festival responses

From: Bryan Konefsky (email suppressed)
Date: Fri Jun 05 2009 - 08:18:55 PDT


It is good to hear from other programmers/festival
organizers - Indeed, as an artist I think that Isabel at
ATA and Bart in Dallas are both doing brilliant jobs. In
particular I had the opportunity to witness Bart's iTune
system and it looked and sounded excellent! Also, I need
to agree with an earlier comment that one of the most
interesting and carefully curated festivals that I have
attended is Media City in Windsor, Ontario (founded by
Chris McNamara and now run by Oona Mosna / Jeremy Rigsby).

As a programmer and festival organizer (ours is
Experiments in Cinema festival in Albuquerque) we try to
model ourselves after the best of what we have
experienced, thinking both as artists and programmers. We
also make it a point to communicate with the artists who
submit work (I know that in this regard we failed with
three this year - Oi!). We are a young and modestly
funded event so at this point in time we do not have the
equipment or facilities to host film/video installation
work (this is something that we are pursuing)... We do
screen 35, 16, super 8 and digital formats. Any artist
who has screened in our 4 day event in past years NEVER
needs to pay a submission fee in the future - this we
modeled after the PDX festival (and we only charge $15 US
for entries). Additionally - thanks to the model of the
Dallas Video Festival and Media City - we always pay a
small but heart-felt artist fee to participating artists.
 Also all participating artists receive (for no charge) a
4 volume DVD set of the entire festival program (we are
just finishing the set for this year if any of the
participating artists are reading this note).

So, we try our best to support un-dependent media BUT are
also 100% open to suggestions and thoughtful criticism.
all the best,
Bryan Konefsky
artistic director, Experiments in Cinema
VP Basement Films
lecturer, Dept of Cinematic Arts, University of New Mexico
board of advisors, Ann Arbor Film Festival

At the ATA Film & Video Festival, we spend time notifying
all the
filmmakers, whether their film has been accepted or
rejected. We mail a
letter to the ones that are in the final selection and
send a personalized
e-mail to the ones whose work doesn’t make it. We assumed
this was common
practice. We give feedback if requested.

We always encourage filmmakers to submit again to the
festival and to
ATA’s general programming and Open Screening. And some
filmmakers do, so
we get to see their trajectory. In some cases, we refer
them to other
venues or festivals.

Regarding the screening, it’s up to the artist to decide
on screening
format. That ITUNES system sounds pretty good though.

Isabel

> Hi folks I have been reading this threat with interest and can fill
> you in my my side here at the Dallas VIdeo Festival (which by way is
> not just called VideoFest)
> we do send either letters or emails to all our filmmaker who enter our
> fest (and we do pay a small honorarium to all we show by the way)
> and indeed the letter is a hard one to write. We do give feedback when
> asked, sometimes it may take a while and I am sure there was probably
> a time when I meant to and forgot. Sometimes people don't want ot
> hear what you have to say, and sometimes they really do. And by the
> way there have been times when I have not programmed a work but
> suggested it to another festival where I thought if fit better.
> as for playback we don;t use dvd, not only does it look bad but it is
> unreliable.
> We here have devised a new system which we feel gives us the best
> projecting.
> For screening work we ask for a quicktime file on a drive or disc. We
> then play the file off of ITUNES. Yes Itunes. It really works
> beautifully. It switches from 16/9 to 3/4 on the fly, we can adjust
> volume individually and it particularly work well in putting together
> a compilation of shorts. The picture looks magnificent. it also means
> less staff time building tape reels like we used to. Some makers may
> be concerned about sending a file to us thinking we can do anything
> with it we want, but all I can say is we have been doing the fest for
> 22 years and have, I hope, a good reputation.
> Bart Weiss
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Bart Weiss
>
>
>
>
> Better Living Through Video
> http://web.mac.com/bartweiss/iWeb/Site/Welcome.html
>
> president/video association of dallas
> director/dallas video festival
> Associate Professor/University of Texas at Arlington
> producer/frame of mind (KERA TV)
> artistic director/ 3 stars cinema
>
> home address
> 1405 Woodlawn Ave.Dallas Texas 75208.
> voice 214 948 7300
> email email suppressed
> www.videofest.org for video fest info
> aim: videofest
>

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