FRAMED #03 – It's in the Can(nes) - Festivals, Funding & Distribution

The leaves are turning, the air's becoming crisper, the coffee's getting stronger....it must be festival season in Melbourne! With the Cannes, St Kilda and Melbourne Film Festivals just around the corner, join us for FRAMED #03 as our panel of distinguished speakers discuss the following:

- Funding agencies, initiatives and film festivals
- What festivals look for when selecting a film as opposed to what funders look for
- How best to market your film at a festival [ie putting together a press kit]
- Preparation for attending a major festival
- What type of travel assistance is available from government film agencies
- First hand festival experiences from around the world
- Distribution & exhibition

Speakers include:

James Hewison, newly appointed Theatrical Distribution Manager, Madman
Tait Brady, Feature Film Evaluation Manager, FFC Australia
Megan Gardiner, Professional Development Officer, Film Victoria
Andrew Apostola, Artistic Director, Portable Film Festival
Richard Wolstencroft, Artistic Director, Melbourne Underground Film Festival
Peter George, Producer, Captive Films (facilitator) When: Thursday 24 April 2008, 12.30 - 2.00pm

Where: The NAB Theatrette @ The National Bank Building, Ground Floor, 800 Bourke St Extension (cnr Harbour Esplanade) Docklands (Enter via the main revolving doors at Bourke St entrance)

Framed speakersMeghan Lew (Film Victoria)Filmmaker Paul Andersen Ian Dixon & Ryan Howard (OC member) Speaker: Andrew Apostola
(Portable Film Festival)

Seminar Notes

The Evolution of Film Distribution: slouching towards a digital Bethlehem
by: Anne Richey

Screen Hub
Friday 2 May, 2008

If one pencil does not a Rembrandt make, one iPod on a train is not the death of cinema as we know it. Anne Richey scoops up the proverbial range of views at an Open Channel outing.

Is film a dying art form, rapidly being replaced by online short form content? Tait Brady, Andrew Apostola, James Hewison, Megan Gardiner and Richard Wolstencroft discuss the changes occurring in distribution and media consumption at Open Channel’s Framed event ‘It’s in the Can(nes)’.

James Hewison, former CEO of the AFI and newly appointed to the role of Madman Films Theatrical Distribution Manager, noted that his new employer is in the unusual situation of not owning any cinemas. He believes this is fortunate, since cinema releases are likely to become increasingly volatile in the current media climate.

He refers to a Variety article - linked here - about the death of theatrical distribution and how alternate distribution methods should be explored and developed, particularly in the context of Australia film. Although there is a small appetite for Australian content in the cinema at the moment, in Madman’s DVD distribution arm, their highest grossing DVD is Kenny and in fifth place is Ten Canoes.

Richard Wolstencroft, the Artistic Director of the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, believes that Australia needs to focus on more low budget, genre oriented material, citing the examples of Wolf Creek, Saw and Gabriel which is selling very well in DVD rentals.

The Portable Film Festival has been running for a little over two years and challenges the audience to explore different methods of viewing content and story. Andrew Apostola, the Portable Film Festival’s Artistic Director, believes that telling stories through the medium of film is outdated, and that creators should look seriously at series and short form media. He concedes that cinema will still happen, but that most films will be watched on DVD.

In defence of film, it was suggested that most people don’t want to watch Lawrence of Arabia on an iPod.

James Hewison was also unwilling to agree with Andrew’s viewpoint, recalling that film’s deathknell has been sounding ever since the introduction of sound and then colour and then video, and it ain’t dead yet.

Megan Gardiner, Film Victoria, suggested that it’s possibly just a case of one form being dominant over another at a given point in time.

It seems then that reports of film’s death may be premature. There’s just one small problem to sort out first – piracy. Andrew Apostola believes that one method of combating the problem would be to release films on all formats at once, rather than delaying releases via country and then via formats. As in the case of Steven Soderberg’s film Bubble all formats should released simultaneously, although making free downloads available may not be appropriate for all products.

Ultimately, distributors and financiers are looking for risk minimisation, and given that not all films are destined for the cinema, different methods must be investigated.

James Hewison gave the example of a group of filmmakers, who, when asked what they would like for their film, all say theatrical distribution. However, when this is further discussed, it transpires that only about 50% believe theatrical to be the only way forward.

The other 50% are easily converted to the idea of running a campaign, followed by an opening night party, and then making the product available online. At least that way people get to see it. Andrew Apostola calls this Cannes versus Youtube. How many would you have see your film? 1500 at Cannes or 1.5 million online?

(With a ticket to Cannes in my pocket, and my press accreditation safely confirmed, I probably can't answer that question.)

James noted that just because everyone has a pencil doesn’t make them Rembrandt. A proliferation of online content doesn’t necessarily improve the quality. Richard Wolstencroft made an amendment to this statement – there isn’t a greater percentage of quality product, but democratisation creates quality.

Tait Brady, Melbourne’s FFC Feature Film Evaluation Manager, referring to Robert Connolly’s white paper, Embracing Innovation: a new methodology for feature film production in Australia, described how the rebate favours big budget films over the low, it favours experienced practitioners over the inexperienced, and will have an inflationary effect of movie making costs as the budget sizes increase. New practitioners are the ones who need the new agency the most and must therefore be active in helping to form the policies of Screen Australia, which will be officially instituted on the 1st of July this year.

He believes it’s likely that that the current agencies will continue business as usual until at least the end of the year as a board of management is yet to be appointed, and once this is completed, there are staff to be hired and industry consultation to take place. He hopes that the new agency will focus on streamlining the bureaucracy, investing a larger percentage of budget into films, focus on emerging and indigenous filmmakers, and find better ways of developing scripts. For the moment, all of the cards are up in the air

Whatever decisions are made to keep up with modern technologies, filmmakers must remain open to new forms of distribution. In the online world as well as in traditional distribution, it is ultimately the audience who will decide on its popularity, but the film must be made available, somewhere, somehow, for people to see the film in the first place.

Anne Richey
Anne Richey is a screenwriter and Screen Hub's television specialist.