Should you bring your film festival online?
Special thanks to Jon Gann for this guest post!
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The rush to start an online fest is understandable -- but have you considered...
1. Will your audience watch? We assume yes, but will they?! They are already watching media and are overloaded with choices. Can you compete with the latest true-crime doc mini-series? Is your audience technically capable of using a new website, or do they watch everything through apps?
2. Are filmmakers giving consent? Many feature filmmakers are scrambling for paid distribution deals in lieu of theatrical runs -- will putting online at your event take away from their goals? What are you doing to prevent piracy? Is showing online at your fest going to negate their ability to play a more prestigious event?
3. Who are you marketing to? While an online fest could attract audiences outside your typical reach, do you know how to target them? Why would they support you if they have a festival of their own? And are you screwing over another festival for an audience?
4. Are you reverting to the same old schedule? The beauty of going online is to reinvent your event. Releasing 50 films to watch over 7 days may work for an in-person experience, but online, it may give your audience too much choice. Maybe rethink your schedule to release one or two films a day and make them available for 48 hours, giving enough time fit your offerings into their already packed watching time.
5. Not everything works online. That super-slow doc may work well as a communal watching experience, but may be painful to watch alone. Some films are shot to be seen large, or have small subtitling, and do not translate well to a small screen -- especially one the size of a phone.
6. Choose the system that is right for your event and audience. There has been a lot of discussion about more than a dozen platforms. What may be right for one fest may be a disaster for yours. Again, will and can your audience use it? Can you provide tech assistance? How are you handling internet or system outages? Can the system scale if you create a monster hit of an event?
7. Finally, can you make it happen? Do you have the capacity to make an online event happen? Do you have the tech shops, or the marketing time, or the patience to negotiate with filmmakers and distributors over something completely new to you -- especially in a time when you may be scrambling to keep sponsors, donors, and grantors onboard.
2020 may the the year to sit it out and regroup. There's no shame in that -- especially if you use the time wisely to rethink your event, realign your mission, and reimagine your future.
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Jon Gann is the a force in the film festival world, having created, consulted with and fostered dozens of events around the globe. In the past year, he has worked on AFI Docs, Key West FF, DC Environmental FF, Bermuda International FF, Port Townsend FF, SF IndieFest and the Woods Hole FF. He is a founding Board Member of the Film Festival Alliance, the first organization to professionalize the festival space, and sits on the Advisory Board at George Mason University’s School of Film & Video Studies.
Jon is the Founder of DC Shorts, a non-profit organization championing short filmmaking, and the creator of the DC Shorts Film Festival, one of the country’s premier short film showcases. He has also served as the Executive Director of CINE, a 60-year old organization that honors the best in film, TV and digital media with the prestigious CINE Golden Eagle Award.
His book “Behind the Screens: Programmers Reveal How Film Festivals Really Work” examines how programmers and organizers curate, collect, watch and select films for their festivals, with frank insights reveal the inner-workings of an industry that is often misunderstood. Published in 2015, his second book “So You Wanna Start a Film Festival,” explores the trials and tribulations of starting a new festival.
Jon has received numerous awards including the Television and Internet Video Association’s (TIVA) Community Partner Award, has been recognized by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities as an Artists’ Fellow, and has won numerous filmmaking awards for his film projects.
Jon has presented at over 120 universities, film organizations and film festivals worldwide, and has spoken at the International Film Festival Summit, Art House Convergence, and TEDxWDC.
As a filmmaker, Jon’s notable past projects include: “Cyberslut,” the first gay-themed short film to screen at over 50 festivals and broadcasts worldwide; “Signs,” a national 48 Hour Film Project award winner, and “Offline,” a modern dating parable.