Latest / Indie Film Podcast / Film Festival Myths Indie Filmmakers Need to Stop Believing

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Film Festival Myths Indie Filmmakers Need to Stop Believing · Indie Film Podcast

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Before you submit on Film Freeway, try to contact the
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festival director and say, do you think my film's a good fit?
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There's nothing wrong with that. Every year since 2012, crowds
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have descended upon Boise for the uniquely inspirational music
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and arts festival Tree Fort. Two years later, the growing
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festival added its film branch, Film Fort.
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As the years progressed, forts begot more forts and now we have
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things such as ale Fort and yoga Fort.
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Today, we welcome and appreciate the opportunity to record live
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at PODS Fort inside the elegant Boise Contemporary Theater.
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Welcome to Indie Film Podcast. I'm Vic.
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And I am Chuck, and today with us we have Film Fort director
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Thomas Phillipson. And Thomas is here to give us
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the inside scoop on what it really means to run a Film
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Festival. And what indie film makers can
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do to better stand out with their art.
0:49
Welcome, Thomas. Thank you.
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It's so great to be here. So we are going to start with a
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new little segment that we've decided to call myth or truth.
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Yes. And Thomas.
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So we're going to rapid fire some questions at you.
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And you, as the director of a Film Festival, you need to tell
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us whether it's myth or truth. Oh my.
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OK, I've never been accused of being a quick think cutter, but
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let's go. Then this will be even more
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exciting for everyone here. All right, number one Film
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Festival programmers only watch the 1st 5 minutes of your film.
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Oh, absolutely not true. Though I will say this, many
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Film Festival programmers I know will say that if you don't grab
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them in the first 5 minutes, they kind of know that it's
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probably not going to be saved in the next hour and a half.
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Seems fair. Good.
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Good point. Good ending.
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Can't make up for a bad beginning, yeah?
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All right, next one. Having a famous actor in your
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film dramatically increases your odds of getting into festivals.
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Of course. Well, no, I mean, and film for
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it. We, that's not what we're
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looking for. We're not that kind of a
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festival. Right on.
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I mean, but if somebody famous was in it, we wouldn't turn them
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away. That's that's very kind of you.
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Yeah, we wouldn't just say no, that we're too good for that.
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That's a good sign the C list actors are celebrating right
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now. Film festivals mostly program
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films from people they already know.
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Oh, that's not true at all. We're always looking to meet new
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people. That's the best part about
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programming film festivals. Oh, nice, nice.
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And if you don't get into Sundance or South by Southwest,
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your festival run is basically over.
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This I don't know. I'm not the person to ask
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because I'm not the filmmaker who's been doing this.
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I'm only paying attention to what comes from us.
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And often a lot of film makers are waiting and you know, they
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don't want to give it to us until they know if they're in to
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Sundance or one of the big ones or not.
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And we don't care about that. So I don't pay attention to
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that. Oh, right on.
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That's kind of nice. So it probably false.
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Probably. A myth, probably a myth I mean.
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You probably know better than I do, right?
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Well, I don't know. Sundance and South by Southwest
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have both told me no many times. Oh come on, they have no idea.
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#5 your cover letter actually matters when you submit your
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film. Cover letter, Well, everything
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we get is through Film Freeway, so it doesn't really have a
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cover letter, but it does have a director's statement, which I
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will, and our, our screening team will look at after we watch
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the film to see if it gives us any clues about what we just saw
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if we need them. Sometimes we do, yeah.
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But yeah, we don't really have a cover letter.
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But it, you know, it never hurts.
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Just like with the job, you know, No.
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That's fair. OK.
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More the better. So let's let's talk a little bit
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about you, Thomas, and what is your history with directing film
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festivals, making films, If you've dabbled in that area, you
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know your interest in films in general.
3:51
Yeah, OK. Don't let me go on too long
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here, but I started as a journalism major at the
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University of Oregon and couldn't get into the classes I
4:00
wanted. So I started taking motion
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picture theory classes and then figured out that I could
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actually major in that. Oh, cool.
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You can do that. Yeah, that's cool.
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So I did that and then I didn't get a lot of production there.
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So I went back to Portland where I'm from and started taking
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classes from the Northwest Film Center, learning 16mm shooting
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and stuff like that. So I was making my own little
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films then starting to so then so.
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You learn to make films on film. On film, yes.
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I learned to edit video linear too, that's how old I am.
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Oh. Oh yeah, well, this goes way
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back, but it's one of those things, it's like knitting, like
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you have to start at the beginning and if you make a
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mistake you have to tear out the whole thing and start over
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again. So non linear editing.
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I mean, it was only a brief history and of of the world, but
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it was crazy. Anyway, took classes at the Film
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Center and then started like hanging around there a lot
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'cause that's what the Film Center was there for.
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It's part of the Portland Art Museum, you could rent film
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equipment there, take classes, and then they also had film
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festivals, including the Portland International Film
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Festival, which brought tons of really cool films from all over
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the world that I loved going to see.
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And then I eventually long story shorts.
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Too late, got hired and took over the Northwest Film Makers
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Festival, which was when I started, I was kind of in charge
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of helping film makers of Northwest North America, which
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includes of course Idaho, as well as Alaska and Montana and
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Oregon and Washington. And way back then, it was, you
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know, most of the films were coming from Portland and Seattle
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and Vancouver, BC, But I was always looking for things from
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Idaho just to round things out. Yeah, it was hard to find back
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then, but not so much anymore. It's it's growing here.
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It's party filmmaking communities grown exponentially.
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So it sounds like basically you have been passionate about film
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and then you've decided to take the route to not only you know
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how to make your own, but you also promote others.
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Yeah, I never set out to be in the Film Festival world at all,
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But it turns out that I like kind of event sort of work where
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it's like there's a big hullabaloo and then you go on
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vacation for a while and chill out and then, you know, you ramp
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up again. I just like that.
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And I like, you know, the excitement of a festival and an
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opening night and all that kind of stuff.
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Interacting with artists. Absolutely.
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Yeah, talking shop. Very good.
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Can you tell us a little bit about Film Fort specifically and
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what makes it, what makes it different?
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And, and we've attended several times Film Fort and it is the
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vibe is cool. Like, that's probably the most
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succinct way. It's especially cool, I hope for
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the film makers that come and I think it is.
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It was all our Co founder is still our director of
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programming, Ian Clark. He Co founded it years ago.
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He's also started the Eastern Oregon Film Festival before that
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in the Grand, and his sort of sensibility about what kind of
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films to program sort of set the tone for us.
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And he's a filmmaker himself. That's How I Met him.
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He had a really great film that we screened at the Northwest
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Film Makers Festival years ago. And I just liked him because
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he's a great guy. He's fun to hang out with and he
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gives that to the film makers who come here too, as do the
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rest of us. So I think that set the tone.
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And then Chelsea Smith took over as director and she's built, you
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know, this great structure for us.
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And then last year she and Sierra Padilla Hewitt were Co
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directors and then they both got too busy in their jobs and
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Chelsea's got a band playing, Cactus Moon playing.
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Yeah, I saw that. So she's they're all too busy.
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And it's like Thomas's time that you, you know, did your end of
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the work here. So that's how I got to be
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director this year. Right on.
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And what are you trying to, what kind of experience are you
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trying to create for film makers at the festival and for
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attendees? Because it's not only do the
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film makers attend this festival, it's one of those
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festivals where you do see people that appreciate film come
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in and watch the screenings. That's great.
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Yeah, 'cause it's it's, it's something special and unique to
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offer, you know, this area of Idaho for your cinephiles here,
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which I'll go off on a tangent here.
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It's like you guys are lucky to have like you've had the flicks
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here for so many years that have been showing not just the
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mainstream film, but sort of a well-rounded collection.
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So that's all of that. And like now, IFS, the Idaho
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Film Society is showing interesting things, and that has
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all helped make an audience ready for what we're going to
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show too, which is some really out there stuff.
8:59
Yeah, yeah. And so for people outside the
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Boise area, this is there are a lot of fans of film and the Flix
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is an independent theater that screens not just, you know, the
9:08
the national chain films, but unique movies and ifs every week
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something off the wall. For sure.
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And you've had that for years now.
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So that's really cool. I'm not answering your
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questions, but that's OK about the other thing.
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So what makes Film Fort special? It it really is like the film
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makers that we bring in and we we pay attention to that when
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we're selecting films. It's like who do we want to be
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here with us? And we have 70 film makers
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coming this week. Very well attended.
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Yeah, I mean, not those are not all directors.
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Those are crew and actors as well.
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But you know, they're all here. And the great thing, the thing
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that makes Film 4 the most fun festival to direct for me is
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that you have a built in after party every night for every film
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because you they, all the film makers have a wristband and we
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we're all on a WhatsApp communal group and it's like, let's go
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over to the shrine and we all meet over there and, and we can
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really bond with the film makers and everybody has a blast.
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Yeah, and it's a good opportunity to network with
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people that are artists outside of just the film making
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community as well. Absolutely true.
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The artist. Wristband anything from
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musicians to podcast hosts. I was talking to Ian.
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Yeah, Ian's at Yogafort right now.
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Nice, yeah. It's.
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Great. A lot of different things.
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So can you talk about the evolution of film Fort over the
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years and you know, like maybe a little bit about how it's how
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it's different. One of the things that I noticed
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is that there are no awards, which is different than other
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film festivals. Can you talk about that a little
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bit? That's because we're all
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socialists here at Film Fort. OH, the crew.
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And we like to. Cheers, Conrad.
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All right, we like to, you know, spread it around.
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It's like it seems a little bit silly to say this one was the
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best documentary and and those awards definitely have their
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place because they're really good marketing tools.
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You can make a lot of social media hay out of them.
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So there's that, that I see why a lot of festivals do it, but it
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never really made too much sense for us to do that.
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For instance, like if you had an audience award, it's every year
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going to go to one of the local gyms because the audience for
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that, they brought their mom and dad and for sure all their
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friends. So it's like it kind of doesn't
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really mean anything. So we like to just spread it
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out. They're all our children.
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We love them equally. Nice.
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Pretty much. Except for.
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You know the one. Oh, there's always one.
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So what advice would you give? Because not only are you
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directing film for it, but what advice would you give to film
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makers as far as submitting films?
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And you can even go back if you have advice on if they have a
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script or if they have an idea what they should maybe tackle if
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they want to maximize their ability to be able to screen it
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in front of people. Because indie film makers, these
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film festivals are what we rely on in order for our films to be
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screened. Right.
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I think I have a better advice for how to get your film into a
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festival than I do how to actually first get your film
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made. Back when I was in Portland
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working at the the Northwest Film Center, I had answers for
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that because we taught classes there.
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I would tell you to come to other film makers screenings,
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meet them, see how they did it, talk to them about it.
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We would have events for them to talk to each other.
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That's part of my job back then and I'm trying to continue that
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job a little bit here. We're having a little community
12:50
discussion. I don't know if you noticed that
12:52
on Saturday at IFS at 11 AM talking about building your film
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community. And I think that's one of the
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the things I would talk about to anybody that's like try to build
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your own personal community, which helps build a bigger
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community in your community in your area.
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Just talk to other people and help them on their projects, and
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they'll help you on your projects.
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Projects. That's to get them made.
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Now to get into a Film Festival, I think the most important thing
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to do is to research all the film festivals that look
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interesting. Like, pretty much.
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I feel like everybody's on film Freeway now, yeah.
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You have to be. You have to be all the, if you
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don't know that, if you're out there and you're listening and
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you don't know about film Freeway, look that up.
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You put your film on there and pretty much every festival that
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you would ever want to enter is on there and you just all
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everything goes through there. And on the back end for us, we
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see your film. We have all of your information
13:58
there and we can just download it and work with it and screen
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it through that. It's great.
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But the thing you should really do is research the film
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festivals you're thinking of entering and see if they are the
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kind of festival that seems to show the kind of film that
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you're showing. That's kind of the most
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important thing. You don't want to be spending
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entry fee money on things that are never going to show or just
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doesn't fit with them. Yeah.
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So I think that's the most important bit of advice.
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And do you, do you mean kind of just as far as genre fests go,
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Like don't submit make your drama to a horror festival?
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Or do you mean really dig deep into what they've programmed in
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the past and what sort of audiences tend to show up?
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If you have the time and you care about how you you spend
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your money, if you're not independently wealthy like most
14:49
of my independent filmmaker friends are, then you might as
14:53
well spend that time really researching.
14:56
Definitely the genre festival. So if you have a horror film,
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it's going to be way easier to get it into a horror Film
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Festival. So, but you know, I, I can't
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even tell you exactly what you would learn by looking at what
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film Fort has programmed in the past, but you can get sort of a
15:18
kind of sense you at least know that we will program a very
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experimental film. We will program something really
15:28
out there, whereas not all festivals will.
15:30
Some are more tame and they're they know that their audiences
15:33
don't want that. We know our audiences do want
15:36
that. They want like the craziest crap
15:38
we can find for them. So and then but we balance that
15:42
out with with like really solid, great movies that will appeal
15:48
for everyone too. Yeah, I think that's a great
15:50
analysis. As far as eclectic films, it
15:53
does. That's always fun when I go to
15:54
the screenings at film for it to see some of these things where
15:57
you're just wondering where this idea came from.
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Absolutely. That that's, yeah, that's.
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But that's like the most exciting thing when you're on
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the screening panel watching these things.
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You sit down and you want, you want to love whatever this next
16:10
film you're going to watch is, and you want it to surprise you
16:13
and you want it to say something if it can move you, That's so
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great. Yeah.
16:20
So we're always looking for dangerous stuff and stuff that
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makes us think and shows a point of view.
16:28
And that's awesome. Can you talk a little bit about
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how many submissions you get at Film Fort Fort just so people
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have an idea of, you know, you're, you're obviously taking
16:39
a lot of time and consideration to cherry pick the, the films
16:42
that you think will go well together, you know, the unique
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films, but also I'm sure that that's just like the tip of the
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iceberg as far as submissions are concerned.
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Yeah, all the festivals that I've worked with in the past
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have spent a lot of time trying to get like the most submissions
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they could. And we don't really do that at
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Film Fort. We're not just trying to make
17:07
revenue, we're trying to find the good fit.
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And I think a lot of film makers are have been really good about
17:13
finding us, finding it's almost like a matchmaking.
17:19
Sort of nice. So you're putting a caveat there
17:22
that there are film festivals out there that probably do get a
17:25
giant amount of submissions, but they are advertising and and.
17:29
Yeah. By contrast, so the Northwest
17:31
Film Makers Festival that I used to run, and it was, this was
17:34
only open to Northwest North American film makers.
17:37
I used to get about 400 submissions a year.
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Some of those I would have to dig for and get, but we'd end up
17:44
with about that many every year. But that was a different thing
17:46
because that's how I got to know those film makers and then I
17:50
could start a relationship with them and help them along their
17:53
way as film makers. And that was my job.
17:56
Then at Film Fort, we are looking to curate a a program
18:03
for that fits inside of a music festival that makes sense, that
18:08
will feel, you know, really fun to go see our film and then go
18:12
out to music or go to Hack Fort or go to Yoga Fort or drag Fort
18:16
or whatever. We want to be in the mix.
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And I think that sort of we go for that sort of thing that will
18:24
mix in with everything else. Is it just you kind of going
18:28
through and watching all of these, you have a a whole panel
18:30
of people and, and are they the same people every year or does
18:33
it kind of vary? So our director of programming,
18:36
also our Co founder Ian Clark is, is the guy.
18:40
He's the last word. So most of the our core team and
18:46
a panel of screeners who are most all of them have been doing
18:49
this with us for a while. We, you know, we try to get a
18:52
diverse bunch of viewpoints for sure to weigh in.
18:57
And that's a great thing about film Freeway.
19:00
You can watch it through that and you can make comments and
19:03
rate it. And then Ian goes through those
19:05
and we discuss it and, and we all lobby for our favorites, OK.
19:09
And then just we decide which films we're going to choose.
19:13
And then he puts them in the the shorts programs.
19:16
He does all that programming. Oh, right on.
19:18
That's like that's really good behind the curtain stuff there.
19:20
You know that you are using Film Freeway itself to comment and
19:24
kind of let the programming rise to the top.
19:28
Yeah, there's a whole back end on film freeway that I guess
19:31
film makers would never see, right?
19:33
Yeah, actually, that's a good thing.
19:36
Film makers should get on screening panels, OK?
19:39
That would teach you a lot about how to get into film festivals
19:44
if you can do that. It's like it's like if you want
19:46
to get, you know, I'm at the point now that, you know, I was
19:50
working so long at the Northwest Film Center that I get asked to
19:54
be on granting panels now, which is just teaches you a lot about
20:00
how to write a good grant, you know.
20:02
So yeah, that's kind of the the thing you should that I always
20:07
try to tell film makers is imagine you are on a panel for.
20:14
A Film Festival and you're screening this, it's like, what
20:16
would you want to see? What would you want the the
20:19
panel to know? So include that in your, you
20:24
know, director statement, stuff like that.
20:25
What? What do they need to know?
20:27
Cool. I like that's, that's great
20:28
advice. And now I'm just kind of
20:30
realizing we're assuming that, you know, film festivals, once
20:33
you're into the Film Festival, you know, good things happen.
20:38
But can you explain maybe once a new film maker gets into a Film
20:43
Festival, what are some of the ways that they can better, you
20:46
know, make use of that opportunity, Maybe film Fort
20:50
specific things that they can do or you know, just since you've
20:53
directed other film festivals, how to how to best maximize on
20:57
that opportunity? I think at Film Fort we make it
21:00
really easy because our communications.
21:03
Sierra Padilla Hewitt is our hospitality director and she's
21:08
so good about keeping the film makers.
21:12
I should just send out a thing like great places to eat in
21:14
Boise while you're here. The key to making the most of
21:19
your festival experience as a filmmaker should be obvious, but
21:24
maybe it isn't. It's just dive into everything
21:28
you know you can sleep it off after you're on the plane back
21:31
home. Just dive into every single
21:33
thing you can and like at at film Fort tree Fort.
21:38
That's a lot for sure, but it's really worth doing it the.
21:41
Feeling feeling of missing out is legitimate every single year
21:44
that you come to tree Fort because there's too many things
21:46
going on at exactly the same. Time no, but I love FOMO.
21:49
I think FOMO is you know, is like the best thing because I
21:53
think it's important. I've got it bad, I mean.
21:56
I don't think I've ever heard anybody say they love FOMO.
21:59
That's Oh, yeah, it gets me off the couch, you know, and, and
22:03
I'm always glad that I went out, you know, and went to, it's like
22:07
it's 7:00. I was going to go to that movie,
22:10
but maybe not. Oh, OK, I'll go.
22:12
You know that everybody has that.
22:13
Or, you know, there's some, you know, Wheel of Fortune is on TV
22:16
and, you know, I think I know the answer to this one.
22:19
So you stay there and you miss the you always.
22:22
And you might not even regret that, but you never regret going
22:24
out for sure. And participating.
22:27
Yeah. And seeing, seeing, seeing new
22:29
art. So yeah, you're recommending
22:31
film makers go and. Go hard.
22:33
Yeah, connect as much as you can.
22:36
I will say that that tracks that.
22:37
You mentioned being from Portland and having lived in
22:39
Portland, and we've been to festivals in Portland before,
22:42
and the community there, not just the filmmaking community,
22:46
the entirety of Portland shows up and gets involved and gets
22:49
excited. I feel that we built that, that
22:53
community, that that audience. And I think the Northwest Film
22:56
Center was instrumental in doing that, not only from the
23:00
filmmaker's side of things, but also creating, helping create an
23:05
audience for getting out there and going to see film.
23:08
And it wasn't, I mean, we kind of, I feel like started it, but
23:11
then other people really helped, like the the PDX Fest, which was
23:15
an experimental Film Festival arose and they started really
23:21
helping us get audiences for experimental films.
23:26
So and, and then that created more experimental film makers.
23:30
And yeah, so you just keep building on each other.
23:32
It works great. That's cool.
23:34
Do you do you have any insight? You know, there's a lot of
23:37
listeners that TuneIn that are from outside of LA, New York,
23:41
you know, quite a few that do. But when you're in one of those
23:44
areas that isn't a traditional film hub, what are some things
23:48
that they can do to start to build that that not just the
23:51
film community, but what you're talking about, the community
23:54
surrounding the film that will support them.
23:56
Do you have any tips on that? You know, just like getting
23:59
somebody that's not a film maker to come see your screen
24:01
basically is what I'm asking. Yeah.
24:03
Well, it, it takes a lot of hard work and it takes time and it
24:07
takes offering things that will be underpopulated at 1st and you
24:14
just get the word out about, yeah, you have to just put a
24:21
really interesting programming out there and that will reward
24:26
people. They find it and they've they
24:29
they enjoy it when they get there.
24:31
Getting them there is tough. Do you have an example of one of
24:34
those moments where you were at a screening that you helped
24:37
organize and there was a film there and the audience reaction
24:41
was one of those things like, OK, now we're we're at A at a
24:44
moment. Boy, I feel like that happened a
24:47
lot because there's a lot of different levels that you hit,
24:50
you know? Yeah.
24:52
I don't have really specific thought of that right at this
24:55
moment, but OK. You will by the end of this
24:57
weekend though, I'm sure. Oh, in about 10 minutes I will.
25:01
So do you have any common you talked about like submitting to
25:05
film festivals that are gonna be somewhat similar to the film
25:11
that you have for film makers? Do you have any as far as
25:16
programmers are concerned? Do you have any examples of when
25:19
rogrammers have reached out to a film to be screened and what
25:23
that looks like? For sure.
25:27
O both. I mean, every Film Festival I've
25:31
worked for, that was a big part of how we found the films.
25:35
You wait for the films to come in over the transom, as we used
25:38
to say, through Film Freeway. But then we go out and research
25:42
like especially like, so Sundance happened.
25:44
We knew what was going into Sundance a month or two before,
25:49
and we looked through that list and reached out to some people.
25:53
So, and we do that kind of thing every year to make sure that
25:56
we're getting a good breadth of things.
25:58
And if there's something that really fits our vibe, we'll go
26:01
and talk to that. Yeah, we'll definitely reach
26:04
out. And that's that's where you get
26:06
a lot of great stuff. OK.
26:08
So is there something film makers can do to sort of
26:11
position themselves, I guess, in a way that would make you want
26:15
to reach out to their film more? Or is it just getting it shown
26:18
at other festivals and just. That's the easiest way to make
26:21
yourself findable, of course. Yeah.
26:24
And I mean, you can always before you submit on Film
26:30
Freeway, try to contact the festival director even or
26:35
somebody or even, Oh yeah, even info at even before you submit
26:39
and say, do you think my films a good fit?
26:41
There's nothing wrong with that. Oh, I guess yeah.
26:44
I assumed that that wouldn't be an e-mail they would read.
26:48
Oh, absolutely. I mean, I would and I think a
26:51
lot would cause again, they're looking for they're not your
26:54
enemy. They're they're really want you
26:56
there. If you have a good film, they
26:58
really want it in their festival bad.
27:01
That makes sense. Yeah, OK.
27:03
We're all we're all on the same ship, paddle in the same
27:06
direction. Oh, absolutely.
27:07
I mean, obviously festivals couldn't do it without the film
27:10
makers, Even the ones that don't get into their, you know,
27:14
festival. You need a whole variety to
27:15
choose from. Yeah, for sure on that line, I'm
27:19
going to put you on the spot again like you're because you're
27:21
talking about eclectic films. Do you have an example of
27:24
something that came off as immediately memorable to you in
27:28
in recent history when you're where you were like, oh, OK,
27:31
this stands out and maybe give us a the reason why it stood out
27:34
to you. Well, I can talk about I can
27:37
talk that way about films in the festival this year.
27:40
Oh, cool, that'd be great. There's one called Joy Bubbles
27:43
that is a joy, absolute joy that's playing, let's see,
27:47
Friday night at 7:30 at the flicks.
27:50
OK, I hope I got that right. And I started watching that and
27:56
just like it delighted me from the very beginning.
27:59
And it's, it's, it has a lot of archival footage because I'll
28:08
tell a little bit about it. So it's this guy who was born
28:10
blind and kind of from a very early age became obsessed with
28:15
telephones because there's sort of the great equalizer for blind
28:18
people. Eyes don't help you at all when
28:21
you're on the phone, right? So he became obsessed with them,
28:23
started talking to the phone company, researching, and he
28:26
figured out this was back in the late 60s, seventies.
28:30
He'd figured out that he could dial long distance by whistling
28:34
tones into the phone. He had perfect bit pitch, which
28:38
is the key to this whole thing. So he was able to dial long
28:41
distance back when long distance cost an arm and a leg.
28:44
And so this started this whole movement, the phone freaks,
28:48
which I had never heard of until I saw this movie Joy Bubbles.
28:51
And it's like, and the guy is just a genius and charming and
28:56
fascinating and there's all this audio content from him, but not
29:01
a lot of visuals. So Rachel Morrison, the director
29:04
who's well versed in using archival material, paired this
29:11
just visually delightful stuff with the audio that you see.
29:16
So that's an example of something that that felt fresh
29:19
and nothing I'd seen before. And then behind it is this
29:23
fantastic story that you can grab hold of as well.
29:28
That's an example I think. No, that one would stand out for
29:30
a long time. Especially like the phone
29:32
freaking the the pH. Kind of freaking like green
29:35
boxing or yellow boxing. I haven't heard that since since
29:39
the 90s, I think. So That's delightful.
29:42
Yeah. OK, Well now I'm gonna know
29:43
where I'm gonna be on Friday night.
29:44
Yeah. No, it's, it's great.
29:45
It's really good. That sounds like fun.
29:48
So that's, I think like that's a good example of a unique story
29:53
that's being told by a film maker that has a unique skill
29:57
set, which I love those kinds of films as.
30:00
Well, combo, yeah, it's. Like this is a polished, this is
30:02
polished skill set, archival footage and totally unique
30:05
story. There's one thing that that US
30:07
film makers talk about, we film my crews talk about sometimes,
30:10
and that's that's things when we submit outside of the story,
30:14
right? We submit to film festivals and
30:15
we're like, does is the runtime too long?
30:19
Oh, those types of things, you know, is do I need to wait for
30:22
the premier status from South by Southwest or Sundance before I
30:26
submit to these other festivals? Do you have any advice in that
30:29
realm where it's just technical? I have an answer to Is the
30:33
runtime too long? Okay, yes.
30:35
Yes, great answer. Always.
30:38
It's always too long. Kill your darling.
30:41
From the audiences standpoint and from the screening
30:47
standpoint, it's always, always too long.
30:50
But a funny thing to really answer your your question there,
30:54
if you have a short film, if it's 10 minutes or under, it's
30:58
way easier to program in a shorts program for a festival.
31:03
And they will take that into consideration.
31:05
If you have a 1520 minute, that's it doesn't work well in a
31:10
shorts program if it's too long because it kind of overpowers.
31:14
And when the audience is used to watching, it's like making a
31:16
mixtape, right? You've all done that with music.
31:19
You know, you want to kind of keep it moving and it's got a
31:22
flow and if you have one big anchor at one end or the other,
31:26
it doesn't work very well. So this year we actually said we
31:30
were not accepting films like over between 20 and 60 minutes
31:36
or something like that. Well, we ended up making
31:38
exceptions and that's why we have a program of long shorts
31:43
which are which I think this does work.
31:45
We have like 3 mini medium length films together and that
31:50
does work, but if you're making you know, 15 to anywhere up to
31:57
like 60 minutes which can stand alone, that's a hard road to hoe
32:01
to get your film into a festival.
32:03
It really is. So, so your advice is, well,
32:06
that's great advice that the film is always too long.
32:10
Yeah. Oh, there's always room to chop
32:12
things, move things along more smoothly, more.
32:14
Succinctly. I mean, you should always think
32:15
that, right? Yeah.
32:16
For sure. So it so it is easier than you
32:19
know. If you don't have a feature, try
32:21
to make it. Try to make it shorter.
32:23
Try to make your story shorter. Yeah, if you can make like a
32:25
three or five minute, that is. So I mean, that's like candy to
32:28
a Film Festival program. Or if it's, you know, a good one
32:32
because it breaks things up nicely.
32:34
It's yeah. That's nice.
32:37
It's much easier to program. I think we saw a 62nd or at one
32:40
of the film festivals. And it was great.
32:42
It was, it was amazing. I still remember it, it was
32:44
beautiful. They did such a good job with it
32:46
too. OK, So what about the premier
32:48
status situation though? Is it worth waiting and sitting
32:51
on your film for an entire year to wait for the the top big boy
32:55
festivals to get back to you? That you have to answer for
32:58
yourself. It depends on what your strategy
33:01
is going to be and what you're really trying to get out of it.
33:03
I know tree Fort does not. We we're not I've never I've
33:06
been involved in a premiere festival and I don't want to be
33:09
involved. I don't want to be involved in
33:11
an industry festival. Premieres don't matter to us.
33:15
It does matter only in the sense of can we get an audience for
33:19
it. So that's why we do want things
33:22
not to have played in Boise already.
33:26
So premiere here. But but they can have, you know,
33:29
opened wherever it can or it and you know, Des Moines, it doesn't
33:34
matter. We don't care about that.
33:37
No, that's fantastic and I think really encouraging because I
33:39
know there are a lot of film makers that that sort of feel
33:42
obligated to sit and wait. Well, they are obligated by the
33:45
bigger festivals that that that kind of hold out and and say you
33:49
must premiere with us, which understandably, it's just the
33:54
way the game works. It is, yeah.
33:57
Do you have anything like some surprising anecdotes about
34:00
running a Film Festival? Surprising anecdotes.
34:03
Yeah, something that maybe most film makers would have no idea,
34:06
things that you deal with on a on a daily basis where it's like
34:09
this is this is the actual world of running a Film Festival.
34:14
And maybe you've talked to a film maker and they just, you
34:17
know, assumed it was something else.
34:20
Gosh, nothing comes directly to mind when you say that.
34:22
I just went completely blank. Did you see it in my eyes?
34:27
That's all good. So there's no like a secret
34:30
recipe or anything like that. The people are like if you do
34:33
XYZ with your. Film, it's like you would
34:35
imagine it would be. I mean, it's not really as
34:37
mysterious as you might think. You know, with every situation,
34:41
put yourself in the in the position of of whoever you're
34:45
trying to think about South Film Festivals, They're all people
34:48
just like you and putting things together and trying to make
34:51
things cool. Yeah, there's there's no big
34:54
mystery about it, right? Do you have any advice for a
34:57
film maker, maybe in a more remote area that's trying to put
35:01
together an event? Because I mean, film for it is
35:03
one hell of an event. Maybe they want to create a
35:06
screening for their short film and they want to bring people
35:08
out. Like what?
35:09
What would you do in that situation?
35:11
Just. To do that, do that, do that for
35:13
sure. I always say about events, like
35:16
once you have a place, everything follows a place in a
35:18
time. OK, so just find a hall, find
35:22
wherever you can, show your film, talk to whoever owns that.
35:26
Or maybe it's your own backyard. It doesn't really matter.
35:29
Depends on, you know, the scope of what you're trying to do
35:31
there and set a time. And then, then everything will
35:35
start to follow. You'll know what you need to do
35:38
to get people there. It'll it should be kind of
35:41
obvious how you need to promote this thing and who you want to
35:45
be there. Make sure they know about it.
35:48
But yeah, create your own movement.
35:52
I think that's a great idea. Now's a good time to do it
35:54
because I think, you know, I talked about the PDX
35:58
Experimental Festival a while ago.
36:01
It's so funny because I was talking to the guy who started
36:03
that a couple years ago in a coffee shop.
36:05
And I, I always thought it was so cool because it was really
36:08
grassroots, made by artists. And I said like, so, so how did
36:14
you guys, you know, start then? What was I can't remember.
36:17
I was around then and I was working, you know, and he said,
36:20
Thomas, you don't remember. A bunch of us submitted our
36:24
films to the Northwest Film Makers Festival and they weren't
36:27
accepted. And we were pissed off.
36:30
So you so you created their own. Festival, which is kind of
36:34
delightful. And it reminds me that every
36:36
great movement is a reaction, right?
36:38
Yeah, for sure. And right now.
36:40
And the more weird things get. Mm, hmm.
36:42
The more people actually get motivated to react.
36:46
So do that, like in your little community with your little
36:50
screening, with your little film, react and and and just get
36:56
more people involved with whatever you're doing.
36:59
Be nice. Oh, I'm actually hearing lean
37:01
into revenge. That's what I'm hearing.
37:04
That's where we're going. But I love this guy, Matt
37:06
McCormick. He's teaching up at Gonzaga.
37:09
Great guy and makes great films so.
37:13
So I mean, if it worked for him, it should work.
37:15
I don't. Know if he's forgiven me but.
37:20
But the air is cleared the other way.
37:22
Always. Yeah, I can't burn bridges.
37:25
That's not in this industry anyway.
37:26
I. Don't know how.
37:28
All right, Our final question for you if someone listening
37:32
right now either live here or later when this goes live
37:35
online, wait, it's. Going live online?
37:37
Well, it's not going to be live. That would be a that would be
37:40
really cool if we were live broadcasting this, though.
37:44
When it is posted later online and somebody is thinking about
37:48
submitting to Filmport, what's one thing you wish they knew?
37:53
One thing I wish they knew well, definitely know that if you're
37:57
going to submit your film to Filmport, we want you here.
38:00
That's that's that's that's what we're looking for.
38:03
We're looking for you to come and be a part of this whole
38:05
thing. We're not just showing your
38:06
film. We want to hang out with you.
38:09
Actually Cool. That's awesome, and it actually
38:11
feels that way. You're right, the communications
38:13
have been absolutely amazing. And that's, that's not me.
38:16
That's that's our team that built this before I even stepped
38:19
in for sure. They do great work.
38:22
Yeah, I think that's great advice, and I think that's
38:23
probably good for most film festivals, unless they're an
38:25
online Film Festival. But the value you get is out of
38:28
networking and chatting with people and seeing new eclectic
38:31
films. And I definitely would put Film
38:33
Fort up there on the top of the list of eclectic films.
38:37
Experimental, interesting, unique and.
38:40
Crazy things I want to say really quick.
38:42
It just flew across my mind. I want to, since I stepped into
38:45
this role this year working with the Greater Tree Fort Music
38:50
Festival machine. I'm so impressed with, it's made
38:54
it so easy because like there's always a person to talk to when
38:58
it's like I'm doing something stupid or I'm, you know, it's
39:00
like, oh, I screwed this thing up on the website.
39:03
They're right on it. And it's just like the easiest.
39:08
It's the best organization I've ever worked for.
39:11
Boy, she's lucky. Yeah, this festival is really
39:13
impressive. If you are listening from
39:15
anywhere and you've never been to Tree for it, put it on your
39:19
list. It's so much fun, yeah.
39:20
Every year it's a great time. All right.
39:22
Well, with that, shall we succinctly say farewell from POD
39:25
Port 2026? I think so.
39:27
Excellent. Bye.
39:28
Bye.