This was DEFINITELY the most inspiring day of the festival so far. For those of you who don't know, the SKFF Industry Day is filled with seminars and lectures on various topics from film funding to film making and also provides an opportunity for the various film groups around Australia to open up shop and talk about their organizations. Some of the people involved included the Australian Writers Guild, Australian Directors Guild, my own university, RMIT, and the VCA. The stalls are set up for people to come and ask questions about the various organizations, there role within the industry, and how they can join. Last year, I realize now I definitely did not take enough advantage of this day. These organizations are here specifically for you and for you to speak with them about all the questions you SHOULD have about them. The day allows for the easy exchange of communication between you and the groups rather than you having to call or email them to ask your questions which in turn, makes you less likely to ask. Here's how the day went for me:
12:30pm - First Seminar: AND NOW... WHAT? NEXT STEPS FOR SHORT FILMMAKERS.
I didn't read into the bio for this session too much before I rocked up and I was worried about being late too so really had no idea what to expect (the best way to go into a seminar) Hosted by Open Channel and moderated by Marc Gracie, the forum was organized to allow 4 key short filmmakers to discuss their pathways into the industry and what the next step is for them as content makers. These filmmakers included Andy Mullins (of Sand Hill Road films, director of the SKFF award winning Minnie Loves Junior); Rebecca Penniston-Bird (of Renegade Films); Glendyn Ivin (of Exit films and Director of Playground); and finally, Thomas Baricevic (of Jackson Black Films and director of Home)
All the panels members were invited to speak of their experiences with the industry and it was surprising to hear how differently everyone started out. Glendyn comes from a design background and worked as a graphic designer for 10 years before undergoing what he called "an early mid life crisis" at the age of 27. From there, he went on to do a postgrad at VCA, a move which he contributes to his success as a filmmaker (Glendyn won the Palme D'or in 2003 for his movie Crackerbag)
Thomas began his career as an engineer, then went on to study at VCA in the sculpture and then film courses. His Croatian background has influenced many of his projects and his films are considered to be highly multicultural works of art. Rebecca's career began when after having made short films for a while, Renegade films chanced upon her showreel and offered her a job. Since then, she has been working for Renegade as a Director/Producer, with the company's focus ranging from TVCs to Television series. Rebecca also studied the Bachelor of Arts at Melbourne University. Finally, Andy Mullins' career neither originated in tertiary education or filmmaking placements on film sets. Rather, his brother and him set up a line of pubs which helped to fund Minnie Loves Junior. Andy attributed his success with the film to the success he had in his hospitality business.
The remainder of the seminar consisted of Gracie guiding the filmmakers to speak about their experiences in the industry focusing on how they developed their own works of art and how they have then progressed to the level they are right now in their careers. Throughout the seminar, each person provided a few interesting tips for filmmaking. From Glendyn, I found out that most DOP's find it difficult to look at a script visually in the same way a director does. This means that for a lot of writers, he has found that many of them have their worked turned down specifically because "they can't see beyond the script." Andy spoke of the importance of having another business or career to support you financially during production. All of the filmmakers in fact mentioned how they had some other form of income separate to their filmmaking and how this was integral to them being able to finance their films.
I'm trying very hard to summarize everything I learned during the seminar but it is very difficult ad these guys just had one useful tidbit after another. In dot form, here are the other pointers the group provided:
- Q. What is a producer?
Glendyn - a producer is the person who finds you an elephant. The amount of money they have will determine how shiny that elephant is but you can bet on it that a great producer will go to great lengths to get you that elephant. "If you team up with a producer and become very tight, it can turn into a scenario where if you're not working, they're not working, and if they're not working, you're not working."
- Producer director roles are complimentary
Adam - Directors have to have an element of producer in them to get stuff done.
Thomas - worked with quite a few producers. At the start, you end up becoming a producer in order to get the ball rolling
- Q. . Career pathways are about material ideas but are also beyond materials as well. How do you find your material?
Glendyn- made a decision earlier this year that when offered a script, doesn't want to know how much money is attached. Asks himself, do I want to spend time making this? You choose to do work that you want to do not that you have to do. That work is going to be better than the work you have to do and better work will attract better work.
Andy - scenes, production going on inside his head. The way I look at the world, I am always asking, are people interested in this, would they pay for it, is it interesting? "Material comes to me in the format of is this commercial, if two people turn up, would they tell others?"(not verbatim)
- 'have to direct that film to make it the best film that anyone has seen for that script, not to further your career'
Gracie - the rigor of script is much greater. For young filmmakers, you have to be aware of how hard it is to get stuff put on screen.
Thomas - over the summer, was fishing for something to do. Spent a whole lot of time digging in the backyard. Found his material through that. Spent last four five months enduring to get this project off the ground.
Rebecca - "everyday is jam-packed with material." Rarely see that reflected in the script. She is a reluctant writer. Enjoys the process but doesn't have the passion to do it. Likes to find people who do have that passion.
Q. How can you progress from making corporate videos to making commercials?
Glendyn- the trick is, regardless of how good your shorts are, it doesn't make any sense to the ad world unless it is 30 seconds long. Cut your short reel down to 30 seconds to show that you can tell a story in 30 seconds. -(THIS IS A GREAT IDEA!!!)
- The industry overall, everybody is looking for the idea that you hopefully respond to on a personal idea, the more original the idea, the more likely people will respond to it
Rebecca - it's not a world of creativity. Ad world tends to ask you not to do anything too creative. They want to sell a toaster, thats all.
Glendyn - didn't make any money from ads for 3-4 years. Juniors at Exit films are freaking out because they can't see a way to make money either. Your bank balance goes down but the work stays there.
Q. When is it worth giving away your work?
Thomas - depends on how desperate you are to make a film. Have to protect your work at some point as well.
Rebecca - "if you're passionate about tennis, is that the best avenue for making a tennis film?" (questioner asked whether she should make film for Australian open film comp)
Gracie - in the real world, you generally don't want to hold on to your work. If you come up to me and say 'I have great idea but I can't tell you about it yet because I haven't worked out how to protect it yet', I'm not going to hang about till you have figured it out.
Glendyn - short films don't make money. It's more about the calling card.
Andy - Do it because the process of doing it is another film made. It's hard to get a seat at the table; scratch and crawl your way up to get that seat. Give your films away to get in.
Q. What is the next step after the short?
Gracie - it depends on how good the last film was. Nash(Edgerton) had to reinvent his career. His feature wasnt so good. He went back to making shorts and now he can go back to making another feature.
Glendyn - "I love making shorts. You either love it or you don't. I would just love to make another short."
Andy - It's easy. do something a little different to the last film you made.
Thomas - you will learn something from making the last film you made.
Gracie - the important thing about shooting film is shooting film.
Glendon- you feel so much better making a mistake on the films you care about then the ones you don't.
Q. Is it good to look forward to making features after shorts?
Glendyn - greatest experience of my life making a feature film. Not necessarily something I want to make again.
Q. Why don't people go see Australian films?
Rebecca - there have been too many disappointments. Once they see one bad film, that taints their experience. We need to be more ambitious
Andy- disagrees with the idea that Australians don't see Australian films. When they hit, they hit hard.
Gracie - making short films or features is about making other worlds. You can do it in ads, shorts, features. It's a way to make more lives. Whether the path to feature films is there or not, it's still a difficult one.
Glendyn- if that's something you really want to do, you have to do it. .
-working with and finding your crew:
Andy - where does the line blur in short films and docos for producer/director? Called up his line producer/editor/cinematographer and kept calling to say that he loved their work and wanted to work with them
So there you have it. A MAJOR summary of the seminar but hopefully you found some of it interesting/useful. And I'm going to say this again but you HAVE to take advantage of this sort of stuff going on in Melbourne. It's not hard to find out about seminars and events like SKFF happening in this great city - the key is just being open to finding it. Sign up to newsletters. Read Inside Film, Encore and ScreenHub to be up to date with the current events. And more than anything, get the website of your favorite director/producer/writer/crew on an RSS feed and know what is happening with the them and what they are doing. Being up to date with them will give you a better chance of communicating with them if you do get the chance to meet them at some point.
I'm going to leave you with a quote from the seminar by the host which I think sums up the main point of the day and I hope you take note:
Marc Gracie - "You make that path. No one ever, ever opens that door for you."
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