Selling Film in Film Festival

We are all Set to Discuss the most important issue concerned with India film Festivals . We are good Exhibitors , we have auditoriums of world class Standards., We make good parties each evening with most expensive wines and Five star dining .., media talks , enjoys and at the end every body go back to their houses ..

Film Festivals is a Exhibition Platform for those film which are looking for Distributors , it’s a Platform where before releasing a film media starts talking Face to Face and the Film buff and Critic watch a Film and give their analysis.

I have seen peoples talking various International Entries .., this film ..and that film coming is so and so Festival ..its all right ..

Festivals organizers must understand this Business model of Film festivals ..India Produce more than 1500 films in feature category. To support the Regional Markets Indian Film Festivals Must Encourage the Producer – Distributors meet.

To produce the content of Best quality , Festivals must encourage Script Submission Libraries and Directors and Script writes open forum

It is monitored that; demand of Regional cinema is increasing year on year basis .., film Festivals is a Platform to encourage the Regional Produces, Directors , writers.

In India there is huge demand of Film Festival which can be a right mix of International cinema along with taking care of the regional demands. The focus must be on the selling of films in spite of showcasing them.

I also see a huge oppturnities for sales agent , though sales agent in India is not commonly seen . its an Oppturnity for young entrepreneurs who wants to work in the distributions sector in filmmaking.

Sales Agents is one who talks to the representative of finished film and arrange an exhibitor or distributor. There are many film projects, remain closed in the junk boxes waiting for Distributors . Sales agent can be best connector for those producers.

Even in India every year lot of films are imported for the purpose of Film Festivals along with their Directors and Producers as an invitees .. Job of a sales agent is to travel in Film Festivals and talk with these Directors , Producers or Representatives and Deal on the International rights to Exhibit their films in India .

India is a Huge market for films with the tremendous growth in Multiplexes and TV Channels .

Indian Film Festivals must focus the demand of film selling to grow the oppturnities for in the market and this formula will also enhance the quality of content and competition.

Huge Scope of Film Festivals in India.

Fund Raising for Film Festival in India

First thing first , as told to me by a Festival Director of one of the esteemed Film Festival in Los angles via e-mail conversation , her view is; first analyze the need of your film festival in market and without the sponsors a festival can not be seeded .

Film Festival needs an attention from corporates and I also believe that a film festival itself should be run as an corporate in the era of globalization.

Raising funds for a film festival is most convoluted task , your hopes will rise each morning and fall down with the sunset but don’t worry “always a sunrise next morning” . Right strategy and committed team work is required to meet the goals .

Their could be many ways to reach Sponsors and influence them with your mindset, whereas other than sponsorship there are many ways to raise a fund for your festival. Coming on to the point

Government recently started a Grant program for the film festival other than metro cities .

Directorate of Film Festival of India under Ministry of Information and Broadcasting started providing grant maximum upto 5 lakh INR and upto 10 lakh in some special cases for upbringing of regional film festivals under the program named “ export promotion through film festival in India and abroad “ but this financial support is validated to NGOs and voluntary organization with simple procedures.

Various film festivals organizes seminars on various subjects related to cinema influencing our culture . Cinema is a visual art form which include all other from of expression along with sound .

Ministry of Culture, union of India provides a financial support upto 3 lacks with easy procedures under its Scheme named “Scheme of financial assistance for research support to voluntary organizations engaged in cultural activities” to NGOs and Voluntary organizations operating from minimum of 3 years for symposiums , Seminars and researches on related subjects.

If your festivals is theme based like Children , women, human rights etc , you can submit your proposal with the concerned ministry for support , but standing up on your own is best , there are various other ways to raise funds for you film festival.

On the other side

Remember this part deals with the money you will collect before your festival starts.

You can have activates like animation ,multimedia and filmmaking education fair , where you can sell your Stalls and earn good money to cover your liabilities; there are many such institutions in the market looking for the similar crowd which you will attract for your film festival .

Placement agencies dealing in media and animations will also be a prime target to sell your stalls ; I would also suggest you to call some foreign universities , colleges and institutions to join as they are also looking for their ground in Asian soil specially India.

You can also call companies like Studios, Modeling agencies , hardware seller , Sales Agents for stall selling .

Almost all the countries are promoting film production in their country and you will get the list of companies dealing in such activates from the embassy of all those countries .. and also contact them to come and join this Oppturnity , sell them space.

Food court is also another way by which you can sell a space and earn handsome

Sell your delegate passes from a websites like bookmyshow.com they have many interesting plans.

You can also raise a fund by selling arts , paintings and handicraft which is a successful model and few festivals in India are already engaged in such activates.


Getting Sponsors : A path with thorns

In my previous article I have already discussed the preparation needed to move your sponsorship plans ; to implement this plan , follow this step for astonishing results ;

1. you decide on the final budget you need to run your festival
2. Print at least 200 copies of Sponsorship Docket (colored front page)
3. hire a image consultant (pay him a little )
4. Hire a PR for one to one CEO meet (make it a condition in advance and give them commission )
5. Hire a sound event management company (mostly companies deals in such activities with heavy commissions; keep at least 30% commission margin in your mind before finalizing your final budget)
6. Always send one of your representative on meetings with prospect sponsor because you know what film festivals are and you can convey your message more effectively

Additional Activates

there are lots of creative ways to sell, as you are selling a idea ; don’t hesitate to speak .., below listed are the few ways which you can initiate and remember all these things you can easily sell before your festival ;

1. Celebrity Visit to company
2. face to face Coffee ( with celebrity 15-20 mins to financially sound families and fans )
3. sell your evening parties to Various Brands (Prime Target : Film Colleges)
4. Producer – Director meets (sell it to upcoming directors + storytellers)
5. Social Thanks Party on Sponsors Venue ( Festivals Invites and Guests , Awards winners will be the guest ) (good for networking)
6. Sell Festival Award Reception ( sponsor’s Venue)(good for Networking)
7. sell your Venues
8. Evening party passes
9. sell the backdrop space of press conferences
10. sell your awards (cash, gifts , vouchers )
11. Make a Wall of Display for advertisers and sell each day to one brand (must attract the photographers)


There are many activates you can plan , but remember film festivals need attention throughout the year , so plan early and start your sponsorship plan well in advance of six months .

I think now I must share my opinion on a good advertising plan for film festivals in my next article .

How to Setup a Film Festival in India

Planning a Film Festival in India

Finally My desire to work for a film festival landed on Google, the keywords like planning a film festival, how to setup a film festivals were my favorite; long sittings on my PC with full packet of cigarettes and sometime buds and Biddies, during last week of the months. Many times I have missed the daylight, but moon was always my favorites, each interesting information deserves a cup of tea with a smoke in open air

Its important for Festival organizers to visit all film festival and see the trends , though in India I have seen lot of negative energy in various festivals .., its common to see that film festival organizers see themselves as a competitors and you do not see many Festival directors on their guest lists ..I don’t understand it’s a Platform of exhibition of films and need lot of energy to raise the common cause that is the quality of work.

Though I never got a chance to materialize the information I gathered but i must say I tried hard , running every day to meet peoples asking them to support and at least read my bundle of proposals , I must say it’s the biggest part of this job, but its not something impossible maybe I was bit of day dreamer and that made my proposals into junk boxes .
Coming to the point on Planning a film festival , it instigate with a excel sheet. A strong Proposal is needed , don’t worry about the budgets in the first draft of your planning that’s important because otherwise you block your creative mind on monetary issues, swing on a see saw .., first thing first , if you made a mind that you will do it then firstly make a call for entries.. here are the initial Five steps need immediate attention before call for entries

1. Setup a Office ( which I calls a Control Room)
2. Finalize dates ( Check other Festivals dates before finalizing your dates)
3. Finalize Venue ( receive a Booking Letter , mostly no initial payments required for this, you get 2-3 months time for advance payments, receive a confirmation letter in Black and White)
4. Finalize selection committee ( Write official letter to many deserving personalities and make a right mix, Guidelines must me laid down for selection and ratio )
5. Define Competition section and Non competition Section (attach term and condition along with form, Print award money of all the sections)

Make a good credibility in a market, try to deliver new ideas to your vendors and please don’t do everything single handedly, if you can’t hire executives at least call for volunteers, and distribute them the work as per their efficiencies

I must suggest you to buy an All- in-One Printer, including Fax, it’s the most powerful tool , and must be kept in Control room.

You must Print all the modes of receiving information like telephone nos., Fax, e-mail , Postal address , Messenger Ids, Skype etc on your mailers, advertisements and Proposals, do not close your door from any direction let the air comes in from all the side.

Festival Director should work in a Control Room, otherwise he/she will forget many important matters and miss them when needed, from here onwards you need to make major fragments of your team Like Creative, Technical and Films and don’t forget to have a deserving Chairman through Democratic procedure; Festival Director will Report to Chairman and in this way Festival Director can not make any decision on his own .
All the tenders , appointments , Entries , mailers must be signed by both Chairman and Festival Director.

Chairman
Festival Director
Program Head

List of Heads in Creative team under Program Head

1. Creative Director (Program)
2. Creative Director (Stage)
3. Creative Director (Planning)
4. Visualizer

List of Heads in Technical under Program Head

1. Production Director
2. Communication Director
3. Advertising Director
4. Marketing Head
5. Director Booking
6. PR
7. Festival Coordinator

List of Film Department under Festival Director

1. Program Head
2. Director Films(Film Prints)
3. Head of Selection Committee

Each Head must have at least two deserving Volunteers working under him, getting a Volunteers is not so tough , if you can not advertise , just go to Cinema , Art , Multimedia , Animation College and do a seminar about the Film Festival , along with Volunteers you will get publicity .

Government plays a Vital role for organizing a film festival in India there are various ministries , directorate and department directly involved . firstly take a Support letter from Ministry of I&B ( Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi) followed by Directorate of Film Festival of India (Siri Fort, New Delhi), these support letter are optional .

Ministry of Information and broadcasting plays a major Role in providing exemption certificate for exhibition of films to the festivals which are non-commercial in nature, the certificate is valid for maximum of 15 days and applicable to both Indian and foreign films ; following documents should be submitted to get exemption:

1. List of Films with Synopsis (always as Film directors to send one hard and soft copy o synopsis )
2. Jury along with bio data
3. Declaration of Jury for selection of film
4. Festival director undertaking that screening will be limited to delegates (Film guild and film individuals )
5. undertaking of Festival director that festival is non commercial in nature


Be careful in selecting the Venue because most of the venues do not have Film Exhibition Clearances, in this case you have to submit a letter to Local Police department and take necessary clearances ; also take necessary permissions required by Venue ; ask them clearly, to provide a Permission List required and take this in Writing otherwise during festival any objection can be made.

If your chief guest is President, Prime Minister or Vice President , then do cross check it with the Venue that, either venue has a NOC of their visits, otherwise extra NOC is required and detail is to be Provided to you by venue itself (Security reasons)

Now it’s a right time for a work force to show their capabilities, each department must submit a report according to their creative ideas and policies, these reports should be presented in HOD meet as in seminar format , all these reports should be screened by festival head and Program head, finally making one single plan, approved by chairman. This Final Plan again comes to HOD meet and it should be clearly communicated to all the departments.

Remember Film Festival is a Artistic activity but it must be treated corporately, Corporate are the important and essential part and must be treated very consciously . their must be a clear Sponsorship Plan. Lot of mind-boggling is needed to make a neat and clear Sponsorship Docket .

A good Sponsorship docket contains following

1. Welcome Note
2. About us
3. Comments from Influential Personalities
4. Letter of Chairman
5. Letter of Festival Director
6. Support Letter from various Government Organization
7. Support Letters From Private organization
8. List with bio data of Jury
9. List with Brief of Chairman, Festival Director, HODs
10. List of various Advisory Committee
11. List of expected Celebrities (Provide Conformation letters if duly signed)
12. Support Letter from Chief Minister
13. Support Letter from Ministry of I&B
14. Support Letter from Directorate of Film Festivals of India
15. support Letter from External Affairs Ministry
16. Support Letter from Various Embassy (countries from where film entries are invited )
17. Support Letters from various Film Association , Groups , Clubs etc.
18. Support Letter from Police, Pollution, Traffic, Municipal corporation and other related departments
19. Award category with Amount of money
20. Sponsorship Benefit (discuss various option below)
21. Term and Conditions
22. Format of Contract
23. Picture gallery
24. Attach Advertising Plan (please don’t mix advertising plan with sponsorship plan both are different entities and departments)
25. Thanks Note

Sponsorship benefits should be clearly explained, after making a final repots which we have discussed above , it’s a duty of Program Head to make a budget sheet and sponsorship amount must be more than in the rage of 30-50 % .

Always keep this thing in mind that sponsorship money is used to cover Expenses of basic event like

1 Venue
2 Festival Office management (must be different from Control room)
3 Travel expenses ( Air ticket, Train tickets, car rentals during Festival)
4 Hotels and Hostels
5 Evening Parties(Check if u get a party sponsorship )
6 Printing(Posters, banners, flex , festival Book etc)
7 Private Security agency
8 Couriers (should be kept in mind , International Couriers to send and receive films)
9 Government Clearances
10 Website (Must need high bandwidth dynamic Website)
11 Hiring a PR agency (will help you in CEO meets for Sponsorship)
12 Hiring a Advertising Agency (will help you getting Advertising Revenue)
13 Hiring a Event Management
14 Ticket Selling Agency (bookmyshow.com)
15 Booking Amount for Radio , Print, TV(NEWS and entertainment ), Web and Mobile etc Partners
16 Stage and Party Light
17 Party Venues and Carters
18 Projection Systems( For Festival)
19 Projection System (jury Selection Committee)
20 Press Conferences and Press parties (try to fix up Gift Sponsor)
21 Hire one still and one Video grapher Etc.

Advertising is an different entity as I discussed this thing before , its can be taken as a revenue stream. The first step is to gather Information as now a days their are different avenue of advertisement , I will discuss few Important ways to advertise your Film Festival .

Collect the Proposals, Collection of Proposal is free , and it helps in improving your Plan of Advertising , below written are few stream from where Proposals should be called


1 TV Advertisement (Rate card)
2 Radio (ask for Special Program and Batter system for Telephonic Interviews of Celebrities)(Rate Card)
3 Hoardings, Polls , Pubic Utilities Etc.
4 Print Advertisement (Department Like Times Response, of Times of India , deals in Such matters ; try to go to Paper Directly instead of Agency )
5 Web Portals Like Web18, MSN, Yahoo India, Google India
6 Out of Home Media (like timesooh, out-of-home media, Live media, Lakshya, Big Street, Focus Media)
7 Bus –Q –Shelters (Like Jindals and times OOH in Delhi , News outdoor media in Banglore )
8 Try to check all possibilities near Airports , Railway Stations and Bus Stops
9 Music Portals Like ( Onmobile, Soundbuzz )
10 DTH ( Tata Sky, Zee, Airtel )
11 Theme Parks and Amusement Parks
12 Mobile Van Advertisement

Take Special prices, develop packages and Sell them , do not forget to take special care of your main Sponsors.

In advance try to have a Survey of event management company of the venue , furnish them with the full details of your requirement , your Visualizer will play a main role in this
Finalize event Management Company and ask them to make 3 dimensional Walk Thru of the Venue ; the CD of this walkthrough should be attached with the sponsorship Kit along with other soft copies(3D Walk thru , provides a real time atmosphere to sponsor)

Event Management Company plays a major role in Organizing a Film Festival , These days other than a event production and direction; event management companies also works for partnerships , creative conceptualization and logistic management ; ask the EMs to submit their proposals as per your requirements.

Don’t forget event management company will handle the sound , light, laser lights, LCD panels , kiosks, special effects and décor part, try not to waste you time on this just convey your requirements to Event management companies and they will do the needful.

Don’t even forget to have Press Conferences during the year to get press attention , press plays a important role. To take care of press , hire a influential PR Agency; a good PR agency helps the festival in image management ,do check if you get a Specialize PR agency in media, entertainment and lifestyle.

If you are planning a big festival, do check, if your PR agency has a national network and it can work on Multi lingual platform ; PR agency will also work in Publishing your Press releases in mainline dailies , city supplements ,regional publications, magazines , electronic , radio, web and mobile media and keep on tracking it on day on day basis .

You can also check with your PR if they works in Cross branding in B2B , arrange Launch parties ,and do celebrity management . be open to discussions and ask them to make proposals for your Film Festival.

Printing is a important department in Film Festival , lots of printing jobs including posters, Flyers , flexs, Festival catalogue, Delegate Passes, Press passes, Festival Booklet , Various do and don’t lists, T-shirts, Caps and specially NEWS bulletin.

I suggest you to Release your NEWS bulletin 2 months Before the festival dates and send it to various cultural Centers , govt. departments , Film Directors and other related film guilds on weekly basis , it will be a added drone but minimum 2500 prints will work if you target before two month .

Now lets Talk about the Program of Film Festival in brief, the program must include the categories like Competition World Cinema (Feature), Short Film (Competition), International Focus, Retrospective , Indian Panorama and Focus Institutes other categories could be included as per the genre of your Film Festival like Kinder Film, Women Voice, Human Rights, AIDS.

Face to Face of Director after or before Screening helps audience to know directors point of view, platforms like open forum are also helpful for amateur filmmakers to get a international platforms. Open forum for performers, Food courts , directors meet are added flavor for your Film Festival .

Film Festivals are specially meant for film markets and India is a very high potential market for such activities , I believe that we are copy pasting the idea of west in India that is why its not working in our region whereas there are lots of creative ideas to encourage film market in India .Lets not forget the fact that India Produces over 2000 Feature Film Projects including bollywood and regional cinema.

Coming on the point of penning down the planning you need a spreadsheet which include the following reports

1. The Program
2. Vendor List
3. database of film directors
4. database of film festival directors
5. database of film institutes
6. delegate hospitality plan (including tickets , transportation, hotel and food)
7. Screening Schedule
8. Sponsorship categories
9. Advertisement plan
10. Event Management plan
11. PR Plan
12. Printing material list
13. Award category and plan
14. Stage Program (for each day including daily speech)
15. Evening Parties program
16. list of jury, Working and non working team
17. list of invitees
18. List of Participating countries with their embassy details
19. List with contact details of government agencies involved
20. etc

though its not easy materializing these kind of plans but its not impossible also , after sharing all this information which only speaks about ..expense !! expense and expense ..i will share my opinion on generating revenues from a film festival in my upcoming article . I hope this information will be useful ..Chao

Starting a Film Festival - “My encounter with Truth “

Is that the Idea in you mind? be ready check your pockets, bank account , friends and followers , I assure you that nobody will be remain yours, it’s a dead deal .

But yes there are always some people who loves to jump in a well .. I have an experience of working in few such deals I will be sharing what I have experienced, lots of things did not worked for me look now I am sitting in my house without work enjoying a packet of Chips with a cup of black coffee reading books and taking workshops to ignite myself back in life .

Going back to 2005 visiting a International Film Festival was a great experience , during a festival I came to know what film festivals are all about but yes one thing which I enjoyed a lot was the quality and content of films . I started reading about film festivals and never missed any festival after that in the Capital.

My passion drived me further and I visited almost every film festival in the country from North to South . My biggest experience was coming back from a Kerala Film Festival in a General Compartment of the Train eating rice with redchillies in Andhra . redchilles were really hot as every bite was telling me , is this the thing you want to do in your life ? When we reached Nizzamudin Station we were left with the bus fair only and I can see a huge board outside that “ Delhi Apka Swagat Karti hai” …….

Visiting to other festivals, Gaining experience, meeting people and discussing films always makes me feel good and deep Sleep in the night is guaranteed.

I was firm on my feeling that yes I too will be having my own film festival one day , in the beginning me and few of my friends started a Club where we used to showcase few films in our own circle , someone bringing new DVDs and we enjoying together , discussing and having a small party once in a month .

In last five years I spent hell of money in transportation, meetings and other expenditures if I could have saved it I would have been a owner of a Benz Though running in a circle of corporate for a Sponsorships was the toughest job its corruption everywhere .

Finally we got a Venue confirmed in one of the premier cultural center in central Delhi Where we did our first festival , we all organizers were happy to see house full but once again after totally bankrupting and living on loans it was impossible at that time to stand again but hopes never falls down .

From year 2006 I started working as a Volunteer in a International Film Festival worked for around 3 years spending my own money , and bankrupting day by day but my passion for a film festival was driving me each day .

I learnt 100 ups and 1000 downs during this period , commitments , no commitments but works was the first priority and learned a golden rule that creativity dies in a non creative group .

Few Friends were helping maybe they thought if the jackpot hits it will be joy on 360 degree which anyhow did not worked out . though after all this I thought of starting a New Festival but then my Left side of Brain Started working .

Got this quote on facebook written by someone which I totally believe in "ur not a loser or failure until u give up hope of trying to do it right d next time."

Now I am working as a Scriptwriter, and yes I got work too and good work but my passion for working in a Film Festival is still their , I am looking for a like minded festival or group to work . I am Interested in working in Regional Film Markets towards the Quality and International Content after all we are rich in content from last 5000 years and that too coming from all regional dimensions of the country .

Bankrupting words is repeated many times because that’s the film festivals are all about . though it hurts sometime when I stand alone on my rooftop but I know I will see a ray of hope again .

In my next article I will share my experience on Organizing a International Film Festival, and share my notes on Creative , communication and Planning of Film Festival