Tovoice

As the first post of the year after many conversations with friends and other filmmakers, one thing became clear with the passing of 2018. No one knows what it is that I do, save for the ones in the industry who work in sales, distribution and marketing that is. What I do is non existent in the grassroots filmmaking world, and a dying art in the indie world. If it isn't attached to a sales/distribution or big time production company no one cares. The point to festivals is to

Festivals That Don't Have FILM FESTIVAL In The Name. When looking for film festivals, don't pass on those that don't have "Film Festival" written in their main name like some of the ones listed below. Shorts On Tap EKOFILM Galway Film Fleadh Supertoon Locarno War on Screen Grimm Up North Warsaw On top of those film festivals, make sure to check out film societies in and around your region. A film society which is a membership type of club, is another great way to get your fi

This isn't really related to script reading; however, it's something I'm asked all the time. What To Do With A Polished Completed Script! I had a meeting a while back about a completed TV pilot and what to do next. There are so many thing you can do with a completed script, some of them have nothing to do with the industry, like letting it collect dust somewhere. If you have connections within the industry, getting your script noticed and read will be easy peasy. If this i

What Is Script Reading? Script reading is something that everyone needs to be on board with, if big Hollywood producers can't survive without them, why would you think you could. When a writer sends their script to a producer, they in turn send it to a script reader who provides a one pager based on the potential of what this script is. In this one pager, the reader gives an estimate to what the budget is and could it be successful receiving funding/making money. When a writ

Do You Know What You Want Out Of Your Film? There are many filmmakers who believe they have the next big blockbuster hit. They haven't thought further than getting into TIFF or Sundance and immediately getting picked up. They fail to realize that having plan A and B helps with setbacks in a slow start or milking a successful premiere. Simply having finished a film isn't enough. Do you want to be known within the festival circuit? Do you want your name to be attached only to

What is an Organized Festival Submissions Spreadsheet? At this point you should have a list of all the festivals you want to submit to ranging from the top tier fest to the local ones. Using a spreadsheet is most helpful as you'll want the country, date of the festival, the month it falls under and whether or not its a pass as well as tracking where the materials are. It should look something like this. You should have one for each year of your festival circuit which should

So you're at an industry party, it's full of industry people and you happen to stumble across a festival programmer. You hit it off and mention your film, but it's still in post. The programmer tells you to send them a link and they will watch it. You are all giddy. This is a top tier festival, or one of your wish list festivals, and you can barely contain your excitement. It's the next morning, you contact your editor and tell them to make a link on a private streaming

Remember that guy who shot his entire (if not most) feature film on an iPhone and was able to sell it to Netflix for a bunch of thousands of dollars after a great festival run? Well I do. If you can save money on your budget somewhere, put it in a cookie jar and label it Festival Submissions. *drops mic* #featurefilm #shortfilm #makingmovies #knowledge #love #womeninfilm #festival #indiefilm #ilovefilms #films #movies #trynahelpsomebody #festivalstrategy #filmmakers #ilovetor

Who Is Attending The Festival "How am I supposed to know who's attending?" said person who doesn't realize that filmmaking is a business at the end of the day. It's called research. Who ever attended last year is likely to attend this year. And if they're a Media partner, ever better, it means if you play your cards right they just might watch your film then write about it. Industry peeps are going to festivals to buy (distributors), sell (sales agent), acquire films (festi

Organize Your Festival Submission Make a list of festivals you want your film in then research the hell out of them. The worst thing a filmmaker can do, is submit to a horror flick to a festival that mostly concentrates on family genre films. Once you've figured out all that, get a calendar and figure out their submission dates and when the festival goes live. DCP's are expensive. Another thing that sucks is realizing that you've been accepted into two festivals around the sa

What Are Margin Notes? They're notes made in the margin of a document... In all honestly, margin notes are important when developing your script into something stronger. They are broken down reviews of each scene. It studies the structure, sequence, dialogue, tone and setting of that scene to make sure it moves the plot forward. It should also be short and to the point and will usually point out some flaw in your script. Have no fear, it will open you mind to another way o

Tips to help plan a festival strategy better.