From the course: Pro Video Tips

Tips on avoiding scam film festivals

From the course: Pro Video Tips

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Tips on avoiding scam film festivals

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- On this episode of Pro Video Tips, I want to talk about some practical matters involving film making and money, specifically your money, and some of the unscrupulous people that may want to separate you from it. For almost every major step in the film making process, from buying a camera to funding to festival screening, there are some common scams that new film makers in particular may get caught up in. Perhaps the most notorious type of film scam that is still thriving today is the scam film festival so this week, as a special public service announcement to my fellow film makers, I want to break down how some of these film festival scams operate and give you some clear red flags to look out for. One red flag to a questionable film festival could be the name of the festival itself. Organizers of these festivals sometimes deliberately choose a name that's similar to a more reputable film festival, so if the notable film festival was named The Anytown International Short Film Festival, the scam festival would name theirs something like The Anytown National Short Film Festival, or just the Anytown Film Festival. Essentially, they would use as many of the same words as possible in the hopes of tricking less informed film makers. Now another variation of the name game they like to play sometimes is that scam film festivals will often incorporate the names of prestigious cities in their title in the hopes of sounding more prestigious, so London, New York, Monaco, Paris, etc. Any city like that. If the name sounds really lofty and prestigious, dig a little deeper to see if it really is a festival with a rich, deep history in that city or just a well-named, fly-by-night pop up scam festival looking to draw in as many unsuspecting suckers as possible. Another big red flag, particularly if you're submitting a short film, is an exorbitantly high entry fee. Yes, pretty much all the film festivals have some sort of entry fee, that's not unusual. It does legitimately take a considerable amount of time, staff, and energy just to organize judging and set up a film festival, so festivals do have to cover these upfront costs. However, some film festivals set out to gouge film makers just to apply. It varies, of course, but generally festival entry fees can range from 35 to about 75 dollars. If the entry fee is north of 75 dollars, I recommend you dig a little deeper again to see if there are other signs that the festival may be questionable, such as... no sponsors. Another flag to look out for is the lack of sponsors. Most film festivals have some type of sponsors to help them promote, defray the cost of the festival, and provide filmmaker prizes. Even if it's not a big company like Sony or HBO on the sponsors list, small legitimate festivals will often have several, if not many, local sponsors. The local pizzeria, car dealership, chamber of commerce, etc. However, scam film festivals will likely have no sponsors so if nobody is down with them, you may not want to be down with them either. Now I think the biggest and clearest red flag of all is the same as it is with everything else in film making life, and that is bad word-of-mouth. If you haven't heard of a festival, or it seems questionable, google the name of that festival along with a word like scam or complaint and you'll very quickly find out if they have a reputation for ripping off film makers. If you find multiple complaints and charges against a festival on blogs, bulletin boards, and fraud sites, especially if they cover more than one festival year, I say steer clear. When film makers feel ripped off, they will usually go out of their way to let others know, so there is no bigger red flag than a long line of angry film makers sharing their bad experiences with the festival online. Now the festival scam that I find most offensive is the one where festivals charge you to rent the theater for your film screening at their film festival, and because it's a scam festival, and not a real film festival about promoting and celebrating great films, the only promotion they are likely to do will be all about getting lots of other film makers to submit films and pay money. There will likely be little no real promotion for the festival screenings themselves so the only audience there will be the audience that you bring with you, so effectively these type of scam film festivals don't do anything at all for your film that you can't already do for yourself for less money, which is simply rent a local theater. Now here's an easy flag to spot. Are there any public screenings of the films? If not, then it definitely aint a legit film festival. That's what a film festival means at its most basic. A group of people will gather somewhere in public to actually view these films. No audience, no festival, it's a fraud. Another question you're looking to answer in your festival homework is who will be judging these films? When and how? If there is little to no information about the judging process, and I'm just talking basic stuff here like names and credentials of actual judges, an explanation of the judging process, the time period that judging will take place. Well, if you can't find any of that type info, you know the deal. It's another red flag. If the list of winners is not publicly available online and notification is only be email, I'd say it's a pretty sure bet that something suspicious is going on with that festival. Another area you want to research are the festival awards. Legit film festivals are all about singling out the best of the bunch to showcase for awards. An award at a legitimate, established film festival has some meaning and weight. An illegitimate festival, on the other hand, is all about enticing as many people as possible to pay fees, so another potential sign that something funny may be going on is any festival that seems to have an excessive number of awards, especially awards with vague categories. So if, after paying 150 dollars to enter an obscure film festival, your film wins an award for best performance by a dog, it may not be as big an honor as you think since they gave out 100 awards for a festival that only had 100 films. And apart from just enticing you to apply and pay the entry fee, scam festivals with a lot of awards may likely also take the extra bold step of notifying that you've won an award for your film, a slick shiny new trophy, and it's all yours as soon as you send them another check to collect the trophy. Hey, we all like shiny new trophies, but the problem here is that this type of trophy has no real meaning at all since it's from a whack film festival and they're financially driven to give out as many so called awards as possible. I recommend that you study the award categories of the more established film festivals to get a better idea of the type and number of awards that reputable festivals typically give out so you'll know this red flag whenever you see it. So all of those are just some of the most common red flags to look out for when it comes time to submit your film to festivals. Obviously festival rules and procedures are going to vary from event to event, so no one thing I just mentioned should necessarily be an automatic disqualifier, but if you do your homework and discover more than one or two of the issues I just named you should probably submit your film elsewhere. My favorite resource for more information on applying to film festivals is Chris Gore's excellent book, the "Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide" which not only gives you key information about deadlines, entry fees, and awards but also gives some valuable insight into the history, unique flavor and focus of many film festivals. Well, I hope you appreciate this week's special public service announcement and have only good experiences when it comes to your future film festivals. Until next time, I'm Anthony Artis, and now, I'm out.

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