Interview:
Sterling Hedgpeth
Programming manager
Mill Valley Film Festival
Sterling Hedgpeth
Programming manager
Mill Valley Film Festival
1.
Number of entries received: around 1,000
2.
Aim to screen: Every film gets watched.
3.
Prescreening process:
4.
Number of Pre screeners: They have a huge
selection of individuals that have been helping program for over 12 years. They
even bring in a documentary specialist.
5.
Who is chosen as a pre screener? They usually
don’t need to bring more people on because of the mass pool they already have.
6.
How do they score entries? Guidelines? The
entries are broken into categories then rated on a scale of 1-5. They factor in
originality, aesthetic, production quality, and local connection; however,
those scores are not averaged together. They request a number from 1-5 as an
overall score. They do, however, average the scores from multiple screeners.
7.
Jury after the prescreening? If entries score an
average of 3 ½ and up, it will then be passed to the jurors. The film will be
watched by at least two jurors.
8.
How far in advance do they send out call for
entries? How many come in? Early, late, in waves? Early is March 1st,
regular is mid May, late is early June, and the deadline is late June. The
busiest times are the early and late deadlines.
9.
How many paid employees each year? Volunteers?
There are only two permanent paid programming staff. The others are seasonal.
10. Specific
program or budget software? For programming, they use withoutabox. They were
one of the first film festivals to ever use it and have a deep-rooted loyalty
with them.
11. What
outreach do you use to keep the festival on the public’s radar on the offseason?
MVFF actually owns the main venue they use. During the offseason, it acts as an
art cinema house. Also, MVFF is paired up with CFI (California Film Institute)
and puts on events with them.
12. Swagbags?
For who?
13. Filmmakers’
perks? Free registration? Yes. The filmmakers also get ticket comps regardless
if the film is on rush or sold out.
14. Travel
funds? They provide accommodations and flights. The short filmmakers are
provided accommodations but not usually flights and with less comp tickets.
15. Perks?
They definitely try to keep the filmmakers busy. They have brunches, parties,
receptions after screenings, and tours of LucasFilm and Pixar.
16. Special
donor perks? Solely advertising on website, program, festival trailer (played
before every screening), bumpers.
17. Anything
you’d do differently or better? He actually turned down a higher operations
position to be the programming manager. He wanted to work with the filmmakers
directly and have an authorial voice as far as scheduling and film selection.
18. Any
advice? Be true to your mission. Find your emphasis and really concentrate.
Don’t change so much every year. Changing is a sure bet of shedding your
audience’s loyalty. Be authentic to what you want and what makes your festival
watch worthy.
Their perks sound like they keep their filmmakers involved and always on their toes. It's important to do the same for our visiting guests because we want to keep them interested at all times. To give them an experience of a lifetime.
ReplyDeleteI think it is really interesting that they bring in a 'documentary specialist' to screen their submissions. I think that it's cool to have an academic or otherwise well informed (I'm assuming that is what was meant by specialist) reviewer is asked to participate. ALSO, tours with LucasFilm and Pixar!! So cool!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Mill Valley would ever consider using an alternative submission method. I understand that they are deep ties with Without-A-Box, but a partnership with FilmFreeway could prove to be a much more mutually-beneficial partnership.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be good if we can have things (eg. event, color, awards, ect.) that are special and authentic to Visions, so that we can settle a same impression/highlight to the new and old audiences.
ReplyDeleteI like the screening and jurying process. Rating them and them having jurors watch those that scored well seems like a really efficient way of getting through so many films.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely like to have as many parties or brunches as possible to keep the filmmakers and scholars entertained, but we need some more money for that. And to tour Pixar, that's so cool! I want our filmmakers to get to tour Screen Gems so I hope there's some cool sets there. I'm worried due to the incentive, or should I say lack of one... I don't know if we normally take the filmmakers to the beach, but I would like to do that!
ReplyDeleteI also like the advice of "Don't change so much every year." I agree that this is important when trying to keep an audience.
I really think the way they do the pre screenings. I think the categories that they judged the films on are great and useful to determining if they should show that film.
ReplyDeleteI do enjoy the idea of them automatically eliminating the films that receive a 3.5 or less average in the first round. I don't know if it would be possible for us, but it could eliminate the need to have a discussion about a film that already isn't going to heighten the quality of films we screen.
ReplyDelete