Festival Secrets: Part III: Mastering the Festival … Why Do Technical Problems Happen and How do We Resolve Them?
The technical aspects of festivals can be frustrating for both festivals and filmmakers. Of course, the goal of most festivals is to exhibit your movie in the best possible way. There are many elements that must be taken into consideration when screening movies from the projector to the playing format to the size of the theater to the sound system.
Remember, the festival wants your movie to look and sound good. They want you to enjoy the festival and they want the audience to enjoy the movies. Also, remember, festivals pay for theaters. Some theaters may cost as little as $500 for two hours, while others may surpass $3,000 for a two hour screening block. Additionally, most festival organizers get involved with festivals because they love movies and they want to share your movies successfully with an audience.
Filmmakers, if the offer is made, always send deliverables other than DVDs. DVDs, especially DVD-Rs, are extremely unreliable. For the most part all DVDs are unreliable. Here’s an example, we did a special screening of FINDING NEMO, licensed the movie as needed, and we were sent a DVD by the licensing company, which is standard. Even this, professionally mastered DVD, from one of the major licensing companies skipped — it had a major skip with an audience of 800 people and there was virtually nothing we could do about it other than cringe and wait for the moment to pass. This happens with DVDs … it just does.
What many festivals do is create a master tape of shorts for a seamless short film program. However, these masters are only going to be as good as what is sent. If a festival is mastering to HDCAM and a filmmaker only sends a DVD, the movie will still only be DVD quality. Likewise if you send an HDCAM copy that is mastered to DVCAM, you’re getting DVCAM quality.
Know what the festival needs! If you have been accepted, find out what will work best for both parties and send it.
At the SoCal Film Fest, we have exhibited more than 1,000 movies and only had about a dozen serious problem. Every time one of these problems arise, however, I get a pit in my stomach because I want everything to be flawless.
Tech Problems and Why Some Happen …
Let me examine a few of the tech problems we have had and the past and examine how they could have easily been prevented.
1. Know format limitations: For example, this last year, we screened a movie on HDCAM and it looked absolutely beautiful. The movie that followed was screened on DVD, as this was the only format we were given for exhibition. The filmmakers of the DVD movie were concerned that the movie’s resolution and image didn’t look as good as the previous movie. Standard DVD will never look as good as an HDCAM … it’s just not possible.
2. Watch your movie in a theater, or at the very least on a projector: Your movie will look different and it will sound different than it did in the editing bay. If possible, watch your movie in a theater setting or at the very least on a projection system. If you are using festivals for your own first-run-exhibitions, how it will look may surprise and/or disappoint you. The above mentioned movie also noted that their movie looked darker than they had expected, yet was a dark movie, shot entirely at night. Additionally, the filmmakers had never seen the movie outside of their editing bay — this is a combination of elements that will often lead to disappointment.
3. Bad copies / no back up: We always request an exhibition copy and a backup. Recently, there was a compatibility issue with a tape that we were using to make a master program, so we went to the backup. However, the backup we were given was a rough cut and a different version of the movie. Now this was a short, three-minute movie, with minor differences. The filmmakers were upset with the festival, but it really was something we had no control over. If a festival requests a back, always send a back up.
4. No exhibition copy / just the festival screener: This happens every year. Filmmakers ask if we can just use the screener and never send an exhibition copy. Many festivals will not screen a movie at all if they do not receive a new exhibition copy. Remember, screeners and often passed around and watched by a programming committee and if the screener is a DVD-R, it is extremely unreliable to begin with. We have had multiple issues with accepting a movie as an official selection that had errors on the screener DVD, but filmmakers never send an exhibition copy to us. You took the time to make the movie, take the time to exhibit it properly.
5. Your audio is what it is stereo or otherwise: Nothing will make up for bad sound. As a filmmaker, you should do what you can to watch the movie in a theater setting prior to screening in festivals, otherwise you will not know what it will sound like. TVs and stereos are totally different than theater sound.
6. Good sound … poor execution: Example: a few years back, we had a movie mix key tracks of dialogue in 5.1. They ignored the tech requirements of the theater, which only screened in stereo and just assumed that someone in the projection booth would know to fix this — bad idea. Only the filmmakers know the movie as well as they do. And often, a projectionist works for the venue not the festival and has likely not seen any of the movies before.
7. If a tech check is offered … go! Festivals will often offer technical checks. This is a chance to watch your movie in part or whole to see how it will look and sound. If there is a projection issue and you did not take advantage of a tech check, at least it was offered.
Lastly, be nice to the projectionist! If something does go wrong, it is not courteous or appropriate to storm into the projection booth and yell at, command, or reprimand a projectionist while a screening is occurring. Find an employee or a festival representative and inform them of the issue and allow for them to try and fix it, but unless you are specifically invited in, avoid the projection booth.