Take Charge with your Film's Destiny

"A modest man is usually admired - if people ever heard of him."

- Ed Howe

I had a great weekend at the San Diego IndieFest, and I could go on and on about all the many wonderful people I met at the festival, the amazing screening we had, and the beautiful house my family and I stayed at on the beach... but I would rather use this blog post to explain my eye-opening experience that could quite possibly change the way I approach this industry.

It was minutes before the "Daddy I Do" screening, I was in the car with my family and boyfriend, and he was cracking jokes along the way but I wasn't being very receptive. I was unbelievably nervous. I did my best to promote this screening to all my friends and contacts in LA, but every single person that I thought could *maybe* come, bailed! I was mentally preparing to be at the screening with two people watching outside of my entourage, and I was going to be okay with that.

We arrive at the theatre, the first time checking in, getting our badge, meeting the Festival staff, etc... and I was blown away by the young/hip vibe, the awesome projector screen, and the rows of lazy-boy style chairs for the audience to get snuggled up in! It was impressive.

We waited for the movie that was playing to finish, and then we walked in and spread out to find spots to sit. The announcer went to the mic and said there would be a short break before the next screening. I expected people to leave, and to my surprise, no one got up! In fact, people were entering the theatre for what seemed like they were coming to see my film!

I sat in the very back row, to be hidden and see the audience reactions. There were only a couple seats empty and I ended up counting 40 people total! I was shocked... by no means did I expect that great of a turnout.

The film played, and to an even bigger surprise, the audience reaction was the best I'd ever seen! We had a great reaction at its Premiere, but this was huge! ROARING laughter, people crying in their seats from laughing so hard, people vocally agreeing or disagreeing with what was being said on the screen; everything I could have wanted to happen, DID happen!

The first credit rolled, and there was a flood of applause! I couldn't believe what just happened, they truly "got it"!

After the screening, I was introduced to people who wanted to say hello, congratulate or compliment the film. Among one of those people was a film critic I had invited (at last minute), I didn't even know he was going to be there, but he came and he loved it!

I also had 2 of the main interview subjects in the film show up! They both saw the film for the first time, and I'm so glad they saw it with a responsive audience, rather then alone in their living room on a dvd.

The conversations died down, and people were scattering to other film screenings and events.

Then, in the corner of my eye, I saw my boyfriend fill out the "voter ballot" (which they hand everyone as you check in at the festival for the first time). The instructions were to put the title of your favorite film on the ballot and drop it in the bucket at the front of the theatre were the film screen was. I knew I still had my ballot in my purse, but I strongly decided NOT to fill out the ballot because that would mean walking to the front of the stage (as another film is screening) and vote for my own film which then everyone would know I was doing. I thought of how unclassy that was, so I ignored it.

The rest of the festival continued, me and my producer (my sister) made our rounds talking to people at mixers. We were interviewed by some big local stations and an LA Radio Show called Film Courage (which I'm a huge fan of, I couldn't believe they were interviewing ME!). We got great accolades from the people putting on the film festival, the guy running the festival said that we had the best turnout, the biggest laughs, and he genuinely seemed interested in helping us move further with our film.

I was soaking it all in and enjoying the ride. Even though we talked to a ton of people, it always felt more "friendly" than "businessy". I prefer being friends with people rather than business contacts anyways...

Well, you're probably wondering where this is all leading... Here's the kicker:

The last event of the 2 day festival was the Awards Ceremony. I was really excited to dress up (even though it was a casual event, but I'm a girlie girl!), and I actually thought that we maybe had a good shot at winning! I wasn't 100% sure... but I knew that we would have been in the running. I told my boyfriend beforehand that "even if we don't win, at least I know that we had a fighting chance".

We got to the Awards Ceremony and the announcer starts powering through the awards. The first 5 or 6 award winners were not present, so he just went to the next ones. Then he said "and the Best Documentary Award goes to...". - I won't say, because I don't want to demean their win by what I'm about to say, but we did not win. - I was happy for the winner because I'd be happy for anyone in that position. It's a huge accomplishment, and I've been there and I know how amazing it is to win an award for something you put so much heart into. So, of course I was happy for them, but again, I was down for getting my hopes up.

The ceremony was over, and one of the festival organizers turns to me and says that she loved the film, and we were a close second. How close you ask? TWO VOTES! TWO!!!!!

Now, the reason this is groundbreaking information for me to learn is because I thought that my one vote would not make a difference in winning or losing. If we lost, it would be because someone deserved it more. I literally thought that. Never in a million years would I guess that 2 people writing on a piece of paper would make that much of a difference.

Do you know what the other gut-wrenching thing is about this situation? MY MOM DIDN'T VOTE either (she later told me)!! Turns out, our friend Nancy never got a ballot at the check-in place, and so my mom gave Nancy hers.

So basically, we lost because my mom and I just didn't think our votes were necessary.

Now, this is a break-through in my psyche that I will never forget. If I think that my vote doesn't count, then what makes me think that anyone else's vote would make a difference? That's the root of the problem! I did not ask one single person to vote for our film! It would have been so simple for me to say, "oh thanks, you liked the film? Well then, would you mind voting for it? I'd reeeally appreciate it, thank you!" - How easy is that?!?

Okay, now, one may ask: why am I so set on winning an award, isn't a great screening enough? Well, yes and no. Yes, a great screening is a great ego boost, but the only way that that a great screening will live on is if someone tells a friend about it, reviews it, blogs about it, OR you win an award for it! Even though most awards do have politics involved, they are HUGE selling points for distributors. Every industry uses the award title to their advantage. It validates things, like a degree would validate someone being educated (even though there are a lot of intelligent people without degrees, and a lot of unintelligent people WITH degrees). And... it would just be awesome to say we were 2 for 2! (it has gone to 2 festivals, and it won Best Documentary at the first festival)

I guess, the main advice I can give a filmmaker after this experience is: don't be afraid to promote your work! Besides, who else is going to do it for you? I may have taken the humble road too far at times, and I often let karma do the work for me, when I need to be doing the work myself! I can't tell you how many times a waiter has talked up a specific dish and I got it JUST because of that waiter, even when I didn't want that dish to begin with. Selling goes a long way, and I'm learning to be better about it.

What are the next steps to put into action my new-found aggressive approach to selling my film?

I'm going to ask the people (with credible titles) who have seen the film, to provide a quote about it for me to use on the website and in press materials. Anyone who would have a relevant and credible opinion (people in the industry, professionals in the field of what the documentary is about, the festival organizers, etc).

I'm also going to start actively approaching film critics to review the film. I'm just going to start sending out screeners like wildfire, and hope that it gets reviews to brag about *let's hope*

And of course, now I've learned the value of the vote. LEAVE NO BALLOT BEHIND!

Let's see where my new attitude gets me...