
Welcome back to the FeatureFilmmaker Podcast.
Anna (00:25):
Where we record, once a year, our thoughts about our
films.
Kent (00:29):
So, welcome back.
Welcome back after a very longhiatus.
Welcome back to us and to you.
Um, quick updates.
We wanted to give you guys someupdates.
We wanted to talk a little bitabout some exciting things that
have happened, including somepremieres and film festivals and
Um, just where we're at in termsof our own journey, and, um, And
(00:52):
also
Anna (00:52):
explain why we've been gone, because,
Kent (00:54):
Yeah, that too.
We
Anna (00:55):
did send out an email, I think.
Kent (00:57):
Yeah, we did.
Anna (00:57):
I hope we did.
But, otherwise, we kind ofdisappeared for a year.
And there's a good reason, but Idon't know if we really
explained ourselves.
So,
Kent (01:05):
Many good reasons.
We
Anna (01:06):
can do that today.
Kent (01:08):
So, first off, where have you gone to?
Anyway, I think that was a DaveMatthews reference.
And we As a quick update, have,as you knew, I think if you
listened to the last couplepodcasts that we did right
before we went dark, we startedfostering two children about a
(01:31):
year and a quarter ago, maybealmost, we're pushing a year and
a half now.
Anna (01:36):
Yeah, they were three.
Ages three and eight months whenwe got them.
Yes,
Kent (01:41):
and we were pushing forward with some career stuff
And everything was getting sointensely overwhelming We were
both about to Die, so
Anna (01:51):
something had to go
Kent (01:52):
we said something had to go and unfortunately This
podcast was one tiny thing thatwe could let go and now we feel
ready And we just have so littlegoing on in our lives that we
just needed to fill it up.
And we thought the podcast wouldfit the bill.
No, not really.
It's
Anna (02:12):
never been a problem.
Kent (02:13):
But we, the kids have gotten a little older in a year
and a half.
Precisely that much older.
Anna (02:20):
Going to adopt the children we were fostering.
Kent (02:23):
Which is super exciting.
And yeah, so that'll happen anyweek now.
And so things have stabilized.
But also, we have not onlylocked the edit, but also just
finished the Loved and Lost, ourfirst fiction feature film, and
Anna's directorial debut.
And we premiered it just a fewweeks ago, and that was a great
(02:46):
experience.
We'll talk more about thatlater, but that's another big
milestone.
And I think that the last bigmilestone that I have, and you
let me know if you have otherupdates, is that we have made
the hard plunge into leapinginto the lifestyle that we have,
We promised on this podcast,which was a full time feature
(03:08):
filmmaker career,
Anna (03:09):
making a living, making feature films, which we were
supplementing before withcommercial work.
And we tried to be mostlynarrative, but sometimes We
would do internal video or liveevent coverage.
Kent (03:20):
And we did pretty well with that.
Just fine.
Weddings was something we quitway back in 2020, about nine
months ago, we quit commercialsand we said we are going to
survive now exclusively off ofmaking feature films.
So if that is something you guyswant to learn how to do, we are
(03:42):
doing it and we have done it fornine months.
The
Anna (03:46):
whole pregnancy.
Kent (03:48):
We've only had to hide from mortgage collectors a
couple times.
I'm just kidding.
No, we're, we're doing fine.
And, and, and we are seeing hugecareer progress and results in
ways that we are excited toshare with you guys, not as a
form of.
bragging or whatever like wereally are paving this road
(04:11):
first of all for ourselvesbecause it's our dream but also
because we know that so many ofyou want these results and so we
know that if we can achieve themwe can share them and we want
you guys to be able toexperience not only what it's
like to fund and finish yourfirst feature film but to
distribute it and get your nextone off the ground and create a
career that is actually able toyou know support children and
(04:36):
Spouses and mortgages and foodand whatever, you know, like you
can do it and if we can do itYou can definitely do it.
Anna (04:44):
Yeah, especially if you don't have a family of seven if
it's just you it's even easier
Kent (04:49):
Well,
Anna (04:49):
maybe
Kent (04:50):
if you have a family of like 12 Then don't count
yourself out because if we cando it with five kids you can do
It's seven kids or whatever, youknow, like it's, it's just
possible.
It is possible.
Um, we don't really believe thatcircumstances will stop you from
being able to do, to do this.
If you feel like it's somethingyou're supposed to be doing and
you want to be doing it, then wewant to support you in that.
Anna (05:12):
Yeah.
I think, I think we hit all themajor updates.
We are making a documentary.
We've been working on that for alittle while now.
It's wrapping up production.
We're moving into post.
We still will pick up a few moreshots, a few more days.
Yeah.
But that one is nearly in postproduction and we have another
(05:37):
fiction feature that's, thescript is finished.
We've filmed a test scene andwe're getting financing for that
one.
So those are kind of our threeprojects that we have.
The Loved and Lost being thefinished one that's in the
distribution stage.
Um, The Ride in Paradise is thename of the documentary, which
(05:58):
is just wrapping up production.
Kent (06:00):
There's more information on all these projects on our, on
our website.
Anna (06:04):
And Our Father, which is our fiction feature that's in
development right now.
And it's scripted, pre produced,largely just seeking financing.
I would say
Kent (06:14):
developed largely, not pre produced yet, but it's kind of
What
Anna (06:18):
do you call the pre production before pre
production?
Kent (06:21):
Development.
Anna (06:22):
Packaged, developed.
Kent (06:24):
Not quite packaged.
Anyway, but I do feel likethere's a lot of momentum behind
that project.
We can't go into details at thisphase.
Usually development phase iswhen it's, everything's kind of
hush, hush.
But, um, It's got good momentumand I'm, you know, I'm not going
to say it's going to be donenext month, you know, financed
and greenlit, but it, it, uh, itfeels good.
(06:45):
I feel like it's going to happenand we're just going to keep
riding the wave until it takesus to shore.
So, um, should we move intotalking about a little bit of
takeaways that we had from our,Festival experience.
Anna (06:57):
Yeah, let's talk about festivals.
Just a little bit.
We'll keep our podcast shorttoday.
But we did want to touch on thatbecause it's fresh on our minds.
And I think that film festivalsare valuable no matter where
you're at in whatever stageyou're in.
And we're in various stages ondifferent productions.
But even if you're just learningand you haven't made anything
(07:17):
yet, Or you're just interested,and you want to start learning,
film festivals are a great wayto do that.
And I would recommend findingones that are local and small,
not necessarily flying out toCalifornia and seeing a big one
there, but just Sundance orwhatever.
Yeah, I mean, if you're Thoseare great.
They're great.
If you're nearby, go.
(07:39):
But, if not, you can also justget a festival pass to something
near you.
There are tons of them.
and tons of film festivals andit will not be difficult to
google film festivals near meand find local film festivals
all around you all during theyear.
Kent (07:55):
We're in Georgia we have honestly Atlanta Film Festival
is a great festival and there'sa bunch of others in Noonan and
Savannah and Macon andelsewhere.
Anna (08:03):
In every state all over.
And in Utah
Kent (08:05):
there's like The big one, Sundance, but then there's also
Slamdance, and there's Zion'sIndie Film Fest, and there's
like Utah Film something oranother.
There's several, um, and then inCalifornia, there's like a
hundred thousand.
And even if you're in Canada,there's some really high profile
Canadian festivals.
And so there's festivals allover the world.
Just no matter where you are,you will find good festivals.
(08:29):
Um, I mean, I'm from Ohio, whichpeople have this perception of
Ohio that like, there's nothingthere.
There are more than one verygood film festivals in Ohio.
So I
Anna (08:38):
feel like most states have at least 20 or 30, but I'm not
kidding.
I really think it's verysaturated.
Kent (08:46):
So I want to talk a little bit about is a film festival and
what isn't it.
Um, now obviously we know whatit is, but like, I think some
people have this imaginationthat a film festival is a magic
place where you go and submityour film.
It of course gets selected.
Anna (09:02):
Sorry.
Kent (09:03):
Everyone loves it.
And a distributor offers youthree million dollars to buy
your movie from you and all yourdreams come true.
And that was maybe a reality forsome very talented people in the
90s.
And it survived a little bitinto the early 2000s.
And I think Alex Ferrari talks alot about this on his film,
Podcast and book that that agehas passed that ship has sailed
(09:28):
and that doesn't typicallyhappen and that's okay It
doesn't mean that film festivalsare useless It's just unlikely
that you're gonna get into oneof the big ten and sell your
movie for a ton of money And sothe question becomes is it even
worth?
making a super micro budgetfirst feature, and I would say,
absolutely.
Like, super, super worth it.
(09:49):
And for more than just, you'regoing to learn a lot.
I really think that you can sella movie, and we've seen people
making their money back andmaking a profit on movies that
are frankly, pretty bad.
Like, they're pretty bad films.
Production value is low, theacting is almost unwatchable,
and, you know, just the storymakes little to no sense, and
(10:10):
yet these movies are makingtheir money back, and some of
them, do really well.
So our experience is that wehave just premiered our film at
its first film festival, TheLoved and Lost.
And it didn't get into any ofthe major, major film festivals.
Um, we're still submitting tosome larger ones that are up the
mid tier.
Anna (10:27):
We did only submit a work in progress, so we've never
actually submitted the finishedfilm
Kent (10:32):
to any
Anna (10:33):
big festivals yet.
Kent (10:34):
But we decided to premiere it.
We got the thing done.
It was a great screeningexperience.
And the festival itself, Weactually did make contact with
tons of distributors, which fora smaller festival, it's not
Sundance, you know.
You think there aren'tdistributors unless there's a
film market attached is what alot of, you know, AFM people
talk about.
(10:54):
They're like, hey, you know,there's markets and there's And
there's, there's festivals andmost festivals don't have a
market attached.
Well, distributors still go tofestivals.
And in fact, distributors won'teven sometimes go.
They'll just,
Anna (11:08):
they just reach out,
Kent (11:09):
reach out.
And we've been cold reached outif that's grammatically correct,
but, uh, reached out to bymultiple festivals, sorry,
distributors who were aware thatour film got into a festival.
As soon as you get into anyfestival, pretty much there will
be some lower tiersdistributors.
And, um, they will reach out toyou and want to talk.
Anna (11:30):
So some of this applies when you have a finished film,
but I also want to talk about, Ithink there's three different, I
mean maybe four different ways,and tell me if I'm missing
anything that you canparticipate in a film festival.
One would just be to go watchthings, meet people, and, you
know, Learn because mostfestivals have panels and Q and
A's and you can learn a lot bylistening.
(11:52):
Um, the other would besubmitting a screenplay.
A lot of them have screenplaycompetitions or table reads.
Um, submitting a short orsubmitting a finished feature.
Those are all different ways youcould participate in a film
festival.
And that's more
Kent (12:07):
active participation.
The ultimate way would be buy apass and show up.
Like if you don't have anythingthat year, ready to go.
Buying a pass and showing upisn't bad.
I do think that the mostfruitful way to engage would be
to make anything.
Anna (12:23):
If you have something you can submit, a short, we
submitted a proof of concept forour film.
It was a test scene and webasically tested it on our
audience there.
Kent (12:34):
And there were some fatal flaws with that short scene that
we had shot in preparation for afeature.
And we were able to go do somepick up shots to address that
since the festival just a fewweeks ago.
And see some massiveimprovements in that test scene.
That was totally worth it.
Really
Anna (12:48):
valuable feedback.
And guess
Kent (12:49):
what?
We don't, we didn't, because itwas an audience mixed, It was a
short, so it's put in a shortblock, which means the audience
is comprised mostly of peoplewho are coming to support the
filmmakers who made the othershorts.
They don't know you, they haveno emotional attachment to you,
and they're going to give youtotally honest feedback.
I just asked a question to theaudience, like, can you raise
your hands if this was clear, orif it was confusing, and When I
(13:11):
asked if it was confusing, halfthe hands went up and I went,
thank you.
Like took me 10 seconds and Igot very valuable feedback on my
film.
I could feel it in the room.
It's always helpful to screenit, but it's hard to screen your
stuff for people who don't knowyou.
So the festival was reallyvaluable for that.
We, we did the feature, but likeAnna said, we had two.
Short films that were basicallyboth proofs of concepts or test
(13:34):
scenes for features that we'redeveloping.
And those were all goodexperiences and learning
experiences.
Anna (13:39):
And if you have something in the festival, typically you
get some sort of a badge thatgives you access to not only the
rest of the festival, but alsosometimes.
There are industry specificpanels or, in our case, there
was like a VIP room where peoplecould hang out and eat snacks
(13:59):
and network.
And because we had something inthe festival, we were in there.
Whenever I ran into someone whohad that badge on, I could ask,
Hey, what, what do you have inthe festival?
And they could share whatthey're working on.
So it's.
Always great if you can submitsomething, but even if you can't
show up, some people had cardswith information about their
(14:21):
films, about what they wereworking on, business cards, and
you could show up withoutanything in the festival and
say, well, I didn't submitanything this time, but I'm
working on this, or I have thisother project.
It's not showing, but you cansee it here.
Um, it's still a great way tonetwork with people who are
local to you, who are in thesame industry as you who could
(14:42):
be great.
Collaborators.
Yeah.
Kent (14:45):
And, um.
Jinx.
So, yeah.
I, as our kids are in a jinxphase.
They are right now.
They always jinx each other.
Um, I feel like.
Because we got to wrap up.
Yeah.
I feel like some of the keytakeaways for me were self
distribution is a viable optionfor indie low budget films.
(15:05):
Most people, if they know how torun a good Facebook ad and can
cut like a half decent trailer,you can make your money back.
And it can be a shockingly badfilm.
You can still make your moneyback.
There's audiences out there ifyou're directly marketing to
them.
Distributors, second thing, areinterested in just about
anything.
They want content.
That's sad.
The idea of getting offered likea six or a seven figure upfront
(15:30):
purchasing agreement is rare forlow budget features without name
talent.
Anna (15:35):
It's usually a revenue share deal.
Kent (15:37):
Yes, usually it's revenue share.
And so you have to be careful.
There are predatory distributorsor even just people who maybe
have the best of intentions andjust aren't very good.
Just be careful.
Ask other filmmakers who havedistributed through that
distributor.
Do your due diligence.
Make no assumptions and don'tgive people the benefit of the
doubt.
But that said.
Don't scoff at them and, youknow, have the conversations.
(15:58):
You'll learn a ton by goingthrough that process.
And we're really enjoying thatprocess right now.
So we've had several offers.
We're getting contacts from alot of distributors.
Um, we're learning exactly wherethe audience might be for our
film.
And I'm feeling reallyconfident, um, in our future
prospects with that film.
And The last thing would be thatjust making that film and
(16:20):
putting it out into the publichas generated a ton of interest
and credibility for our nextfilm projects, and there's a lot
of energy and momentum that cameout of that, huge meetings and
connections that came out ofthat, which might seem, I'm
still surprised by how small ofa festival we went to.
It was not One of the big 10 itwouldn't even be considered
upper mid tier and howproductive and how encouraging
(16:44):
and how momentous it was likemomentum, like we got a lot of
creative and professionalmomentum out of that festival,
which we really needed,honestly.
And so, yeah, I would encouragedoing it.
And we can go into more detailon details of.
Distribution, rev share, um,we're
Anna (17:01):
probably going to have aggregators on the podcast that
we met at the festival and justtalk about a lot of these things
that we've learned.
Um, but that was one of mybiggest takeaways to was just I,
I think it's easy to dismiss inmy mind.
It was easy to dismiss a smallerfestival, but there are benefits
at smaller festivals that youfrankly can't get at a bigger
festival.
Like.
(17:21):
Networking with people who arelocal.
Well,
Kent (17:24):
if we'd gotten into Sundance without, you know, Brad
Pitt in our movie, we could havevery likely been buried in that
festival and not actually gottena front row seat to as much of
the proceedings and as many ofthe connections.
And the exact opposite was true.
I think we actually were reallyable to represent, get to know a
ton of people.
and meet a ton of distributors.
(17:45):
Honestly, a lot of potentialdistribution partners.
So it was great.
Um, we would encourage you torethink maybe some of the ways
you think about film festivalsand their value as more than
just marketing or a goldenbullet, because they're more
than marketing and they're lessusually than a golden bullet.
Anna (18:02):
Yeah.
So go check out festivals nearyou and let us know how it goes.
We'll see you next time.
Bye.
Bye.
Hi, everyone.
Welcome back to the FeatureFilmmaker Podcast.
Anna (00:25):
Where we record, once a year, our thoughts about our
films.
Kent (00:29):
So, welcome back.
Welcome back after a very longhiatus.
Welcome back to us and to you.
Um, quick updates.
We wanted to give you guys someupdates.
We wanted to talk a little bitabout some exciting things that
have happened, including somepremieres and film festivals and
Um, just where we're at in termsof our own journey, and, um, And
(00:52):
also
Anna (00:52):
explain why we've been gone, because,
Kent (00:54):
Yeah, that too.
We
Anna (00:55):
did send out an email, I think.
Kent (00:57):
Yeah, we did.
Anna (00:57):
I hope we did.
But, otherwise, we kind ofdisappeared for a year.
And there's a good reason, but Idon't know if we really
explained ourselves.
So,
Kent (01:05):
Many good reasons.
We
Anna (01:06):
can do that today.
Kent (01:08):
So, first off, where have you gone to?
Anyway, I think that was a DaveMatthews reference.
And we As a quick update, have,as you knew, I think if you
listened to the last couplepodcasts that we did right
before we went dark, we startedfostering two children about a
(01:31):
year and a quarter ago, maybealmost, we're pushing a year and
a half now.
Anna (01:36):
Yeah, they were three.
Ages three and eight months whenwe got them.
Yes,
Kent (01:41):
and we were pushing forward with some career stuff
And everything was getting sointensely overwhelming We were
both about to Die, so
Anna (01:51):
something had to go
Kent (01:52):
we said something had to go and unfortunately This
podcast was one tiny thing thatwe could let go and now we feel
ready And we just have so littlegoing on in our lives that we
just needed to fill it up.
And we thought the podcast wouldfit the bill.
No, not really.
It's
Anna (02:12):
never been a problem.
Kent (02:13):
But we, the kids have gotten a little older in a year
and a half.
Precisely that much older.
Anna (02:20):
Going to adopt the children we were fostering.
Kent (02:23):
Which is super exciting.
And yeah, so that'll happen anyweek now.
And so things have stabilized.
But also, we have not onlylocked the edit, but also just
finished the Loved and Lost, ourfirst fiction feature film, and
Anna's directorial debut.
And we premiered it just a fewweeks ago, and that was a great
(02:46):
experience.
We'll talk more about thatlater, but that's another big
milestone.
And I think that the last bigmilestone that I have, and you
let me know if you have otherupdates, is that we have made
the hard plunge into leapinginto the lifestyle that we have,
We promised on this podcast,which was a full time feature
(03:08):
filmmaker career,
Anna (03:09):
making a living, making feature films, which we were
supplementing before withcommercial work.
And we tried to be mostlynarrative, but sometimes We
would do internal video or liveevent coverage.
Kent (03:20):
And we did pretty well with that.
Just fine.
Weddings was something we quitway back in 2020, about nine
months ago, we quit commercialsand we said we are going to
survive now exclusively off ofmaking feature films.
So if that is something you guyswant to learn how to do, we are
(03:42):
doing it and we have done it fornine months.
The
Anna (03:46):
whole pregnancy.
Kent (03:48):
We've only had to hide from mortgage collectors a
couple times.
I'm just kidding.
No, we're, we're doing fine.
And, and, and we are seeing hugecareer progress and results in
ways that we are excited toshare with you guys, not as a
form of.
bragging or whatever like wereally are paving this road
(04:11):
first of all for ourselvesbecause it's our dream but also
because we know that so many ofyou want these results and so we
know that if we can achieve themwe can share them and we want
you guys to be able toexperience not only what it's
like to fund and finish yourfirst feature film but to
distribute it and get your nextone off the ground and create a
career that is actually able toyou know support children and
(04:36):
Spouses and mortgages and foodand whatever, you know, like you
can do it and if we can do itYou can definitely do it.
Anna (04:44):
Yeah, especially if you don't have a family of seven if
it's just you it's even easier
Kent (04:49):
Well,
Anna (04:49):
maybe
Kent (04:50):
if you have a family of like 12 Then don't count
yourself out because if we cando it with five kids you can do
It's seven kids or whatever, youknow, like it's, it's just
possible.
It is possible.
Um, we don't really believe thatcircumstances will stop you from
being able to do, to do this.
If you feel like it's somethingyou're supposed to be doing and
you want to be doing it, then wewant to support you in that.
Anna (05:12):
Yeah.
I think, I think we hit all themajor updates.
We are making a documentary.
We've been working on that for alittle while now.
It's wrapping up production.
We're moving into post.
We still will pick up a few moreshots, a few more days.
Yeah.
But that one is nearly in postproduction and we have another
(05:37):
fiction feature that's, thescript is finished.
We've filmed a test scene andwe're getting financing for that
one.
So those are kind of our threeprojects that we have.
The Loved and Lost being thefinished one that's in the
distribution stage.
Um, The Ride in Paradise is thename of the documentary, which
(05:58):
is just wrapping up production.
Kent (06:00):
There's more information on all these projects on our, on
our website.
Anna (06:04):
And Our Father, which is our fiction feature that's in
development right now.
And it's scripted, pre produced,largely just seeking financing.
I would say
Kent (06:14):
developed largely, not pre produced yet, but it's kind of
What
Anna (06:18):
do you call the pre production before pre
production?
Kent (06:21):
Development.
Anna (06:22):
Packaged, developed.
Kent (06:24):
Not quite packaged.
Anyway, but I do feel likethere's a lot of momentum behind
that project.
We can't go into details at thisphase.
Usually development phase iswhen it's, everything's kind of
hush, hush.
But, um, It's got good momentumand I'm, you know, I'm not going
to say it's going to be donenext month, you know, financed
and greenlit, but it, it, uh, itfeels good.
(06:45):
I feel like it's going to happenand we're just going to keep
riding the wave until it takesus to shore.
So, um, should we move intotalking about a little bit of
takeaways that we had from our,Festival experience.
Anna (06:57):
Yeah, let's talk about festivals.
Just a little bit.
We'll keep our podcast shorttoday.
But we did want to touch on thatbecause it's fresh on our minds.
And I think that film festivalsare valuable no matter where
you're at in whatever stageyou're in.
And we're in various stages ondifferent productions.
But even if you're just learningand you haven't made anything
(07:17):
yet, Or you're just interested,and you want to start learning,
film festivals are a great wayto do that.
And I would recommend findingones that are local and small,
not necessarily flying out toCalifornia and seeing a big one
there, but just Sundance orwhatever.
Yeah, I mean, if you're Thoseare great.
They're great.
If you're nearby, go.
(07:39):
But, if not, you can also justget a festival pass to something
near you.
There are tons of them.
and tons of film festivals andit will not be difficult to
google film festivals near meand find local film festivals
all around you all during theyear.
Kent (07:55):
We're in Georgia we have honestly Atlanta Film Festival
is a great festival and there'sa bunch of others in Noonan and
Savannah and Macon andelsewhere.
Anna (08:03):
In every state all over.
And in Utah
Kent (08:05):
there's like The big one, Sundance, but then there's also
Slamdance, and there's Zion'sIndie Film Fest, and there's
like Utah Film something oranother.
There's several, um, and then inCalifornia, there's like a
hundred thousand.
And even if you're in Canada,there's some really high profile
Canadian festivals.
And so there's festivals allover the world.
Just no matter where you are,you will find good festivals.
(08:29):
Um, I mean, I'm from Ohio, whichpeople have this perception of
Ohio that like, there's nothingthere.
There are more than one verygood film festivals in Ohio.
So I
Anna (08:38):
feel like most states have at least 20 or 30, but I'm not
kidding.
I really think it's verysaturated.
Kent (08:46):
So I want to talk a little bit about is a film festival and
what isn't it.
Um, now obviously we know whatit is, but like, I think some
people have this imaginationthat a film festival is a magic
place where you go and submityour film.
It of course gets selected.
Anna (09:02):
Sorry.
Kent (09:03):
Everyone loves it.
And a distributor offers youthree million dollars to buy
your movie from you and all yourdreams come true.
And that was maybe a reality forsome very talented people in the
90s.
And it survived a little bitinto the early 2000s.
And I think Alex Ferrari talks alot about this on his film,
Podcast and book that that agehas passed that ship has sailed
(09:28):
and that doesn't typicallyhappen and that's okay It
doesn't mean that film festivalsare useless It's just unlikely
that you're gonna get into oneof the big ten and sell your
movie for a ton of money And sothe question becomes is it even
worth?
making a super micro budgetfirst feature, and I would say,
absolutely.
Like, super, super worth it.
(09:49):
And for more than just, you'regoing to learn a lot.
I really think that you can sella movie, and we've seen people
making their money back andmaking a profit on movies that
are frankly, pretty bad.
Like, they're pretty bad films.
Production value is low, theacting is almost unwatchable,
and, you know, just the storymakes little to no sense, and
(10:10):
yet these movies are makingtheir money back, and some of
them, do really well.
So our experience is that wehave just premiered our film at
its first film festival, TheLoved and Lost.
And it didn't get into any ofthe major, major film festivals.
Um, we're still submitting tosome larger ones that are up the
mid tier.
Anna (10:27):
We did only submit a work in progress, so we've never
actually submitted the finishedfilm
Kent (10:32):
to any
Anna (10:33):
big festivals yet.
Kent (10:34):
But we decided to premiere it.
We got the thing done.
It was a great screeningexperience.
And the festival itself, Weactually did make contact with
tons of distributors, which fora smaller festival, it's not
Sundance, you know.
You think there aren'tdistributors unless there's a
film market attached is what alot of, you know, AFM people
talk about.
(10:54):
They're like, hey, you know,there's markets and there's And
there's, there's festivals andmost festivals don't have a
market attached.
Well, distributors still go tofestivals.
And in fact, distributors won'teven sometimes go.
They'll just,
Anna (11:08):
they just reach out,
Kent (11:09):
reach out.
And we've been cold reached outif that's grammatically correct,
but, uh, reached out to bymultiple festivals, sorry,
distributors who were aware thatour film got into a festival.
As soon as you get into anyfestival, pretty much there will
be some lower tiersdistributors.
And, um, they will reach out toyou and want to talk.
Anna (11:30):
So some of this applies when you have a finished film,
but I also want to talk about, Ithink there's three different, I
mean maybe four different ways,and tell me if I'm missing
anything that you canparticipate in a film festival.
One would just be to go watchthings, meet people, and, you
know, Learn because mostfestivals have panels and Q and
A's and you can learn a lot bylistening.
(11:52):
Um, the other would besubmitting a screenplay.
A lot of them have screenplaycompetitions or table reads.
Um, submitting a short orsubmitting a finished feature.
Those are all different ways youcould participate in a film
festival.
And that's more
Kent (12:07):
active participation.
The ultimate way would be buy apass and show up.
Like if you don't have anythingthat year, ready to go.
Buying a pass and showing upisn't bad.
I do think that the mostfruitful way to engage would be
to make anything.
Anna (12:23):
If you have something you can submit, a short, we
submitted a proof of concept forour film.
It was a test scene and webasically tested it on our
audience there.
Kent (12:34):
And there were some fatal flaws with that short scene that
we had shot in preparation for afeature.
And we were able to go do somepick up shots to address that
since the festival just a fewweeks ago.
And see some massiveimprovements in that test scene.
That was totally worth it.
Really
Anna (12:48):
valuable feedback.
And guess
Kent (12:49):
what?
We don't, we didn't, because itwas an audience mixed, It was a
short, so it's put in a shortblock, which means the audience
is comprised mostly of peoplewho are coming to support the
filmmakers who made the othershorts.
They don't know you, they haveno emotional attachment to you,
and they're going to give youtotally honest feedback.
I just asked a question to theaudience, like, can you raise
your hands if this was clear, orif it was confusing, and When I
(13:11):
asked if it was confusing, halfthe hands went up and I went,
thank you.
Like took me 10 seconds and Igot very valuable feedback on my
film.
I could feel it in the room.
It's always helpful to screenit, but it's hard to screen your
stuff for people who don't knowyou.
So the festival was reallyvaluable for that.
We, we did the feature, but likeAnna said, we had two.
Short films that were basicallyboth proofs of concepts or test
(13:34):
scenes for features that we'redeveloping.
And those were all goodexperiences and learning
experiences.
Anna (13:39):
And if you have something in the festival, typically you
get some sort of a badge thatgives you access to not only the
rest of the festival, but alsosometimes.
There are industry specificpanels or, in our case, there
was like a VIP room where peoplecould hang out and eat snacks
(13:59):
and network.
And because we had something inthe festival, we were in there.
Whenever I ran into someone whohad that badge on, I could ask,
Hey, what, what do you have inthe festival?
And they could share whatthey're working on.
So it's.
Always great if you can submitsomething, but even if you can't
show up, some people had cardswith information about their
(14:21):
films, about what they wereworking on, business cards, and
you could show up withoutanything in the festival and
say, well, I didn't submitanything this time, but I'm
working on this, or I have thisother project.
It's not showing, but you cansee it here.
Um, it's still a great way tonetwork with people who are
local to you, who are in thesame industry as you who could
(14:42):
be great.
Collaborators.
Yeah.
Kent (14:45):
And, um.
Jinx.
So, yeah.
I, as our kids are in a jinxphase.
They are right now.
They always jinx each other.
Um, I feel like.
Because we got to wrap up.
Yeah.
I feel like some of the keytakeaways for me were self
distribution is a viable optionfor indie low budget films.
(15:05):
Most people, if they know how torun a good Facebook ad and can
cut like a half decent trailer,you can make your money back.
And it can be a shockingly badfilm.
You can still make your moneyback.
There's audiences out there ifyou're directly marketing to
them.
Distributors, second thing, areinterested in just about
anything.
They want content.
That's sad.
The idea of getting offered likea six or a seven figure upfront
(15:30):
purchasing agreement is rare forlow budget features without name
talent.
Anna (15:35):
It's usually a revenue share deal.
Kent (15:37):
Yes, usually it's revenue share.
And so you have to be careful.
There are predatory distributorsor even just people who maybe
have the best of intentions andjust aren't very good.
Just be careful.
Ask other filmmakers who havedistributed through that
distributor.
Do your due diligence.
Make no assumptions and don'tgive people the benefit of the
doubt.
But that said.
Don't scoff at them and, youknow, have the conversations.
(15:58):
You'll learn a ton by goingthrough that process.
And we're really enjoying thatprocess right now.
So we've had several offers.
We're getting contacts from alot of distributors.
Um, we're learning exactly wherethe audience might be for our
film.
And I'm feeling reallyconfident, um, in our future
prospects with that film.
And The last thing would be thatjust making that film and
(16:20):
putting it out into the publichas generated a ton of interest
and credibility for our nextfilm projects, and there's a lot
of energy and momentum that cameout of that, huge meetings and
connections that came out ofthat, which might seem, I'm
still surprised by how small ofa festival we went to.
It was not One of the big 10 itwouldn't even be considered
upper mid tier and howproductive and how encouraging
(16:44):
and how momentous it was likemomentum, like we got a lot of
creative and professionalmomentum out of that festival,
which we really needed,honestly.
And so, yeah, I would encouragedoing it.
And we can go into more detailon details of.
Distribution, rev share, um,we're
Anna (17:01):
probably going to have aggregators on the podcast that
we met at the festival and justtalk about a lot of these things
that we've learned.
Um, but that was one of mybiggest takeaways to was just I,
I think it's easy to dismiss inmy mind.
It was easy to dismiss a smallerfestival, but there are benefits
at smaller festivals that youfrankly can't get at a bigger
festival.
Like.
(17:21):
Networking with people who arelocal.
Well,
Kent (17:24):
if we'd gotten into Sundance without, you know, Brad
Pitt in our movie, we could havevery likely been buried in that
festival and not actually gottena front row seat to as much of
the proceedings and as many ofthe connections.
And the exact opposite was true.
I think we actually were reallyable to represent, get to know a
ton of people.
and meet a ton of distributors.
(17:45):
Honestly, a lot of potentialdistribution partners.
So it was great.
Um, we would encourage you torethink maybe some of the ways
you think about film festivalsand their value as more than
just marketing or a goldenbullet, because they're more
than marketing and they're lessusually than a golden bullet.
Anna (18:02):
Yeah.
So go check out festivals nearyou and let us know how it goes.
We'll see you next time.
Bye.
Bye.
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