ADVENTURES ON THE FESTIVAL CIRCUIT
REALITIES
After coming back from the Encounters film festival in Bristol I hope to shine a little bit of light over the whole festival scene and discuss whether I believe going to a film festival is worth it. especially, if your like me and you’re aware that once you’ve made a film that it’s probably worthwhile submitting it to one or a hand full of film festivals, however your unsure of exactly what the purpose is and what there is to gain from it when it costs time and money to submit and go to these things.
I’ll start with the first and most common question, should you go to a film festival if you don’t have a film? The short answer is yes, there is a lot you’ll learn if you are properly observing your surroundings and networking with professionals who may be one or two steps in front of where you want to be, therefore they probably have some very valuable information that you should listen too. Not only are there screenings and premieres at the festivals but there are also seminars, workshops, Q&As and networking parties. Film festivals also have the chance to inspire and if you're a writer or filmmaker, you may see or hear about something from a new angle and think I could make something like this or this is $H!* I could make a film that's 10x funnier than this piece of crap. DO IT.
However, film festivals come at a cost not only is it a financial investment but also a long time investment as film festivals go on for days and there are probably a few things you should consider when deciding which ones to go to. Only if your looking to maximise potential is it necessary to be going to a film festival with a film that is already screening because then not only will you be learning all this other stuff but you’ll be boosting your own recognition. At film festivals, everyone wants to be talking to filmmakers who are screening so it's a great opportunity to build up your connections with people in the industry.
How to choose a film festival?
If you’ve ever been to a music festival its the same sort of principle - if you enjoy/have a keen interest in a particular genre or style for instance drum and bass then go to a festival that plays drum and bass. Why would you go to a rock concert, because you wanted to go to a concert and that was the only one you’d seen advertised? There are hundreds of film festivals in the UK alone. Do your research and find out which one is most tailored to your interests.
Now that's not saying the rock concert is bad and even if you did go you’d probably learn a handful of things, but you’ll probably value the time and money you’re spending more by choosing a festival that is going to have more that is in line with your interests and in turn you’ll end up making more of it. Like I said, in the beginning, there’s a lot of opportunities at film festivals not only to learn but to network and it's easier to speak to people and engage in a rich conversation when you both have similar passions and interests.
what did I learn? - ‘Time is shorts’
To list everything I learnt from going to Encounters would be long so I’ll just mention this last key take aways that I gained from the film festival. Time is very valuable to the curators as they only have a very limited time slot to fill and there job is to choose the best content out of hundreds of submissions to fill it. Therefore the length of a short film being submitted is very important. For instance films that have been submitted that are in the 5-10 minute time frame have a much higher chance of being chosen to screen, because over an hour time slot the curators can choose 7/8 films to show, whereas if they chose to show a lengthier film they’d maybe be able to show 2/3 films over that same period. so if you submitted a 30-minute film in order for the curator to choose it over 5/6 shorts means it has to be exceptionally better than all of those put together to warrant a 30-minute time slot.