Worst festival experiences...

[DPrzywara]

Ever take your film to a festival only to have your print turn into a ball of firely flame from the projector?

Ever have someone tape over your screener mintues before showtime?

Ever have a filmmgoer heckle your entire film while he pounds a six pack in back of the threatre? Let's share the pain (and humor) right here!

[DPrzywara]

I’ll start this sucker off...

This story still shocks friendly filmmakers who I meet and greet.

I was at a festival (not going to name it here) about an hour before my screen time. The festival was a little behind schedule, so they pulled me aside and said that my flick was going to run about 30 to 45 min. late. I told them not to worry, it’s cool, we’ll figure out a plan. Late screenings happen on occasion. I suggest ALL filmmakers to relax, hang with the crowd, have a drink, and be cool about the situation. Remember, Sh** happens.

Anyway, my film finally starts 40 min. after it’s original screen time. People waited, they stayed, and they seemed to be enjoying the film. All is good in land of film festivals.

About 30 min. into my movie, the filmmaker of the NEXT screening asked if I could SHUT OFF my film for a minute so he could tell the audience/fans that his movie is running 45 min. late. I said politely that I couldn’t do this, that the people watching my film are already in their “mojo” and are enjoying it. This pissed the filmmaker off to no end. I told him calmly that we can go to one of the supervisors of the fest and speak with him/her about the situation. While I go upstairs to find someone in charge, I hear a loud moaning coming from the theatre. I race down to find the filmmaker himself had shut off my movie to make his announcement.

Now anyone who knows me KNOWS I’m a pretty casual fellow, pretty friendly and cool about any good/bad situation that comes my way… but this was uncalled for. I walked right up and asked him what the hell he thought he was doing by shutting off my film! He started shouting on how I was no friend to the Ind. filmmaker (yet, he shut off my flick right in the middle of the screening) and should be more supportive. This PISSED me off to no end. A shoving match from him became a fight right in front of the filmgoers until my wife pushed me outside to calm myself down.

Time passed, people came out and said they really liked the movie, but who was that asshole that shut off the film?
During the week of the fest, other moviegoers who I never even saw before were talking to me about the incident, explaining how bizarre the whole situation was. Time passed and as my flick hit other fests and moved on to greener pastures, I never heard from the other filmmaker or saw his movie playing anywhere in the circuit. To sum it up it’s all about Karma folks!

Rock on,

DP

[Last Resort Man]

Went to fest where the only folks who showed up to see my film were the loud, drunken friends of the fest operator. Then got asked how fast the film would end so the band could go on.
Wasted trip(couple hundred for the flight) except for a few contacts I made.

[darksphere]

Originally posted by Last Resort Man
(...)see my film were the loud, drunken friends of the fest operator.

In a polish s-f conferences where many people show their own films (s-f & fantasy) always somebody scream: "Fuck, who do that shit ?! Take him a shot". MAybe I little colourized that but something like that happens.....

Be hard (!) no soft..... :X

[the-lyons-dendo]

well i have only made 2 short films now so i dont have any bad stories from INSIDE the festival but ... get this:

ok, so my first short didnt make my local festival (the only place i entered it) it wasnt very good, i know, no big deal. but my latest one has made some festivals.

it did not make it into the local one. they gave me good feedback on what didnt work for my 1st short, so of course i asked why the 2nd didnt make it, and NO ONE even saw it?!

here's the tale:

the person who founded the festival (its now 2 years old) moved to virginia after year one. the guy who is the new puppet/president sent all the films entered into the festival down to the guy in viriginia to choose which ones make it! i dont know about all the other festivals in the world but i would be willing to bet that there isnt one single voice deciding the fate of a film line-up. pretty funny in itself.

so my movie didnt make it, ok no big deal. when i asked the "president" if he could give me a critique he seemed pretty clueless and said i could call the guy in virginia because hes the only one that saw the movies, he never returned my calls. coincidentally some of the festivals judges worked near where i do, so i asked them and they didnt see it either (the founder in virginia cut himself off from the festival and then resigned shortly after).

i gave copies to a few of these judges and the president (who apparently just judged which ones were the best from the films the viriginia guy picked) and so far all of them liked my movie and said it should have made it! a couple of them have voiced they werent happy with the virginia guys choices either! now they could be blowing smoke (or just making sure i keep quiet) but the one judge owns a video store and asked for a copy to rent out at his store and the president has since had me a tv show he produces to talk about my movie.

i just wonder how many other people entered films into this fest and have no idea about all this B.S.

ALSO one of the movies that made the festival was hyped up alot, which really drew my attention to it (and im sure everyone else's), and out of all the movies it had a nice writeup about how the filmmaker did such a great job and that he has a big vision for indie movies and it promoted his website and stuff, which it didnt do for any other entry.

well coincidentally the guy who made it is on the film festival's board/committee! ha! how is that "legal"?! luckily it at least didnt get best of the fest. i would have had to say something then. i wonder how many other film entries were serving board member interests...

totally backwards, crap film festival. sadly its the only one in my city and if people only knew half of this stuff im sure they wouldnt be impressed. there should be a blacklist for fests. this one sets the bar!

[brokenimage]

a couple of years ago i was a finalist in what they tell me is a relatively prominent screenwriting festival, but i didn't win. i entered two more screenplays the next year, and since i lived in the same town the festival takes place in, they asked me to be a volunteer reader. i was happy to do it since they'd been so nice to me the year before.

you have to read 40 screenplays in order to get a free pass to the festival, but the screenplay competition director, who i'd known for a year and a half and considered a friend at this point, told me how strapped they were for readers and asked me if i might be able to read a few extra. in the course of about a month, i wound up reading almost 60 feature-length screenplays for them, and let me tell you, a lot of them were good and stinky, but everything i read had already made it past the first round of judging. i figured my screenplays were a lock.

the notification deadline comes and i get word that my screenplays didn't make it past the first round of judging. i'm disappointed, clearly, so i ask if i can see my readers' comments, which is in accordance with the festival policy. the competition director starts dodging my calls and acting like he's too busy to talk to me when i go by the office. finally i ask a friend of mine in the festival office to see if she can take a look at my comments, and when she checks the file, there are no comments for either of my screenplays. after paying $100 in entry fees and volunteering some 100+ hours to try to help them out, i come to find out neither of my screenplays even got looked at. my friend then told me that even if i had been able to get the screenplay guy on the phone, anything he told me would've been lies, since his standard operating procedure when someone called for their comments was to simply make something up on the spot.

yeah, needless to say i chose not to involve myself with that festival anymore. the good news is that one of those ignored screenplays won elsewhere and is now in development. yay!