Frankly Festivals

Today, we are going to talk to three master PR people – positions that most festivals outsource.  Marketing and PR is such a key element of any festival. And it entails much more than promotion of the event – a good PR firm will also manage the Red Carpet experience, press relations, press and blog reviews, and so much more. JOHN WILDMAN with Wildworks PR is a multi-faceted presence in the enterta...

For this episode, we explore key staff members who make a festival happen. Some of these staff members are year-round and shape the festival’s mission, while others come on for a shorter period of time, but whose contribution is immeasurable. Our guests: BETH BARRET , the Artistic Director for SIFF, the Seattle International FF. Beth has been with SIFF since 2003, and is responsible for managing t...

This month, Jon and Bart discuss a broad topic that, while important for festivals – is really critical for filmmakers. Tech. Not cameras and lights, but hope to best prep your film for festival play. Now that everything is digital, things have been challenging – file compression issues, wrong aspect ratio, inappropriate sound mixes. Hear from three tech pioneers for best practices and tips to ens...

We have all heard from filmmakers that festivals make a mint from submission fees, and that festival staff are wildly overpaid and wasting the millions of dollars they get from such fees. But the reality is very different — that most festivals barely net $10K from submission fees, and that ticket sales also cover only a fraction of theater rent, event expenses, and staff pay – if they get paid at...

In this episode, hosts Jon Gann and Bart Weiss discuss the intricacies of film festivals, offering valuable advice for filmmakers. They explore the history and purpose of festivals, the challenges of organizing them, the importance of doing research before submitting films, and the necessity of building community and networking within the film festival circuit. Both hosts bring their wealth of exp...

It's finally here -- the long-awaited release of a new program from the Film Festival Alliance to create a set of best practices for festivals, including a searchable database for filmmakers to compare and contrast events, allowing them to create better festival strategies. Jon and Bart are joined by Bears Rebecca Fonte , the Artistic Director of aGLIFF/PRISM , and Gray Rodriguez , the Director of...

This month, Jon & Bart discuss the history of film festivals, and where the industry is today, with Sky Sitney, the co-founder and festival director of DC/DOX , and the former festival director of AFI Docs (originally known as Silverdocs), and a professor at Georgetown University, and Mark Rabinowitz, co-founder of indieWIRE , producer, acquisitions executive, programmer, and a member of the Louis...

Welcome to Frankly Festivals, a new podcast that explores the ecosystem of film events and filmmakers, in an attempt to demystify each others’ pressures and interests, in order to foster greater cooperation, understanding, and a stronger industry. This month, Jon & Bart speak with Lela Meadow-Conner , creative producer of “ Chasing Chasing Amy ” , former Executive Director of Film Festival Allianc...