Film school is over... now what?!?!

Happy New Years to you and yours!

One of my big gripes about film school at SFSDF was that at no point in the curriculum did they address life post-film school. No classes on film festivals, job searches, networking etc. So I've been fumbling through the process on my own as I've intensified my focus on my film life over the last couple months. Not sure what's working and what's not working as it is still too early to tell but here is what I've been doing:

-This blog. I have made some connections through people finding my blog and it has been really nice to have a dialog with film minded people. The blog also helps me distill my thinking on goals for the future.

-Business Cards. I had a hard time referring to myself as a filmmaker as it felt poseurish and even more so with creating and ordering business cards, but I was starting to network more and I didn't want to be that guy who was ripping pages out of my moleskin with contact info on it.

-LinkedIn Account. This also felt a bit foreign creating a profile exclusively for filmmaking... but I did it anyways.

-Networking/Groups. I've found some groups through meetup.com and facebook and have started to attend those meetings. The groups tend to fall in the screenwriting and filmmaking category and are not only networking events but they do tend to help with feedback for both screenwriting and filmmaking... duh. The other events I've been attending has been... well, events. While there isn't a ton of established screenings/talk in the Bay Area, there is still enough for to me to attend in my what little spare time I have. Last year I saw Ed Burns, John August, and the cast and crew of Young Adult. Each event had a Q&A and "mingle-time" post.

-Film Festivals. This entry should and will have its own blog entry, but I've gotten to the point where I am proud enough of my work to enter it in to festivals and have gotten rejections, acceptance, and even managed to win an award. Lots of great learning and networking at festivals... and honestly they are both fun and exciting. Actually a lot of what I listed above I view as fun and exciting.

-IMDB Page. I have a fancy dancy IMDB page.

Film Society. I joined the San Francisco Film Society as there are benefits for filmmakers both in financial discounts but also in awards/grants and residency and services.

-Watch movies. Read screenplays, film theory, American Cinematographer, and film criticisms. One of my new favorite film theorists/critic has been Hulk. Serious. http://filmcrithulk.wordpress.com/

-Increase my output. I am still working the film festival circuit with my last short and editing another short and writing my next short. This is obviously the most important thing I am doing as I need the most practice here and need to increase the quality of my work. I can have all the networking connections in the world, but it wouldn't matter if I was constantly putting out crap or nothing at all.

So there it is. My plan. It definitely feels like a lot of spitballing to see what works and I will continue to talk about what area I have the most success in. If you have any tips, please send them my way!

What I've been digging as of late: Downton Abbey, Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol, Undun by the Roots, How Do You Do by Mayer Hawthorne, who kill by tune-yards.

To answer your question...

When I won the audience award (yes, I am bringing that up again) at the BHOC, I didn't realize that entitled me to screening my short again. Evidently, they ask the award winners back to screen their films and to participate in a Q&A session post. Fast forward to last Tuesday and I am on my way to standing in front of a live audience and fielding questions about filmmaking. Surprisingly I wasn't all that nervous. I contribute that to a few things: the crowd, while it was standing room only, was only about 50 deep; I had about 6-8 friends in the crowd for better or worse... ; I love talking about film. Seriously, I could and can talk about films and filmmaking for hours.

There were a total of three shorts screened but only two of the filmmakers were present. The first two screened and I brought up the rear. The big speedbump of the night is that a rough cut of my short was shown on accident. This rough cut had no music, no sound balancing, no color correction, no opening titles or closing credits, poor editing, etc. Mind you, this is a rather large speed-bump, and I'm still bothered that most people in the room were introduced to my work for the first time through this. It looked and felt amateurish. Seriously bothered by it. Woke up thinking about it the next day. Throughout the day I kept telling myself "Let it go... let it go." Hah and ugh.

After my screening, I jumped up and fielded questions. That portion went off really well! As far as I can tell... I completely forgot to ask my friends how they thought I did. Speaking of which, thanks to all that came out and supported me! I was asked questions about my film and films in general. Some lesser known filmmakers were brought up (Bertolt Brecht & Eric Rohmer anyone?!?!) which shocked me. But in hindsight, I guess it shouldn't have as this audience is the type that go to film festivals so I assume this type of film-goer would be more knowledgeable in regards to film and film history. I think my Q&A session only lasted about 10 minutes. I think.

Next up... well I am not too sure. Still waiting to hear back from some other film festival and in the meantime I am writing and editing. Both of which are incredibly solitary, but I will save that for another entry. I know you are excited about that...

What I've been digging as of late: BBC. BBC. BBC. Lots of great shows airing on BBC America right now. Downtown Abbey, The Hour, Whitechapel, Dr. Who, and I am getting ready to tackle Dead Set.

Since we last spoke....

Greetings. It's been a bit... It's nice to see you. Since my last entry, I finished the short film I was working on and started submitting it to film festivals. The first festival where it was accepted, it won an award. (Pictured above... the second picture is of all of my rad friends that came out to show their support. Thanks for being the camera-guy, Omar!) The award was the 2011 Audience Award at the Bernal Heights Outdoor Film Festival in San Francisco. It felt really good to win an award voted on by the festival attendees. A lot of hard work by a lot of people went in to the project. Therefore, this entry was written by an award winning filmmaker. Please don't look me in the eye or speak until spoken to next time you see me.

I've got the same short submitted to a few other festivals and am waiting to hear back now. The film festival process is incredibly interesting, fun, nerve-wracking, expensive, rewarding, etc... This go round with the Bernal Festival was the first screening where I invited friends and family to attend, which was great... but then a few days before it hit me. Oh shit! Everyone is going to see my short. While I'm standing next to them. I was more nervous than I thought. It wasn't just friends but folks in general. It's hard to show your project to a room full of people after you've watched it 5,000 times on your computer at home and have lost all perspective on it. Thankfully, everything worked out great, and the short played really well to the audience. However, I was glad I had a beer or two before the screening.

Once the festival was over, I was ready to jump in to another one. Navigating the submission process is new to me, as this is the first project that I've completed where I've been proud enough of it to send it out. Some festivals don't accept submissions if they have previously been online or if it premiered somewhere else or they want a disc not an online submission or they want an online submission and a disc... A learning process. So I got an withoutabox account which led me to an imdb page (I've got an imdb page!! Crazy...) and I was off and running. Even though I felt incredibly poseurish doing it, I also got business cards made up to hand out while networking at film festivals. That seemed more professional than tearing out a page from my moleskin and scribbling my contact info on it.

While waiting, I am also editing an unfinished short from film school. I want to be able to do something with that project as well, but if it looks like a step backwards creatively, I will probably pitch it and reshoot it as I am in love with the script. I've also begun writing another short film and really can't wait to get back on set. I miss filming.

Things I have been digging as of late: Drive (the movie & the soundtrack), Moneyball (the movie but loved the book as well), Wilco: The Whole Love, & Dr. Who