Appendix B. The Last Step: Negotiating a Sale (and Why You Should Always Bargain Up)
In this chapter
The three greatest pieces of advice I ever received as a filmmaker are as follows:
If a piece of equipment isn’t working, make sure it’s plugged in.
No film is ever finished, you just stop working on it.
When it comes to showing your film, any festival is better than no festival.
Each of these lines is entirely applicable to this book, and the last is particularly relevant to this appendix—especially when you get to the point where you’ve completed a film and have to decide what to do with it. (Incidentally, all three came from Academy Award–nominated documentary filmmaker and cinematographer Jon Else who taught part time in my graduate film program.)
Getting Your Film Seen: How Festival Exposure and Press Coverage Can Get You Noticed
For many independent films, festivals present the best way to find an audience. Film festivals specialize in bringing audiences work they otherwise wouldn’t see, so if you’ve got something really good, entering it in the right film festival is an important first step.
In addition to the big name film festivals, such as Cannes and Sundance, there are hundreds of others all around the world, ...
Get DV Filmmaking now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
