Shifty Ideas

I am holding a special screening fundraiser for the Friday Night Supper Program (a food program where I volunteer,) at the Somerville Theater on March 2011.  It is currently sold out, which is a great feeling…but there is still a lot of work to be done. 

The afternoon will start with a live acoustic set by a friend of mine and an amazing musician, Kate Vargas.  We will then show the film I most recently produced, Mike Doto’s, “The Legacy.”  I will also be screening my friend Jack German’s debut film.  And we will end the evening with a fantastic documentary called “Art From The Streets,” which will also screen at the 2011 Filmshift Festival.

Just to make sure everything was set, I went over the details with Kate a few days ago.  I also texted/emailed her and CC’d our sound guy today to make sure they had the times, directions, set list, etc.  I emailed my two volunteers, one who will take tickets, and another who will run the projector.  Again, just to make sure their schedules are set.  Lastly, I confirmed with the manager of the theater and reminded him of the details.

I haven’t heard from some sponsors yet, so I re-emailed 7 of them to see if they wanted to sponsor us again this year…fingers crossed.

I’m spending tomorrow putting together a proposal for a locally-minded organization here in the Boston area who have expressed interest in becoming another media sponsor of ours…Pretty easy to put together, just time consuming. 

I have yet to come close to posting our Call For Entries on all the websites on my checklist, but I am slowly chipping away.

Kind of a boring post, but in my future posts, I am planning to go a bit more in-depth on the why and how of what I’m doing, and the mistakes I made last year that I am trying to avoid this year.

More exciting news/progress this week…

Local Boston film industry gurus, the Mass Media Mavens have signed on to be a media sponsor and local small business, Cambridge Naturals have agreed to be a prize sponsor for our audience raffle!  We are proud and excited to be aligned with these two local sponsors.

Today, I am focusing on getting the word out about Filmshift 2011 on “the internets.” 

The first step is to post our Call For Entries on the film office website for all 50 states, film industry message boards, environmental organization’s event calendars, and to contact film-industry bloggers with a pitch email to ask them to do a story on us.

Then I’ll contact as many colleges in the area as I can.  Despite the fact that one of Filmshift’s focuses is student films, I found last year that very few colleges were interested in getting the word out to their students.  But I’m giving it another shot this year.

Once those steps are done I’ll create our first e-newsletter/e-mail blast of the year announcing our Call For Entries.  A lot of people on my mailing list aren’t avid Facebookers, so I find that I reach a wider audience this way.

I am also trying a low-cost Facebook ad as an experiment to see if I can increase the number of fans of our Filmshift Facebook page.

When the event gets closer, I’ll email family and friends with a direct request to forward the details of Filmshift 2011 to their contacts.  I’ll ask local trade organizations, businesses like ImprovBoston and Cambridge Naturals, and local production companies to reach out to their contacts in some way.

Yesterday, I contacted the rest of last year’s Filmshift sponsors, and I am hopeful to have all of them back for this year…time will tell.

Entries have started to role in slowly but surely, and with hardly any marketing or advertising, so that’s encouraging!

Things are moving!  Err, shifting, I should say!

I have announced our Call For Entries and our Early Bird deadline ($15 per entry,) of May 1, 2011 for features and short film submissions to the Filmshift Festival 2011. (www.filmshift.org)

I did things a little differently this year than last year, and if you’re interested in specifics, I go into more detail below.

But first, a quick update on the progress of Filmshift and my film projects.  I last posted only a couple days ago, but a lot has happened since:

On Sunday I had yet another good chat with yet another talented cinematographer about a number of short films and music videos.  Tonight, I followed up with 2 DP’s and sent screenplays to 2 others.  My hope is to find 2 or 3 DPs to work with on 3-6 different short projects over the next year. 

On the Filmshift front, it looks like I may have a new Media sponsor.  Just today, I had a great preliminary discussion with a local group that reports on the entertainment industry overall, and the Boston film scene in particular.  All signs point to things working out.  As soon as things are solidified, I’ll announce the news here.

On Sunday, I went to the Filmmakers Shindig, which was held at Improv Asylum in Boston.  It is a local networking event for people interested in, or involved in the film industry in Boston.  Aside from bumping into a few friends who I knew from other Boston film functions, I met some interesting people but did not meet anybody who made narrative films or documentaries that fit into Fimshift’s mission…Maybe next time though.

FILMSHIFT 2011 PREP

I found out last week that our biggest sponsor from last year has chosen not to sponsor us this year.  With significantly less money to work with, Filmshift 2011 will be much different than Filmshift 2010. 

Even before I heard the news about the sponsor, I decided to cut prices by 50% to $15 for the Early Deadline.  I did this because I found that last year, though I received a good amount of entries, what I earned from the fees was pretty close to the cost of paying for advertising to get the entries in the first place.  

I’ve had some filmmakers and close friends suggest to me that $30 is too much to charge struggling filmmakers as a first year festival.  And to them, I said (say): $30 is a bargain!  When considering the cost of theater rental, insurance, website design, graphic design, printing tickets, programs, backdrop, paying readers, advertising, printing flyers, offering a cash prize, not to mention the time to put it all together, it’s beyond fair. 

That said, I figured that since I knew that I would never make money on Filmshift no matter what price I charged to submit, I might as well make sure that I had a bigger pool of films to choose from to screen.  We’ll see if the lower price encourages more filmmakers to submit.

SCREENPLAY CONTEST

I decided not to offer a screenplay contest this year, for a number of reasons.  First and foremost:  Cost.  It simply costs more than I have to pay for qualified readers to go through our submissions.  Time.  The time it would take for me to personally read all the entries would be way more than I could handle.  I work full time, I’m the sole organizer of the event, and I have other projects I’m working on.  It simply would not be fair to the screenwriters for me to rush through the judging of their work.  Maybe I’ll bring it back next year though.

UPDATING WEBSITE

Before we launched the filmshift 2011, I had to go through the text of each page on the website and update/change it through Wordpress…which is actually pretty simple, but time consuming.

I really feel bad for Andy at Truly Good Design, my (very patient) web designer who has had to deal with about 3 emails a day from me with different changes I’ve missed on elements of the website that I can’t change myself.  It’s really pretty great working with him, great guy, great designer, on-board with the Local Movement…what more could I ask for?

It’s 12:53 AM and I’m tired…so more of this tomorrow…Sleep well all!

I am excited to announce that Final Draft, the gold standard of screenwriting software, and the industry leading magazine, Script, have agreed to sponsor Filmshift again this year.  I am personally a big fan of both of these products, as I believe that they are essential tools for creating, crafting, and honing a filmmakers’ storytelling skills.

I spent today contacting Filmshift’s Prize sponsors from last year to see if they were interested in sponsoring us for our 2011 festival.  It’s not a very difficult task, just time-consuming.  Negotiations, agreements, contracts, all that…So that I found out so quickly is refreshing, to say the least. 

Once a company does agree to sponsor Filmshift, I connect with Andy at Truly Good Design to add the logos/links to our website.  And after that, I have to make sure that I promote their brand by the Terms that we agreed to.

THE SONS OF THE POTOMAC FILM PROJECT

The “Sons of the Potomac” are the hilarious Improv Acting team of two of my friends, Jack and John, who I met through classes at Improv Boston.  SoP will be performing a string of live shows at Improv Boston this April…Go to the Filmshift Festival Facebook page for more information.

The three of us have talked a bunch of times in the past about producing a series of narrative comedic shorts that I have written but have been laying on the shelf.

I’m currently in talks with 3 separate cinematographers with amazing reels and their own high-end equipment to shoot a number of my projects, and one of the DP’s who I talked to on Thursday is really interested in shooting at least three of the screenplays I wrote for SoP.

And just yesterday, at the After Party for a play that Jack was in, called, “Number The Stars,” (Directed by my sister Samantha,) we talked a bit more seriously about what ideas we like best.  I’m going to try to write a few more ideas between now and April, but we’re all psyched about doing it. 

So now, we have a writer/director/producer, actors on board, and a camera-man tentatively signed on…with all the equipment we need…I’m calling that a good start!  Future posts will go over the process of finding locations, polishing the script, and rehearsing the scenes…So stay tuned!  

I’ve found that many people don’t really understand what goes into setting up one of my film projects or what exactly organizing the Filmshift Festival means.  So, over the next year, I am going to take some time to explain the process as it unfolds. 

The truth is, all of what I now know about making films and all the advice I wish I had 10 years ago would be advice and knowledge that I was not ready to hear and that I would ignore.  That said, I hope some people out there find my updates to be helpful…or at least mildly interesting.

To start, finding experienced technical crew to collaborate with in Boston has proven difficult.  I finally noticed that, despite my best efforts, trying to be a “Team Player” on a project never seems to work…So now, instead of trying to collaborate with people on their projects, now I’m just going to do my own…and since I made that decision, all of my projects have progressed faster than any I’ve attempted in 4 years or so.

As a director, writer, and producer of a number of independent films, music videos and screenplays, my work has been accepted into over 50 film festivals and screenplay contests worldwide.  

If I were to include the films that I worked on as a Production Manager, then that number rises to well above 100 festival acceptances.  This honor is a testament to the hard work, sacrifice, and Full-On blood, sweat, and tears that myself and countless co-workers have put into creating our films. 

One could say then, that I am doing something right.  However, over the same span of time, I have also personally received over 100 rejection letters from film festivals.  So, if one were so inclined, one could also say that I am doing something wrong.  Especially when you consider that overall, my work has been rejected close to 400 times by film festivals worldwide.

Put simply:  As Rob said to Mike: “It’s all how you look at it.”

I bring all of this up because I think a lot of Americans and for sure, most of us indie filmmakers can get caught up in the competitions we win, the laurels we garner, and the “In Yo Face” stories we get to Rock when we are asked “…And what do you do” a our high school reunion.

What our true definition of success should be is simply: Completing a film, putting our thoughts into a tight screenplay, or displaying our talent and hard work On Screen.

We fail if we can’t recognize that we accomplished something great merely by setting a goal and reaching it. 

It doesn’t matter if things didn’t turn out exactly how you first imagined them.  It doesn’t matter if it took longer and cost more than you planned…or even understood that it could.  It doesn’t matter that your film didn’t catapult you to the high heights of Fame And Fortune in Hollywood that you wished for. 

It doesn’t matter.

What does matter is that you completed a film…and that is a special, special thing, my Friends.  It’s much more than most everyone you know will ever attempt to accomplish, and it means more than even a lot of you indie filmmakers reading this fully understand yet. 

Filmmaking is art, and art takes sacrifice…Sacrifice is a big part of what makes  art, Art.  Sacrifice is pretty much the exact opposite of what Riches and Fame offer.  Now, you may want to be both an artist AND be Rich and Famous…and maybe you will be.  But if you’re Number One goal with filmmaking isn’t to simply complete the best film that you possibly can, then regardless of the the outcome, you’re going to be disappointed with the results every time…believe it.

Being Rich And Famous can’t bring you happiness, it can only cover up the fact that you aren’t truly happy, and only for a short while.  Creating something that you put your heart, soul, blood, sweat, tears, hopes, fears, and dreams into and feeling amazingly alive that you did…Creating something that is bigger and more lasting than yourself….Creating something that has meaning to you, you friends, and family…these are the only real things you’ll ever get back from making a film.  So just make films as best as you can and realize that finishing it as best you can is the only goal that matters…and then bask in the glory of your success!

The Gaslight Cafe was a spot in NYC where Bob Dylan played in the 60’s.  It was a place where artists shared their ideas and pooled their inspiration together and created music that was really only important to them .  It never made them famous, but it made them happy. 

Films made Fo Tha Luv will last longer and mean more than films made to prove to everyone in high school that you weren’t such a dork.  Believe it.    

If you see an independent filmmaker, or a socially responsible entrepreneur today, give them a pat on the back.  They may not be Heroes or Saints, but endless hours of life sacrificed and hard-earned money spent all in the pursuit of a dream that they are passionate about earns them at least a pat on the back…just sayin.’