Festivals are key to making a name in the short film world. Many festivals are available to film makers to submit their material. Some festivals are for international films, some are for British film exclusively, however whichever type of festival a film gets shown in, the film will inevitably be catapulted into another realm of the film world, a more well known world, a world that can bring fame and fortune.
Festivals use many different methods to market themselves, ‘Encounters’ Short Film Festival’ uses a very modern looking website and also uses a video that plays as soon as the page is opened. This is a marketing technique as the audience for the website and the festival itself will be more than willing to watch this opening sequence, which show cases some of the most successful films ever entered into this particular festival. The website is a huge promoter for the festival, ‘Soho shorts’ uses a very informal looking website with eye catching colour contrasts to give connotations of a new more up to date film festival. This festival is also an international festival and so is looking to attract as many entrants as possible. ‘Kinofilm’ much like ‘Leeds Internation Film Festival’ uses a much more formal format. This shows how the target entrants may need to bring more polished works of art to the festival and that the art within the short may well be admired over the statement the short is trying to make. ‘London Short Film Festival’ is a mix of formal text with an informal picture, this give this festival appeal to a wide range of entrants, which is key considering this festival is only for British film and needs lots of applications to be able to exhibit enough good quality films to make the festival a success. Many film festivals will use the ‘Long Tail’ technique to promote their film festival. This technique suggests that to gain large audience members to your site and to your festival, the festival needs to have a clear brand and also be linked with social networking sites, in particular ‘Facebook’. Sponsorship is also very important, as a festival with more prestigious names attached to it will pull in large amounts of audience members as well as candidates. Candidates need to be enthused by the website if they are to apply themselves. A good way to do this is to show snippets of other work and reviews. The ‘Encounters’ website does this very well.
Being screen at one of these festivals is very important. So many festivals are aimed to gain interest as well as content from all over the world and so a showing and/or an award from one of these festivals can stand the filmmaker in very good stead for the future. The international platform is one that presents numerous opportunities. Shane Meadows is an example of success from the film festival world. He himself set up a small film festival called ‘Six of the Best’ that allowed him to showcase his shorts and was so popular that it later grew to become an international festival called ‘Flipside’. Another success is Andrea Arnold who has become a huge success and won the prestigious ‘Cannes Film Festival’s’ prize in 2009 for her film ‘Fishtank’ running on from her success in 2004 winning the ‘Time Out London Film Award’ at the ‘London Short Film Festival’ for her film ‘Wasp’. She is now subsequently planning and making a film adaptation of the classic ‘Wuthering Heights’ that with her previous films suggests that she will be telling the story in a never seen light. These two more mainstream successful directors that have come from film festival success shows how getting screening at any given festival can bring great prosperity to the filmmaker, largely depending on who is attending and what film festival it is being shown at. One screening could bring huge acclaim to your short film and be a catalyst for making more films in the future.
Many different types of people attend film festivals, from those who just have a mild interest in short film to the fanatics and ranges to more professionally minded talent scouts, ‘The UK Film Council’ attaches itself to many different film festivals, this not only cements the support given by the organization to new British filmmakers but also allows them to see who is the next big thing and can become more willing to fund filming projects in the future. High end stars such as Sir Ian McKellen visited the ‘Edinburgh International Film Festival’ this year and so film festivals are not only for the ‘wannabe’s’ but is also for the famous, successful starts that wish to indulge in what new filmmakers have to offer.
Many film festivals are supported by a large power within the short film world such as ‘Leeds International Film Festival’ is partnered with ‘Vue’ and ‘Encouters Film Festival’ is backed by ‘The UK Film Council’. Partners such as ‘Vue’ and more commercially minded companies will attach themselves to film festivals that they feel will be a good place to market their product, but also help to fund the festival itself, in laymen’s terms they make an investment, whereas sponsors and associates like ‘The UK Film Council’ will back the festival to help show how hard the organization is working to help filmmakers break through short films and onto features. These types of sponsors are much more guided towards nurturing talent than making money, however funding from these types of associations is subject to how prosperous a particular film or director looks.
The style of the sites is very clear, firstly the site identifies itself by using a logo or thematic colour, it then either speaks through text or video about who they are and what they do. A very striking example comes from ‘Encouters Film festival’ site as they use a fast pace video to drag in an audience. The next eye-catching feature is the ‘apply here section’, which allows people to easily and quickly submit their film to be reviewed. This in turn makes it seem like anyone can enter and as film festival directors know, a successful festival is only possible if the content they receive is of a good quality and wide in scope. Scope also allows there to be a greater chance of seeing originality within the films. However the more formal film festivals such as the ‘Leeds International Film Festival’ is less eye-catching and looks more adult, which will deter the more frivolous filmmakers and appeal to the more serious filmmakers, possible the more ‘arty’ filmmakers or the writer/directors that have an important issue to convey.
A key festival for short films exclusively for Britain is The ‘British Independent Film Festival’ which showcases the new and exciting products coming out of Britain. This is very good for filmmakers in the UK as they are the main focus for the festival and provides more chances for our homegrown talent to rise to the top of the British film scene.
The key international film festival has to be ‘Cannes’, as it offers a very high quality panel that thoroughly evaluates each film and always provides a long list of very good winning films. This event is so well-known that any kind of success at this festival can really be the first day of the rest of a writer/director’s life. Other international festivals of note are the ‘Edinburgh International Film Festival’ as it offers a large variety of shorts with many different types of prizes at all levels, UK prizes as well as international prizes.
‘Exposures Film Festival’ is UK’s leading student film festival, it provides a festival exclusively showcasing student talent and is vehicle for future successes at more renowned, higher stake film festivals. The rules for product submission are that the film has been made during attendance to a UK institution and all entries must be under 30 minutes, in other words this festival is for UK student short filmmakers. The ‘National Student Film Festival’ is another UK student film festival offering exclusive festival exhibition of student work. The “International Student Film Festival Hollywood’ offers an opportunity for students all over the world to submit and get their work exhibited on the biggest film scene, Hollywood itself. This festival bring great opportunities for students to get a feel for the most successful film area in the world as well as get their product shown just a few miles away from the movie royalty of Beverly Hills.
