Re: Slamdance Film Festival  

Dear Filmmaker,  

On behalf of the Slamdance staff and programmers, we would like to thank you for entering your film in this years' festival.  However, your film was not selected.  

 No matter how many good films are submitted, with only one primary screening venue,  we can only show a limited number of films. This year, we received a record 1300 submissions with a maximum of 40 slots.   

Does that mean you made a bad film?  No.  Does that mean it won't get into other festivals or get distribution?  Not at all.  Does that mean you should chop up your credit cards,  change your name and move to Monserrat?  Well, probably not.   

What it does mean is that you are part of an exploding community of independent filmmakers all struggling to get their work seen.  And for that you should be proud.  With more films out there, it also means there's more festivals, and we encourage you to apply to them.  Don't give up.   

Please keep us in mind for screening your future film projects, as well as submissions to our screenplay competition.  Once again we want to thank you for the submission of your work and participation in Slamdance '98.  As filmmakers ourselves, we know the sting of a rejection letter, and we hope this didn't hurt too much.  
  

Keep hope alive,  

SLAMDANCE FILM FESTIVAL Staff,

You might very well describe it differently, without necessarily contradicting me.  

VENT! is for those filmmakers who have strived to realize their dream without realizing all the consequences of it, such as mounting debts, bitter clashes with cast and crew, rejections from film fests and distributors, and a host of other aggravations you might have encountered along the way to getting your epic uncovered and, if fate smiles down on you, discovered. It can be a long, hard, winding road, but if you plan well enough ahead (and travel the scenic route) it can be a very rewarding experience. Just completing a feature film independently is an awesome achievement. After that, it's all a matter of luck, money, marketing, networking and, let's not forget, the quality of your product.  

It's not always logical, or even fair, which is why I launched this forum for frustrated movie makers to bitch and moan about what vexes them in this biz, and hence pass on some practical, from-the-trenches advice to us struggling filmmaking entrepreneurs trudging along the same path. And there are more of us than ever. The likes of Kevin Smith, Ed Burns and Richard Linklater, with their well-publicized ultra low-budget debut feature success stories, have inspired legions of aspiring filmmakers to follow in their footsteps. And it's getting crowded out here. There are so many indie films made and only so many venues to accommodate them. So, as a rapidly growing community, independent filmmakers need to support one another's efforts. Of course, that doesn't mean we're all going to win an Academy Award and be interviewed on Entertainment Tonight someday. Fact is, few of us will ever be able to make a career for ourselves in this industry at all. But since that won't stop a wanna-be from trying-to-be, we could all gain a little insight through one another's trials and tribulations. Afterall, we learn from our mistakes... but it's even better if we can learn from the mistakes of others who've been there. 

To introduce myself (and thus endear myself to you all as a fellow disgruntled filmmaker and brother-in-debt), I recently finished my first independent feature, Playing With Mr. Greeley (click on it if you give a damn). I graduated from a small university film program and was then employed for nearly two years as an assistant manager of a video store until I saved up enough money (about $15,000) and collected about a half dozen credit cards. Impatient to get things into gear, I wrote the first draft of the screenplay in less than two weeks while still working full time.  Happily quitting my retail job, I gradually assembled a cast and crew who would work for deferred salary (i.e., nothing), drew up my own contracts for them, scouted locations that were cheap or free to use, rehearsed my actors, negotiated deals for equipment, plotted camera set-ups with my DP, scheduled shooting days, and so on, so forth. I purged my bank account, maxed out much of my plastic and hit my parents up for cash to produce the film. 

Currently, while trying to raise money for my next feature, I am submitting the roughly finished Playing With Mr. Greeley to festivals, distributors and reps, with some minor interest and success, but mostly rejection letters, and periods of time waiting for rejection letters while scrounging and scraping to make those minimum payments on my charge cards.  

But I regret nothing. It has been one of the most enjoyable and enriching personal undertakings of my life, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I don't know if my film is any good, or rather, if it is good enough. I don't think it's crap, which is somewhat self-reassuring. I'm proud of it and of all the people who were involved in the production, and I am hopeful that it’ll serve as a springboard for me... though that doesn't mean I can't complain about how tough it is to make a movie and then get it shown. 

I've dreamed of making a film for as long as I can remember.  Now that, years later, my dream is a reality, I feel alternately elated and despondent, depending on the day and how many credit card balances are overdue.  

Indeed it's been a long, hard, winding road... and I've just gotten started on it. 

But hey, we all gotta start somewhere. 

Don Philbricht 
Editor