Posted by Michael Raben at spider-wg084.proxy.aol.com on July 22, 2000 at 21:47:43:
In Reply to: starting off posted by Ken Caldwell on July 22, 2000 at 00:02:23:
: I know that you borrowed the money from friends and family but how did you get started after that. Where did you get the equipment
If this is meant as a curiousity question, then I can't answer it, because I don't know. If it's meant as a 'I want to make a movie and I don't know where to get the equipment' question, then my advice is: look around. Every state has film commissions and film equipment/camera rental companies. The yellow pages is a pretty good bet and looking on-line will get you the information eventually.
: and how did you get your film into festivals.
'Clerks' took a rare path (and by rare I mean so rare that you shouldn't even think about it happening to your project because it won't happen). 'Clerks' first played at the fall IFFM in New York, a festival which (I believe) will show everyone who pays the entrance fee. In a morning screening that had perhaps a dozen people sat one Bob Hawk, Indie film "Heavy". Mr. Hawk liked the flick and put Kevin together with John Pierson; with Mr. Hawk and Mr. Pierson behind it, 'Clerks' screened at Sundance the following January, where it was sold to Miramax.
For most everyone else trying to get a film onto the festival circuit, it's really all about research and contact. Filmfestivals.com has a nice database of festival information and there are plenty of other sites to cull for what you're looking for. Almost every festival has an entrance fee and a varying degree of rules (formats, deadlines, etc.). There are plenty of festivals going on around the world at all times of the year, but that is tempered against thousands upon thousands of films all vying for those same festival slots, so nothing's certain.
Always,
Michael Raben