Greetings Hollywood tech nerds!

In this week’s post:

📽️ The Future of Film Festivals: An Interview with Dances With Films

🍿 Kernels: 3 links worth making popcorn for

The Future of Film Festivals: An Interview with Dances With Films

This week I’m super excited to present my interview with Leslee Scallon and Kerim Duran, respectively the co-founder and technical director of Dances With Films. DWF has been the premiere independent film festival in Los Angeles for over 26 years - one of the few events where filmmakers without industry connections or cash can actually have their films screened in front of receptive audiences. Last year DWF expanded to New York City and their latest edition there begins on November 30.

If you’re interested in DWF’s long history, check out this LA Times article or perhaps the story of how Orion threatened to sue DWF because people might have confused it with the film Dances With Wolves (guess who won). Our interview is below, edited and condensed for clarity.

Steve: Given the ubiquity of streaming platforms and other ways to distribute and consume movies, what are the unique benefits that a festival experience provides for both filmmakers and film fans?

DWF: A film festival experience with the right festival (ie. DWF) is an event. It brings together the creators of the narratives, documentaries, pilots and more to meet their audience and interact with them, for an audience member to meet the next Steven Soderbergh or Quentin Tarantino. To be able to say "I met them back then."

For the filmmaker, they get to experience their film through an audience member's eyes. To find out where the dialogue and action really hit home and sing... or fall flat.

It's invaluable to both. Discovering new voices that resonate with you in a way that the mainstream is just not doing.

Relatedly, do you find independent filmmakers report that they are more likely to find an audience once they're on a streaming platform, or do they get lost in the content shuffle?

I have not heard of any indie filmmakers complaining about that, however I think for the most part they realize that getting that distribution is just a small piece of the puzzle and that they still need to build their audience so their next film can get made.

There isn't a luxury of getting lost in the shuffle, so they continue the hustle of building their brand. Frankly, being an independent filmmaker is not for the faint of heart!

Based on your festival submissions, what genres do you think are under-utilized?

Without a doubt - comedy. Hard to do, hard to succeed at and truthfully not really attempted that much either.

It's generally agreed that advances in technology have made it much easier for anyone to be able to make a movie. As it relates to the art of cinema within the world of independent film, have you seen any drawbacks to the pace of technological development?

Not so much in the development of the tech, but the bottom line of every film, every pilot, every documentary, is the story. No amount of AI or anything else can replace the human imagination. So if there is a drawback, it is that the technology has made it so people are creating before the story is ready. Then they have put a major amount of work into a project that just isn't going to soar.

Speaking of AI, it’s an incredibly hot topic in Hollywood circles and was a big part of the impetus for the dual strikes. Do you see the same levels of concern and/or excitement around AI from independent filmmakers?

I think everyone is sitting back and saying, "let's see what happens." I applaud the WGA and SAG-AFTRA for being proactive in their contracts to include provisions for AI. I remember seeing one of the first films based on a video game (don't ask me which one - it had that much impact) and it was dreadful. Not so much because of the story, but because of the animation. 20 plus years later and it is a different story.

We went from Edison's Kinetoscope to CinemaScope to 3D to 70mm to Digital. AI is just another leap to a different aspect of filmmaking. Some last, some don't.

What's something most independent filmmakers aren't thinking about when preparing to shoot their movie but absolutely should be?

Publicity, Marketing, Distribution. What will your poster look like? Did you do BTS footage during your shoot? Did you have your actors do interviews that you can then cut into an EPK? What angle are you going to use to convince a distributor to buy your film and get it out to its audience? How will you market the film and yourself so you can become a good bet for the next project?

What is the biggest unmet need for indie filmmakers where tech could fill the gap?

An education and explanation of the theatrical world. Too many filmmakers are coming from the Internet, social media, TV, or film school, without having training in the theatrical experience.

I also see a trend where filmmakers are not properly understanding compression codecs. Many think the bigger the data size of their finished files is equivalent the upmost highest quality they can output and the better it is, which makes data storage an issue for some.

What are the technology trends you're seeing in the theatrical distribution space?

Digital cinema packages (DCPs) will continue to be the dominant exhibition format for many movie theaters. A trend that is slowly occurring will be laser projectors replacing Xenon lamp house projectors.

I know the major studios have been doing ADA/ADL compliance on DCPs, that might be a technology trend affecting more independent filmmakers in today's time.

If the price goes down in the near future, I believe we will be seeing more LED walls/screens in movie theaters as long as the LED screen can allow the audio to pass through it like the perf screen we currently have.

Are you ever provided non-functional DCPs? If yes, is there typically a recurring reason why they’re not working?

The majority of the reasons would be human error. In the past the main reasons for non-functional DCPs would have been two things: 1) hard drive failures or incorrect formatting, 2) the DCP was not created properly by the filmmakers.

Most film festivals have steered away from hard drive delivery and now accept e-delivery, meaning the DCP is delivered on a shared file transfer system (i.e Dropbox, Google Drive, Masv, WeTransfer, Aspera, Media Shuttle, etc). The issue we have encountered was the DCP files were either not uploaded or downloaded correctly, causing them to be corrupt. E-delivery has been more challenging than hard drives.

DWF:LA is one of the longest-running film festivals in Los Angeles and DWF:NYC is about to begin its second year. Why do you think DWF has found such continued success when many other festivals have closed up shop?

Without a doubt, it is the community that began in year one. We still have supporters from that year and all the years that have come afterward. Writers, directors, actors, cinematographers, choreographers, grips, gaffers - the list goes on. Individuals who may have felt like they were on a solo journey found friends amongst their fellow filmmakers instead of a competition. As Michael Trent has said since the beginning, "There is room for more than one person at the top!"

In 2020, DWF became an online-only festival due to the COVID pandemic, with all screenings being held virtually. Now that you've been back to in-person events since 2021, what are your thoughts on online festivals?

DWF will never do one again. Of course it is wonderful to think that the film can be seen by so many more people across the globe than can come to the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood or the Regal in New York when the festival is happening. However, we feel that the connection of the film and the audience in one shared space is something special.

Sitting in your living room streaming a movie - I don't care if it is from a film festival or HBO, it's just not the same as being there and feeling the electricity of a film showing for one of the first times with the filmmakers there to talk about it afterward. There is nothing like it.

We're just not sure why anyone would want to play those (except when a pandemic forces you) unless you are receiving some financial benefit.

What are you most excited about for this year’s edition of DWF:NYC?

Being in New York for year two and the continuation of introducing our brand of films and filmmakers and our community to another filmmaking hub is the most exciting for sure.

The electricity of the city combined with the over the top exuberance by the filmmakers to show their films here is revitalizing. I'm sure you can imagine that with 26 years under our belt in LA, bringing our flavor to the East Coast is simply a dream come true for us.

And at Dances With Films - dreams can and do come true.

Huge thanks to Leslee and Kerim at Dances With Films for taking their valuable time to chat with me during the run-up to their NYC edition beginning on November 30.

If you’re in NYC or planning to be, you can buy tickets for individual screenings or a festival pass for the entire event or volunteer to help out.

If you have a feature or short film, TV pilot, or webseries you’d like to submit for their LA edition in 2024, check out their FilmFreeway page for more information on when submissions open.

Kernels (3 links worth making popcorn for)

Here’s a round-up of cool links about Hollywood and technology:

Whatever happened to Vimeo? (link)

How streaming is changing the sound of music. (link)

The creators of The OA on their new show about tech. (link)