Original subtitles

-Ah, Sundance.

Nestled in the snowy embankments of Park City, Utah,

it's the modern mecca

of cinematic artistic achievement,

a singular utopia for the truly adventurous movie goer

and, by reputation,

the ultimate haven for new voices in independent film.

For a young filmmaker,

there is no better place to be.

Ah, yes, Sundance.

Too bad for us, this isn't it.

**

[ Laughter ]

-It's time to wake up, Larry. -Mm.

-Why do you sleep so late? -I'm not ready yet.

[ Clears throat, coughs ]

[ Sniffles ]

**

-This is your independent feature film, "Ten 'til Noon."

-Who are you?

-We'll get to that in a minute, Larry.

May I call you Larry?

-That's me, I wrote it.

And this guy, that's Scott.

He directed it.

-Action!

-Scott and I had each wanted

to make movies since childhood.

After struggling in vain for years

to forge careers in Hollywood,

we decided to team up and make a small independent movie.

The result was "Ten 'til Noon",

a thriller whose entire 90 minute running time

takes place between 11:50 AM and 12:00 PM on one fateful day.

We raised a little money, made it,

and we're really proud of the end result.

We weren't able to afford any big stars

but we managed to get a great cast,

excellent production values,

sex, action... -Larry!

-...drama... -Did I stutter?

-We even managed to shoot it on actual film

instead of digital video.

How many micro budget movies can say that nowadays?

Yes, we loved our little movie

and unveiled it with a large private screening

at the legendary Pacific Theater in Los Angeles.

-We had a fantastic screening.

About 850 people showed up to our cast and crew screening.

It just couldn't have gone better.

The response was positive across the board.

-After that night, our effort seemed to be paying off

and we genuinely believed

this debut was a sign of the bright future

that lay ahead for us on the film festival circuit.

-I think it's the mark of great things to come.

-We might as well have believed in Santa Claus.

-The biggest misconception

that filmmakers have about film festivals

is they're going to go there,

they're going to show their movie,

someone's going to buy it,

they're going to have a million dollars

and they're going to have a great career!

And it's not that.

-Wait, let's back up a step.

First, we should probably cover

some of the film festival basics.

For example, what exactly is a film festival

and why should filmmakers go to one?

-It's like a trade show.

It's a way to show your product to potential buyers.

Quite often, if you're talking to a distributor about a film

and it's played at Sundance or Slamdance,

it adds credibility to the film.

-I think the thing that filmmakers can get most

out of going to a festival,

to me the most important thing is feedback.

Being able to have your film screened

in front of an audience,

being able to get reviewed,

get feedback from critics,

also get exposure, publicity,

and in some cases your film can even win an award.

-It's all part of building a pedigree of a film.

That in a sense becomes like having a Tom Cruise,

or a Mel Gibson, or an A list star

because to the distributors it says, "Okay,

I've got a theatrical movie."

-In North America, Sundance is pretty much

the most important festival at least in the United States,

then there's the Toronto International Film Festival,

which is very important, South by Southwest in Texas.

The Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, it's rather new.

You can have an independent film playing the festival circuit

almost for a year.

-So it's a long journey. But where to begin?

Answering that simple question isn't easy

because which festival you first play your movie at

or rather, where you have your world premiere,

is the biggest issue in film festival politics.

-I believe that festival programmers

are looking for the best, newest,

freshest content out there

and in many cases they want to have a film's premiere

and in some cases if they don't get a film's premiere,

they may not program it.

-For some festivals, premiere status means something

and it's something you definitely want to protect

sort of your --

you've got to protect where you pop your festival cherry.

-There's a lot of emphasis on where did it premiere,

when is it going to premiere?

For example, if you premiere at Sundance,

you have a really good shot at playing many others.

You don't want to premiere somewhere in a very small,

regional festival

when you haven't gotten the word back

from South by Southwest,

or Tribeca, or Sundance

because if you premiere there,

it's likely that you'll have shot yourself in the foot.

-Oh, I want South by Southwest to be my world premiere.

What if you don't get in

and then you've turned down other festivals

that would have been an opportunity

for a lot of people to see your film?

-A lot of people like to say

that the world premiere of your movie

is a really important event.

I just don't know why

it's just not about having the best festival

and showing the best movies.

-Mindful of our premiere,

we began the process of applying to film festivals.

-Applying to film festivals

is a whole sort of thing in and of itself,

and also being aware of what festivals are out there.

You know, it's like a whole job staying on top

of the festival schedule you know, what's next?

-You have to fill out a form,

sometimes they're four and five pages long.

You also need to submit a press kit,

a DVD or a VHS tape,

sometimes they have to have a special tracking number on it

and a special tracking number

on each and every individual item including the envelope.

Sometimes you have to include a return envelope

if you want materials back because they won't return it

unless you pay for the return.

-This is stuff that you don't really think about

when you're actually making the movie.

-Fortunately, the process of submitting

can be made easier by an online submission service

like we did using Withoutabox.

-Withoutabox was created to empower you as a filmmaker.

-The festival submission system

allows filmmakers to come to Withoutabox,

put all their information into the system.

They don't need to spend all that time

in filling out 20 applications to get to 20 festivals.

When they submit it to one one festival,

Withoutabox knows what that particular festival needs

as opposed to another submission.

-Okay, now for my 900th trip to the post office

this year alone.

-Of course, submitting to film festivals isn't free.

The fees for submission average around $50 apiece

with many of them significantly higher.

This is in addition to the cost of your screener and postage.

-I think the highest I've paid so far is 90.

-Each package that goes out on top of the entry fee,

you're looking at at least another 10, 12 bucks each.

[ Ka-ching! ]

-I am already on track this year to spend over $1,000

in freaking festival submissions.

[ Ka-ching! ]

-My first short film "AdCorp, Inc.,"

I sent it to a lot of places.

Submitting to festivals alone

ended up costing more

than the entire budget of the short.

-Some of these festivals are $85, $95, $100,

what the fuck are they doing with this money?

-99 out of 100 filmmakers

don't get into the festivals they enter

and it's very burdensome every time you enter a movie

if you've got to pay $50 to $100

for a feature length movie and you don't have any money.

-Here we go. -You're fortunate if you get in.

It doesn't seem like such a burden.

But if you're not getting into the festival,

they're just basically taking your cash

to tell you your movie sucks.

-But we were pretty confident our film didn't suck,

so we bravely submitted it

with our sights set first on one particular festival.

**

Yes, Sundance -- the legendary wonderland

where dreams are made.

This was where the little guys got to be big,

where someone could buy your film

for huge piles of money,

where filmmakers like Kevin Smith,

Quentin Tarantino, Bryan Singer, and Ed Burns

had arrived as nobodies and left as legends.

-Sundance was my first film festival.

I'd never gone to a film festival before

and ended up winning the Grand Jury Prize.

Surprise! -If you're in Sundance,

all of a sudden just because you're in Sundance

that's a big thing now.

It takes it from an independent to something else.

-The moment you're announced as one of the competition titles,

now you get inundated with calls from agents,

and studios, and distributors.

You could be somebody from Bumblefuck, New Jersey,

make a movie, wind up at the festival

and get picked up by a distributor.

That's what Sundance represents, the Cinderella story.

Everyone looks to see, like, who's going to pop.

-It's the festival that sets the tone

for the rest of the industry

and it's the most important film festival

in the United States.

-Yes, Sundance,

where our dreams could become reality

except they rejected us.

[ Boom! ]

-I personally think "Ten 'til Noon"

could have been a Sundance film.

I think it's got characteristics

of other films that have played Sundance.

I -- You know, it's just --

it's just...

I don't know the answer why it didn't get into Sundance.

-Not every great independent film makes it into Sundance.

There's no way that they can show everything.

In no way are they able to select the best films.

They select the films that they feel are right for the festival.

-I became obsessed with getting into Sundance.

It's all I could think about.

And then once you don't get in, you're devastated

because you've worked for two years on a film and you're like,

"What do I do now," you know? Other film festivals?

Well, I don't want to be someone's bitch,

I want Sundance. -Some filmmakers

think Sundance is the Holy Grail,

but playing Sundance

definitely does not assure you of the big sale.

Does playing Sundance help your chances? Yes.

Does it guarantee a big sale? Absolutely not.

-So Sundance was no longer a possibility,

but there was another big festival,

one that also played in Park City at the same time.

This was our newest and best hope.

**

-Slamdance started off

as an offshoot of the Sundance Film Festival obviously.

-In the sort of early-to-mid-'90s,

if you didn't get into Sundance forget it --

you wouldn't get distribution,

you wouldn't get an agent, nothing would happen.

If our films don't get in okay

maybe we'll do our own renegade screenings

in Park City as well.

-If Sundance is a counterculture and then it becomes perceived

as being suddenly mainstream,

well then there should be a new counterculture.

-At first we didn't have a name for it.

I said -- we came up with a list of names

and my idea was Loserfest '95.

-I liked their ethic, kind of a punk rock,

DIY film-making ethic

and they've shown some stuff that I thought is brilliant.

I thought, "Why was it not at Sundance?"

-Redford in '98 was quoted as calling us parasites.

That was great.

We've regurgitated that quote for years.

-If Sundance was smart, they would hire Slamdance

and they would make it a separate section of Sundance.

-In addition, Scott had directed a film eight years earlier,

"Burn", which had won an award at Slamdance.

-It was raw, it was powerful. -Scott had also once programmed

for the festival

and one of the actors in "Ten 'til Noon",

Dylan Kussman, had been a programmer as well.

-Yeah.

Yes, Slamdance seemed a perfect fit for our little film.

[ Boom! ]

But they turned us down as well.

And that was just the beginning of the rejections.

**

-When you finish your movie, you think your movie

is the greatest movie ever

and you're going to make it into Sundance.

Well, so then you don't get into Sundance

and so then you say, "Well, I want to be in Park City,

so I'm going to submit to Slamdance,"

and then that doesn't work.

And suddenly, you think in your mind

that your movie fucking sucks.

-I recently got word we didn't get into a specific festival

that I was hoping for.

You know, ran down, got in the car to go to work,

slammed it in reverse and forgot about the fact

that I parked right next to a large cement pillar.

-The thing that I think is really important to remember

is, "A," yes, you probably do suck

because most people do,

but the other is that

just because Sundance didn't accept your movie

doesn't mean it's bad at all.

-There's so many reasons why a film gets reject

that have nothing to do with the pure quality of it.

They have programming objectives or it may be a length thing

and then it is very subjective.

It's like, it just doesn't strike

whoever it is that's making the decisions.

-The first film festival I ever submitted to

was called Raindance, and they rejected us.

We didn't get into Raindance.

Oddly enough, two months later we got into Sundance.

-We did not get into the Cannes Film Festival.

They rejected us several times in French,

and then I finally got to the English part.

-You get that letter, "thank you for submitting,"

"your film was great, but..."

-There's one rejection letter that I got from Slamdance

and it was this incredibly smug letter,

"Love, Lady Slamdance,

designated person to hate for rejecting your film."

They didn't even have the guts to sign the fucking thing.

-Don't let any rejection stop you.

-When you die, your film dies,

not what critics say about you,

not when festivals accept you,

it's when you say I've had enough,

it's over, it's done, I'm going to put this film down

or I'm going to go straight to DVD

or I'm going to try to get it to Netflix,

whatever you're trying to do, that's when it's over.

-Don't give up.

We couldn't afford to, but what's left

when you've been turned down by the big premiere festivals?

-There's a different route to go,

and that is to play the small festivals.

-There's tens of thousands of festivals

all over the world and then there's Sundance.

The other 10,000 festivals,

that's really a gold mine for the independent filmmaker

because that's really where you find your audience.

-There's a whole slew of festivals

and if you don't get one of the big festivals

it's still a good idea

to continue to play around the country.

And the film festival circuit

is like a minor league theatrical if you will.

-Sundance is the stadium of festivals.

It's big.

The smaller, more intimate film festivals

are like seeing your favorite band

at a small bar

where you can make eye contact.

Sundance started that way, screening in makeshift libraries

and high school auditoriums and -- Oh, wait a sec.

They still screen at libraries and high school auditoriums.

Playing the small B-level,

the smaller more intimate festivals,

play those for a year, you know,

a big deal can come out of that.

-Amid all these initial rejections,

there was one festival that wanted us --

the San Francisco Independent Film Festival.

Although they were small and off the beaten path of the business,

they had a reputation for quality films.

-If you take the industry component

away from this festival,

you have this festival. [ Laughs ]

If you take the industry component away from Park City,

there's nothing.

-With no better options,

we decided to let them have our premiere.

-In my opinion, I felt that

this film could have gotten a much larger film festival

for its premiere.

Because they had accepted to the San Francisco Indie,

that really put us in a little bit of a bind with the premiere.

-There's a certain amount of time you have to show your movie

when you have it out.

I think you have a year or 15 months

to show it in the festival world.

-I really think that you can wait to premiere too long.

-You can't hold onto your film too long.

You have to make a choice.

-But that choice to premiere meant one thing --

it was time to spend more money.

**

-I thought you just showed up. It's like a full time job.

Every festival is a full time job.

-You have to provide stills, and publicity materials.

-You have to think about

taking time off from your day job,

because most of us have day jobs.

-Hotel, air fare, food. -You just hemorrhage money.

I get really greedy about my stickers

when I go to a festival

that I feel like is not really watching out for me,

like I'm just wasting my stickers left and right.

[ Laughs ] Those things aren't cheap.

-You have to relentlessly promote your movie all the time,

every day until either you can't take it anymore

or you get restraining orders.

-My biggest piece of advice I pass on to filmmakers

going to a festival for the first time

is manage your expectations.

If you keep them low, great things happen.

**

-So we set off for our world premiere

at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival.

Scott drove, my wife and kids drove,

I flew with Brian, my cousin and one of our producers,

and we all rendezvoused here at the Adante Hotel,

where the festival would comp two of our five nights in town.

-We tried to approach different hotels

and get them to give us some free hotel rooms

for our visiting filmmakers.

-[ Yawns ]

[ Children squealing, laughing ]

-Whoo-hoo!

-[ Sighs ]

[ Squealing, laughing continues ]

-I'm really jonesing for breakfast.

**

-It was the day of our world premiere.

We gathered with our supporters for breakfast and quietly

wondered what every filmmaker wonders --

would anyone actually show up for the screening.

We checked the papers for any mention of the festival

and "Ten 'til Noon." -This is from the Weekly.

They have a picture of Tommy Chong looking through the bongs

and it appears

that they only talk about three movies.

-Variety covers our festival.

It's possible to get a writeup in The Chronicle,

or the SF Weekly, or the Guardian

because we have good journalists here,

we have good independent coverage.

-You could be mentioned right here

with the erotic underground with the picture

with the gentleman with the clamped nipples.

-I don't actually care about publicity

as long as the people

who live here know it's happening.

-Without the aid of media coverage,

we traveled to the Mission District

to promote the film armed with flyers,

cards, and our lanyards

better known as the film festival all-access pass.

-The passes are pretty much all we give to filmmakers.

We don't do the swag, the goodie bags.

-The SF IndieFest badge -- It means you are

a very important person at the festival.

I'm going to put up some flyers and talk the talk

and get people to come see the movie.

-I plan on flashing my breasts to hopefully entice people

to come see the movie.

-* In the night, life is so hard *

-Let's see if I can do this without drawing blood.

-It looks like we're in good company.

There are fewer good places to be in this world

than right under Johnny Montana's ass.

-* Yeah, is this living? *

-They were trying to get us to buy raffle tickets

for AIDS research

and I of course am a filmmaker, so I pled poverty.

But Brian said,

okay if you let us put some of these cards on your table

we'll buy a raffle ticket and give it to you

and then you can donate the proceeds

to whatever you want. -If you win, I want to know.

They're going to sit there and they're going to grab people

all day long on their corner

and it's just something there.

-We are in Phil'z Coffee House.

We are going to ask if we can put a flyer up in their window.

-Go ahead, put it up.

-* All right *

-When in San Francisco, always drink Phil'z coffee.

-Constantly, never stop.

-I'm Jose. I went to college with Paul.

I'm a resident here -- Well, in the Bay Area in Oakland --

and so I'm kind of squiring them about

as they make their Bay Area debut.

-We finally made our way

to SF IndieFest's premiere venue,

the Roxie, a popular arthouse theater

on heavily trafficked 16th Street.

Of course, our premiere wasn't going to be here,

but at the other venue on a quiet residential street

two blocks away,

something called the Women's Building.

**

It wasn't even really a theater.

-I'm not so sure I'm thrilled about this.

**

-There's 300 seats.

-This is actually the beginning of a great film series

that we put together in conjunction

with the SF IndieFest.

Without any further ado, to talk about his film,

Scott Storm from "Ten 'til Noon."

[ Applause ]

-Hello, everybody.

Okay, I'm not used to this sort of thing.

-We've got a whole bunch of independent filmmakers

coming in as part of the SF IndieFest,

and it's a great opportunity for these guys to showcase,

talk about their films,

and do it here in a great public setting.

-We're going to show you a trailer, and I hope you enjoy it

and we'll answer any questions you might have,

and we have a few other things to show you as well.

-While the Apple Store presentation continued,

my three year old son Andy did his part,

handing out a card that read,

"My dad wrote the movie 'Ten 'til Noon,'

and all I got was this stupid card,"

with the screening info written by my wife on the back.

-It's just exciting when you start moving forward.

-It was here we met up

with John Daniel Gavin, the writer, director,

and actor behind "Johnny Montana."

His premiere was later in the festival so he agreed

to help us promote our screening,

now only a few hours away.

-They had your postcards, and we set our stuff

right next to your postcards. -Oh, that's so funny.

It's expensive.

I don't have an investor and I'm doing it.

It cost me like $300

just to print up two big movie posters

for $72 apiece,

35 11x14's of the motorcycle shot --

and I show it and people think it's a motorcycle movie

but it looks great --

and the butt shot and people think it's a porn.

So it's like, what the fuck am I doing here?

I gave this guy in the Pacific Heights

my shot, my butt right,

and he sits there and he goes, "Wow,

this girl's got a great ass."

I'm like, "Yeah, doesn't she?" I'm like, "Dude, it's me."

Why don't we promote your film say around 7:30

around the Roxie? -That's a good idea.

-Yeah, it's right around the corner.

-Yeah, yeah. -We'll head to the Roxie

and start there. -We'll meet here.

I'll meet you guys there at 7:30.

-7:30. -7:30

And you give me postcards. -You got postcards to give him?

-Not now. Don't give them to me now.

Give them to me at 7:30 at the Roxie

because that's when I'm going to do it.

-We'll just canvass the area like crazy.

-And then we'll figure out there.

We'll do a strategy. We'll figure out a plan.

**

-Here we are, standing out from of the Roxie Theater.

We are trying to build our audience,

and we only have a little bit of time left to do it.

There's definitely more foot traffic here

than there is at the Women's Building.

-You know, this Women's Building is scaring me.

It's isolated and shit.

I've got to guy by there and look at it.

Is it isolated? It sucks. -It's a cool building.

-It's a quieter street than this.

-This is my friend's film. It's playing tonight at 9:30.

-I handed out my share of flyers

and tried to pull people into the theater.

I'm not very good at it.

I always feel like I'm, I don't know,

being creepy or something.

Like, do you want to come see my movie?

-I wouldn't go passing out flyers.

I've seen people just wipe their ass with it.

-Sir, sir, can I borrow that shirt?

I can't wear this sweater anymore. It's driving me nuts.

You going to the movies tonight, sir?

Sir? Hey, can I borrow your hat?

-No. -I'm only teasing. [ Laughs ]

-When anyone hands me a flyer or card I got,

so you want me to throw this away?

-My friends have films in festivals

and they're out there passing out the flyers

and trying to get everybody to come to the screening.

I mean, it just doesn't make any sense to me.

-That's one director. Say hi and wave.

-Hello. -The act of standing out,

handing out postcards is a part of the beast.

Yeah, it sucks.

You want a full theater, that's what you've got to do.

-You should go up to people and ask them what time it is

and when they say, "I don't know, it's about 7:30,"

say, "No, it's not! It's 'Ten 'til Noon,'

and it's having its world premiere right down the street!"

-I think as far as a canvass goes

and really getting out there,

you've done quite a bit. -If I don't screen in Tribeca,

man... -It's way too political man.

-I know but my film is New York City gorilla war.

Scorsese would love my film.

If Tribeca doesn't take it, dock me now.

If Tribeca doesn't take it, they're nuts.

You know, they really are nuts.

-Okay, what time is it? -After connecting with one

of our actresses, Rayne Guest,

who had come to support the film...

-Brrr!

-...we headed over to the Women's Building.

-This is it.

And, uh, there is nobody here.

-[ Sighs ]

Very, very quickly they tore down the poster of the movie

that just got out and they put ours up,

so we're set to go.

We have to remind ourselves -- it is a very small festival

that's run out of a van.

I'm really, really disappointed. They hated the movie.

I don't know what I'm going to do now.

I'm just going to go get drunk. -[ Laughs ]

-No, actually it went very well.

[ Indistinct, lively conversations ]

We had a really, really good turnout for our world premiere.

-We've got some people in here. -It couldn't have gone better.

We had very good reactions and I don't know, I'm ecstatic.

-I think it went excellent.

They laughed, they cried, they cheered.

[ Cheers and applause ]

This is our world premiere,

and all you other festivals, you missed out.

You take that to the bank.

**

-Hello, hello, hello. I'm Jason Wiener.

For the past five years running,

I have seen everything at SF IndieFest.

-What do you like about the festival?

-It's all about the movies for me.

It's great movies and you know, great parties afterwards

and unlike other festivals

you can, like, hang out with the filmmakers afterwards

and you don't need these special many hundred dollar passes

to go to the parties.

Everybody gets to party here.

-We're probably the only one that's funded by ticket sales

from the audience

because we don't get any money from anybody,

and no corporate sponsors.

Our sponsors, God bless them, are liquor.

If the audience doesn't like what we're presenting

and they don't come, we're finished.

-I made a rule for myself that if I wasn't having a great time,

I didn't have to see everything,

I could take a night off, but it was just too good.

I had to see everything. -Many, if not most filmmakers

are completely clueless

when it comes to how to make what they've made

appealing to an audience.

Sex, violence, perversion.

You understand my audience. -[ Laughs ]

[ Gunshot fires ]

-This is "Jimmy and Judy",

the film that dominated and won

the San Francisco Independent Film Festival.

Sure, they had a star, Edward Furlong,

but they also had an army of supporters, merchandise,

and their posters were absolutely everywhere.

They even got to premiere at the Roxie.

So how were these indie filmmakers able to afford

such an inescapable promotional blitz?

**

-The main reason why we did so well in San Francisco,

we got funding, and then once we hit the film festival circuit,

we went back and asked

for an additional round of funding.

What came out of my pocket

and really killed me up there was the beer factor.

A week before the festival started,

I was staying at the Adante,

and I went to all the college bars

by myself, buying people drinks,

handing out business cards, handing out flyers.

I ended up buying the film festival guys beer,

and buy everyone beers.

-To further their success, the "Jimmy and Judy" team

also excelled at handling the film festival staff.

-[ Snores ] -You show them

how appreciative you are,

you give them posters, you give them t-shirts,

you take them to dinner, you buy them beers.

We hung out with those guys almost every single night.

I think we won the staff award

because they had a lot of fun with us

and the crowd that we brought.

I don't care about the ceremony,

but I just wanted to know if we won

and the film festival ended

and then we heard a rumor that we may have won,

then we heard a rumor that another film won.

I called Jeff Ross and I said, "Jeff, what the fuck?

Did we win or not?"

And he didn't return my phone call for a day or so.

Then I shot him an e-mail, called him again,

and he said, "Yeah, it looks like you did. You won."

I just want like, a little plaque or something

maybe just a little tiny trophy

or just something that says we won.

We got nothing.

**

-So it was official -- we'd premiered

and were now forever a small festival movie.

But we kept thinking about Sundance.

Why hadn't we gotten in?

We thought maybe we just weren't good enough,

-Really? -...but then we noticed

no one else we knew was getting in,

and no one they knew was either.

So we couldn't help but wonder --

where was Sundance getting its movies?

-I think this is an experience that a lot of filmmakers have.

In the early '90s, every year it seemed

that there was somebody that came out of nowhere

that made a film, you know, with pocket change,

with their credit cards,

and year after year after year

it became this amazing discovery.

-There was a period there where Miramax or New Line

or some company would come in

and buy some small film for some insane amount of money.

-When they started, it was like,

"Oh, those buddies over at Miramax.

Yeah, come on over. You can be a sponsor.

We'll show your film."

And there was nothing wrong with that.

But as Miramax became part of Disney

and started imposing their films onto Sundance

and Sundance felt obligated,

they got into a lot of you know, conflicts of interest.

-Those big money guys

started to have some influence on the festivals.

If you're letting all the buyers influence

what even gets in this fucking thing,

it's not about film anymore.

It's about the industry.

-To me, Sundance is a victim of its own success.

It's become overtaken by the sponsors,

by the Indiewood studios so to speak.

When you've got the number one story over the weekend

is that Paris Hilton was at Sundance,

something is wrong.

-It really isn't an independent film festival anymore.

It's this stepchild of, you know, the studios.

-It's definitely not what it used to be.

And what it's really become and what it definitely is,

is a back door market for independent film.

-It's backed by many majors

that are studios but aren't studios,

and they like to call it independent film

because it gives it some sort of street cred

but it actually really isn't.

-You can't just repackage

a huge multi-million dollar movie

and call it independent. It's just not true.

-"The Butterfly Effect" with Ashton Kutcher --

Ashton Kutcher --

premiered at Sundance.

What?!

-The Sony classics, the Warner "independents",

they have the power to pretty much program Sundance.

The word independent has sort of been pre-empted,

it's been stolen by the majors.

-You're competing against a studio that's like,

"Yeah, we made an indie.

You know, its a $10 million film

and it's got Dave Duchovny in it.

Suddenly it was like you can't be the film from nowhere,

you know, that just kind of explodes.

-I think it's almost impossible

for a small independent movie

that is a true independent movie

to get into any big festival

at this point in time.

-If we made "Clerks" today and submitted it to Sundance,

I don't think it would get in, I really don't.

-Lowering the chances of getting programmed even further

were the sheer number of independent films being made.

In 2008, over 2,000 narrative features

were submitted to Sundance,

with only 16 competition slots available at the festival.

-Now, everybody can make an independent film

with a camera just like this one.

-There are hundreds of thousands of young people

who are trying to make their own damned movies

and a lot of them are making garbage.

-The medium has been democratized

to the point where anybody can make an indie flick

and I think our story had a lot to do with that

because they look at "Clerks" and they're like, "Shit,

if chimps like them can make a flick,

I'm going to make a flick too."

-I only wish that people understood that

just because you can make a movie on a digital camera

doesn't mean you should.

-A lot of filmmakers I meet

will often have a sense of entitlement

like "I made a film so that's enough."

It's like, no.

-We submitted a film to Slamdance and Sundance

and our film was not watched by any of the programmers

because if our film was watched,

we would have been in the festival.

-My understanding is that Sundance

has this sort of open door policy for return filmmakers.

If you've had a movie

that's been accepted to Sundance once,

if you make another film, you get preferential treatment

to return as a Sundance alumni.

They're much less open to looking at new filmmakers

because there's just so many of them.

-Still, Sundance was getting its movies from somewhere.

So how does one actually get in?

-I don't know how people get into Sundance anymore.

It's not the simple process of sending in your film,

and hope that they watch it and come on.

-In my opinion, the only way you're going to

get into the Cannes Film Festival,

the Sundance Film Festival,

the Toronto Film Festival, you've got to have juice

and I don't mean people whose names are Goldstein,

I don't mean those kind of juice.

I mean juice!

You've got to have Mr. CAA,

you've got to have some fucking door opener

because the gatekeepers are keeping everybody out.

-The idea of having an in at the festival

is generally a myth.

I've never spoken to a single filmmaker

who had their film in who said, "Well, you know,

I really pulled some strings to get this in."

Not once, ever.

-There was a film that I saw that sucked ass

and they got into one of the major film festivals.

I was like how did you get into that festival?

He said, "Well, it was real easy.

We rented out a private theater in Los Angeles,

we flew the guy in first class,

we had a private screening for him,

we took him to a steak dinner,

then we took him to a strip club,

flew him back first class,

the next thing you know we're in the festival.

-You think John Sloss

or any producer rep whose on board the big ones,

do you think they have to go through the process

of we're going to submit this film?

-We've got all these producers, reps, and studios,

and studio heads, and agents,

and producers -- They're all getting in there.

Everybody is knowing each other,

rubbing elbows at fucking cocktail parties,

I need this film in.

-Let's say I represented "Ten 'til Noon"

and I'm trying to get it into Sundance,

well, it's me and "Ten 'til Noon"

versus the head of Sony and Joey Pantoliano

calling with his new movie. -How are you?

-Who's going to win? Who do you want standing up

in front of the crowd of people at your festival?

Do you want us, the losers [Laughs]

or do you want Joey Pants and the head of Sony?

I want Joey Pants.

-It has nothing to do with connections,

or contacts, or who you know, or who's in your movie,

or some phone calls some dude at CAA made

to Geoffrey Gilmore or whatever.

All the stuff has to do with the merit of the project.

So, yes. Oh, yeah.

-Not enough of this.

Gotta do some more of that

if you want to get into the big festivals.

-So bypassing the regular submission process

and having an in can increase your chances,

but is there anything else that can help?

-Unless you have star power or names attached to your movie,

it's very difficult go get into these big film festivals.

-Ah, so having big name actors in your movie can help you

get programmed

even if it's a documentary, just like this one.

We asked world famous movie star Traci Lords what she thinks.

-I think that it absolutely helps

having famous people in your movie.

If that weren't true,

I wouldn't be in this movie right now.

**

[ Ding! ]

-Any time you get a celebrity to do anything for you,

it definitely ups the ante.

**

-Having an actor who is named in your film

without a doubt is going to play some part in the potential

that it can play at film festivals.

Sundance certainly.

-They take the ones that have name actors

and watch them first and make what's called a short list.

Stars get flown into Sundance and they get put up.

There's a budget to take care of them.

-Do people cut in front of the line you know,

because they have movie stars? Yes, absolutely.

Bad movies with the right name,

that gets into Sundance, you know, absolutely.

-That makes the program look good, you know?

It's like we've got some movie too with such and such in it.

-For all the filmmakers out there who work so hard

to achieve their dreams, they're going to be batted down

because Robert De Niro is not starring in their film?

It's just fucking ridiculous.

-Sundance is often accused of focusing, you know,

you've got all these movies with stars.

Yeah, they've got a chunk of movies with stars.

And then they have all of the journalists

that only care about the small percentage of movies

that have stars and that's lazy.

It's bullshit.

-If you look in the program,

you still do have a lot of the small indies.

-It will never be a day where Sundance is populated

by first time directors and no name actors.

I think we're in a place

where they sprinkle the independent spirit around.

-Sundance is so big, and it's so much the premiere festival,

I don't know what they do really for independent film.

And it sort of upsets me

that there can't be more for the rank and file filmmaker.

-Sundance ain't doing what Sundance means,

and the proof of the failure of Sundance

is that there is a universe of little film festivals

that have grown up around Sundance.

-Which leads us back to the Sundance alternative, Slamdance.

Why had they rejected us?

They were supposed to be the anti-Sundance.

-We're not looking for names to help decide

whether a film is going to be programmed or not.

We're just as interested in a no or low budget picture

to tell a great story.

That could be obviously a documentary.

Documentaries have become very big at Slamdance now.

-Hm, documentaries you say?

Slamdance had even played Scott's first film,

but as it turns out, that was the problem.

-We made a very clear definition of what is a Slamdance film.

For our future competition,

they have to be first time directors.

Now we've got a lot of alumni filmmakers, and you know what,

they don't get into Slamdance a second time.

-My name is Dan and I'm one of the founders of the festival.

Thank you all for coming.

We always have about three or four what we call

special screening slots.

Over the years, they've tended to be films

by second time directors

who are usually alumni, although not by any stretch always.

-There's a separate programming committee

that does special screenings.

We turn down several alumni each year,

including our co-founder's films.

-It's very competitive for the special screening slots.

I mean, a lot of those alumni either have been programmers

or are friends with all the other programmers

and, you know, it would be a lie to say

that there wasn't some sexual favors going on.

-Of course there were other alternative festivals

in Park City,

but the question was were they worth playing?

-The success of Sundance at Park City

has created numerous

other festivals with "dance" at the end of their name.

-There are all these alternate film festivals.

There was Slamdance, which is a perfectly legitimate festival,

then there was Slumdance, then there was No Dance,

then there was It Dance, and then there was Troma Dance

and it just went on and on.

And at the very height of all of this,

there were festivals that were renting

empty storefronts on Main Street

and there were other festivals

that were created inside a trailer

and these people were insane.

-Besides Sundance and Slamdance,

I'm not too sure how valuable those festivals are.

The buyers and the marketplace

is there to see the competition films at Sundance.

They're not there to go sit in a wooden chair

in a 20 seat makeshift theater in one of the smaller venues.

**

-This is "29 Reasons to Run",

a film by Damon O'Steen and Gary Weeks.

**

Damon and Gary decided to play "29 Reasons"

at one of these alternative Park City film festivals,

although at the only one

whose name didn't end with the word "dance."

-You know, if we can't get into Sundance,

we can get in this Park City Film Music Festival

and still be at Sundance to network

and try to get people to come to the film.

-It's an interesting concept, it's an interesting festival.

It's the only one I know of

that's entirely dedicated to film music.

-We go straight from the airport to the festival.

Our screening's at one and there's no one there.

There's not even anyone there to start the film for us.

-We don't get a lot of support from the Chamber of Commerce

or Film Commission or anybody

because they don't want us to have it during Sundance.

They want us to do it at another time of the year

and draw a whole bunch of people here.

But I'm not willing to put that much work into it.

-Other than Slamdance, I think

those other offshoot festivals are kind of a waste of time.

I think you'd be better off

screening your film in a bathroom

at like, you know, a Red Lobster or something.

-And then, there's Troma Dance. -Troma Dance!

Nice shirt. Looking dapper. Come to Troma Dance.

-Troma Entertainment is a New York based

independent film studio

that's been around since 1974.

This is why Troma Entertainment

established the Troma Dance Film Festival

to try to bring back the word "independent"

to Park City, Utah.

They were basically excluding independent art

and they were catering to the vassals of the giant,

devil worshiping, international conglomerates.

-Come to Troma Dance, guy in SUV.

-The people who come to Troma Dance

are for the most part independent filmmakers.

They're young, they're idealistic,

we get a condo, everybody sleeps on the floor,

everyone who works on Troma Dance is unpaid.

-Rich people, come to Troma Dance.

-The little independent filmmakers

who come to Sundance are treated horribly.

They're not allowed to hand out leaflets.

-Park City regulations state that you cannot hand out flyers.

You can get ticketed, I'm sure if you piss somebody off enough

you can get arrested.

Somebody told me, a law student told me

the only reason they can get away with it

is because it's only a temporary suspension

of your First Amendment Rights.

-There's two or three bulletin boards

where they put up their little handmade leaflets

and then immediately HBO guys who are paid,

they come up with these huge posters

and slap them right over

the little independent filmmakers.

-They have these kiosks set up all over Main Street.

-So, 4:00 in the morning I go there with 50 posters

or so, smaller posters,

I'm punching those things up.

It's got to be 10 degrees. I got them all up there.

I mean, I had them littered,

they're all over every kiosk I could possibly get them on.

Fast forward to 10:30, 11:00, you could see one of them.

-The first designated kiosk just up to the left.

-Troma Dance, we have a big army of volunteers,

so we're kind of winning that war.

-You'd see a big poster for some movie

and then 2 second later 50 Troma Dances.

-Yeah, you're just like, "Whoa."

-I put up one poster for my movie

and try to be nice to the other filmmakers.

-Trust me, these are going to be covered up

in about 15 minutes. -I was just walking up and I saw

that they had covered up one of the kiosks

and I was like that's fucking obnoxious.

This Icelandic filmmaker came out

and put up her poster and, you know, did she --

should she put up 50 posters

and cover up everybody else's? -She's going to have

to because that's what Park City has turned into.

-She didn't, yeah, but it doesn't have to be that.

That's obnoxious. -I tell you what,

you tell us what your movie is and we'll leave it alone.

-I understand about trying to get visibility,

but it really is about being collegial and respectful

of the filmmakers that worked really hard to get here.

-Thank you. Thank you for sharing.

-As a filmmaker, I wish you would stop doing that.

-In complete honesty,

I stapled over other people's posters.

-You could build homes, I think,

with how thick that stuff was by the end of it.

I'm serious, I think you go to Home Depot

you could look up, you know, Sundance,

they actually have Sundance wood

and it's just those pressed papers.

-We are fighting a war

against the oppressive conglomerates,

the conspiracy of elites.

-The key is the homeless gloves, dexterity.

-The important thing is keep your dignity.

That's what's important.

**

-Next up for us

was the Riverside International Film Festival,

held about an hour away in Riverside, California.

Taking a cue from "Jimmy and Judy" and the success they had

socializing with the festival staff,

we wanted to make sure we attended

the Riverside Opening Night Gala,

which would precede the opening night film.

-We are headed to the opening night ceremony

of the Riverside International Film Festival.

We need to drive 70 miles in the rain,

although it looks like the rain has subsided temporarily.

-The gala starts, on the invitation that they sent us,

it says 6:30 and the movie starts at 8:00.

-Every gala that I've been to has never started on time.

-We left two hours ago.

They're going to be partying for maybe another hour

until they go into the opening night film

and it looks at this rate

that we'll be there maybe in time for half hour,

twenty minutes of hello,

how are you doing schmooze

and then turn around and go home.

The event that we have been invited to attend

is over in 20 minutes.

I am starving to death. -With this rain coming down,

do either of you guys have to pee?

Between the hunger and the pee,

I don't know which one hurts more.

[ Laughter ]

-We're potential new people.

We're here just in time for everything to be over.

It took us three hours to get here.

-We're just heading over to the theater now.

-Is there any champagne left?

-There might be some champagne left.

[ Indistinct, lively conversations ]

-Wanna grab some food?

-How long does it take for cheese to go bad?

Oh, shit.

[ Snap ] Oh, shit!

[ Laughter ]

I broke the cheese knife. [ Laughs ]

-I just want to tell everybody I'm so glad to be here.

I'm sorry we're late.

I mean, the traffic and the rain were just terrible

but I mean, "Ten 'til Noon" playing at Riverside.

We are just so excited.

Thank you so much, and we'll be around for the Q&A.

[ Applause ]

**

So this is the beautiful

and quite desolate Riverside campus.

We're trying to get university students

interested in coming to see "Ten 'til Noon."

Perhaps we'll actually see some today.

It's called "Ten 'til Noon".

-You guys made it? -We made it, yeah.

He's the screenwriter and I'm the director

and one of the stars

and we're playing at 8:00

at the theater right down the street.

-You guys going to be there any other time?

-No, just tonight at 8:00, but it's going to be --

we're playing San Fernando Film Festival in March,

exactly a month from today.

-What's it about?

I would but I've got -- my friend is performing

in a dance thing in San Bernardino so...

-Our movie is playing tonight at 8:00.

-No, we've got a gig tonight.

-Yeah, we've got a gig tonight. Sorry.

We're going to play a song for you right now

because that's what we're doing here.

-That's what we're doing here. -Ready?

-Yeah. [ Samisens playing ]

[ Playing stops ]

-Does anybody want to see a movie?!

It's only 8 bucks!

[ Playing resumes ]

-Two for "Ten 'til Noon".

[ Playing stops, applause ]

-Oh, my God. Uh...

-You gonna fill me in?

-Riverside.

-We do have our filmmaker with us, Scott Storm.

-Does anybody have any questions at all? Yes?

The Q&A typically is after you've shown your film

to an audience at a festival.

You go down to the front of the theater

and just field questions.

Anything outside the parking lot

like Mr. Duke walking to his car, we totally grabbed that.

We almost got nabbed by the cops.

-I love doing Q&A.

I hope that when I'm doing a Q&A

I can inspire somebody else to do their project.

-That's when you're getting the feedback about your film

and you're being challenged just by the questions

and you're being asked to think about things

that perhaps you didn't think about.

-The most embarrassing thing is when you go down there

and say "Hey, thank you for coming to the screening,

does anybody have any questions?"

Dead silence.

"Well, okay, bye."

-The only way that you're going to be able to judge

if your film is successful or not

is how many people stick around for the Q&A.

If you have a massive bailout during your end credit roll,

it gives them plenty of time to escape

because they think it sucks

and they'd just rather avoid seeing you.

This is also the mark of a cult film.

Half of the audience goes,

and then half of them are like all of a sudden

are just geeky about it

and asking you all kinds of weird things,

then you've probably got a cult film.

-A lot of times you get the exact same questions

from screening to screening.

What's your budget? -What did you shoot on?

-Where did you come up with the idea for the movie?

-How long did it take?

-What movie are you going to do next?

There's nothing wrong with it.

I mean, it's sort of interesting to see how your answers change.

-Me, it's nerve wracking.

It took a while for me to get used to it

because you have all these faces staring at you.

Some of them are like this, some of them are like this.

-In a way, it makes it all worth it.

To finally get to stand up and talk about it is,

you know, fulfilling.

-It's fun except when they ask you, you know,

questions like why do you suck.

That's no good.

I get that a lot.

-And thank you so much for being here.

[ Applause ]

**

-Where are all the film festival closing things

happening exactly? What room?

-In this room right here. -It's all going to be in here?

**

-We started this about four years ago.

We skipped one year in between.

Our goal is to bring international films

to entertain the audience.

**

The commercial movies,

they get their glory everywhere, so it's no big deal.

You can't expect miracles to happen overnight

and have a big festival overnight.

But it's just getting bigger and better.

**

-Our mission statement includes

really provocative leading edge films

from independent directors and producers.

What we want to do

is Hollywood to come and do business here with us.

**

-Yes, my movie is called "Beyond Honor."

This first award is to a film called "Beyond Honor."

[ Applause ]

-Riverside was the first festival we attended

with an actual awards ceremony

and the first one to ask for our autograph.

-Cool, now I feel like a celebrity.

-Riverside was also the first festival

where we received swag.

Swag, or "schwag" as it's sometimes pronounced,

is a term referring to the free stuff

given out to participants at film festivals.

It's actually a clever anagram

for souvenirs, wearable, and gifts

or perhaps more accurately, shit we all get.

We we thrilled. The stories of swag

at the major film festivals were legendary.

-As far as the swag goes,

just like everything else with, you know, Sundance,

it's gotten bigger, and bigger, and bigger every year.

This year I got a parka, a vest, a hat, a shirt,

and then there are all the corporate sponsors.

Some of them are official, many of them are not.

I drive a Volkswagen,

so Volkswagen gave me a box of stuff.

-Filmmakers should get as much free crap as possible

because their movies are screening for free

at the festival. -You get the swag from Sundance

but then you go to all the different parties

and you never know what -- you can come back with a rifle.

Hey, look at that! -There are shops up and down

that have been taken over by some of the sponsors.

-Have you had your Airborne today?

-You could walk away literally

with a truckload of stuff that you hadn't paid for.

-My lady's like, "I want to go see the places

where you can go around and get free shit."

I said, "I hate doing that, man. We got money now."

It's like, the time to get free shit was when we were broke.

Now we can buy things. Don't partake in that.

But being my wife and being that she controls the pussy,

of course I had to go with her.

It's weird, you can walk away with a refrigerator.

I was just like, "The fuck? How do you get that home?"

And they just ship it to you. I'm like, "Why?"

They're like, "Because you're fabulous."

And it's weird to me.

-Remember when Uggs were really hard to get?

I've never worn them.

-Are there levels of swag?

Everybody always talks about wonder what the celebrities get.

-I got Halo 2 at a film festival as some swag

and my husband was pretty excited about that.

-I went to the Tribeca Film Festival

because my best friend was in a film.

He got a Nintendo, I got a Gameboy.

It was the most upsetting day of my life.

-They gave me some beautiful --

-Breasts?

-People chase you down the street

trying to give you like, computers and cameras

and you're like, "No,

I don't want another electric toothbrush!

Leave me alone!

-What I do now when I get the schwag as they call it

is I'm the master at re-gifting.

I do like the electronics.

Unopened.

What the -- Oh, in case I want to return it.

This is actually... from my manager.

This is not a from a festival.

But it's the video iPod.

Because I already, you know,

I already have three or four iPods.

-Yes, the swag at the big fests was something to dream about.

So naturally we were excited

to see what goodies the Riverside Festival had given us.

-This is the Riverside schwag bag.

Let's see what's inside.

A City of Riverside coaster.

A City of Riverside key chain,

a purple Post-It pad,

a big large envelope

with the City of Riverside printed on it,

which contains a brochure about the City of Riverside.

Apparently, it's a city of choices.

There is a CD called the City of Choices,

which I'm sure is full of many, many, many choices in Riverside.

A schedule, which is now completed,

and an extra Riverside Film Festival

keepsake brochure/schedule type thing

to commemorate our being at Riverside Film Festival.

In all honesty, it really was a fantastic experience

and these are very, very generous gifts.

EBay.

-You just broke it. -I broke it.

I broke the Riverside --

[ Laughter ]

Oh, there's something else.

-Riverside condoms?

-A Riverside cuff link.

-Only one? -Just one.

[ Laughter ]

Okay, I need a drink.

-I've heard stories about people getting cellphones and jewelry

and plane tickets to Australia.

You know, we get like, pencils, coasters, and t-shirts.

That sucks.

-I got a hat with no label on it one time.

I got like, you know,

at Vail, we got a bunch of aftershave.

-A CD thing. -Laxatives.

-It's a Chili's menu. A dead rose.

-We had kind of some stuff laying around the office.

Here's a notebook and here's some pens, you know?

-All the swag really is, is little bite-sized portions

of the corporate advertising for the festival.

If the party is sponsored by Absolut Vodka,

you get a little bottle of Absolut Raspberry.

-An apparent Sundance channel pen,

brochure for using the train,

Mr. Zog's Sex Wax,

I have no idea what this is.

-Yeah, take advantage of all that free swag

because it's pretty much all you get.

-Frigidaire was kind of tempting though.

Even though we have a refrigerator,

I was like, "It's fucking free.

We can throw it upon eBay, make a few bucks," you know?

But I don't know. I haven't gone that route yet.

It hasn't gotten that bad.

A couple years from now and shit

when nobody gives a fuck about Jay and Silly Bob and whatnot,

believe me I'll be going to film festivals,

catching me a free fridge,

throwing it on eBay to pay the rent.

-The unthinkable has happened.

We are in two festivals simultaneously.

-It was true. We'd been accepted to

the San Fernando Valley International Film Festival,

or VIFFI,

and the Phoenix Film Festival,

with both sets of screenings and awards ceremonies

taking place during the same weekend.

-I'm not really sure how we're going to deal with it right now

because I certainly can't be two places at once.

Missing a festival screening

really is not something that makes me very happy.

If you actually get accepted to a festival and then you miss it,

you might not get the support that you ordinarily would have.

-The Phoenix Film Festival

had agreed to cover our hotel and airfare,

so it seemed natural that we'd choose to attend them,

until we received a call from VIFFI.

-Just got off the phone with Randy Salter.

He asked me finally point blank in an e-mail,

"You're coming to the closing night gala right?"

I said, "I really can't go

because I have to be in Phoenix."

He said, "You know, it's really in your best interest

to be at the closing night."

"Why?" He's like, "Because you have

a very good shot at winning an award."

-[ Laughs ]

-This is called the tip off.

Usually, if you're going to win

at a festival, you'll get one of these.

But no one is supposed to know this, so don't tell anyone.

Amazingly enough, VIFFI actually rescheduled their event

so we could attend both festivals.

And all was well

until another conflict arose with VIFFI,

this time regarding our Los Angeles premiere.

It all started when we received a phone call

from another LA based festival, Method Fest.

-The Method Fest is the only film fest in the United States

that puts its focus on the actor.

We believe the core ingredient in great films

is sensational actings

and really strong, powerful stories.

-That was Don Franken at Method Fest

and he basically is calling to say

"We really like your film."

This is a much better film festival

than the Valley Film Festival.

We've never even heard of the damned thing.

I really think you're doing your film a disservice

by playing there instead of here.

We really need an answer from you at the end of the day.

The Valley Film Festival had been really good to us.

How do you make decisions based on this kind of stuff?

It's -- It drives me fucking crazy.

-We've experienced that in the past

where one festival had said

to somebody whose already been selected,

"We will show your premiere,

but you have to pull from all your other festivals."

I don't get it.

We've never had any kind of proprietary position

that way. -We, like any quality festival,

are looking for as many premieres as possible.

We look for world premieres or US premieres.

-Film programmers are lemmings.

They ask you first if you're a premiere

and then say, "Thank you very much,

we're just checking," and then hang up.

That means you're out because you're not a premiere

and those are the festivals that suck

because all they care about is something that's new,

not something that's good.

They just figure "oh, I have 40 world..."

I could have nothing but world premieres

if I just wanted to show a bunch of crappy movies.

-We're disappointed that so many festivals

strong arm filmmakers into coming to their festival.

-Everyone cares about premiere status and it's a fantastic

and fun thing to say this is a world premiere.

Having said that, to let filmmakers show their film

you can't tell them don't screen at another festival

because I want you to premiere at mine.

It's underhanded and it hurts the film ultimately.

-Every festival fights over films

and we all act like friends,

but its fiercely competitive.

-I feel that the public wants to see the films,

the filmmaker should have a right to have their film seen.

I don't really think it makes that much of a difference

if it just shows at one festival.

I think it's better to show at multiple festivals.

-In my mind, I go with the people

who are good to us and do good things for us

and every way you turn, you're going to piss somebody off

and I don't know what the hell to do about it.

I just want to throw my fucking phone.

Yeah, I mean, I have to tell you that, if we had --

'cause we submitted a while ago, you know --

and...

Well, I've been told that by...

I...

Every festival needs to run it that way,

you need to give everyone equal consideration

and, yeah, you would have totally been...

And...

The fact is VIFFI has been really good to us.

They actually changed our screening

so we were able to go to Phoenix as well as theirs.

Yeah, it's a matter of being to our word.

We would rather play small festivals

than play nowhere at all because the big boys passed.

It's just not an option for us.

It's a matter of you can't sit on your film all year long

waiting for the big festivals to make up their mind.

I quite honestly think these rules

are pretty ridiculous.

If your film is good it's good.

But it just seems to be a very ego-driven thing.

One festival bad mouthing another,

trying to undercut saying

we're better than them for this reason,

we're better than them for that reason.

And the poor filmmakers with their small movies

are just sort of caught in the middle

being bashed back and forth

and it's really kind of violent in a way.

**

-We're reporting live from VIFFI,

the Valley Independent Film Festival

of something I don't know.

-I want to welcome you all to the festival.

The wine is free of course, have some wine, have some food.

-The reason why we volunteer is the free drinks and food.

[ Laughs ] For the unemployed actresses,

it's a big deal.

-Phenomenal, phenomenal films this year.

The things you people created,

I want to thank you for participating.

Enjoy the festival, enjoy your screenings,

you deserve it and have a very, very good time.

**

-Saw the postcard, checked out the trailer,

and I was like, "Hey, we're going.

It was playing like, a block away from my house

but I had a prior engagement.

-Hey, it's that guy we met at the Riverside Film Festival.

-What's it about? I would but I've got --

my friend's performing a dance thing in San Bernardino so...

-This is Justin Hoffman,

and I thanked him for traveling the 70 miles to see our movie.

-It's worth it. Well, we'll see, right?

[ Laughter ]

-This is our first day of screenings.

We've had a fantastic day.

Terrific shorts this morning,

some great features this afternoon.

The quality of the films this year has been phenomenal.

-Congratulations, honestly, it was awesome.

-Loved it, loved it!

-What did you think of the film? -I thought it was great.

-It was awesome honestly.

I'm looking forward to anything you guys do in the future.

-I've been here since 4:30

because I like to kind of watch things happen.

I'm getting the vibe now that we didn't win anything

because both of the guys like Greg,

the long haired guy, they just won't talk to me.

They're like, "Oh, hey, what's up?"

**

-There is a lot of work involved in the gala.

Securing celebrities to present,

securing honorees.

-And celebrities there were

including Jonathan Winters, Gary Owens,

Fred Willard, Adrian Zmed,

Lorenzo Lamas, Esther Williams,

Linda Blair, and Lassie.

-It's not Lassie, it's actually

a ninth generation granddaughter of Lassie,

so genetically as close as you're going to get

for this day and age.

-This has lived up to the caliber

of the San Fernando Valley Film Festival.

-I've been to a lot of film festivals, you know,

from Venice to Cannes, to Berlin, to the Sundance,

and this is kind of the most natural.

[ Laughter ]

-It's only 10 blocks from my house.

-We were up at 5:00 AM on the day of the gala

in there doing dry runs,

making sure everything is working right

because it really is the grand finale of the event.

-The feature film is undeniably one of the richest forms of art.

To have some idea of these riches,

just look at the homes of our top directors.

[ Laughter ]

-The award goes to

Best Narrative Feature award "Ten 'til Noon."

[ Cheers and applause ]

-This was totally unexpected. I'll try to be really quick.

I know it's late. -It's the most fun when you win!

Imagine that. -It's a good feeling.

It's a really good feeling

because you feel like at least I got some recognition.

-Than you so much and everybody at the awards here.

It may be a small festival, very young festival,

but they gave us the vote of confidence tonight.

"Ten 'til Noon" won the Best Narrative Feature award.

And I can't complain anymore, I mean,

unless I drop this.

[ Glass shatters ]

-And now, a few words about programmers.

-Who are these people watching your film anyway?

Who are these people watching your film?

Who are they?

-I found it very difficult.

I watched a little over 130 movies,

and it was just a big time commitment.

-When I'm programming a film festival,

I'll easily be looking at a few hundred movies

and I go through them all.

-The reason there's 10 screeners for 2,000 films

and most of them get rejected is because they're shit.

-You get exited like, "Oh, I'm going to program!"

And you start going through the submissions

and you're like, "Wait a minute.

I haven't really found anything here that could actually play."

Like, and your heart starts breaking and you're like,

"I want out of this gig.

I don't want to do this. Like, somebody else help me out."

-I'm programming for Slamdance. I'm a loser.

I'm programing for Slamdance.

I'm watching movies every day, bad ones.

-I know a lot of people are really wary about

whether programmers are actually watching movies like,

did they actually watch my movie?

I paid $50 to get in, you know,

and I didn't even hear anything back.

-Yes, start to finish, I never cheated a movie

out of its entire screening time.

-Really? -No, that's a lie.

-So programmers are overloaded with submissions

and with so many bad ones,

good films can get lost in the shuffle.

-I never just submit a film.

Don't harbor this fantasy

that you're just going to make a brilliant film

and then everybody is going to stand up and take notice.

There's a lot of great films floating around out there.

-I don't suggest just put your film in the mail.

I suggest doing these tricks.

I suggest in doing some tricks why not send a blank DVD?

Why not put the DVD case in, send it blank

and see if they call you to say that it's blank

and if they don't call you, you call them

and you'll find out if they go it.

Oh yeah, we watched it, you know, we're a selective team

and we're going through the process,

you know what I'm saying?

And you'll know if they did their job.

I sent a blank DVD to San Francisco Indie Film Fest,

Bruce Fletcher, and he called me

and I'm like, "Why would I send a blank DVD?

Are you sure it was blank?"

"I opened up my own mail and I know it's blank."

and I'm like, "All right, I'm going to send the DVD."

And then when he gets the DVD and he opens it and it's there.

It's sort of like a girl in a way.

It's like pre-foreplay.

You established a dialogue with them now

because they called you to say it's a blank DVD.

"Oh, my God, I'm sorry. I made a mistake."

And then you can say, "Well, yeah.

It's this film I wrote, directed and, starred.

I shot it around New York."

And you've got like 30 seconds to get their attention.

-It really helps to seek out programmers

wherever you think they might be

and make a personal connection with them.

-At every festival, you walk in

and you can tell who is the Director of Programing.

They have these self-esteem issues going on

and so they really want to be somebody important

and so they get up on stage

and you know, it's like, "Oh, yes.

I'm such and such, I'm the Director of Programming."

-Filmmakers have done some very interesting things

to try and get their films programmed.

-Someone gave us a computer once,

Heidi Van Lier,

and her film mysteriously got in the festival that year.

-We have had offers of meals, free trips,

very provocative photos sent in.

-We're quite forthright on our website

that we accept bribes. [ Chuckles ]

We're not above that.

I mean, we tell people "Look,

if you can bring chocolates, or beer or liquor of some kind

to the office staff, that's not going to hurt."

-I've actually received some death threats.

-No. -Yeah, they're on file

with the police department here. -Who are these people in charge?

Who are these people? Are they filmmakers?

Let these directors of the film festival,

let them make a movie and know what it's like.

-We were making movies about 10 years

and we made a short film called "Film Club,"

which is a parody of "Fight Club"

except with filmmakers.

-They were trying to get into festivals

and they were like,

"Why doesn't Phoenix have a film festival?"

-There wasn't a festival here in Phoenix to submit it to

and after submitting and going to festivals,

we decided let's start a festival,

let's see what we can do here.

-Boom.

-Hi, Jay.

Festival Director.

-Yes, the Phoenix Film Festival.

Even from the beginning they were very filmmaker-friendly,

providing us with free airfare, hotel, and other perks.

-One of the nice amenities of this festival

is that they shuttle us back and forth

from the venues in a personalized van.

I mean, we could walk, but we want to feel important

so we take the shuttle.

**

-Heading over to the Cine Capri theaters,

we continue to be impressed with the Phoenix Film Festival

when we met their incredibly friendly staff.

-If I could get you just to sign your name right there.

-The festival staff is really important

for getting the most out of what the festival can give you.

-A lot of people who work on film festivals

are volunteers from the city

who are just passionate about movie making.

-You have to get tickets for everything you want to see,

so if you want to go through your little brochure...

-We'll go through and then come back.

-...and just circle everything.

-It's not because of the profit, it's because of the passion.

The role of volunteers is critical.

It's by far one of the most critical things

at any film festival.

-You have questions that need to be addressed, you know?

You have to know about travel,

if there's changes in the schedule.

-They're almost universally cooperative.

Sometimes they're overwhelmed

and they don't have all the answers

or they give you the wrong answer.

I mean, this stuff happens.

But their hearts are 99.9% in the right place.

-And it was here we met our favorite festival volunteer,

actress and model Charlotte Bell.

-I am planning to conquer the local Phoenix market

and then move to Los Angeles

and conquer that one too.

-In addition to her regular festival duties,

Charlotte also gave us some helpful promotional tips.

-Well, I have inserted my pass into a --

excuse me, can I start over?

Well, I have taken my badge here

and I've inserted a "Ten 'til Noon" flyer in it

because, honesty, you guys are the coolest guys

I've met at the festival, no joke,

and I've been telling everyone that

and I'm not saying that because I'm on camera.

You can go ask people at Starbucks.

-The people here actually genuinely love the film

and don't seem to have any agendas whatsoever.

They don't seem to prefer any film over another film.

-Thank you for coming out tonight

and celebrating film in Arizona.

It's the biggest film festival in the state.

You can not bring in any camera phones,

any video cameras,

or drawing paper to emulate the film in any way

and we're doing full body cavity searches

compliments of the Phoenix Film Festival.

-Some festivals are like, "We only want premieres."

Premiere status, we don't have a policy.

Just because a guy has had a film out there,

that doesn't mean he doesn't deserve to be at our festival.

That's ridiculous to me.

We want the 10-12 best films, that's it plain and simple.

If we find out later it's a premiere, sweet.

**

-I have a visual confirmation filmmaker for "Ten 'til Noon"

is here on site.

**

-What we do is we'll go inside, we'll project it,

and we'll take a look at it,

look at the picture, look at the sound,

and all that, and I'll relay it up.

I just care that it's in focus and it sounds good.

-Frankly I'm a bit insulted.

I should be insulted, shouldn't I, Larry?

**

-This is a better turnout for a morning screening

then I expected.

Oh, my God.

-Yes, the Phoenix Film Festival had terrific audience turnout.

-It started off with three theaters

and we were excited

when 3,000 people showed up the first year

and we're looking at maybe 20,000 this year.

And where it's going to be 5 years or 10 years from now?

I don't know.

-Of course it probably didn't hurt

that they had really good coverage from the local media.

-We're live at the Phoenix Film Festival.

Coming up we'll have Laurence Fishburne at 8:00.

Patty, it's great to be back.

-The local TV's been coming out every year

to do live spots and stuff, so they've been very helpful,

especially when the celebrities come out.

They love seeing the celebrities.

-You know what, they've never sent me to Sundance,

can you believe it?

-We're fortunate enough the Arizona Republic,

which has a circulation of about 500,000 daily

is one of our big sponsors, so that doesn't hurt.

-Finally, "Ten 'til Noon"

is reviewed in print in the Arizona Republic,

and of all the films playing in competition,

we were the only four star review.

-Reviews can make your movie or they can kill your movie.

-Reviews are majorly critical for indie films

'cause it's whatever kind of word of mouth

you can get out there is important.

Reviews are huge.

-Acquisitions executives and distributors,

they come and go

but a film critic, they never die.

They are on the scene for a really long time,

and as a filmmaker, it makes a lot of sense

to develop relationships with those critics

because you know they're going to be around for your next film.

-It's a four star review.

**

-In order to keep itself centrally located,

the Phoenix Film Festival set up a tent adjacent to its theater

in which all of its events were staged.

There was so much in fact,

that some filmmakers found it a bit bewildering.

There was live music, merchandise,

free food and drinks,

a VIP green room, sponsorship tables,

a chance to meet their mascot Camerahead,

and of course the film festival panels.

-It's about 20 minutes before the panel

that I'm supposed to do with Chris Gore.

I'm about three beers to the wind as I normally have to get

if I'm going to stand up in front of people

and try to sound intelligent.

We didn't get into a lot of things

that we wanted to get into.

I thought we'd get into Slamdance, we didn't.

-Are you kidding me? Oh, yeah, well,

the festival circuit is -- -Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I hope its interesting

and I hope I don't say anything dumb.

-They want to start the panel early because I've got to bolt.

-The man, the myth,

the legend that is Chris Gore,

give it up for Chris Gore, ladies and gentlemen.

-Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

I come to festivals to see great indie movies

and emerging talent like,

I was just talking to Scott Storm,

whose film I saw years ago

at the Slamdance Film Festival, "Burn."

The reason I wrote the festival book

is for people like Scott

that I think are incredibly talented

but might not have exactly the skills

to promote themselves.

And I guess that's why we're all here.

So I want to say something --

not that you don't have the skills --

here, take all my drink tickets.

-I did one panel, one time,

and I ended up getting in a fight with somebody on the panel

and I don't do that anymore

because I don't know what I'm talking about.

-Scott Storm here, director.

His second feature is "Ten 'til Noon."

Did that world premiere here?

-No, it's just an Arizona premiere, I'm sorry.

-In my mind it's a world premiere, Scott.

-It's just an opportunity

for people who are attending a festival

to get to have access to people who are working in the business

that they might not otherwise have.

-The hardest thing is to get someone to watch your movie.

That's the hardest part of making a movie

is getting someone to watch it once it's done.

-When you're facing distributors,

ask them what they're looking for.

-Get the biggest name you can

who is still capable of putting in the good performance.

-How many shorts did you do

before you got your feature going?

-None. -None.

Okay, I'm going to skip you then.

-I always go into those panels really,

really trying to offer practical maybe not advice

but just really practical stories from my own life.

-Get your movie out there,

sponsored by Baird Williams & Greer.

-We're here at the festival all weekend,

and it's all about networking, right?

**

-There are rarely times when you're treated better in life

than as a filmmaker at a good festival.

-Meeting every person at a festival is an opportunity.

-We're here to network and just to meet new people

and make films and have a great time.

-There's nothing more exciting than hanging out

with a bunch of like minded,

creative people and drinking.

-There's a rule that you never ask anybody

what they do for a living

because while you're in the middle of the film festival

you're maintaining this illusion.

Most of the people's jobs are really boring.

As an example, I'm a financial consultant.

It pays the bills, but it's boring, you know?

I would much rather tell people I shot a documentary

and I'm in the process of editing it.

-Yes, the parties in Phoenix did seem to have it all --

drinks, celebrities, and of course...

**

-There tend to be at these film festivals...

-[ Laughs ] -Yes,

there are lots of girls, pretty girls.

-Hi! -I can't answer this,

I really can't. I will get in so much trouble.

-Well, there's the whole thing of festival hookups.

-There's always people of the opposite sex, you know,

for the ladies, too, that go to festivals

there's always like, hot dudes to hang out with and who knows?

Everyone's got hotel rooms and things are happening.

-This question is trouble right here.

-Film festivals can be fun

for people to meet and play Yahtzee

because that's what we do.

-You're mixing in, you know, booze and...

Yeah, I'm not doing anymore. I'm done, I'm done.

[ Indistinct, lively conversations ]

-Okay, we're winding down Phoenix Film Festival.

This is incredibly depressing.

-You're not backed by a studio per se,

so your promotional tour

is basically one coach ticket

so you fly out to these festivals

and for a moment, your film screens

and you've got this very excited audience

ask tons of wonderful questions and you feel really special,

and then you go back to your tiny hotel room alone.

-Independent Film Making 101 --

Get one hotel room

and share with three of your closest friends.

-It was definitely a strange experience,

at times euphoric and at times isolating.

-I can't have my wonderful actor sleeping on the floor.

I don't mind making the writers sleep on the foldout.

[ Airplane engines whooshing ]

-After being away on the circuit,

I was looking forward to getting home.

-[ Babbling ] -But of course,

that means having to face your personal life

and the toll the festivals have taken on it.

-Hi! -The welcome home is easy,

but to shove yourself back into a schedule

when you haven't been in that schedule,

that takes work. -You get this high

from showing your movie.

You come back home and you've got, fuck,

you've got your credit card bills.

And you look at them like "oh, fuck."

And you're broke, and you're stressed,

and you still didn't sell your film.

-Sometimes we get a gigantic credit card, you know, bill

I've been known to pay it off with our second mortgage.

-The costs and demands of the festival circuit

can have probably a profound impact

on a lot of relationships.

I've seen relationships where the filmmakers

and their spouse are just operating

in two completely different worlds.

-I'd like to say it really, you know --

when we're together we're together and we're good,

but it is a little more stressful than that.

-Every now and then we do have a little bicker like

you're not paying attention to me or whatever

but you just have to trust your partner.

You know, they're working and you've got to let them work.

It's work. -[ Screeching ]

-Weekends away are hard.

I mean, the kids demand their weekends with dad.

-I like it better when my dad's around

because mom is really boring.

My mom, Katrina, is really boring.

-It's funny, you know, 'cause I know

that when this film comes out it's going to be, yeah,

another round of festivals to get the documentary out

and everybody seeing it and all that,

but you have to.

You have to go or all the expenses

and all the heartbreak that we've had so far --

and all the happiness too -- isn't worth it.

-I am now divorced.

-Chicago Indiefest was kind of an anomaly.

We were going to go to Chicago,

and I've always wanted to go to Chicago.

I've never been to Chicago,

only flown through it a few times.

I started to notice we didn't get any personal e-mails

just mass e-mails to filmmakers

that said "Do not respond to this letter."

In tone, the e-mails were really kind of belligerent,

and nasty, and really inconsiderate.

-We get these e-mails right, that are kind of bossy

and have a tone of like,

obviously you don't know much about the film industry.

"Indiefest does not do publicity for individual films.

This is the job of your publicist."

Okay well, really? [ Laughs ] Really?

Obviously, we're not going to advertise your films

in any way.

We're not going to update our website.

Their website is still not updated.

I got two screenings at their theater two,

whatever the hell that is,

and those are not listed on the website that they have.

We find out their dates are pushed,

they've lost their venue.

A couple more weeks go by, they lose that venue.

We still don't know when the dates are,

and still no personal contact from anybody at all

and I'm like, Well, I need time to plan.

I'm not going to be able to go if I can't plan.

I've got to buy plane tickets, and figure out lodgings.

Maybe about two weeks before the actual festival

we get our screening dates and our venues

and that's all the time we have to prepare.

Okay, well, I can't go.

They give us no hotel information

until right up to the very end.

-Their official hotel is the Seneca Hotel,

which has been sold out

since the moment I got this e-mail

so that's not very helpful.

But then I get this e-mail --

"If your film is not selling tickets,

your film may be pulled from the festival."

Is that the most offensive thing?

I mean that's ridiculous.

I mean that's literally blackmail.

This is a week before the festival

and they're expecting us to pre-sell tickets.

I don't know how you pre-sell tickets

to a film festival movie.

I mean, I don't know anybody in Chicago.

-By the way, it's your responsibility to sell tickets

and if you don't sell tickets,

we're going to kick you out of the festival.

Unbelievable.

-We're going to buy tickets to "Outside Sales",

so that my film is not pulled from Indiefest Chicago.

**

It's offensive.

-Traveling alone, I arrived in Chicago.

My first stop was the Seneca hotel

where filmmaker check-in was to begin at 12:00 noon.

When I arrived at 1:00 PM,

I found the hospitality room empty.

The Seneca was also supposed to be showing films showing

the second day, here in the Statesman South,

but that was locked.

Desperate for signs of life,

I decided to head to the Village Art Theater,

Indiefest's main venue,

where the opening night screenings were set to begin.

This is Margaret Barry,

board member of Chicago's biggest festival,

Chicago International.

I asked Margaret what she was doing here at Indiefest.

-Actually, I just wandered by,

saw the sign, walked in,

tried to find some information.

-So you didn't know anything about the festival?

-Nothing, they did a really bad job promoting the festival.

I mean, media relations and marketing,

I was shocked

because I kind of pay attention to that sort of thing.

-Let me ask you this, okay, they gave the filmmakers

the media list about two weeks before today.

Would you say that's actually very late to get it?

-Very late, and worse,

the filmmakers who I chatted with earlier

said not only was it late, it was three years out of date,

the names on it. -Really?

-Yes, the one guy was dead.

-I got here and the airline lost my luggage,

which had my stickers and stuff in it.

This is the extent of the swag that I have.

So then I got in the cab to go to my hotel

and I found out my hotel

is $150 cab ride from the airport

and an $80 cab ride from the theater.

So I didn't even go to my hotel.

I just came straight to the theater, which looks lovely.

They're having projection problems right now apparently,

which is unfortunate because my movie plays in about 40 minutes.

-The official opening night film, "Black Wine,"

was supposed to start at 7:00 PM,

and "Outside Sales",

on a second screen, was to begin at 8:00.

The audiences for both films mingled in the lobby,

waiting for word that their screenings would begin.

-We're going right now. No big deal, not worried.

They're putting the shorts now

after our feature, so that's cool.

Well, not unless you're one of the shorts

who plan on getting dinner around 7:30.

Yeah, so, Chicago Indiefest, baby --

independent film at its finest.

-As the movies begin seating, I noticed something strange.

Indiefest had not yet set up its ticket booth.

-Let me ask you, what's the deal with the ticket kiosk?

If you come to the theater to buy tickets,

where do you buy tickets?

-You'd basically be buying it from us as well.

-Okay, so where does the --

would you set up a ticket booth before?

-You mean prior festivals? -No, I mean tonight.

I mean, I didn't -- -Tonight we didn't have a setup

because we were running around doing other things.

I was taking tickets. It's pretty straightforward.

-The projection problems continued.

While "Black Wine" finally played next door,

the audience for "Outside Sales" waited for their film,

which was already nearly 40 minutes late getting started.

-Thank you so much for coming out and I really apologize

for the wait. [ Electrical humming ]

I don't know what the problem is.

It seems to be some kind of technical difficulty.

I'll understand if you guys have other obligations and whatnot,

but I'm considering getting another drink next door

and I highly recommend it

for those of you who want to stick around.

[ Laughter, applause ] Thank you, thank you very much.

[ Indistinct conversation ]

-Somebody needs to talk to me.

Can I talk to Lee? Can you talk to him

and say that the director has just apologized

for the film festival on behalf of the film festival.

You know, I would like to talk to him

and find out what the fuck is going on.

And I'm not trying to cause problems,

but I need to talk to somebody.

-No, I totally understand.

As soon as he gets set up

and then that movie's going on and everything is good,

then we'll beat him with a stick

and you can ask him all you want.

-So I can't talk to him? -He's not here.

He's getting -- It's not his equipment

and so they sent it all over,

and then when they were setting it up,

some of it was not the right cables

and so now he has to run around and get the cables.

So there's different problems on both sides.

-He's literally not on the premises?

-He should technically be in a Radio Shack right now.

-We end up looking like shit, you know?

You guys are some anonymous, you know, thing

that, you know, never shows up and never speaks to anybody

about anything, you know?

And I'm the one who looks like a fucking asshole.

I recognize this is not your fault, and I'm sorry about that,

but this is bullshit and I'm really upset.

-How many people do you have in there?

-I had more, they left.

-Yeah, they moved. -The people I do have

in there are connected to my star and my family

and my friends, you know, who bought tickets.

Yet there's no ticket taker to take the tickets.

So basically they just threw their money into the sky,

you know?

-I guess that's just how a film fest usually runs.

I guess I am not too familiar

with technically what's going on.

I know that there were a couple of films that didn't get in.

I'm not in really a position

of too much responsibility right now, so...

but, yeah, you know, this is --

I guess I was sort of expecting it to be like this.

It's one of the first ones I've ever worked, and...

Yeah, I guess I...

It's fun.

[ Electrical humming continues ] -[ Snoring ]

-How far out are we talking?

If they're going to be in the next five minutes great,

but if they're going to be in the next 20 minutes,

I want to tell them that they can go home.

-I was going to say that they're more than welcome

to stay for the film after it. -The film after it?

Okay, I assume that you have a cellphone on you

with this guy's number.

Could you call him and say I want to know

if I should tell my people to go home,

and I don't want to hear he's going to be here in 10 minutes

if he's not going to be here. -He told me,

I figured you would ask that question, he told me

it would be up to you to tell them because --

-That's bullshit though. That's bullshit!

-He still plans on showing it, that's all --

-Yeah, I plan on, you know,

running a marathon some time in my life,

it doesn't mean anything, do you know what I mean?

I want to know when he's planning on showing it.

Sorry. -I don't know.

-Well, if I could call him and talk to him,

I'd ask him, but you're not letting me

so if you could call him and say it's his fault.

I'm not going to make the decision.

I want to know how far off he is, like, realistically.

This is a big deal. This is a big deal to me.

This is a big deal in my life. This is a big deal to Indiefest.

I want an answer, I deserve an answer

and not from you, from Lee,

from whoever the fuck I need to talk to.

I want to talk to him

and now it's getting offensive, you know?

You give me his number, I will call him.

I want to talk to him. I deserve that, don't I?

Call him and ask him if I deserve that okay?

I'm not -- Please just get on your phone

and make something happen.

Make -- Make a connection between he and I happen

because you running -- being his bodyguard is bullshit.

It's bullshit for you because this is bullshit,

and this is offensive to me and my fucking movie,

and I'm this close to losing it.

And I want to fucking know when he's going to be here.

That's not too much --

That's not too much to ask, God dammit.

I know this is not your fault, I want to talk to him.

What do I have to do to make that happen?

-At this point nothing. -Nothing?

It's not going to happen? -He's going to talk to you.

He's just not going to talk to you now.

-All right so let's get back to before all this started.

Can you call him and ask him

when he's going to be here, literally?

-I want to call him. -Please, literally,

all I want. -Honestly, you deserve answers.

-I'm developing a cyst or something right here.

This is where it hurts the most.

-Here he is. -Give me a small --

do we have a small --

-Do we have an ETA?

Like, is this happening soon or -- Five minutes?

-Yeah, I need to plug some cables in.

-Okay, 10 minutes.

I thought I'd let you guys just experience --

[ Rock music plays loudly ]

[ Music stops ]

That was some of the music, did you like it?

-I liked it. -It's new.

-Three minutes? -That's what they said.

But they have to empty everybody out of the theater first

to adjust the picture.

-Are you serious?

-Yeah.

-Two hours after it was supposed to begin,

the meager Chicago audience for "Outside Sales"

was asked to leave the theater

so further technical adjustments could be made.

Five minutes later, for those few who remained,

the film began and was projected at the wrong aspect ratio.

[ Crickets chirping ]

-We arrived in the morning to just check out the theater

and see if everything was fine

because of what was happening last night

thinking that everything would have been perfect

after the debacle.

Come to find there are four or five filmmakers

waiting to have their films shown.

They ended up waiting two hours

and the films were still not being shown yet.

They're running around trying to do the whole cable thing again

and I'm thinking "Oh, my God!

How are we going to know

if we're going to be able to show our film,

which is just a number of hours later?"

The backup that we had was we have two portable DVD players

and one laptop

and we were just going to lay them out in the theater

and just have everyone gather around

and just throw in our DVD's [Laughs]

and have everyone sit there and go okay,

and put them all on at the same time

so everyone could just huddle around and watch the film.

-With things not much improved at the Village Art Theater,

I decided to go to the Seneca Hotel screening room,

which was due to begin showing films at 5:00.

When I arrived, I found the door to the Statesman South locked

and the projection equipment on the floor.

The hospitality suite was still empty

and it was there I found an amazing document,

the volunteer guidelines for Indiefest.

Like the letters we filmmakers had received,

these rules took a hard line with those they addressed

telling would be volunteers

that they would be held financially responsible

for any missed festival passes

to the tune of $250 each.

These rules also specified that an announcement

must be made at the beginning of every screening,

a practice that didn't happen

at any of the screenings I attended.

Keep all areas neat and orderly,

do not hand write signs --

probably a good idea

since the Village Art Theater is on Clark Street, not Wells --

and instructions not go give Lee Alan's number to anyone.

This last rule was written all in caps.

**

-We're here at the seventh annual

Newport Beach Film Festival.

-It is the opening night of one of Orange County's

biggest film festivals,

treating movie lovers to a variety of films

from both the independent and studio worlds.

-Yeah, that's good. -Let's do it one more time.

-One of our hallmarks is our treatment of filmmakers.

At the Newport Beach Film Festival,

you've got a film liaison that is with you.

When your film is accepted, there is going to be somebody

that is your primary contact person and working

with you to make sure that your experience here

at the Newport Beach Film Festival

is as positive as possible.

-What we do when we work with filmmakers

is we try to get in touch with them personally.

We want to make the film festival experience a good one,

a positive one and as personal and personable as possible.

-Hey, who's the guy with the spill?

-We want our filmmakers to feel like they're welcome here

and that they belong here.

We want our filmmakers to be happy.

-At the very least we can say "Hey.

I'm the programmer that watched your film,

loved your film, thanks for bringing in your film,

let's talk about your film."

-We look at the films to be the true celebrities

and not someone who is maybe the flavor of the week,

according to some of the trade magazines.

-And Newport Beach had a lot of films,

many we'd already played with.

It was like a class reunion.

There was "Johnny Montana",

"Pirates of the Great Salt Lake",

"Self Medicated",

"29 Reasons to Run," and "Jimmy and Judy."

"Jimmy and Judy." "Jimmy and Judy."

"Jimmy and Judy." "Jimmy and Judy."

"Jimmy and Judy." "Jimmy and Judy."

Don't worry -- This was shot the day after "Jimmy and Judy"

had screened and those flyers we'd found in the trash.

-Every time you go to a film festival,

you're running into the same people.

Every time you get into a festival, you check the schedule

and you say okay, who do I know, who do I know?

I know that guy, and that movie? Get out of here, really?

-When you have your films

playing the circuit the same time,

it's like, you know, seeing an old friend.

"Hey, how are you?"

You reconnected again, you hang out,

you meet even more filmmakers.

-I tell filmmakers every year, you know,

look at the filmmakers standing next to you.

That will be your best friend for the next 10 years

so you'd better like him.

-It's very cool to have a support group and people

that you can ask their opinion of

and go through the same process with.

What's cool to me is that every year

there's a new batch, you know, of us.

-You can go to a festival for a weekend

and make some really deep connections

with other filmmakers and other people

in a really short period of time.

-How are you? Scott.

-It's a nice family kind of feeling.

-Hey, how are you? -How are you doing?

-How are you?

[ Drumming ] -* Come to "Ten 'til Noon" *

* You'll see lots of poon *

* And it's starting really, really soon *

Didn't see you at San Fernando Valley. How are you?

-Pretty good. -Hey, it's that guy again.

Justin Hoffman, apparently our biggest fan,

had come to see the movie one more time,

only now he'd brought friends. [ Laughter ]

-We are very proud to have you here tonight

for the screening of "Ten 'til Noon."

And again, I want to reiterate and remind,

we do have people here for the Q&A at the end, so stick around.

[ Applause ]

-It was an incredible screening with a packed house

and most of our actors in attendance.

-I just want to say, wow, you guys did an incredible job.

-And afterwards, we invited the audience

over to the Red Robin restaurant next door

where we gave away

and were asked to autograph posters.

And we realized

that of all the things we'd been struggling

to achieve with our movie,

the most important was finding our audience.

-* Sing I love you *

-I found that if you can make

a personal connection with audiences,

you do pretty well. -It's fantastic.

-We loved it. -There were some people there

who were genuinely excited to meet us

and get our signatures on those posters.

-It's all about the silver Sharpies.

-Those posters kept coming too.

People just kept putting them in front of me.

I was like, "Wow, okay, yeah."

-If the movie is good enough, things will come your way.

-You find out the reason why you made your movie.

I believe that, no matter what, if you've made a good movie,

it's going to get seen and people are going to like it.

In other words, I believe that the cream shall rise

at the end of the day. -If you make a great film,

the kids are going to find it no matter what.

You just need to get it out there.

You need it touch the public.

And if it's good, all the work is done for you.

The rest of it's all just bullshit.

-I'm a star.

**

-In all, "Ten 'til Noon"

ended up playing 14 film festivals and won 9 awards.

-We're so happy that it goes to "Ten 'til Noon".

-Including from Indiefest Chicago

a Best Director award for Scott.

-Probably the biggest slap in the face I've ever received.

-The movie was eventually acquired

by distributor Radio London Films,

who kindly gave us a brief theatrical run

starting on March 31, 2007,

you know, the same day as the big Hollywood Hills fire.

-We were fortunate enough

to get a nice deal for the film

given that it didn't premiere at a large festival.

-Crystal Sky got us on DVD around the world

where no matter the country,

they managed to find interesting new ways

of spelling Scott's name.

And eventually "Ten 'til Noon"came to DVD in the US,

with a big nationwide release

that was carried everywhere except Blockbuster,

who didn't like our movie's violence and nudity.

[ Laughter ] Yeah, it's a good thing

Blockbuster doesn't want to exploit women.

And, perhaps most amazingly, "Ten 'til' Noon",

a reject of every major film festival,

even got one more chance to play Park City.

-I just couldn't get the Slamdance thing

out of my head because it was kind of like my college.

I broke my cherry there and I just love these guys.

So I called and said, you know, "Can I resubmit again?"

And they said, "Absolutely, resubmit, we'd love it."

So I wrote my check and resubmitted

and waited and waited,

and we didn't get it again and they kept my $40.

**

-Ah yes, in Park City some things never change.

* 'Cause I've got a thick skin *

* And I'm strong within *

* So sign me up on your official rejection *

* Now I know *

* What's really important in the end *

* So raise a glass, my friend *

* One day we'll be an official selection *

* Started out with the purest intentions *

-And now, film festival tips with Charlotte Bell.

-Hi, I'm Charlotte Bell.

Postcards are an essential marketing tool,

but don't make the mistake of printing specific festival

and screening information on them.

Any cards you have left over will be trash,

and then you've wasted money.

Instead, make a generic card

and simply place a sticker on the back

with the where and when of your screening.

Ooh, sticky.

Because you can use them at any number of festivals,

you can order these generic cards in bulk,

further saving you money.

And any cards you don't use,

simply apply another sticker

over the old one for your next festival.

That is, if you can get into another festival

and your movie isn't a big back of suck.

[ Chuckles ]

* No matter how important you are *

-Do you think this documentary could get into film festivals?

-No. Huh-uh. -[ Laughs ]

-No, who wants to watch that?

-Oh, you'll probably get into every festival you apply to

because if there's one thing all these mother fuckers love

it's movies done about them and their precious fucking festival.

-God, I don't know.

This film has a chance to play festivals?

I thought you were doing this for fun.

I thought this was like a DVD extra.

-* Congrats, you're in *

-I saw documentaries

that were getting accepted into Slamdance

about a lot dumber things than this

and this is pretty fucking dumb.

-Welcome to the Temecula Valley

International Film & Music Festival

in hospitality suite.

If you're going to have a panel discussion,

don't have it in the fucking hospitality suite

and then have to tell all the filmmakers

who have come there to receive hospitality

to shut the fuck up.

-Oh, and your film is rejected by the way from Method Fest.

-Excellent. -It is. It's out.

In fact, get out of my office.

-* So serve me up *

[ Screaming ]

-I think a documentary like this

will be of interest to people going to a festival

but at the same time will run into problems

because it's so industry-centric.

-You have Bryan Singer in it. [ Laughs ]

You know, you've got names.

-Does this suit make me look fat by the way?

-* And you can say that we asked for it *

-I think most people are like,

I think I saw that documentary.

He's talking about the word fuck.

No, that's the other documentary he's in.

You mean the one about the ratings board?

No, this one is about film festival rejection.

It's like, well that's something

that dude will know a lot about, rejection,

because I've been rejected a lot in my life.

Not professionally.

Professionally I've made out okay.

But personally,

it took me a long time to get laid.

I don't know, whatever.

**

-I've never been boo'd yet.

John Schlesinger got boo'd.

He took that "Midnight Cowboy" to Berlin and they boo'd him.

-She was making sure that the filmmakers are very,

very comfortable at her own expense.

-I couldn't let you guys sit in the trunk.

-It was locked. Sorry.

Hi, I'm standing here at the Blue Agave.

This has pretty much been our hangout

here at Phoenix Film Festival.

The waitresses are gorgeous,

the beer is good, food is fantastic.

I just wanted to give them a plug.

Even though it says "E Agave,"

it's actually Blue Agave, so let's go eat.

-* And I've got a thick skin *

-And here we are, we're watching the movie now.

See, we're at a festival right here.

Go get a drink after this.

Yeah. Go get a drink after this.

Just go booze it up, party.

See? You made it.

You made it, Paul. You're in a festival.

[ Laughter ]

I'll see you guys at the next one.

[ Laughter ]