“Bahiya & Mahmoud,” by Jordanian director Zaid Abu Hamdan, won the jury award for Best of Festival at the Palm Springs International ShortFest. Hamdan called the festival support “amazing.” / Courtesy Palm Springs International Shortfest
The first step to finding financing for a good movie, a panel of experts said last week, is writing a great movie.
“It can't be a B+ script,” said a member of the “New World Monetization” panel at the Palm Springs ShortFest. “B+ is failure.”
But the short movies at ShortFest this past week were almost all great films. I don't think I saw one film out of 48 that I disliked as much as “Bridesmaids” or “The Hangover 2.” On a 1 to 10 scale, executive director Darryl Macdonald said the average score of the films the programmers were pitching to him was over 8.
Granted, one reason I've seen more good films at ShortFest than in the cineplex lately is that bad shorts don't prolong the torture. After an uncomfortable squirm, it's on to the next one.
But, that notwithstanding, it's obvious that film schools and festivals are producing many talented filmmakers. So, where's the disconnect? Why aren't those short filmmakers making more great features?
The answer can be found in the comments filmmakers have been making about ShortFest. They've been telling me they love ShortFest because of how the staff and volunteers have treated them.
Macdonald says that doesn't come from any training. He said the filmmakers bring such infectious energy and enthusiasm that his people can't help but return the positive energy by supporting them.
“It's such a positive experience,” he said. “I've never seen anything like it.”
Contrast that to the energy on the monetization panel.
Art vs. commerce
I was warned not to attribute any quotes to the panelists because they wanted to be able to speak their mind. When one panelist saw someone with a tape recorder, he freaked out. We in the media are inclined to believe that if you don't want to be quoted, you have something to hide. What could that possibly be?
The people on this panel are distinguished and successful. They included an acquisitions consultant, the president of a production company and an agent from Creative Artists Agency, perhaps the largest agency in Hollywood. (Their names can be found at psfilmfest.org.)
When moderator Kathleen McInnis made the announcement that this seminar was to be completely “off the record,” and when she later warned that if any journalists attributed a quote to a panelist they wouldn't be credentialed next year, well, I thought I was getting into a secret society.
I envisioned a version of that old “Saturday Night Live” sketch in which Eddie Murphy poses as a white guy and discovers that white people have special privileges. I thought these people really knew a secret to funding films,but just didn't want to share them with filmmakers not in their secret society.
But, in the short amount of time they allotted to new funding sources (other than knowing rich people), they only suggested checking out film societies like the San Francisco Film Society, and the Independent Film Project (IFP), the Brooklyn-based nonprofit that gives invaluable information to its members.
But dozens of ShortFest films listed as many funding organizations in their credits as a PBS show. So how does a filmmaker gain access to those funding sources?
It seemed apparent that the panelists weren't going to open their doors to people with that question when a filmmaker asked if they would respond to emails.
One said yes and was accused of being a softie. Others acknowledged that, yes, they do try to help their friends before people they don't know, which means talent won't get you in the door. Others said it's important to have a good referral because, yeah, it is about who you know. And frankly, if you want to get to that level of the industry, you should know somebody these people know.
So, there's the disconnect. Film festival people help filmmakers because they love their energy and art. Industry people aren't in business for that.
Making it personal
In the industry's quest to make money, they turn away from art because they can make more money from ancillary projects. Just as movie theaters make more revenue from selling popcorn, movie investors make more money from merchandising. So they look for projects that can become theme park rides.
McInnis gave me more insights into new monetization strategies before the festival than the panelists she recruited. She talked about the need for filmmakers to have close personal relationships with their producers and to begin working with them at the beginning of the script-writing process. Then their producers can start seeking funding sources to complement the writers' content, she said.
I discovered this is happening at ShortFest and I believe it's one of the paradigm leaps that accompanies the transition from “student filmmaker” to “emerging filmmaker.”
I met many young directors who were accompanied by their producers as if they were best friends. Many times, the producer co-wrote the film with the director.
So these directors are in on the genesis of a project and can tell a writer what a film festival is seeking or what a competitive funding website, such as doorpost.com, needs. They can figure out how much money to apply for through kickstarter.com. They can find towns that match the action in a screenplay and offer discounts in production costs. They can follow the suggestions of IFP and other filmmaker organizations and pursue them while the writer-director is rewriting or serving as a project manager of a cast and crew that needs to keep up a positive energy to realize the potential of a script.
At a future ShortFest, I'd like to see some producers of the prize-winning films sit on another panel about monetization to explain how they did it. That would attract more student filmmakers to ShortFest than top-level industry people.
There has long been talk about the Palm Springs International Film Society launching its own film institute, and I understand that's nearing a reality. At that point, ShortFest's role as a link between the film schools and the film industry will become more important and ShortFest's impressive list of alumni will become a valuable resource.
ShortFest respect
A great thing about the continued growth of ShortFest is the immense respect it gives to filmmakers who make it into the festival.
Todd Luoto of the Sundance Film Festival said his event accepts just 81 short films out of 6,500 submissions (compared to 331 films from 3,000 submissions at ShortFest). But he told a filmmaker, “At Sundance, if you have played Palm Springs, we definitely want to see your film.”
The programmers on that panel all said it's not “who you know” that will get you into their festivals. They implored filmmakers to not waste time trying to campaign for their films because they watch submissions blindly — meaning they don't know the filmmakers' names. It's all about the quality of the art.
Several programmers even told the filmmakers not to let the entry fees ($30 to $60 for Palm Springs) inhibit them from submitting to their festivals. Festivals rely on entry fees for part of their staff salaries, but they said if they want the film, they will discount the fees. That's because their festivals are about exhibiting the best quality art.
That's where the disconnect between film festivals and the industry lies. In the industry, it's not about the art.
Bruce Fessier is a features reporter. He can be reached at (760) 778-4522 or bruce.fessier@thedesertsun.com.
