拱 湿 壶 That kills all intuition, all fantasy, all creativity 峡 缠
FESTIVAL or MARKET... ("What's this week's AFM?")
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Every year there are 2,000-3,000 FILM FESTIVALS and maybe 3-5 FILM MARKETS. So what the f*ck is a "Festival" and what the f*ck is a "Market"? Simple a "Festival" is a cultural event. And, a cultural event, with parties & awards, but is something that doesn't make a profit. A "Market" is exactly what it says it is "a Market"...with buyers & sellers.
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POINT OF INFORMATION: This first week of November every year is a Film Market, "AFM" (American Film Market), almost as important as Cannes in Santa Monica, California, with a pretty beach inexpensive (compared to Cannes or Berlin) hotels. You should make plans to be there in 2013... if you've never been to Cannes but inexpensively want to understand what it's about
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Yes, you want to go to a Festival. Yes want to win an award. But it better be an "A" List festival, not an "A-" or "B+" festival (more on this later).
And, yes, let's cut-to-the-chase, you either want to (A) Sell Your Film, or (B) Be Discovered, or (C) Get a Distributor. And, yes, this does happen at Film Festivals. However, there are 2,000-3,000 (correction I am writing this after one day at AFM, where a conference "Film Festivals: Strategy & Marketing" had the big-name panelists stating there are now over 4,000) Film Festivals every year and there are only 40-50 Distributors, who have an employee, a Buyer (aka: "Acquisition Exec"), whose job it is to go to Film Festivals and discover the undiscovered film and "BUY IT".
Now, reality check! Of the 2,000-3,000 Film Festivals (oops, 4,000!) each year how many do you think each of the 40-50 Acquisition Execs go to. Remember, these are people. There are 2,000-3,000 (oops 4,000) Film Festivals. There are 52 weeks in a year. Reality has it that Acquisition Execs only go to 12-15 each and these are called the4 "A" List of which the fall circuit of Venice-to-Telluride-to-Toronto just concluded last week.
Thus, out of 2,000-3,000 Film Festivals (oops 4,000) per year; if you desire to be discovered you have to get into one of the 12-15 where Acquisition Execs attend. And, the other 1,988-2,985 Film Festivals (oops 3,985), even though they're cultural events and you win award after award after award after award...are useless...for there are no buyers.
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POINT OF EDUCATION: Be careful to not give away your World Premiere at a Festival that is not an "A" Lister.
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Now, FILM MARKETS, have nothing to do with this bubblegum "award winning" stuff. Film Markets are all about either (A) selling you film nation-by-nation after it is made or (B) pre-selling your film nation-by-nation, at discounted prices, to secure the money to make it.
Where there are 4,000 FILM FESTIVALS every year.
And only 12-15 FILM FESTIVALS that have merit (aka: you can sell your film)
There are only 3-5 FILM MARKETS each year.
The Big 3 are:
1) AFM (American Film Market)
2) EFM (European Film Market)
3) CANNES (not the Festival the Marche)
This week November 1-9, in Santa Monica, California, the AFM ("American Film Market") is taking place with "SELLERS" & "BUYERS" to be precise 200-300 "SELLERS" and 2,000-3,000 "BUYERS"....(This is where I was today, and will be tomorrow and Tuesday and Wednesday making sure that as a Teacher I stay abreast of everything new in Foreign Sales, Global Co-Productions, VOD, Festival Marketing, Pre-selling and Social media)
This is along with 100s of projects with Michael Madsen, Gina Gershon, C Thomas Howell, Cheech Marin, Val Kilmer, Willem Dafoe, Chris Lambert Rutger Hauer, Tom Sizemore, Jamie Lee Curtis, Paris Hilton, and welcome to the group....Londsay Lohan.
Practice being a "Buyer". If you were a Theater Owner or Distributor in Romania, or Israel, or Paraquay or South Africa would you pre-buy any of the above projects without knowing what they look and possibly not even knowing if it ever gets made?
You be the Buyer.
Happy Filmmaking, The Filmbay Team,
Filmbay.com
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