Film Festival Secrets Podcast

Bonus episode - Kristjan Knigge talks about his experiences with his first feature film

Brad Wilke (@jbwilke) is an award-winning filmmaker, produced feature-length screenwriter, and film programmer for the Seattle International Film Festival. At his company Smarthouse Creative, Brad designs and executes digital and social media strategies for films and filmmakers, as well as film festivals and brands. In this episode I talk with Brad about about his passion for discovering new talent and we answer some burning filmmaker questions about the film selection process at the Seattle International Film Festival. Find the show notes at http://www.filmfestivalsecrets.com/podcast

Veteran filmmaker, teacher, and fundraiser Mark Stolaroff takes a pause in the middle of the Kickstarter campaign for his new film “DriverX” to reflect on his filmmaking career and the psychology of asking friends and strangers for money. Mark is the creator of the "No Budget Film School” seminars and a role model to many indie filmmakers. See the show notes here: http://www.filmfestivalsecrets.com/ffs/podcast-36

Are you being offered the "festival rights" to the music in your film at a discount? It's a trap! Find out why the deal you're being offered might not be the best option for you.

Jen West and James Martin are partners in life, partners in filmmaking (they alternate between directing and producing on each film), and partners in a string of successful crowdfunding projects. Now they face a new challenge -- distributing their most recent completed film (a doc short about a famous New Orleans cocktail) online and on the festival circuit while raising funds for the next film. The new project is their first feature, a musical fantasy called “Electric Bleau.” Listen in as they reveal their secrets to keeping all these balls in the air at once.

Excerpted from their online course “Film Festival Hacks,” Alex Ferrari (Indie Film Hustle) and host Chris Holland talk about the career building and networking opportunities to be found at film festivals. http://filmfestivalhacks.com

In this episode: Chris Holland talks about the legwork of creating a festival strategy, in particular the research you should be doing about the festivals you think you want to submit to. Things like: * What things can tell me if the festival I'm looking at is legit or not? * How can I tell if this festival is appropriate for my film? * How can I make the most of my time on the web? * What are the red flags that might make me think about spending my money elsewhere? If you find this podcast useful please review the show on iTunes, your ratings and reviews really do help. Also be on the lookout for my new online course, Film Festival Hacks - learn more at filmfestivalsecrets.com/hacks

After several hours of recording lectures for our new online course (more details in the show), filmmaker Alex Ferrari and I had a more casual conversation about his personal experience with festivals around the country and in industry towns like Los Angeles.

Sometimes filmmakers face the classic "bird in the hand" problem. Case in point: my friend Amy's short film "Pickle" was accepted by one festival, but her "dream date" festival is still on the fence. That's a problem, because showing at the first festival to extend an offer might lessen the dream festival's interest. Should she go ahead with the sure thing, or wait for her dream festival to make up its mind? See http://filmfestivalsecrets.com/ffs/2015/12/podcast-30 for show notes.

This episode I'm joined by Richard Gale, creator of the short film "The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon," which is on its way to becoming a feature film thanks to a healthy festival run and a rabid YouTube fan base. Learn how Gale turned festival success into a cottage industry and a budget for a feature-length horror comedy. For show notes see http://www.filmfestivalsecrets.com/podcast/29

Some quick tips on narrowing the field of possible festival choices down to the film fests that are right for your film. See http://www.filmfestivalsecrets.com/identity for more on this topic.

As the new season of the podcast gets started, Chris explains what’s been going on since the crowdfunding campaign ended and what happens next.

Chris Holland sits down with Bodine and Alexis Boling, creators of "Movement and Location."

Ever wonder about the selection process at South by Southwest? Programmer Jarod Neece gives us a peek behind the curtain.

The second episode of the new season of the Film Festival Secrets podcast! See getmoresecrets.com to learn how you can listen in on future recordings. Many thanks to Seed&Spark and FilmFreeway for their early support of the podcast's new season. Joining me this week are Kenny Blank, Executive Director of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival and Shellie Schmals, AJFF's Program Manager. We explore the special challenges faced by Jewish and other niche festivals, the adventurous side of the Festival's programming tastes, and why filmmakers with "non-Jewish" films should care about events like AJFF. Things mentioned in today's show: The Film Festival Secrets crowdfunding campaign (ends July 11) Filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki Jewish themes in Mad Men More on Jewish themes in Mad Men Mad About You The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival site AJFF on Twitter | AJFF on Facebook

The first episode of the new season of the Film Festival Secrets podcast! See getmoresecrets.com to learn how you can listen in on future recordings.Jon Gann is the founder of the DC Film Alliance, a non-profit organization supporting Washington, DC's film and video community, and the creator of the DC Shorts Film Festival - one of the country's premier short film showcases. Jon is also a filmmaker and the author of "Behind the Screens: Programmers Reveal How Film Festivals Really Work." In this episode we talk with Jon about festival programming, how film schools fail their students, and his upcoming book about how film festivals get started.

Since meeting filmmaker and startup founder Emily Best in November I've wanted to get her on the podcast to talk about her company Seed and Spark, which reimagines crowdfunding from the perspective of an indie filmmaker and takes the experience way past fundraising into audience building and distribution. In this episode you'll hear Emily tell the story of how the company got started and her vision for making it a touchstone of the indie filmmaker experience. We'll even talk about how to use your crowdfunding platform during your festival run.

Biagio Messina, co-producer and director of "Dying to Do Letterman" and the Producing Unscripted podcast, joins Chris Holland and guest co-host Charles Judson (former creative director of the Atlanta Film Festival) for a conversation about Kickstarter, marketing, and the funny side of cancer. This episode has some of the best crowdfunding and film marketing advice I've ever encountered — I'm just sorry it took this long to release it. (Recorded in November 2013.)

This episode is a bit of a blast from the past -- it's one of several interviews about crowdfunding I recorded about this time last year during the Atlanta Film Festival's first Kickstarter campaign. (The second campaign is happening as I write this, please do [check it out](http://atlantafilmfestival.com/fund).) The episode didn't get edited and published in time for the end of that campaign, so now you get to travel to the past to join me and the festival's then-Artistic Director Charles Judson as we talk with Elisabeth Holm, the Film Program Director at Kickstarter. Holm also co-produced the film Obvious Child, which played Sundance and ATLFF in 2014.

Guests: When Julie Keck & Jessica King (collectively known as "King is a Fink") tell you that they are social media experts, they can do so with straight faces. These filmmakers and writers just released a new book, Social Media Charm School (now available at Amazon.com). Chris asks them to speak in sentences with fewer than 140 characters as they talk about the interplay of social media with audience building, crowdfunding, and celebrity encounters on Twitter. (File updated on Nov 21 2014 to correct editing error.)

The Sundance deadlines are just days away, and Chris encourages you to submit to the Park City festivals lest you regret it later. However, you should also acknowledge that a Sundance acceptance is a miracle no matter what your film is. In this mini-episode Chris talks briefly about the possible costs of waiting on Sundance. Also, learn about his upcoming talk at the IFP Festival Forum in New York.

Filmmaker & Cinema Eye Awards producer Will Lennon joins Chris on the show to discuss why “small” films can do better on the festival circuit than their bigger-budget cousins. Also: how many calories in a McDonald’s cheeseburger?

Episode #15, in which Chris Holland talks crowdfunding with Joseph Beyer, Director of Digital Initiatives for the Sundance Film Festival & Institute. As one of the founders of Sundance's Artist Services program, Beyer has worked with Kickstarter on the successful funding of more than 90 crowdfunding campaigns, raising more than 2.8 million dollars since 2011. Joe now faces his biggest challenge in his first personal crowdfunding campaign — and because of the nature of the project, he can't use Kickstarter as his platform. Tune in for an informative and personal look at the technical, strategic, and emotional aspects of fundraising online.

Episode #14, featuring ATLFF Artistic Director Charles Judson and yours truly. This time we talk about 3 essential tools for networking at a film festival: business cards (lots of 'em!), screeners, and postcards for your film. Learn the basics about what should be on them and when to offer them.

Episode #13, featuring Charles Judson and Christina Humphrey, programmers I work with at the Atlanta Film Festival. Humphrey deals exclusively with short films and shares with us the emotional roller coaster of wading through thousands of submissions. If you've made a short film or you're just thinking about it, you want to listen. Some of the resources we discuss in this episode: Short of the Week Sundance Shorts on YouTube Vimeo Staff Picks

Episode #12, featuring Sheri Candler, Director of Digital Marketing Strategy for The Film Collaborative. Sheri shares the three questions that filmmakers should be asking themselves about their films – and usually don't – as they begin to contemplate that picture's distribution.

Chris sits down with Charles Judson, head programmer for the Atlanta Film Festival. Topics discussed: women in filmmaking, the finer points of festival programming, and "disease docs."

Chris & Jesse revive the podcast after almost 2 years. In this episode: the expedited death of 35mm exhibition, the protracted death of the Withoutabox message boards, and how to time your submissions to festivals.

People and things mentioned in this episode: Cannes, Pete Docter from Pixar, the Dallas International Film Festival, Tex Avery, Universal Soldier IV, Bill Hicks, Gayby, and more.

Jesse Trussell sits down with Landon Zakheim (from the programming staff of Sundance, among other fests) to talk about his experiences "on the other side" of the festival fence as a filmmaker with a short in the Dallas film fest.

In this episode Jesse Trussell and I are joined by filmmaker Mark Potts and a surprise guest or two while waiting to see MacGruber at SXSW 2010. This was a really fun episode to record.

South by SouthWest is just days away and we're all fired up. Learn about the ups and downs of being included in a local film spotlight. Also, there's another big Texas fest around the corner, if only we can remember its name correctly.

Sundance! Oxford Film Fest! South by Southwest! A smorgasbord of film festival delights. Plus, some pointless Star Wars references brought on by the phrase "episode four."

The festival year begins. We talk about Sundance's efforts to focus on more than just famous faces, the new Filmmaker Summit at Slamdance, and more. Shout-outs to SXSW and Hollywood Black Film Festival.

In which the Film Festival Secrets podcast is rebooted after just one episode.

Interview with Fred Andrews, president of the KC Jubilee Film Festival, which will combine with KCFilmFest to create a new festival this coming Spring. Fred talks about the kinds of films they're looking for and what you can expect from the new festival.