From: Bart Weiss (email suppressed)
Date: Sun Jun 14 2009 - 22:33:56 PDT
well we get this on the fee question on frameworks about once a year
so I guess it is time.
While I really really understand the emotional and rational arguments
against entry fees
if we as a community want quality festivals we need to support them.
there is a perception that arts administrators are just getting fat
off of artists
and perhaps some do but none I have met , most arts admin of small
orgs do more work than any jobs I know.
with almost no recognition. While the fest director is out doing the q
and a and shaking hands, somebody is working backstage all night to
make things happen.
yes for a the first year you can get friends to donate this and that
and get something up and running, but then the audiences gets to
expect the picture and sound are good and the show goes on , on time
and the program book/ web site is up and correct , and we have not
lost you tape and spelled you name correctly, and we got an audience
for you.
And while we do have some volunteer help, we do have to pay some
people to make sure they really s get the work done on time. All these
people are underpaid, and grossly overworked. and for the most part
unappreciated by the artists they serve.
and for the record as artistic director of the dallas video festival I
don't take a salary.
and while we do charge and entry we do pay an honorarium for all the
work we show.
(oh and we are accepting entries now)
http://videofest.org/videofest/index.html
and while we would probably still exist without entry fees it would
have some consequence, less programs (would you like to have the one
that was cut) smaller venues, not as good tech gear, no money for a
publicist, and intern instead of a staff person checking to see that
you work got here and is working correctly....
Nobody wants to pay an entry fee and many are to expensive and who
knows who looks at your program.
I can tell you if you submit to my festival I will watch the whole
thing.
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
On Jun 15, 2009, at 12:08 AM, atrowbri wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 12:31 AM, Bryan McKay<email suppressed>
> wrote:
>> As a director of a [redacted] Underground Film Festival in a big
>> city,
>> though maybe not the same you're thinking of, venue costs are
>> enormous, when
>> we can even get venues to cooperate with us in the first place. The
>> money we
>> raise from submission fees covers some of our operating costs, but
>> we still
>> bring in a lot of additional sponsorship money to pay for the
>> festival. If
>> we chose to do away with submission fees (which I sonetimes wish we
>> could)
>> running a week-long film festival would no longer be viable.
>
> I understand the pressure and the desire to put on something that will
> make a stance for art, draw an audience but just one question here:
>
> Running [a] week-long festival or running [the] week-long festival
> would not longer be possible?
>
> I'm sorry, I really am, to anyone this makes uncomfortable. I'm not
> self-righteous and I am trying to be realistic. Artists aspiring to
> show their work are a dumb, easy source of money. I was one, I *am*
> one...
>
>> And for what it's worth, we do waive submission fees for any
>> artists who had
>> films in the festival in the past, and of course for any filmmakers
>> we
>> invite to submit.
>>
>> I'm not saying submission fees are great, and as a filmmaker I
>> certainly
>> don't look forward to them, but they can be a necessary evil when
>> it comes
>> to putting on a fringe film festival of any substantial size.
>>
>> Best,
>> Bryan
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On Jun 14, 2009, at 11:17 PM, atrowbri <email suppressed> wrote:
>>
>>> I'm responding late to this (for the internet 11 days is late) but I
>>> find it totally inexcusable to fail to respond to people who send
>>> you
>>> work (unless you did try to respond to everyone and simply missed
>>> someone through an error).
>>>
>>> I'm relatively inexperienced in this but in 2005 we put together the
>>> Polymer show for the Hunter Museum of American Art. I am still
>>> ambiguous about having charged money for submissions. It was only
>>> $15,
>>> we had NO other budget, and the money went towards costs and
>>> programming, but I still feel a bit ashamed of having done so. It
>>> was
>>> sort of disturbing how quickly and easily we raised over $1000 in
>>> doing so. I cannot even imagine the sums that the big "experimental"
>>> film festivals make. (Not to pick on anyone, but how much does
>>> [redacted] Underground Film Festival rake in? I've gotten a huge
>>> number of reminders from them this year. Send us your work, big
>>> city,
>>> $35!!!) So the charging money part, which I defended here in the
>>> past,
>>> really alienates me now. Charging money to artists hoping to connect
>>> to people? Charging ARTISTS who just need to score lines on a CV in
>>> hopes of making a living in academia because ways of living as an
>>> artist are slim? Charging artists to maybe show their work? It's
>>> pretty vile. I only paid a few entry fees since then and stopped
>>> completely within a year of that. I apologize to anyone here who we
>>> charged, whether we showed your work or not. Ultimately I'd say
>>> refuse
>>> to pay anyone, ever, for any reason, to show your work. Yes, there
>>> are
>>> some good shows you can score with but ultimately the best location
>>> for your work will be those venues that WANT to see new work, who
>>> understand that the PRIVILEGE of seeing new work is paid by watching
>>> the many, many mediocre or bad works that are submitted. Thank you
>>> to
>>> every festival that's reviewed my work, whether you showed it or
>>> not,
>>> without trying to take my money. I know the counterarguments about
>>> time and effort, cost of putting something together, etc and I
>>> reject
>>> them. The second showing of Polymer was all curated from work we
>>> saw,
>>> scouted on youtube, friends we knew and it didn't feel gross at
>>> all. I
>>> specifically sought out work from people I respected or knew would
>>> benefit from a show. I hope to re-implement open calls, no fees, for
>>> the next show and see even more work. (And if it's terrible in the
>>> first 30 seconds? I can shut it off without feeling someone paid
>>> me to
>>> watch it.)
>>>
>>> So, back on topic, if you ask something of EVERYONE you owe a
>>> response
>>> to everyone who responds. If not, you are rude and deserve the
>>> reputation to cultivate.
>>>
>>> Love,
>>> Adam
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 8:01 AM, Caryn Cline<email suppressed>
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Dear Frameworkers,
>>>>
>>>> I’m submitting my experimental films to festivals again, after a
>>>> hiatus
>>>> of
>>>> several years. When I submitted before, in the early 2000s, I
>>>> always
>>>> received a response from the festival, whether my work was
>>>> accepted or
>>>> rejected. Now, I find that festivals that reject my work rarely
>>>> contact
>>>> me
>>>> at all.
>>>>
>>>> I wonder why this is the case? I’ve paid a fee to enter,
>>>> usually, and it
>>>> seems to me that the very least the programmers, or their
>>>> interns, can do
>>>> is
>>>> to send me a form letter letting me know that my work didn’t make
>>>> the
>>>> cut.
>>>> It would be even better to receive a thoughtful response with some
>>>> feedback
>>>> about my work. I realize that programmers often have a lot of
>>>> entries to
>>>> view and judge, but shouldn’t a response, even a canned response,
>>>> to each
>>>> and every filmmaker, be a standard of professional courtesy?
>>>>
>>>> I know that there are curators and programmers on this list. I
>>>> will
>>>> appreciate hearing their perspectives, as well as those of other
>>>> filmmakers. I would also be interested to hear about festivals
>>>> that do
>>>> respond to all applicants.
>>>>
>>>> Thank you,
>>>>
>>>> Caryn Cline
>>>> New York City
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> __________________________________________________________________
>>>> For
>>>> info
>>>> on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Adam Trowbridge
>>> www.atrowbri.com
>>> www.snstncntnrs.org
>>> www.tw-co.com
>>>
>>>
>>> __________________________________________________________________
>>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>>
>>
>> __________________________________________________________________
>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Adam Trowbridge
> www.atrowbri.com
> www.snstncntnrs.org
> www.tw-co.com
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
B
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.