Well, I thought the festival run for Tooth Fairy was over, but it turns out that there’s more to come! I just got an invitation to show our film in the Los Angeles International Children’s Film Festival in October and the New Orleans International Children’s Film Festival on July 31-Aug 1. These invitations came our way through a festival director of one of our previous festivals. Cheers to friendly festival directors! :-)
Susan Ee
www.Tooth-Fairy-Movie.com
Tooth Fairy is now on YouTube!
I recently came back from LA where I took a workshop for directors—Acting for Directors. Acting is way too hard for me and I’ve never aspired to do it, but this is a prerequisite to take follow-up workshops for directors to become an “actors’ director.” Because directors and actors tend to be different types of thinkers (right brain vs left brain), it’s like learning a new language so the two can communicate. The title of the workshop should be retitled to “A Thousand Ways to Respect Your Actors” because it can be condensed into three golden rules: 1) respect your actors, 2) respect your actors, and 3) respect your actors.
Susan Ee
www.Tooth-Fairy-Movie.com
Tooth Fairy is now on YouTube!
My dark fantasy short story, "Shadow City," is now available in the anthology Dragon and the Stars. It is available in your local bookstores and on Amazon. I would love to hear what you think of it!
Cheers,
Susan Ee
www.Tooth-Fairy-Movie.com
Tooth Fairy is now on YouTube!
I had mentioned that my friend, Ben Rosenbaum, wrote the story that won the Best Animated Short Film at SXSW this year. I'd also like to mention that his winning story, "The Orange", is part of his collection of short stories from his book, The Ant King: and Other Stories. Several of Ben's stories have been nominated for the Hugo award. He tells me that he would be open to having another of his stories turned into film. This is an amazing opportunity. Read the book. Maybe you'll fall in love with one of the stories and you'll be the one winning the Best Film at a major festival. His stories are an animator's dream. They could be live action too if you have a little money to spend.
Ben can be contacted through his website: Ben Rosenbaum.
Cheers,
Susan Ee
www.Tooth-Fairy-Movie.com
Tooth Fairy is now on YouTube!
Official selection of:
Cleveland International Film Festival 2010
San Francisco Children's Film Festival 2010
Chicago International Reel
Shorts Festival 2009
Tacoma Film Festival 2009
Dark Carnival Horror
Festival 2009
Independents' Film Festival 2009
Utopia Film Festival
2009
Big Water Film Festival 2009.
In the heart of suburbia, a little boy sets a trap for the Tooth Fairy and discovers that even innocence has a dark side...
Check it out! If you like it, please go to TOOTH FAIRY on YouTube to rate it.
Final festival strategy tips from the experts:
- Communicate with the fest programmer -- an email or cover letter can make you more intriguing. Don't use form letters. This is your chance to connect with and develop a relationship with the programmer.
- Letting programmers know your film got into other festivals can help in getting yours into this one.
- For features, your film needs to pass the 1st 10-12 minute test. If the viewer can't take it anymore after the first 10-12 minutes, s/he probably won't watch the rest. Many, many films fail this test.
- Figure out in which festivals you most want to play. There's a lot of cache to a premier screening so don't waste it. Think hard about whether it makes sense to wait to hear from Sundance. Sundance often waits until the very last minute to tell you whether your film has been accepted. If you've been accepted to premier at a good festival, you may very well be better off taking that rather than waiting to hear from Sundance.
- Go to the festivals. Consider a publicist, and put festivals and travel into your budget.
Good luck and have fun!
See also:
Expert Advice on Film Festival Strategy I
Expert Advice on Film Festival Strategy II
Susan Ee
www.Tooth-Fairy-Movie.comwww.FeralDream.com
Psychopath was my first film. I made it as an experiment to see whether I liked making films and to see whether there could be such a thing as a 2-minute thriller. It just passed the 50,000 viewer mark on YouTube. Check it out!
Tooth Fairy, is playing in San Francisco this Sunday (April 4) at 2PM at the San Francisco International Children’s Film Festival. It is presented by WonderCon (a sister comic book convention to Comicon in San Diego) at the Moscone Center. It will also play at the Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose on April 10-11.
This is my first time at WonderCon. WOW.
Susan Ee
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www.Tooth-Fairy-Movie.com
www.FeralDream.com
More festival strategy tips from the experts:
- Send your film in as early as possible so they can see it when they're excited about watching films. Toward the end of the deadline, they're watching hundreds of films back to back.
- If you've had a short film accepted into a festival, they are much more inclined to accept your later feature film because everybody loves to discover a rising talent.
- A good title can make a big difference in distinguishing your film from the pack.
- If the title is in the 1st third of the alphabet, it's more likely to be shelved in an easily seen/reached location on the shelf and more likely to be watched (sooner? at all?).
- Art/graphics/professional packaging can help make your film look more professional and more likely to be picked up (sooner?) for viewing.
See also:
Expert Advice on Film Festival Strategy I
Expert Advice on Film Festival Strategy III
Susan Ee
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www.Tooth-Fairy-Movie.com
www.FeralDream.com
Warren Etheredge (of The Warren Report, Lockspring Pictures, 1 Reel Film Festival, TheFilmSchool, and Seattle International Film Festival) gave a talk at the Tacoma Film Festival right before Tooth Fairy's show time. He's an excellent speaker. Highly entertaining and informative. Here are excerpts of my notes from his talk about film festival strategy:
- For shorts, the shorter the better. It will play either before a
feature or as part of a shorts program that's 2 hours at most. So the
shorter films give the festival programmers the most flexibility. Try
to keep it under 12 minutes; anything under 8 minutes is golden.
- The festival life of a film is generally about 18 months from the time you first send it out. It will be longer if it's a niche film (Jewish, gay, etc.).
- Try to build a relationship with the festival programmers. Just clicking and sending your film anonymously puts you at a disadvantage because the programmers are inundated with submissions. Try to get yours to stand out in their mind.
- Get a taste for the kind of films that a festival wants. Asking if they would be interested in your film could save you money. (I tried this and it worked! I got my film into a festival by asking if it was appropriate for the festival, and the programmer asked me to send it to him. It was accepted into the festival without me paying a submission fee.)
See also:
Expert Advice on Film Festival Strategy II
Expert Advice on Film Festival Strategy III
Go get 'em!
Susan Ee
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www.Tooth-Fairy-Movie.com
www.FeralDream.com
