How I Got My $100 Film into a Major Film Festival

Earlier this month my short comedy film, The Financial Teller, was screened at the 32nd Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival. As I mentioned in a previous post, the film cost approximately $100 to make (not counting the gear I own), and I did not have a crew.  I try not to exceed $100 for any project on my channel simply because I love producing content and I’d go broke if I spent more. Most of the money for each video goes toward props.

I’m proof that one person with a camera, a mic, a few bucks for props can have their film screened at a festival that features appearances from Denzel Washington, Ryan Gosling, and Emma Stone.

Here are some lessons I’ve learned over the years that helped with my festival acceptance.

Lesson #1: Don’t expect your first short to get into a festival, and don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t

The Financial Teller was my third film festival attempt. Looking back I can understand why my first two attempts failed (bad sound, noncinematic feel, subpar lighting). After my submissions were denied, I took it to heart and put my camera on the shelf for a few years. Big mistake! When I finally started making shorts again, I completed 21 small projects for my YouTube channel before taking another shot at a festival submission. By the time I submitted again, I had 21 videos under my belt, and learned from making lots of mistakes along the way.

Lesson #2: The shorter, the better (for shorts)

When you submit to a festival you’re competing for time. A festival will usually reserve 1.5 – 2 hours for a series of shorts. What I’ve heard from festivals is that, all things being equal, a 5 minute short has a better chance of getting selected than a 10 minute short. My short runs about 4 minutes.

Lesson #3: Go local!

If you’re new filmmaker like myself, your best bet is to check if a festival in your town has a local category. In this category, you’re competing for festival time with people in your geographic region instead of competing with the entire world. This is the route with I took with my film. It would have been tough for my solo project to compete for time with nonlocal shorts, which seemed have decent funding, sporting credits with RED Cameras, big-name actors, large crews, and fancy production company logos.

Lesson #4: You don’t need the best gear in the world

My film was shot on a Canon C100 ($2500), a Sigma 30mm ART lens ($500) and a Rode NTG3 mic ($699).  You could get these three items used for $3000, and once you master them, the sky’s the limit.

Lesson #5: Craigslist is your friend

When I moved to Santa Barbara four years ago, I knew no actors. In July of 2015, I wrote a simple comedy sketch that I wanted to film. I posted an ad on the talent section of Craigslist and that’s how I met Robert Byrne, the lead in my festival film. Our sketch didn’t receive very many views on YouTube but we had fun making it and became friends in the process. After posting the sketch on YouTube, I had something to show other talent in the area and word got around that I was interested in producing more videos, which attracted other talent for future projects. We filmed The Financial Teller approximately a year after our first sketch.

Lesson #6: Save money for DCP Conversion

Chances are you’ll need your film converted to DCP (Digital Cinema Package) to be screened at a festival. While it’s possible to do this yourself, it’s not recommended. This is a cost new filmmakers probably don’t consider when submitting to a festival. I handed off a ProRes 422 file to a local post-production house, and they converted my movie for about $200 (twice the budget of the film).

Lessons Learned from SBIFF

Something you may have heard before is “If you have a great story, production value doesn’t matter.” While this may be true to some extent, the reverse seems to work as well – If you have great production value, your story doesn’t have to be top notch. The latter is more common than the former. I was blown away by the production value of many of the comedic, dramatic, and live action shorts. I can’t say that I saw a film at the festival with so-so production value and a phenomenal story. In most cases, both were strong, or the story was so-so and the production value was strong.

Going forward, after writing a project I’m passionate about, I’m going to spend more time on perfecting lighting, set design, and not try to rush against some imaginary clock in my head when I’m filming. My 2017 goal is to film a longer short (7 – 15 minutes) and compete in a nonlocal category at a major film festival. I’ll be happy if the progress I make this year matches the progress I made last year. For comparison here’s a July 2015 project vs. a July 2016 project. What will July 2017 bring?