IndieBiz - Getting Picked Up in Toronto

Tickets go on sale today for the Toronto International Film Festival, and for the makers accepted part of the whole biz will be shmoozing and trying to find that missing piece in your post-production puzzle. Some suggestions if you are in this position:

1. Be approachable. If you are a group of people who’ve worked together closely, there can be a nervous tension that draws you inward in big social gatherings, creating a posse vibe that can be impressive to outsiders but which is certainly not welcoming to all personality types. Do this for a little bit, but then break off bravely and begin a slow (very slow - nerves can make you speedy so be deliberate) meander, chatting with the people you find your self aware of and who are aware of you. Be comfortable with the awkwardness, and just enjoy the opportunities for humour, or at least mutual goodwill, in meeting new people. It’s funny because everyone around you is responding to the context in some way or another so at least that’s one thing you’ll have in common. Treat this like making a new friend, ask them questions about themselves, see where you hook into eachother, and let yourself be hooked into, because once you’ve met chances seem to increase that you will meet again. Move slowly and be calm and friendly and even the introverts will find a way to approach you. And the introverts can be verrrry powerful. =)

2. Be wise. The above method could be called To Surf and the next one To Search, and I think a balance of both is ideal in most knowledge projects (and meeting professionals in your field is a knowledge project.) When surfing you ride links of introductions and tides in the room. Searching is how you build your skills to prepare you for the ride, ie; gives you something to talk about and somewhere to aim at. Research everything in your field that interests you and relates to you - distributors of films you like, the deals made by people you admire, the cameras used, the references made, whatever. Not so you can bombard people with it; rather so you can interpret the true from the false and find those real gems of possibility.

In that spirit here’s a tiny toe in the water, starting point of the Search one could do before taking an indie film to Toronto. Next step if you were just starting out on this project would be to start search-engine-ing the names below, and then surfing the links they lead you to:

With New Line Cinema, Picturehouse, Netflixs Red Envelope and Warner Independent scratched off the potential buyers list, only the most commercial, accessible and Oscar-worthy Toronto offerings will be cherry-picked by the studios’ specialty divisions.

(…)

But another set of indie distributors is still in the hunt for product. As Picturehouse’s Bob Berney deliberately builds the foundations of a new-model distrib, the indie sector is checking out several alternative distribution models. IFC Entertainment and Magnolia Pictures’ video-on-demand/theatrical releases, for example, have proved so successful that more distribs say they will emulate them. And frustrated filmmakers are increasingly turning to customizable - but costly - service deals to execute their own release plans.

Among the indie buyers with open purses heading for Toronto are Summit Entertainment, which acquired Toronto world premiere “Brothers Bloom,” starring Rachel Weisz, Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo back in December based on a two-minute clip, giving writer-director Rian Johnson (”Brick”) a chance to finetune his movie and skip Sundance. Summit will chase other pictures at the fest, however, as will Overture, which last year acquired “The Visitor,” one of the few bright spots for indie box office in 2008.

From Variety

Here’s the preview for Brothers Bloom: