This past week, I attended
The New Media Fest in Phoenix AZ. I was there to represent my latest feature "The Measure of a Man," in which I played one of the lead roles. I was VERY Blessed to be a part of this film and Blessed even more by my experience at the film festival.
Elizabeth & Greg Waite (Director & Producer) attended the festival as well. We had the wonderful opportunity to double our efforts in separate workshops & screenings and share with each other what we should take away each day. Our goal was to get feedback and some direction into a great way to find a like-minded Distributor whose goal is to get this film to the right audiences across America and spread the message of Conscious Family Development through Love, Music, Perseverance, and above all: Faith. I believe we achieved that goal and are currently sending out screeners to several folks (distributors) who inquired about our film by the end of the festival.
This particular Film Fest really inspired me to work more intentionally towards my goals. I was Blessed by a Christian community that was less focused on "look at my movie" and more focused on: Let's band together and Faithfully change the face of Media to reflect the morals & deeply moving stories of Inspiration, Faith, God's Love, Family, & Truth that the world truly desires-- Let's make better movies, better messages, and strive to reach EVERYONE, not just a safe community-- & Let's Pray for direction. I gave out SO MANY business cards, I hope that I can reconnect with those folks and work alongside them towards this goal!
"The Measure of a Man" was awarded
The Audience Favorite Award at the awards banquet! Elizabeth gave a beautifully uplifting acceptance speech that touched everyone. The overall feel of the evening was loving and celebratory.
XP Media did a fantastic job of providing a great outlet for artists to showcase and be rewarded for their work.
A breakdown of the week...
I arrived Wednesday night and stayed with Family. On Thursday mid-morning I met with Elizabeth & Greg Waite and got a rundown of their experience at
Elko, NV's Ruby Mountain Film Fest the week before, where we won
The Audience Choice Award!
Then I attended the workshop:
Evolving Distribution by Joel Nori of Destiny Image Inc. Joel is paving the way for us to be able to distribute our faith based/family friendly films in this market. The workshop covered 'Navigating the waters of new distribution models in the changing market.' He focused more on
today's market and the struggles and pitfalls. Though informative, it was more disheartening than I would have liked for my first workshop. But we still enjoyed it. I did get some great tips on where the markets are, what length to cut for approaching Distributors, other technical tips, and strategy of Laurels creating an Indie Brand Vs Commercial appeal... Good stuff.
Next Greg went to the
Distribution & Funding Panel. Elizabeth and I went to the screening of
"Reconciliation" Directed by Chad Ahrendt, CleanFreak Productions. 'A groundbreaking provocative story about an estranged father and son struggling to overcome heartbreaking consequences of their past.' I cried. It dealt beautiful and carefully with homosexuality & family. It has already been released if you are interested. They won the
Best Drama Feature Award, I then got the opportunity to speak with Chad some more and he goes to Reality (a great church) here in the LA area. Small world. At the same Fest, someone was raving about my home church in Hollywood,
Ecclesia. Its nice to see how much our community knows about each other.
The next morning I attended the
Actor's Networking Session that was combined with the Director/Producer Networking Session. We heard from a panel of very educated filmmakers: Hector Marquez of
Live Media Entertainment, Phil Tan: Action Director, Stunt Coordinator, Writer, Actor, ..., Sondra Martin Hicks of
Heartstone Pictures & Winds of Fire Entertainment, D David Morin: Filmmaker & actor for over 30 yrs, and Darren Wilson: screenwriter & CEO of
Wunderlust Productions. Learned a lot, focused mainly on Storytelling and the importance of STORY. They also gave tips on how to distance yourself from the 'birth pains' of creating your 'Baby,' how an emotional roller-coaster should go, always rejecting your first idea, and being
Intentional.
I attended
Package for Project for Hollywood by GMT Studios. The speakers were Alan Hauge, CEO of GMT & David Webster with GMT and
White Owl films 'packaging film projects for investors and film companies.' The workshop was about how 'Presenting your project is just as important as the project itself.' They were VERY informative and are emailing extremely detailed instructions, resources, figures, research, and everything I need to get a film from A to B. I really enjoyed not just the info, but the faith based philosophy intertwined with what we are doing here. I really liked David Webster and had the opportunity to meet him later in the fest. I really want to focus on building that relationship (he lives in LA, so its easier) and learn from him.
I got the opportunity to see the film
"Letting Go" by Lisa Arnold of COKT Pictures, nominated for a Judge's Choice Award and she won the Muse Award for best Actress. About a woman facing life & her relationship with God after her husband's sudden death. It covers the next steps a year later.
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| The Family in "The Measure of a Man" |
We had the Screening for
"The Measure of a Man" that afternoon. The festival was so kind to originally give a discount for our outside audiences coming to the fest for our film and then the day of, made the entrance FREE to our attendees! They are very generous people focused on the point of the fest & not the money. They blessed us a lot with their generosity. I spent most of my afternoon time meeting tons of festival goers and inviting them to our screening--something that paid off later with the Audience Fav Award. :) We spent plenty of time afterwards talking with fans about the project and enjoying the people who were moved by the piece.
On Saturday, I attended
Everything You Need To Know About Hollywood by Ted Baehr. Ted is 'Chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission, a division of Good News Communications, Inc. He is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of
MovieGuide, which evaluates motionpictures from a Christian Prospective.' Boy, did I learn a lot! I have only studied 20 pages or so of this Analysis so far. Go find the
"2011 MovieGuide Report to the Film Industry" --some key points/quotes of this incredibly handy (and thick) Handbook were that there is...
A demand for better stories:
"The following analysis shows that movies which best reflect moral, Christian and biblical principles do much better at the box office and on home video than movies which don't," a call to arms "From this we can conclude that Hollywood uses its resources to reach the next generation better than churches? And, shouldn't Christians be doing more to redeem the values of the mass media?,"
Supporting evidence that we are moving in a good direction:
"U.S. Box Office 2010, 90% had strong Christian, biblical/moral content. 60% were rated G or PG. None: were R-rated, Had explicit sex or nudity, were anti-American, had 25 or more obscenities or profanities (LLL)...,"
Truth that doing what is right is lucrative as well:
"...filmmakers (especially filmmakers trying to make movies for a broad audience) have a much better chance of reaching the TOP 10 or TOP 25 Movies at The Domestic Box Office if they insert elements with strong or very strong Christian, biblical, moral, and/or redemptive content. Second, filmmakers have a better chance of making the TOP10 or TOP 25 lists if the keep strong or very strong negative, non-Christian, amoral, immoral, or false content OUT of their movie,"
& What we want is Good:
"What moviegoers want to see...-Good conquer evil, Truth triumph over falsehood, Justice prevail over injustice, and Beauty overcome ugliness...."
There are so many amazing facts & figures in this book, 80 pages of lengthy numbers/analysis/demographics/figures proving/..., its incredible to feel like I am now educated in this area and know that some others in the film/distribution world have consciously lied to me and fellow filmmakers in the past about what we need to do to make a sellable movie. The uplifting truth and support that what I WANT in films is what America WANTS in films, validates & re-energizes my quest.
I went to the next workshop on
Funding your Film Project by Dr. Bruce Cook, President & CEO of
Venture Advisors Inc. Wow, he really took the dry strategy out of the equation and focused on our relationship with God and relying on him for Direction. He assured us the money IS out there and how to approach that step from the right starting point. I was particularly blessed by his philosophy on investing. He spoke on being a Leader, being passionate, how God wants business to be a win/win/win situation, gathering industry pros, & connecting with an investor's heart. He is a successful man with investments in, what seems like, every single market. He founded and runs the Kingdom Economic Yearly Summit (KEYS) with the Economic leaders from around the world and is a great resource if you have questions.
That evening was the awards banquet. I had a great time and spoke with lots of other artists in our Industry and met with other leaders who I can look up to and seek their input on my future projects. I left refreshed and ready to start researching all the awesome folks I met and foster those relationships in the hopes that they lead to more jobs and more importantly, that we can work together to help shape media.
I missed out on more events than I was able to attend and was still changed by this experience, next year (
Yes, I am going next year), I will do more. Thanks
XP Media for this event.
My specific prayer is that going to this event results in another acting job, a closer walk with God concerning the Plan HE has for me, a freedom in being who I am here in Hollywood, and a Blessed Distributor to walk "The Measure of a Man" where it needs to go for Distribution/Success/Overflowing Payments to Investors.
-Jennica Schwartzman, Actor
Managing Partner, Purpose Pictures (
PurposePicturesProductions.com)
