How Do I Deal With Failure?

Before I get into the meat of this post, please allow me to thank my latest two 'Followers' Double Edge Films (Jamin and Kiowa Winans) and Coastal.

Failure fuels me. Rejection sharpens my focus. It would probably be wiser of me to not reveal what I am about to write...and yet I must. For this blog to work, I cannot only share the best of times, I must share all of my setbacks.

After I submitted to the Los Angeles Film Festival a few months ago, I continued my research and realized we were dead in the water. For a festival as big as the LA Film Festival, they hardly take any feature films like Night Before the Wedding. One with a modest budget and no big 'names' attached. But more importantly than all that is that we had no connetions, no direct ties to the gatekeepers at LAFF.

Bottom line was that unless we made connections quick, there was no way we were getting into that festival. We made the attempt, though not enough to make a dent, and of course we received our rejection notice.

But I had a backup plan. Submit to another festival that prides itself on discovering true indie gems. I am not in the mood to name this festival by name in this post. You can scroll down below to previous posts for those details.

Well certainly this indie festival would be one that we would get into. We even had two filmmakers contact the festival and put in a good word on our behalf. Another filmmaker who got his films into a handful of the Top Festivals bluntly said Night Before the Wedding was 'too good' for this indie festival.

As you have already suspected, we did not get into this indie festival either. That makes my film 0 for 3 on the festival path. What do you do when you strike out on Plans A, B, and C? Does it sting? Sure. Does it hurt? Yeah. Does it stop me? Absolutely not.

On one side, I wonder if my film is a 'festival film.' I wonder if it has too much profanity? There is a small part that wonders if my film is good enough.

Then there is the other side of me that probes deeper. Once again I ask myself, did they even watch the film? That doesn't last for too long, then my mind moves onto the politics.

And as I speak to more and more filmmakers, I cannot tell you how many times they tell me, the reason why I got into this festival or that festival is because I knew somebody. The part that pisses me off the most is the $30 to $100 entry fee to submit my film to these festivals. I can handle the rejections. I cannot handle blowing money in addition to essentially someone telling me that my film isn't good enough for their audience. That's money I would rather put into advertising.

For the time being, I am done with Festivals. I know I have a film that people want to see. The question is how many people? Well it is time to find out. In my next post, it is time to unveil the World Premiere of Night Before the Wedding.

We will do it on our own. We will show these Festivals who passed over our film exactly what we can do or maybe what we cannot do. I am tired of being passed over by these festivals. This is the film business and it is time for us to do some business. I do not want to wait around, playing the waiting game for these festivals.

My way to deal with failure? To not dwell on it. To keep my mind focused on what I can do. And to keep taking action.

It is my hope that you want to still see Night Before the Wedding despite these rejections. It is my hope to still have your faith and support.

LA Film Festival Rejection (Night Before the Wedding)

I awoke this morning to find this message in my mailbox...

Dear Filmmaker:

Thank you for the opportunity to preview your film. We appreciated seeing your work, but I am sorry to tell you that it has not been selected for the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival.

Our selection process is very competitive, and many wonderful and deserving productions will not be included in this year's program. We wish you success with the film and hope you will keep us informed about your future projects.

Thanks again for your interest in the Los Angeles Film Festival.

Best regards,

Rachel Rosen
Director of Programming

I cannot say that I do not care. Yet I started to anticipate this news shortly after submitting. That feeling I had was the reason why in addition to the LA Film Festival, I submitted NBTW to Dances With Films, which doesn't have the prestige of the LA Film Festival but it prides itself on being an independent film festival for true independent films.

The way I take this current rejection is that me and my team simply could not connect ourselves with key decision makers at the LA Film Festival. And if you are not connected with these 'big name festivals', the likelihood of your film getting accepted drops considerably.

I have certainly learned from this rejection coupled with the rejection from the SXSW Film Festival. I am sure the day will come when one of my films gets into one of these 'big name festivals.' The bottom line is that these festivals do not break me. My end goal is to get the masses to see my film(s). Whether my films play at the festivals or not, isn't going to stop me from doing what I have to do to get people to see my work.

My view is that the current state of independent film has become too dependent on these film festivals. We have become too dependent on whether this small pool of festival judges approve our work. I am working on changing that. I am working on building my audience with or without the help of any festival I submit to.

With that, I should hear word from Dances With Films in the next couple of days. Other than that, I am done with the local Festivals. Any festivals after DWF will be outside of the Los Angeles area.

(Underneath this news, there is a silver lining. NBTW will be screening in Los Angeles in August. Going to wait on this festival news to clear, then update you with more details)

Rejection from the SXSW Film Festival

Along with hundreds of other filmmakers, I had my film, Night Before the Wedding rejected by the SXSW Film Festival today. Now I will do my best to put some of my thoughts and feelings into words and provide you my immediate reactions. I can say that the rejection letter is very well written. The best I have received from any festival that has not accepted my work. The letter included the hard numbers; that they received 3500 submissions this year and accepted 110 Feature Films.

I am certainly disheartened by the rejection letter. This festival meant more to me because it was one that I targeted before I even shot NBTW. I wasn't even sure if I could make the deadline. I ended up submitting a 'work in progress' a few days before the final deadline. It is the only festival I have submitted to thus far, but that will soon change. I believe my film measures up very well with films that I have seen emerge from SXSW in the past years. As I think about that, what crosses my mind is...did anyone from the festival actually watch my film? Did they watch more than 20 minutes? I will probably never have these answers, so I will move on.

When I really examine my feelings right now, I can tell you what stings the most. I am looking to prove that I can produce work that is welcomed and embraced by the Top 10 Film Festivals. This is a level of achievement I have yet to reach so this kind of validation is important to me. The SXSW rejection is one opportunity erased, similar to losing a million dollar case on Deal or No Deal. And it leaves me with the question, can I still reach my end goal?

Why does this rejection matter? One reason is that this is one of the premiere indie film festivals in the U.S. Another reason is that I have not been to Austin, TX and I would love to make the trip. The audience at this festival craves independent cinema and they flock to screenings. How amazing it would be to experience that as a participating filmmaker. I will stop there. I am sure you could fill in more reasons that we are all familiar with. There is something that has been on my mind for the past couple of weeks regarding these festivals...'Branding.' You see, I don't just think about filmmaking, I think about marketing and getting others to become interested in seeing the films that I make.

One of the main things that sucks about not being accepted into SXSW is losing the branding of a top tier festival. Let me explain. I will start with an example of a film I watched a few nights ago, Baghead by the Duplass Brothers. Here is the movie trailer for the film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yBbm_nDKS0 When you watch this trailer what is one of the first things you see? The story is quickly set up with a voiceover and some opening images and then...you see the laurels and the words, "Official Selection Sundance Film Festival" In the independent world, Sundance is the KING for branding. It garners immediate interest from all around the globe. From there the trailer is followed up with more footage and quotes from various indie news outlets including indieWIRE and Film Threat. The quotes are nice but honestly, after the Sundance laurels, you can pretty much show anything you want and those who follow independent film are going to be interested. It is the ultimate stamp of approval.

What if you don't have that Approval/Acceptance? What can you do to create that kind of branding to sell your film? Of course there are other festivals out there, but is being accepted into the "Binghampton Film Festival" really making anyone stand up and take notice? To some degree it might cheapen your film. People think to themselves, "What the hell is the Binghampton Film Festival? (I made it up) Never heard of it. Film is probably trash." And once people are thinking that, it is extremely difficult generate buzz and get people to see your film. For me that's the bottom line. More than getting into any one film festival, my aim is to get people interested in my film and be willing to pay to see it.

What makes distribution in the independent world so difficult is that the top tier festivals are so competitive that only a handful of films receive the sought after branding. Indie films are a much tougher sell without this branding. This is the power that Film Festivals currently have. They have the branding power. This is what I have been thinking about, how do I recreate that kind of branding power towards my film, just in case it isn't endorsed by the festival gatekeepers of the Top Festivals?

What can you do? What can I do? What can we do? Let's create a dialogue together. Share any ideas you may have and I will share my thoughts.

Getting rejected stings, but it doesn't mean that I will not strike back.