The Encouraging Words of Mark Duplass
Sporting a sweet Vidiots hoody, Duplass reminds filmmakers that while it's many of our dreams for our films to make it into Sundance if we're not selected, there are all kinds of other film festivals out there. Sundance—or any film festival, for that matter—is not the end all be all of your film or filmmaking career. Anyone who's made a film and gone through the festival gambit Knows the extreme highs and lows of the tumultuous Filmfreeway. Festivals are an amazing opportunity to find an audience and network, and are also a ton of fun, so it can really sting if you get that rejection email. But it's important to remember that festivals not only look for quality, but also a myriad of factors about the programming of the festival, the genre, and so much more.
My friends and I went through these highs and lows this past year with our first feature, Shoft. We didn't make it into any of the "big" festivals, but we made it into a lot of really fun festivals such as Cinequest, Nevermore, and Flyover, and it was a blast. Just as Duplass mentions, sometimes getting into a bunch of smaller festivals is even more satisfying and fulfilling than getting into one with a bigger name.
Feeling better? We hope so. Keep on making movies and stay strong out there, readers.
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Scott Kirsner just posted a ton of videos from the recent film/tech conference The Conversation, and since I didn't go (that would have been three panels in three weeks), I plan on watching them all and posting what I find to be the most interesting clips here. To start, here are the opening remarks from producer/professor Ira Deutchman. The audio quality isn't stellar, but Ira makes some good points about how The Long Tail is great for aggregators but sucks for content creators, and about how making an independent film is arrogant (thus the titular quote):
