Day 5: IFP Market

Nothing in particular scheduled for today -- no screenings, no industry meetings. The only thing to attend is the Awards Luncheon where we find out if we've won the $10,000 Award for Socially Conscious Documentaries (given by The Fledgling Fund).

In the morning, I went to see a film called "Row Hard, No Excuses", a doc about two friends who decide to enter a rowing race across the Atlantic. Very interesting (although not very well shot) and sure to appear on something like the National Geographic channel. I actually left that film after an hour so that I could see "To Be Heard", a doc about a Bronx school trying to motivate its students through a spoken word/poetry class. Hmmm.... very similar premise to our own film. On the whole, the film is quite compelling and I would be very interested to see it. Strangely enough, though, I didn't feel like it had the depth and character of our own film. I'm probably a bit biased, but I just felt like the key to the doc was the poetry readings, as opposed to the development of the doc's subjects. Lastly, I saw "Waiting for Hockney", a doc about one artist's nine-year quest to paint the perfect portrait -- very engrossing film filled with wonderfully kooky characters.

At 1pm, I headed over to the China Brasserie for the Awards Luncheon. Upon arrival, I was whisked away for a few minutes to take pictures of the nominees in front of the IFP logo. From there, I was seated at a table with three other industry types: a film editor, another doc filmmaker, and the president of IFP. Unfortunately, I quickly came to understand that none of them were particularly interested in talking to me -- probably because I'm just a small player in the industry. I did learn one key thing from the other filmmaker (Rodney Evans of "Brother to Brother" fame): he said that ITVS signs a contract with you for exclusive domestic TV distribution rights, but that they will most likely let you out of it if another broadcaster comes calling. That's a huge relief and makes me more willing to work with a program like POV.

Then the awards came -- or should I say, didn't come. We didn't win the award; it went to a doc called "Promised Land", a film about the land redistribution issues in South Africa. I have to admit that I clapped very half-heartedly because it was very disappointing not to win. I didn't think I would be that sad, but I really was actually expecting to win. I did, however, take solace in the fact that at least it was won by another minority filmmaker.

Knowing that the award-winning films would be re-screened in an hour, I raced over to the Angelika Theater to catch the film that beat us. I have to say that I was quite underwhelmed. I was expecting to see something very moving and exceptionally shot, but all I saw was a bunch of talking heads. They were saying very interesting stuff, but it didn't really take the viewer along on a story the way our film does. Again, maybe it's just sour grapes, but I was still disappointed that we hadn't been beaten by a better film.

The last film I saw was "Man Up", a short doc about a teenage boy and a father with very "different" expectations about what makes a real man. This was truly the most amazing film I had seen in the entire market. Everything about it was masterful: cinematography, editing, use of color, sound, etc. -- and it was all done by ONE person (director Arturo Cabanas)! The story was so compelling and had the kind of depth to it that wins Academy Awards. After the screening, a bunch of us just gathered around the director, peppering him with questions about how he made it. Really, we were all just amazed at his skill. Look out for him in the future -- especially if he turns his short into a feature.

Went back to the main meeting area of IFP where I met up with my producer Jillian. Spoke to her a bit and then communed with a bunch of other doc directors. Even though all the IFP staff were closing up shop all around us, I felt like I didn't really want to leave and just soak in all the good things that had happened to us during the market.

Eventually, I said my goodbyes, walked out onto the street, and made my way home, eternally grateful for having had this wonderful experience...

Day 4: IFP Market

Got up early to attend HBO Breakfast at 9am. Wasn't sure what would happen since I had just met with HBO yesterday (and they were none too interested then). Sure enough, when I arrived at the breakfast place, I was told that HBO only wanted to meet with people they hadn't already spoken with -- so I just filled up my breakfast plate and sat with a few other filmmakers in the same boat. Met the cameraman/editor of "Animas Perdidas", a doc film that follows two deported Mexican brothers who had lived all their life in the U.S. Also met the director/producer of "Sons of a Gun", a doc that follows four formerly homeless people who live together in a single motel room. I wasn't expecting to enjoy meeting filmmakers so often, but it was really one of the highlights of the market.

Our first meeting was scheduled for 11am with Cinetic Media. This meeting was a total surprise because it was originally canceled on Monday. Cinetic is probably the #1 sales agent in the entire country -- they have represented everyone from "Napoleon Dynamite" to "Born into Brothels" to "Supersize Me", essentially the blockbusters of the independent film and documentary world. Getting represented by them is a very good bet towards getting into Sundance and/or Toronto -- they can't guarantee you entrance, but the festival programmers trust them so much that they tend to give you an extra look. For a film like ours which really needs finishing funds and good marketing, having a partner like Cinetic would be crucial. Kudos to the IFP folks for rescheduling the meeting.

However, I wasn't really sure why Cinetic would be so interested in meeting with us. When we walked into the meeting with Erin Heidenreich (one of the co-founders of Cinetic), we quickly found out why. Even though Erin hadn't seen anything yet, she said that the description of the project that she read in the catalogue really stood out to her. As soon as I finished my 1-minute pitch, she just started saying how great she thinks the project is. Because she was expecting an important call any moment, she said that she wanted to "cut right to the chase" and she asked us how much we needed to finish the film. We told her that we still needed $110,000 to finish post-production (and $90,000 to reimburse crew for the production). That number didn't seem to faze her, and she immediately told us about how places like Participant & Big Beach have funds available to fund documentaries with greater social impact. Then she asked if we thought it would be possible to do some kind of a corporate tie-in with our film, just as "Akeelah and the Bee" did with Starbucks. We laughed and told her that the South Bronx doesn't have ANY Starbucks stores (at least none that we'd seen); however, we thought that Dunkin' Donuts would be a perfect tie-in since the principal in our film visits Dunkin' Donuts every morning to get his caffeine and sugar -- we even have a sequence in which I follow Ed to the store. Another tie-in possibility is Dell, since all the teachers have Dell laptops and they are always using them.

Finally, our meeting came to an end, and Erin asked if we had a DVD of our trailer. I told her that we would get one to her immediately, but we would much rather she come to our screening which was coming up in half an hour. At first, she said that she was busy (not surprising) but then she quickly reversed course and said that she was going to cancel her other meetings and come to our screening. Needless to say, we were very happy by this turn of events. As promised, she showed up and by the end of the film, she was in tears (or so my producer Jillian tells me). She said that this film is "important" and "needs to get out there" and she promised to call us immediately on Friday. Wow, that means she must like it, or else she wouldn't make that kind of a promise. Amazing.

Our second screening was much larger than the first, which caused me to wonder if word-of-mouth from the first screening had attracted more people. I was trying to count the number of heads in attendance, and I think a good estimate was 30-35 people. From other screenings I had been at, the average is about 15-20 people. What was nice was that we had no other films following us, so we could take as long as we wanted for Q&A. We had about 6 questions and you could tell that people were really involved in the story (and curious as to whether or not our main student character succeeds). Two of the programmers from the Slamdance Film Festival came up to me at the end and said that they would really love to have "Whatever It Takes" submit -- incidentally, the same thing happened two years back with "Mad Hot Ballroom" and look where they are now.

Another bonus was that one of the representatives from the Gates Foundation's PR firm (Clark & Weinstock) was there in attendance. We are really hoping that the Gates Foundation sees a tight connection between our film and its advocacy for small schools. We talked with the rep for awhile and she said that she really enjoyed the trailer and that she would be in contact soon. Not as enthusiastic as Cinetic, but that's probably because the rep didn't want to get our hopes up too much with the Gates Foundation, which is certainly an intimidating organization.

My wife Eunice was also in attendance, and it was great to have her support. I felt bad not being able to pay more attention to her then and there, but I know she understands. I hope it's an encouragement to her to know that her husband is finally making some headway with his documentary films!

Next up was a meeting with American Documentary Inc., the folks who program the "P.O.V." program on PBS. POV is probably the place where I think "Whatever It Takes" really belongs. Strangely enough, that's exactly what Chris White (the POV representative) said: "This is exactly the kind of thing we are looking for..." Of course, he hadn't seen a second of footage yet, but he promised to look at our DVD trailer. He said that the POV staff was about two weeks away from making final decisions for POV's 2007-08 seasons. All in all, quite a positive meeting.

Immediately after POV came a meeting with Eric Korsh of Scout Productions. This was an especially interesting meeting because Eric asked us if we thought that "Whatever It Takes" could be split up into a six-part series for TV -- something we had never ever considered. Eric said that he sees the story of the school as being a possible series on something like ABC Family Channel. In general, I think we would have to do a lot of reshooting in order to have enough footage and exciting, cliffhanger moments that TV demands -- but if we were to have a POV premiere, a second run on ABC Family would certainly be an intriguing possibility.

We waited for about half an hour for our next meeting, but the guy never showed up...

Lastly, we met with Susannah Ludwig from Flourish Films. Susannah is a producer who last worked on "Stolen", a nice doc which got some run on PBS. Susannah was the only person who said that she could probably NOT give us any money -- what she promised instead was to help us finish the film and talk to all the right people, be they from foundations, distributors, or sales agents like Cinetic. Really nice person, and we felt like she might be a great addition to our team because of her potential to form tight relationships with funders and non-profits.

Whew! As exhausted as you may from reading this blog entry, I was even more exhausted by this fully packed day. Happy, and feeling very encouraged, I headed back home on the 7 train. As if the day weren't perfect enough, I got a call on the way home from a programmer with the Newport Film Festival who had seen my trailer for "Wheel of Jeopardy", my other documentary about TV game show fans, and they offered to waive the $60 application fee if I submitted. Of all places, he had seen the trailer on YouTube! Go figure...

Day 3: IFP Market

Slept until 7:30am, until rudely awakened by my 2-year-old daughter Senya screaming "Daddy, Daddy..." because she basically hadn't seen me for the past two days while I was at the market. I felt pretty guilty and tried to spend some good time playing with her in the morning. Unfortunately, I had to leave by 9:30am, so I eventually left her crying and screaming in the hands of my mother-in-law. I'll make it up to her by selling my doc for a million dollars and buying her a big Tickle Me Elmo doll ;)

So today's the big day -- our very first screening ever of this doc was scheduled for 12:15pm at the Angelika Theater. I got there around 10:30am just to make sure that our poster was up and that our press kit materials were in place. We got lucky and our poster was put up in a very prominent place where everyone could see it. Our graphic designer (Jamie Carroll) did an incredible job and we got a lot of really positive comments -- I think a lot of people ended up coming just because they liked the artwork. (What a superficial society we are...)

Managed to catch a few more doc screenings beforehand: the first was called "Keep your ears on the ball" -- a documentary about four different people who lost their vision and how they cope. It was actually quite good, and I thought they did a great job of editing sequences together. They also had a special "Waking Life" kind of animation that was very effective.

The next doc I saw was one that everybody had been looking forward to - "Planet B-boy" -- a documentary about the world's different b-boy teams and how they all come together for a final competition every year. Fantastic footage and amazing b-boy stunts. However, it's not just your typical competition film: it has a lot of very poignant moments that really get into who their characters are. I almost cried at one moment. This is a film that could seriously be a huge hit and make a few million dollars at the box office -- and a few more millions in DVD sales. Look out for it.

So finally, 12:15pm comes around and it's time for us. The screening people were very conscientious and did a check of our film to make sure it was displayed correctly. After that was finished, the people started coming in, and I was surprised to see that there were around 25-30 people in attendance. (At most other screenings, except for Planet B-Boy, there were only about 10-15 people.) So I got up at the front with my producer Jillian, and we gave a short 4-minute intro to the film, giving some backstory to the creation of the high school. We probably should have kept it shorter, but overall we did a good job, I think.

And then the movie played. I didn't know what to expect, but people were really responding to the film. No one left early, and people were laughing at all the right places, and I could feel that they were connecting with our characters during the more poignant moments. When the final credits started to roll, there was a spontaneous applause that seemed to be very genuine and not just out of courtesy. Very pleased with that, obviously! Jillian and I answered about five questions from the audience and then our screening was over. People started to approach us and gave the film very positive reviews. One filmmaker said it was the best doc he had seen so far at the market. The Florida Film Festival said he definitely wanted to have us in his program. And another guy said he was a sound designer/editor/composer (with experience in a lot of very high profile docs) who said he would love to help us with our film, even though he knows we have very little money! I think he would be great to work with -- seems like the film really resonated with him and he obviously has the experience to clean up a lot of our audio problems.

It was then time to quickly race over to the A&E sponsored luncheon. Never one to pass up a free lunch, I headed over and met up with two women from the Center for Asian American Media who said that they had sat in on our screening and really loved what they saw. More encouragement! They wondered why I hadn't applied to them for funding yet, implying that it would be almost a slam-dunk to get finishing funds from them. I didn't say this, but the reason I haven't applied with them yet is because I'm not sure I want to be locked into a deal with PBS for over three years at this point. But definitely something to consider at a later date.

Headed back over for another industry meeting with CS Associates - a distributor who takes your film to international destinations. He hadn't seen the DVD trailer yet but he said that he was very interested in the characters, mainly because international sales are driven more by characters than subject matter. So we went over every character with him in detail, especially that of the Principal and Sharifea (our star student). He was very honest with us, and he said that after he sees the trailer in the video library, he will let us know if he's still interested or if he "never wants to talk to us again..."

Back to the Angelika Theater for another screening, this time of "Fridays at the Farm." Really not expecting much about this one, but it was absolutely the best film I've seen at this market, bar none. Just a short film at 19 minutes, it dealt with one family who decided to join a community farm in order to live life more simply and eat more healthily. While that sounds kind of inane for film subject matter, it was incredibly powerful and connected growing vegetables with the process of growing community amongst family and friends. If I saw this DVD for sale, I would snap it up in a heartbeat. Just shows what it's like to be truly happy and content -- not a Disneyfied version, but the real thing.

Back once more for another industry meeting, this time with Showtime Networks. Essentially, it was pretty much the same news as HBO, except the guy we met with was much nicer and more interested in us. He said that while our film is not really a good fit for "a premium network" where they expect more edgy (read: sex and violence) fare, he thinks the project is extremely worthy. Again, encouraging to us, but not any closer to getting a sale...

Heading home now to see little Senya before she goes to bed. Hope to have an even better screening tomorrow. Maybe I can track down the PBS people and talk to them...

Day 2: IFP Market

So exhausted from the second day that I couldn't post anything until today (the 3rd day)...

Anyways, there was a speed-dating event this morning at 10am in which every filmmaker had a chance to make a 10-minute pitch to A&E. I went in with one of my producers, Scott Lyon, and we were introduced to Deidre O'Hearn, a VP with A&E's Biography series. I asked her if she had heard anything about our project, and she said that she hadn't had a chance yet to see the DVD copy in the video library. So, I immediately launched into my 1-minute pitch -- thankfully, I didn't stumble at all and I managed to deliver a reasonably cogent summary of our film. Deidre ("Didi") was REALLY nice and incredibly supportive. She said that she thinks it's an extremely compelling and timely project and that she thinks we should actually follow the school for all four years. We said we'd be glad to... but we need some production funds this time!!! She then went on to say that while she personally likes it, she doesn't quite see a good fit with A&E's programming style. Understandable from a network that has "Dog, The Bounty Hunter"... So I decided to pitch her my other documentary on game show fans ("Wheel of Jeopardy") -- and of course, she loved it. Handed her a DVD with the game show documentary and she promised to take a look at it.

After that, it was off to see some other work-in-progress documentary screenings. First one was called "Race to Execution" -- incredibly boring. Just shows that just because you have a nice poster and a compelling subject (death penalty) doesn't mean you know how to tell a story. It was just a talking-heads program, and not very informative at that. Left after 5 minutes.

Next, I saw a doc called "Exception to the Rulers" about the activist Amy Goodman. Very interesting person, but very hard to watch because the footage is so awfully shot. Could be good in the long run, but not a good trailer. From this presentation though, I learned that when you introduce your film, try not to run on and on talking for 10 minutes -- especially if you have nothing to say. It kind of ruins everything else.

Suffice it to say, after watching those two docs, I was starting to feel quite good about our own trailer. But there have to be better docs than those in the market...

After that, it was on to another industry meeting. This time it was with Peter Broderick from Paradigm Consulting. Learned a tremendous amount from him about non-traditional distribution. Apparently, if one doesn't get a huge distribution deal (e.g. "we'll give you $500K for the rights to your movie..."), you really have to depend on the DVD sales and rentals to get back your money. He said "Never, ever give away the right to self-distribute DVDs from your own website!" Good advice, I think. Peter also gave me a gentle critique on my pitch. He said "Try not to sound too rehearsed. It's a very strong pitch otherwise, but it needs to be much more conversational." Very true. I remember sounding very wooden and a bit nervous in my pitch to him.

I was really nervous for the next meeting with HBO Doc Films. These guys can afford to pay anywhere from $300-700K for a doc. We met with a woman named Jackie Glover and I managed to make my pitch more conversational this time. However, it quickly became obvious to me that it was a very one-way conversation, and Jackie wasn't really talking very much or looking that engaged with our project. She was smiling but just giving off that body language that indicated we weren't going to make a sale from this meeting. Turned out that HBO already had a high school doc in the works, and they certainly wouldn't need to buy 2 such films. So why would they request to meet with us then, I wonder? My producer Jillian thinks that they wanted to see what their competition was like -- and they actually had no interest in us. Bummer, but the industry session was still good practice.

After that, it was time for The Fledgling Fund, a foundation that specializes in giving grants to projects that deal with the Bronx. So we really were a perfect fit. Had a great conversation with the two reps from the fund, and they really seemed interested in every one of our characters. We also discussed a possible partnership where the Fund could help the school with getting internships, career counseling, and lab materials. I'd love it if this doc could directly benefit the school by getting more people to support it financially. The meeting ended with the reps requesting an outreach proposal from us -- good news, since that is the first step to getting more funding from them. By the way, we are up for a $10,000 award in this market (sponsored by IFP) so winning that would be a great way to get even more financial support from them.

Lastly, we met with Allen Chou from Passion River Films. In brief, it was just a long sales pitch to use their services for home video distribution. I'm sure they have very good contacts around the country, but if we have to end up using them, that probably means that our film is not doing as well as we had hoped. But it was nice to see another Chinese American guy in the biz.

So now it's 6pm, and it's time for Opening Night of the IFP -- an invitation to the sneak-peak screening of "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints", with some pretty big Hollywood stars in it. I thought it would be a good place to take my wife Eunice to, so I met her downtown and we took the subway to the movie theater. As it turned out, they had way overbooked the screening, and there was a HUGE line that stretched all the way down the block. We waited for half an hour before someone came along and said that the theater was full. I was pretty angry because it was apparent that they had just "used" us to form a big line and create hype for their upcoming film. They never intended for us to get in. I later heard that there was a big party afterwards that most people were not allowed into either. Thanks a lot...

Eunice and I instead went to a pretty good sushi restaurant nearby. After that, headed home and went to sleep. All in all, an exciting but incredibly tiring day. And I didn't embarass myself!

Day 1: IFP Market

I'm creating this blog to document what's happening this week with my documentary film "Whatever It Takes". My film is still a work-in-progress, but we are screening it at the IFP Market in New York City, where (hopefully) a bunch of industry representatives will see it and like it... Will they want to buy it? Well, that's probably a bit much to hope for, but you never know.

Today was the first day, and I immediately felt very welcomed by the IFP folks. I had a lot of questions, but they didn't seem to tire of them. So it seems like this is a market that's very supportive of its filmmakers. I popped in on something called the DocSpot -- a designated meeting place of industry reps and filmmakers. We have our first meetings tomorrow (5 of 'em!) and I'm a wee bit nervous. My attitude, though, is that first-time filmmakers should act like first-time filmmakers: we are going to make mistakes and we are going to look silly, but we should just regard it all as practice. We'll get better as we go along. But be prepared to have some fun laughing at me as I relay you different stories of my ineptitude.

Right now, I'm getting ready to head into "Liquid Lounge", a alcohol filled mixer where one is supposedly going to make contacts with other filmmakers and industry folks. Being an incredibly introverted person, this will be quite a hard thing to do. The only thing that is giving me some measure of confidence is my confidence that God has brought me to this place for a reason. I guess it's also of some comfort that I really believe in this film, and I can brag about it with enthusiasm.

Losing battery power, so must go... more to come tonight perhaps.