DON'T SUBMIT WITHOUT A "BOX"
We had a Kickstarter fund of about $6,000. That covered Production, some licensing, and some Post. It covered no Festival submissions or travel. (We will soon have a new Kickstarter fund up...) Also, though Jonny and I worked together to decide what Festivals we should submit to, I had no idea just how many Festivals even EXISTED out there!
Our film had a few specific things we thought we could use to narrow our field: the main character was gay, so though it wasn't a LGBT-centric movie, we thought we could enter it into some LGBT-centric festivals. We made a movie about a character who HAPPENED to be gay, but his sexuality wasn't vital to the story. That alone we hoped was important, so we submitted to a number of LGBT Fests.
Use Withoutabox. Or don't. Use FilmFreeway. Or don't. I used both. (For those who don't know, Withoutabox and Film Freeway are sites where you upload your film as an online screener, create a Press Kit with pictures, bios, etc., and you browse through thousands of worldwide Festivals which you can then submit to with the push of a button. Wildly useful, sometimes derided, and a lot like playing slot machines....)
What I DO suggest is create your own "Box" as far as confining your spending. We hadn't raised any money for this, but i wanted to get into as many Festivals as possible - a mixture of some Big Names, some Medium Festivals, and some niche or smaller places. This would also be a fabulous excuse to travel, so I submitted to some British and Irish Festivals as well. I did not, however, have a budget. Very quickly, I had amassed over $800 in submission fees to 20-some festivals.
It becomes addictive. Checking the sites every day, finding new festivals that you convince yourself your movie is perfect for, impulse-submitting for last-day entries.
Don't do this.
Start early and get a list of all the places you REALLY want to submit. Scifi/Fantasy movie? Find the niche Festivals first. Figure out where you want to spend your money ahead of time. SUBMIT to Festivals as EARLY as possible - they get overrun with submissions by the end and who knows if they'll even get around to your movie if it squeaked in at the last minute. Only time will tell if my $800 was well-spent or if we even get INTO any Festivals, so plan your spending ahead of time. Don't be me.
Jonny and I went to Sundance this year.
Jonny had been a few times, I wanted to go, and my writing partner Mike was going for work, so we made it a working vacation. The first cut of "HOMESCHOOL REUNION" was done, and we watched it for the first time on the "big screen" - the widescreen TV at the hotel instead of my laptop.* But we went armed with a bunch of "HOMESCHOOL REUNION" business cards - we'd cut a trailer and had it up on Vimeo password-protected. We hobnobbed and exchanged cards with people, while watching a bunch of films.
I mention this for two reasons: first, because of the ten plus short films I saw, I liked three. Some, I have no idea how they were accepted... except, of course, that they had name recognition backing them, in the movie, or that the filmmakers knew the programmers. And THAT is a reason to go to Festivals ahead of time to meet people you can CONTACT and say "Hey, my movie is headed your way, be on the lookout." Knowing someone at a Festival is HUGE. Seeing some of the unadulterated crap that was shown at Sundance also made me feel okay ahead of time for the Festivals that don't accept my film: it's not about quality - it, like everything else, is about who you know. I'm not saying you won't be accepted based on quality, I'm just saying you have a 100% better chance if you know someone.
This is where things stand as of July 26, 2015: Entered into 26 Festivals, we have our "Premiere Party" (a showing of the film for local backers and friends at Jonny's house - decorated with the props from our "Reunion" in the movie!), we've got most if not all of the Rewards for our Kickstarter supporters ready (DVDs, Soundtrack, shirts...), and once we get into a festival, it's time to start a new fundraising campaign.
*Crazy story we plan to use at some Q&As:
"HOMESCHOOL REUNION" is about a very shy guy named Dan who can't find the courage to talk to a cute guy at a coffee shop. He's convinced this is because he was homeschooled and that he missed out on how to connect with new people. He sees a bunch of his friend's Facebook pictures of their High School Reunions and gets jealous. So, he decides to throw himself a reunion. He meets the guy of his dreams, they sleep together, and wakes up from what turns out to be a dream, disappointed.
We watched our cut in the Sundance hotel and had fun. "Our movie officially screened at Sundance!" we yelled! Then, we went to go see our first movie.
It was called "The D Train" and it was about Jack Black who plays a guy planning his high school reunion and feels he needs to get the hottest guy from their class to attend. He flies to Hollywood and has a wild night of hero worship with this guy who he winds up sleeping with, then is disappointed. Oh, and Jack Black's character is named "Dan."
I can't wait to talk about this in front of an audience.
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