Tips for successful HotDocs Pitch and Independent Doc Director's Lab

Hilla Medalia, a George Foster Peabody Award winning director and producer, and 3 Emmy Award nominee, is sharing with DocMovies readers some valuable information about Hotdocs Pitch Forum, and Film Independent Documentary Director's lab. Hilla was chosen to present her films to both highly prestige platforms, question is, was it worth the high financial investment?

For the past couple of years, I have been working on the production of two films, Caught In The Net and Dancing In Jaffa. The process of working on both films happened organically, as the second one began just six months after I completed shooting the first.

Through two years of hard work, I, at times, feel that we are so overwhelmingly dedicated to creating films. In times like these, I end up questioning myself. I wonder if my work is watchable, if it will be distributed, or if it will generate an audience. I am constantly working to challenge these issues though, because I have realized that’s the only way to move forward in this business. To begin, I have been spending more and more time working to harness a viral presence in the hopes to find “1,000 fans" to each film I do.

Don't read from paper!!!! That’s the biggest difference I could say I have felt. Also if you memorize it, that is also not working as well.
Answer short in the discussion It's Ok to move fw.  And the biggest discovery – if you 5 sec over, no one will cut you. They will tell you but you could finish your thought.

This month marked the beginning of what I could have only hoped would ever happen, and it all happened at once. Dancing in Jaffa was selected to participate in Film Independent Documentary Directors Lab; Caught In The Net was chosen for the Hot Docs Forum in Toronto; and at the end of May, Dancing in Jaffa will participate in The Good Pitch in NY.

Always when a new person comes on board, we receive a grant, or we find another partner, it’s very exciting (and probably even more so during post-production when I am buried under massive amounts of footage).

That said, this month has been a very thrilling one. In anticipation of these upcoming events, I have found myself trying to figure out the process, and the best approach to prepare for all of them. I am writing this blog to share these different experiences in the hopes that other filmmakers will find answers to my own similar questions.

DocMovies is on Tribeca 15 Twitter Feeds Every Doc Filmmaker Should Follow!

"Covering topics including, DIY, Digital Distribution, and New Media, @DocMovies provides updates on the state and evolution of filmmaking in the digital age, thus making it a valuable resource for any filmmaker. The feed also publishes news regarding major film events such as festivals and award ceremonies" Read The Full Article

FilmDIY —The Filmmaker’s Guide To The Interweb

DocMovies is excited to present a new initiative filmDIY, our new baby.

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Since 2002 we've been writing, interviewing, and collecting news about the indie community, and since we came from the documentary world, we shared our passion for documentary through DocMovies website. A few months ago we departed from DocMovies' sister site – DocTrailers. The site was pre YouTube era, where we made it possible for filmmakers to upload their trailers and share their stories online (A revolution technology at the time) Thanks to DocTrailers, we got a chance to meet filmmakers from all over the globe and we were excited to feature their work to the wide public. We knew that there was no money to make, but we spent our time and no energy to share the platform with any indie artist who needed it. Of course now with YouTube revolution, we just had to say goodbye.

In recent years we paid attention to the ever growing evolution of digital distribution, understanding the impact its going to have on all of us filmmakers. And so, we opened a Twitter account where we are continuing posting news about the new technology distribution tools that are now available for filmmakers, and of course news about documentary, because it's really “All about documentary”. We have gathered together DIY tools and resource for our readers,  and started gathering all available services that are out there for you to use. And that kept us thinking, we saw a lot of great projects, but something was missing. So  instead of writing about the tools, we dived in and created a platform that will fully provide filmmakers with an ultimate solution to digital distribution and marketing. And that's how filmDIY came alive. Two filmmakers with zero budget tackling what is it the community can use to its advantage, and we think we have the solution with filmDIY.

We would love to invite you all to join us at filmDIY, the service is free, but we need to sustain financaily so we are thrwoing the split payment method where you make 70 perecent of all income from your movie and we keep 30, we don't make money if you don't, simple as that. Filmmakers get roylties immediately with every transaction straight to their PayPal account in full trancpercy within seconds when a transaction is made. We have more great stuff, you can read all about it in a blog host Yoram Scheffer and Kobi Shely wrote for indieWIRE - Hope For Film, here is the full blog guest on filmDIY

As always, it all started from my own personal experience and an eagerness to overcome frustration. I’ve been producing and directing films since 2000. Many of them were broadcast in TV channels around the world, some of them won prizes in film festivals. But my true love, both as filmmaker and viewer, was movies made for niche audiences.

I used to rely on public funding, which is quite developed in Europe, especially compared to the system in the US. Receiving $60,000-$100,000 for a movie just by preparing a written proposal and a short trailer can get your movie project started, but there are drawbacks: competition is fierce, and you have to abide by implicit tough rules regarding both your movie topic and the way you make it.

When I chose not to obey, the answer from film funds was always negative.

There’s not much one can argue about when trying to define ‘artistic considerations’, even when you know that art is a personal choice. But since I owned a post production facility, and a production house, I could allow myself to make my own movies from time to time, even without public support.

Then in 2007 I decided produce a film about Apple fanatics, a DIY effort that I’ve put to the test. I wanted to make a movie I was passionate about knowing it will never get government support. Finally, we produced MacHEADS totally independently from pre-production to distribution. Back in 2007 it was not the traditional route to skip film festivals and go straight to digital distribution. The stigma back than for going digital, was “straight to DVD” strategy, admitting you couldn’t find a distributor to buy your movie, not something every filmmaker wants to be associated with. iTunes movie service started only in 2008. We knew we could get more audience to see our movie the digital way, so we went for it, and we were right.

From  my studio apartment I was marketing and distributing MacHEADS to the world. No film festival could have achieved the same buzz created on the Internet. At some point I made a decision not to apply to film festivals, paying $50 to a small film fest didn’t make any sense.

We premiered the movie on iTunes and MacHEADS became number one in its category and number 8 at the 2009 top 50 documentaries. Hulu made 285,867 views (and still counting) And also became number one top movie in all categories/ Than the Netflix deals came and Snagfilms, and was finally broadcast on CNBC.

My personal experience with digital distribution was quite a learning experience. A lot is unknown to filmmakers even today when stats are coming out and the “wall of fear”, as I like to call the terror that agents and distributors are putting on filmmakers not to share information (They do that with contracts signed for secrecy) Is slowly overcome by many filmmakers who

Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul

A Discussion With Orly Ravid From The Film Collaborative- What Chance An Indie Filmmaker Has These Days?

Orly Ravid and her partner Jeffrey Winter have formed The Film Collaborative (TFC), a non profit organization which offers a full range of affordable distribution, educational and marketing services to independent filmmakers looking to reach out to traditionally underserved audiences. TFC is the first non-profit, full-service provider dedicated to the distribution of independent film, including narrative features, documentaries and shorts

What lessons filmmakers need to learn in order to stand out?

Filmmakers can look for a free digital book that we are producing – SELLING YOUR FILM WITHOUT SELLING YOUR SOUL. It's a case study of filmmakers who half or all gone through distribution DIY. Mostly it's a combination of hybrid traditional and DIY. At the end of the day you're talking about different stores so if your film is very known, if it's available on iTunes it will do some business, if your film is not know being on itunes isn't going to do better for you than distributing on your website. And if your film is already known and they have fans, they are not going to be unhappy buying from your website. Under Our Skin, a documentary about lyme diseases sold 25,000 units a month.The topic was not covered before.

The key is that your film does not sell itself unless it has big names or something very commercial and popular. If your film is a small film it's going to speak to some people and not all people, and I think that's a lesson people will have to learn which that they have to be engaging their community, the people who are interested in their film, while they are making their film and once it's finished for the whole time. So that when they make their film available on their own site and on their own Facebook page, which they can do now,  people will actually care and choose to rent it or buy it. The one thing you can always do is make your film available, if you done your job, people will be happy to watch it from your website.

"The question is do I do digital distribution with the festivals? and with Sundance, I have to admit the money was terrible, but you know what? Had they tried it with their bigger films, of course it would have worked better"

What do you think about the window system that is now changing?