2008 New York International Independant Film Festival Delivers the Goods
William W. Warwick IV
October 23, 2008
Written by: William W. Warwick IV – Copyright 2008 – All Rights Reserved
When my co-producer Carrie Clark suggested that we check out a local film festival In New York, I was already a little overwhelmed with work and I really didn´t want to take on a another commitment. However, no sooner had we cut the first master tapes for our documentary, "The Phoenix Incident," than we realized that we needed to find a distributor, since we had very little time to commit to that aspect of our work and such things should be left to the professionals.
Carrie and I also needed a film festival that was within driving distance of our homes on the East Coast and had some reputation for being productive. The New York Independent Film Festival soon came to the top of a very short list.
Therefore, before I committed to the Film Festival – I called my bother in law, who is an Executive Producer for a major cable TV network, and asked what his take was on the film festivals. He suggested that it could be very beneficial or it could be a tremendous waste of time, but suggested that I go anyway just to get familiar with the process. He also said that since this festival had some seminars on distribution and other important aspects of making independent films, this would be a great opportunity to meet new people and learn about the business.
"If you´re serious about your work – you need to go to New York or L.A. or Toronto, if you can get into one of those Film Festivals, then you have a pretty good chance of meeting the right people," said my brother in law.
The New York Independent Film Festival is a bi-coastal event with a sister festival in Los Angeles, so I figured this would be a good festival to submit our first documentary film to. Like all new ventures, I have learned from experience to expect very little and hope for the best, and that way I can never be disappointed…
Representative of the international entries, were documentaries like our very own "The Phoenix Incident," along with entries from Spain, Switzerland, South America, and even a couple of filmmakers who travelled all the way from India, and China as well as a dozen other countries. Not only was this a truly international event, but every genre of film was represented, from comedies to experimental horror and everything in between.
I must admit I was a little bit put off at first when the organizers suggested that we invest in renting a booth within festival to show off our work on the opening night, however after a lot of thought and input from my associates at Wisdom Tribe Films, we all agreed that there was no reason to go through all the trouble of going to New York, and attending the festival, if we didn´t get the attention of the right people, so after much debate we decided to get the least expensive package offered and see what happens.
There is no obligation to purchase anything for the film festival, and the only charge we were required to pay was the entry and review fee which was totally negligible and which all film festivals charge for. One important distinction that made this decision much easier to make was that the NYIIF guarantees that if they don´t accept your film – they will refund your entry fee – which not all film festival´s will offer. We could have just paid the entry fee and never had to pay anything else, but we made the decision to purchase a table after we were accepted into the Festival because we thought it was a good investment.)
I am glad to say that this was money very well spent because along with the booth space in the Film Festival, we also got a very nice and larger than expected Ad space for our film and trailer on the Film Festivals Website. Had we not paid a little extra for the booth, I don´t think we would have been nearly as successful as we were contacting and meeting all the people we met at the festival.
I am happy to tell you that it was a great investment in time and money and I am grateful to Cyndy Johnson of NYIIF for taking the time to explain to me that, "without a booth to show off your work, you are going to be relegated to walking around with a bunch of stuff under your arm, trying to promote your work – al carte, and that just is not a professional way to do it."
That was excellent advice since I saw many other film makers literally walking around trying to talk to people about their films and I know that our booth space was instrumental in setting us apart from the crowd and this is what eventually drew the attention of the right people.
To put the experience quite succinctly – going to the New York International Independent Film Festival has to be one of the best decisions that my co-producer Carrie Clark and I have made since starting our documentary film production company Wisdom Tribe Films - over a year and a half ago.
To be honest I was expecting a stuffy, stereotypical Hollywood attitude of cut-throat egocentric film makers surrounded by money hungry sharks ready to steal your idea and sell it to the highest bidder.
Instead, we were pleasantly surprised to find a vibrant community of supportive filmmakers who really cared about helping each other make films and change the world through independent filmmaking. Meeting people like Stuart Alson and Co-sponsor David Burke of ITN Distribution who are truly passionate about helping film makers distribute their films and being successful was also a big bonus.
Everyone knows that seminars can often be sleep inducing endurance tests of infinite boredom, but along with the films being shown, there were some very important and extremely informational seminars given by Stuart and David and Brad Balfour – a publishing consultant. The distribution seminar given by pro´s like Stuart Alson - President and CEO of ITN distribution, broke down the distribution system and its intricacies into easily understood terms, so that even a beginner film maker could understand it.
If you are serious about making films, I don´t think that you can do any better than attending one of these film festivals because with the insight of pro´s like Stuart Alson and Co-Sponsor David Burke you just can´t go wrong. We could have spent a couple of years fumbling around aimlessly trying to figure out what to do after we made our films and trying to learn the distribution process the hard way…
Know that we know the process, success is just a matter of making a good film. Stuart, David and Brad took the time to answer and speak to any and all festival attendees who had questions about the process and provided all the insight needed to take our production company Wisdom Tribe Films to the next level.
Stuart Alson even encouraged those who may not have been selected for ITN distribution to try to sell the film themselves and listed a number of outlets where you could market your film. He even gave the names of companies and various conferences in Las Vegas and other places where filmmakers can market their films to buyers, since not every film can find a home with a major distributor like ITN. He did note however, that other distributors may have a place for certain types or genres of film, like educational documentaries for schools and colleges and gave out specific information on how to go about reaching that audience and making those kinds of deals.
The seminars also covered important topics like copyright laws, soundtrack laws, the use and importance of cover art and graphics for your movie cover and sales pitches, how to get paid for your work, what to watch out for, and how the movies are paid for and distributed domestically and overseas. Stuart even provided a list of markets and countries that they distribute to and what each market is looking for – and film genres that certain countries will or will not accept.
Stuart answered every question we had and then some…even the ones I never thought of asking, like how to dub your film in other languages and sell it in countries that don´t speak English, an important but easily overlooked aspect of the distribution system.
Besides learning a lot of new stuff, we also met some very accomplished film producers and other VIP´s whom we are in the process of negotiating our film rights with. In fact later this week I will be making a major announcement concerning my negotiations with a major WGA and PGA film producer with over 30 years of experience in film, television and other media to market screenplays and possibly co-produce five feature films based on my soon to be published 5 part book series titled, Sandy´s Hill.
Sandy´s Hill documents my own encounter with a huge Boomerang shaped UFO on March 12, 1997 in Norfolk, VA and my families struggle to make it out of the South Boston Housing projects, while fighting against the tyrannical South Boston Mobster Whitey Bugler who tried to assassinate my father on April 23, 1993 for his efforts to help the FBI indict Whitey back in 1988.
Going to my first film festival only confirmed my original gut feeling that if you want to be successful at anything in life you have to go where the big fish are. In the case of young filmmakers, that means going to New York, or LA or Toronto, because that is where all the action is. Although there are hundreds of film festivals being held all over the world every year, your chances of getting in touch with the right people grow exponentially if they are in hosted in the heart of one of these three cities, and my experience with NYIIF has proven this theory to be true.
After speaking with my Wisdom Tribe Films associates, we all agreed that we learned more about the business of indie filmmaking in three days, than we have learned in the last three 3 years…or probably would have learned in the next three years, had we not taken the necessary step of going to the NYIIF.
Ok enough of the business side of this festival – let´s talk about how much fun we had…
While the opening night went slowly at first, things really started to sizzle as only New York can. I have only been to New York twice in my life, the second time being my trip to New York for the NYIIFF. Back in the day, I ran with a tight crew and my two best friends Todd, and "Sumo," promised to take me to a huge rave called "Boo" in Manhattan which was on my birthday October 10, 1999.
I had never been to a rave before so it was quite an eye opener and as it turned out, my friend Sumo couldn´t make it, but my best friend Todd from Massachusetts was able to come with his girlfriend and it was one of the craziest 48 hours of my life. When the movie Frequency came out in 2000, I thought it was ridiculously synchronistic that the main event in the movie occurred on the same night as my Birthday – October 10, 1999 and in the same place, Manhattan, as my late night visit back in 1999 so a part of me always felt like my future success was somehow destined to come true in New York at some point in the future.
In fact after speaking about this feeling with my grandmother, I learned that my grandfather William Warwick II was actually born in an alleyway somewhere in Manhattan, just after my great grandmother got off the ferry from Ellis Island and the long trip from Ireland, which is another story for another day.
I had never been to a rave before and the music was live and outstanding with 4 different DJ´s set up in different tents and all playing a different type of music. Coming from Southie, I had never seen that many young people gather in an urban setting, without people getting into fights, but the crowd was remarkably tame right up until then mayor Rudolph Giuliani decided to close the event down – for still unknown reasons. I will never forget seeing and hearing a couple thousand people screaming, "@#$% Giuliani," as they were forced out of the event by police in riot gear. What can I say…only in New York will you find so many people willing to exercise their rights to, "free speech."
I also want to mention that the Saturday night party on top of a skyscraper in the middle of New York was a classy affair complete with some incognito Hollywood A and B list actors and it was truly a great time had by all, which lived up to all the fanfare beforehand. There is nothing like having a drink with new friends and enjoying the city lights on top of the world.
From the word go, we met all kinds of great people and kindled friendships and contacts that will be professionally as well as personally rewarding. The East Village is the kind of community that was fostered throughout the festival where Artists, Actors, Producers, Director´s and other industry people all mingled together for a common cause which is the art of film making and how it can impact the world around us.
As co-sponsor of the festival, David Burke said many times, "we are here for you, we want you to be successful, because our business depends on finding the best independent film makers and bringing them to a wider audience," a mantra that the Australian born Executive Producer backed up by taking the time to patiently answer any and all of my questions when he invited me to have lunch with him and his wife.
Although I don´t think it is appropriate to go into the details at this point, the distribution package and standard agreement that David outlined to me while having lunch with him and his wife, if he was to distribute my film, are by far the best terms I have ever heard for distribution rights so far. These terms – if we did do a deal with David, exceeded every industry standard benchmark many times over in all of the negotiable terms.
Although my associates and I at Wisdom Tribe Films have decided to re-edit our documentary and resubmit it for a Cable TV sales slot and a showing at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009, we will definitely be staying in touch with both Stuart and David for future projects and I have no doubt that when the right opportunity presents itself and the time is right, we will find a way to collaborate with them.
Both David and Stuart went out of their way to talk to us and answer any questions we had, which is something that we never expected to see. As a business man with many hats to wear – it´s rare to find other professionals who care as much about the success of their clients as Stuart and David do and who are willing to, "walk the walk and talk the talk."
So my review of the New York International Film Festival is Two huge thumbs up, they delivered the goods on the seminars, they delivered the big studio contacts and introductions, and they did it all with class. Not only did I have a great time meeting new friends and colleagues, but I learned a lot too and that is an unbeatable combination in my book.
From the time we set up our booth to the midnight VIP party on the roof top of a swanky hotel, the NYIIF was worth every bit of our time and effort.
I don´t know if we can make it to the LA festival later this year, but apparently they are just starting to do a bi-annual event schedule so that any future film makers out there will have two opportunities each year to attend the LA or New York locations each year – instead of just once a year.
For more information about the New York and L.A. International Film Festivals contact:
David Burke - Executive Producer Premier Solar Marketing and Brokering
Website: www.truthbeautylove.com
Stuart Alson – New York International Independent Film Festival
www.nyfilmvideo.com, www.itndistribution.com
Brad Balfour - BMBMedia – Editorial Creation and Publishing Consultant
Bmbmedia53@gmail.com
Pictures of the event can be seen at: http://www.ufoeyewitness.com/NYFILM2008/index.htm
When my co-producer Carrie Clark suggested that we check out a local film festival In New York, I was already a little overwhelmed with work and I really didn´t want to take on a another commitment. However, no sooner had we cut the first master tapes for our documentary, "The Phoenix Incident," than we realized that we needed to find a distributor, since we had very little time to commit to that aspect of our work and such things should be left to the professionals.
Carrie and I also needed a film festival that was within driving distance of our homes on the East Coast and had some reputation for being productive. The New York Independent Film Festival soon came to the top of a very short list.
Therefore, before I committed to the Film Festival – I called my bother in law, who is an Executive Producer for a major cable TV network, and asked what his take was on the film festivals. He suggested that it could be very beneficial or it could be a tremendous waste of time, but suggested that I go anyway just to get familiar with the process. He also said that since this festival had some seminars on distribution and other important aspects of making independent films, this would be a great opportunity to meet new people and learn about the business.
"If you´re serious about your work – you need to go to New York or L.A. or Toronto, if you can get into one of those Film Festivals, then you have a pretty good chance of meeting the right people," said my brother in law.
The New York Independent Film Festival is a bi-coastal event with a sister festival in Los Angeles, so I figured this would be a good festival to submit our first documentary film to. Like all new ventures, I have learned from experience to expect very little and hope for the best, and that way I can never be disappointed…
Representative of the international entries, were documentaries like our very own "The Phoenix Incident," along with entries from Spain, Switzerland, South America, and even a couple of filmmakers who travelled all the way from India, and China as well as a dozen other countries. Not only was this a truly international event, but every genre of film was represented, from comedies to experimental horror and everything in between.
I must admit I was a little bit put off at first when the organizers suggested that we invest in renting a booth within festival to show off our work on the opening night, however after a lot of thought and input from my associates at Wisdom Tribe Films, we all agreed that there was no reason to go through all the trouble of going to New York, and attending the festival, if we didn´t get the attention of the right people, so after much debate we decided to get the least expensive package offered and see what happens.
There is no obligation to purchase anything for the film festival, and the only charge we were required to pay was the entry and review fee which was totally negligible and which all film festivals charge for. One important distinction that made this decision much easier to make was that the NYIIF guarantees that if they don´t accept your film – they will refund your entry fee – which not all film festival´s will offer. We could have just paid the entry fee and never had to pay anything else, but we made the decision to purchase a table after we were accepted into the Festival because we thought it was a good investment.)
I am glad to say that this was money very well spent because along with the booth space in the Film Festival, we also got a very nice and larger than expected Ad space for our film and trailer on the Film Festivals Website. Had we not paid a little extra for the booth, I don´t think we would have been nearly as successful as we were contacting and meeting all the people we met at the festival.
I am happy to tell you that it was a great investment in time and money and I am grateful to Cyndy Johnson of NYIIF for taking the time to explain to me that, "without a booth to show off your work, you are going to be relegated to walking around with a bunch of stuff under your arm, trying to promote your work – al carte, and that just is not a professional way to do it."
That was excellent advice since I saw many other film makers literally walking around trying to talk to people about their films and I know that our booth space was instrumental in setting us apart from the crowd and this is what eventually drew the attention of the right people.
To put the experience quite succinctly – going to the New York International Independent Film Festival has to be one of the best decisions that my co-producer Carrie Clark and I have made since starting our documentary film production company Wisdom Tribe Films - over a year and a half ago.
To be honest I was expecting a stuffy, stereotypical Hollywood attitude of cut-throat egocentric film makers surrounded by money hungry sharks ready to steal your idea and sell it to the highest bidder.
Instead, we were pleasantly surprised to find a vibrant community of supportive filmmakers who really cared about helping each other make films and change the world through independent filmmaking. Meeting people like Stuart Alson and Co-sponsor David Burke of ITN Distribution who are truly passionate about helping film makers distribute their films and being successful was also a big bonus.
Everyone knows that seminars can often be sleep inducing endurance tests of infinite boredom, but along with the films being shown, there were some very important and extremely informational seminars given by Stuart and David and Brad Balfour – a publishing consultant. The distribution seminar given by pro´s like Stuart Alson - President and CEO of ITN distribution, broke down the distribution system and its intricacies into easily understood terms, so that even a beginner film maker could understand it.
If you are serious about making films, I don´t think that you can do any better than attending one of these film festivals because with the insight of pro´s like Stuart Alson and Co-Sponsor David Burke you just can´t go wrong. We could have spent a couple of years fumbling around aimlessly trying to figure out what to do after we made our films and trying to learn the distribution process the hard way…
Know that we know the process, success is just a matter of making a good film. Stuart, David and Brad took the time to answer and speak to any and all festival attendees who had questions about the process and provided all the insight needed to take our production company Wisdom Tribe Films to the next level.
Stuart Alson even encouraged those who may not have been selected for ITN distribution to try to sell the film themselves and listed a number of outlets where you could market your film. He even gave the names of companies and various conferences in Las Vegas and other places where filmmakers can market their films to buyers, since not every film can find a home with a major distributor like ITN. He did note however, that other distributors may have a place for certain types or genres of film, like educational documentaries for schools and colleges and gave out specific information on how to go about reaching that audience and making those kinds of deals.
The seminars also covered important topics like copyright laws, soundtrack laws, the use and importance of cover art and graphics for your movie cover and sales pitches, how to get paid for your work, what to watch out for, and how the movies are paid for and distributed domestically and overseas. Stuart even provided a list of markets and countries that they distribute to and what each market is looking for – and film genres that certain countries will or will not accept.
Stuart answered every question we had and then some…even the ones I never thought of asking, like how to dub your film in other languages and sell it in countries that don´t speak English, an important but easily overlooked aspect of the distribution system.
Besides learning a lot of new stuff, we also met some very accomplished film producers and other VIP´s whom we are in the process of negotiating our film rights with. In fact later this week I will be making a major announcement concerning my negotiations with a major WGA and PGA film producer with over 30 years of experience in film, television and other media to market screenplays and possibly co-produce five feature films based on my soon to be published 5 part book series titled, Sandy´s Hill.
Sandy´s Hill documents my own encounter with a huge Boomerang shaped UFO on March 12, 1997 in Norfolk, VA and my families struggle to make it out of the South Boston Housing projects, while fighting against the tyrannical South Boston Mobster Whitey Bugler who tried to assassinate my father on April 23, 1993 for his efforts to help the FBI indict Whitey back in 1988.
Going to my first film festival only confirmed my original gut feeling that if you want to be successful at anything in life you have to go where the big fish are. In the case of young filmmakers, that means going to New York, or LA or Toronto, because that is where all the action is. Although there are hundreds of film festivals being held all over the world every year, your chances of getting in touch with the right people grow exponentially if they are in hosted in the heart of one of these three cities, and my experience with NYIIF has proven this theory to be true.
After speaking with my Wisdom Tribe Films associates, we all agreed that we learned more about the business of indie filmmaking in three days, than we have learned in the last three 3 years…or probably would have learned in the next three years, had we not taken the necessary step of going to the NYIIF.
Ok enough of the business side of this festival – let´s talk about how much fun we had…
While the opening night went slowly at first, things really started to sizzle as only New York can. I have only been to New York twice in my life, the second time being my trip to New York for the NYIIFF. Back in the day, I ran with a tight crew and my two best friends Todd, and "Sumo," promised to take me to a huge rave called "Boo" in Manhattan which was on my birthday October 10, 1999.
I had never been to a rave before so it was quite an eye opener and as it turned out, my friend Sumo couldn´t make it, but my best friend Todd from Massachusetts was able to come with his girlfriend and it was one of the craziest 48 hours of my life. When the movie Frequency came out in 2000, I thought it was ridiculously synchronistic that the main event in the movie occurred on the same night as my Birthday – October 10, 1999 and in the same place, Manhattan, as my late night visit back in 1999 so a part of me always felt like my future success was somehow destined to come true in New York at some point in the future.
In fact after speaking about this feeling with my grandmother, I learned that my grandfather William Warwick II was actually born in an alleyway somewhere in Manhattan, just after my great grandmother got off the ferry from Ellis Island and the long trip from Ireland, which is another story for another day.
I had never been to a rave before and the music was live and outstanding with 4 different DJ´s set up in different tents and all playing a different type of music. Coming from Southie, I had never seen that many young people gather in an urban setting, without people getting into fights, but the crowd was remarkably tame right up until then mayor Rudolph Giuliani decided to close the event down – for still unknown reasons. I will never forget seeing and hearing a couple thousand people screaming, "@#$% Giuliani," as they were forced out of the event by police in riot gear. What can I say…only in New York will you find so many people willing to exercise their rights to, "free speech."
I also want to mention that the Saturday night party on top of a skyscraper in the middle of New York was a classy affair complete with some incognito Hollywood A and B list actors and it was truly a great time had by all, which lived up to all the fanfare beforehand. There is nothing like having a drink with new friends and enjoying the city lights on top of the world.
From the word go, we met all kinds of great people and kindled friendships and contacts that will be professionally as well as personally rewarding. The East Village is the kind of community that was fostered throughout the festival where Artists, Actors, Producers, Director´s and other industry people all mingled together for a common cause which is the art of film making and how it can impact the world around us.
As co-sponsor of the festival, David Burke said many times, "we are here for you, we want you to be successful, because our business depends on finding the best independent film makers and bringing them to a wider audience," a mantra that the Australian born Executive Producer backed up by taking the time to patiently answer any and all of my questions when he invited me to have lunch with him and his wife.
Although I don´t think it is appropriate to go into the details at this point, the distribution package and standard agreement that David outlined to me while having lunch with him and his wife, if he was to distribute my film, are by far the best terms I have ever heard for distribution rights so far. These terms – if we did do a deal with David, exceeded every industry standard benchmark many times over in all of the negotiable terms.
Although my associates and I at Wisdom Tribe Films have decided to re-edit our documentary and resubmit it for a Cable TV sales slot and a showing at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009, we will definitely be staying in touch with both Stuart and David for future projects and I have no doubt that when the right opportunity presents itself and the time is right, we will find a way to collaborate with them.
Both David and Stuart went out of their way to talk to us and answer any questions we had, which is something that we never expected to see. As a business man with many hats to wear – it´s rare to find other professionals who care as much about the success of their clients as Stuart and David do and who are willing to, "walk the walk and talk the talk."
So my review of the New York International Film Festival is Two huge thumbs up, they delivered the goods on the seminars, they delivered the big studio contacts and introductions, and they did it all with class. Not only did I have a great time meeting new friends and colleagues, but I learned a lot too and that is an unbeatable combination in my book.
From the time we set up our booth to the midnight VIP party on the roof top of a swanky hotel, the NYIIF was worth every bit of our time and effort.
I don´t know if we can make it to the LA festival later this year, but apparently they are just starting to do a bi-annual event schedule so that any future film makers out there will have two opportunities each year to attend the LA or New York locations each year – instead of just once a year.
For more information about the New York and L.A. International Film Festivals contact:
David Burke - Executive Producer Premier Solar Marketing and Brokering
Website: www.truthbeautylove.com
Stuart Alson – New York International Independent Film Festival
www.nyfilmvideo.com, www.itndistribution.com
Brad Balfour - BMBMedia – Editorial Creation and Publishing Consultant
Bmbmedia53@gmail.com
Pictures of the event can be seen at: http://www.ufoeyewitness.com/NYFILM2008/index.htm
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