So my plan to post every day of Indpendent Film Week hit a wall.  The reality of juggling my day job and making the most of Independent Film Week got the best of me.

But better late, than never…

Sustaining a Film and Media Career or Managing (and Agenting) Your Career

“The space between agent and filmmaker starting out is not as big as you think.” — Lucy Stille, Agent at Paradigm (represents John Sayles, among others)

She argued that there are only a few degrees of seperation and they’re on the lookout for an original voice to break through the logjam.

One of the more interesting discussions was about attaching actors to independent projects…  It was agreed upon that personal contact to the actor helps you get them the script and you need to get them pregnant with the film, emotionally involved and exhausting all options to get around the agent helps.

I missed Masterclass: How to Craft a Pitch, but my new friend Mary Anderson Casavant attended and shared her theory on approaching pitch meetings (or any work-related meetings for that matter) that I will paraphrase: Approach every meeting with thinking about what you can do for that company/person/entity.

Dear Faithful Blogs Readers,

I regret not posting last night as promised.  To be honest, I was plied with too many Tequila Gimlets at the Book Launch Party for “How To Sell Your Film Without Selling Your Soul” by The Film Collaborative, Jon Reiss, and Shari Candler to be able to dutifully post. I won’t let it happen again.

But here are some of the highlights from Day 2 for me:

The Hot Button: What’s a Producer Do?

The panel focused a lot on the Producer’s role in knowing the audience for a film and how to reach out to that audience.

Jon Reiss was on the panel and his idea of the Producer of Marketing and Distribution was discussed and Jon gave the following tips for reaching out to your audience:

- Don’t blast people with updates.  It’s a dialogue.

- Engage personally with your audience.

- It’s about listening more than talking.

What do you think of all this, faithful blog readers?

Larry Fessenden was also on the panel and urged filmmakers to help build a community around films the bring color to what is increasingly an monochromatic film world.

Mike Ryan talked about his experience in raising money for one of the finest films released in 2011, MEEK’S CUTOFF.  (Still in select theaters and available on DVD and Blu-Ray)  His pitch: Every woman who listens to NPR will know this film is must viewing.  That must’ve worked.  He also went on to say, “The best situation is still the old method: Make your film for $150,000 with no stars, you go to Sundance and sell it for millions… It’s insane, but that’s also a business model that supports investment and gets films made.”

All agreed that this is rarely works out.  Hence, hybrid distributions strategies…

My favorite rant from Mike Ryan: “I see indie film as countercultural.  I’m against pop culture… I got into film for the reasons John Cassavetes, Ida Lupino, Oscar Micheaux did, because we hate what the corporations are pushing down people’s throats…  We’re not here to replace Hollywood…  We’re trying to help America understand we’re being destroyed by corporations.”

Today was Day One of Independent Film Week.  It was a panel fest.

For those who couldn’t be there or want to re-live a few of the moments, here are the highlights as I heard them.  (Please note: what follows is from my notes.  Actual quotes may vary.)

At Crowd Funding: Patronage 2.0 Panel:

Jennifer Fox, Filmmaker who raised $150,000 for her film MY REINCARNATION: “Most of what you’re giving back to donors is a relationship.  They want to be in the loop, in the creative world.”

Thuy Tran of United States Artists: “45% of our donors don’t elect to receive perks.”

Rodney Evans, Filmmaker: “I spent five hours per day for thirty days” on the successful crowd funding campaign for his film THE HAPPY SAD.

The Hot Button: Is Indie Filmmaking a Career?

In response to a question about what a writer can do to help their project be produced, Ted Hope:  “I consider it an insult to me if it’s over 115 pages…  The tighter a script is, the more people see it as production ready…  I don’t think you respect me if there’s a spelling error in the script.  I want to lose complete patience for that… Frankly, the dominance of the feature film form is over.   It’s dead.  And if you’re not thinking in a more immersive way, you’re not doing your work.”

And my personal favorite…

Case Study: Making Your First Feature

Alrick Brown, Writer-Director-Producer, KINYARWANDA: Your first feature will not be given, you have to take it from the universe.

Who can say when and where it all actually started?  And what is “it” anyway?

One “it” is the new website.  Let me know what you think of it.

Another “it” is the journey toward realizing a script that I’ve been writing for some time now. That script, USELESS PEOPLE, is one of twenty scripts that has been selected to take part in the EMERGING NARRATIVE section of the 33rd Annual INDEPENDENT FILM WEEK presented by INDEPENDENT FEATURE PROJECT (IFP) taking place September 18-22 in New York City.

It will be an honor and a great opportunity to take part in Independent Film Week.

Check back for more updates on the journey.