Since so many people are asking me how to put together a film festival I thought I would put together this little Film Fest 101 course for everyone! Enjoy!!!
1: Give yourself at least a year to put the Horror Fest together. What you want to do first is contact venues in your city to see which one is in your price range. If you know someone with a theater even better! In order to throw a fest you better have a good chunk of money to start off with.
2: What do you want the event to be about? Will you showcase a particular genre? (Horror) Also is this for profit, or for fun or for non profit, now if it is for profit just remember if you want to throw another one the next year roll over the money you made, it can help!
3: Create your budget and stick with it, I spend at least $2,500 a year on A Nightmare to Remember. Any money I make rolls over to the next year, but you do want to find yourself sponsors, put together a package of what a sponsor will get if they help donate money or prizes of some sort. Will they receive ad space in program, radio spots, TV Spot, etc...
4: Get together a team and give everyone jobs to help make the fest awesome! You dont want to do everything yourself. I learned that a long time ago. You will need a door person to collect money, someone to help make announcements or pass things out. Theres a lot of things your friends can help do.
.5: Start off small you don’t want to over do it, choose a theater within a budget that’s good for you, maybe something with 100 seats to start off on. Each year you will grow bigger and bigger.
6: Once you pick your date, time, day or days the event will be and a name you can start putting together a cool flier to help not only advertise the fest but you will also need films to show. I have short films that I show, why? Because if your audience is stuck with a long film that they dont care about they will loose interest and maybe even leave! Thats my opinion, so I do short films. I also do three hours, short and sweet and straight to the point.
7: I also have friends make my fliers or pay to have a flier done that way people draw attention to it, especially when it’s a cool picture or logo, you want something that stands out. Get all the help you can (street team) to help pass the fliers around town to get the word out there.
8: What cool things can you include to spice up the fest! I have the first 20 people in line get a goodie bag, this could be where your sponsors come in, get sponsors that will just give you door prizes, that’s always fun! You want to draw people to your fest so give stuff away, people love free stuff. I sure do! I also do a free raffle for the audience, why? Again you had sponsors give you stuff to give away so why not use that power by telling people FREE Raffle! Who doesn’t want to win stuff…
9: Now once I receive all the films I have a panel of judges who sit down and rank them all for the first, second and third place winners. Which I give them they’re award that same night! You can also do fun stuff like audience award and have people fill out a little paper, have someone tally and give away the award at the end of the night. Audience award! Or you can always do best horror, best horror comedy and just do category awards. I have a friend who makes my Coffin awards for me and I pay him for how ever many I need. Or you can buy frames and do certificates with there name on it, that’s always fun!
10: Earlier I mentioned to get yourself a crew together this is very important, why? Because when having a crew it helps lift a weight off your shoulders so you are free to delegate and make sure everything is running smoothly. You’ll need to make a list of what needs to be done and assign jobs to your cool friends who want to help! You can also get walkie-talkie’s together for everyone so you are all on the same page. They are always fun! Be sure to give goodie bags or something to your crew for all they’re hard work.
11: Feature or short film movie descriptions, director and writer profiles, sponsor and logos and ads, and special event information in the festival guide. List the crew and all volunteers. Always list Thank You’s and be sure to promote all sponsors by running they’re ad’s before the movie starts, this you can do by putting together a before the movie slide show as people come in and sit down and wait for the films to start.
12: For guests, I always get outside guests or locals. To keep your cost down you can also have the film makers as guests and give a couple of tables out in the lobby for them to sell there stuff. Now if you are bringing out a guest from out of town, expect to pay for hotel, flight and food for them for however long you need them in town. Try to find a hotel to sponsor and give a discount to you for using they’re hotel.
13: I also make sure that towards the end of the night to thank all the sponsors, everyone for coming out and letting them know they are appreciated. Be sure to always make sure your guests and crew are comfortable and having a good time.
14: Once your film fest is wrapped up enjoy the photos, footage and time you had because it is always priceless!!!
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