Director's statements: how to write them, what they're for

In many stages along your film's path you will be asked to write a "Director's Statement." This article will hopefully help as you navigate these waters.

First off, there are different reasons that you will be asked to write a Director's Statement, and each of them will have different needs and requirements. The main two circumstances, generally, will be before the movie is made (development) and after the film is made (distribution).

Before the film is made, your purpose is to describe why the film should actually be made. You may write your Director's Statement for a grant application or maybe in a business plan. Your purpose is to get funded, or maybe to get a job making the film. You're selling your vision of the film - and you're making people see that your vision is the only way the film should be told.

Andrew Mack, editor for Screen Anarchy, says: "A director's statement is about what inspires someone to make a movie and what they desire to convey with their audience... The director wants to, in this statement, express their inspirations and ambitions - generate some excitement about this potential project."

Development

In development the key things you should consider including are:

• The genesis of the project (where the idea came from; its circumstances and history)
• Why the project is important (will it have social impact; will it make people laugh)
• Why you're the only one who can tell this story (what do you bring to the table that is unique and especially pertinent to this project)
• Your cinematic inspiration and influences (this helps the reader see the vision of the film)
• Visual and technical approaches you intend to take that will make the film unique and successful
• Your hopes for the audience's response (what will the audience get out of it)

You don't have to include all of these things, but they all should be alluded to in some way. Remember, you're a storyteller, so this is just another form of storytelling. Make it entertaining. Bring the reader along with you.

Marketing

For marketing (once the film is done), you will include a Director's Statement in application material for festivals, or in press material for the film's marketing. It's important to remember that no one will choose to program your movie in a festival, review it in their paper, or distribute it because of your winning Director's Statement. If you're film doesn't appeal to them, they're not going to change your mind because of your Statement. However, once they decide to program/review/distribute your film they will look at the Director's Statement to help them market it. From a journalist's/film critic's stand point, a good Director's Statement saves them the hassle of having to interview you.

In marketing the key things you should consider including are:

• The genesis of the project
• Why the project is important
• Why you're the only one who could have told this story
• Your cinematic inspiration and influences
• Production and Post-production discoveries (what happened during the process of making the film that shaped the film's final state)
• Your hopes for the audience's response

Thus, the two types of Director's Statements are very similar, except in one you're discussing what you hope will happen, and in the other you're explaining what did happen.

Remember: Your Director's Statement needs to exist outside of the film they're discussing, in other words, don't assume the reader will have already seen your film, or even has any intention of seeing it. It needs to make them want to see it, just like a development Director's Statement should make them want to see it made.

Do people read them? My film Superpowerless was recently reviewed by Variety. I know the reviewer had come to the screening (at my invitation), and had given me a smile on his way out during the credits, but he had also told me that he would see about thirty films at the festival and review around five, so I wasn't holding my breath... at all. When the review came out he concluded it with some information that he would have got only by reading the Director's Statement included in the press material.

My friend Maggie Mackay, executive director of Vidiots, says "When I was programming festivals, Director Statements and other supplemental materials didn't play into my programming process. Once we programmed a film, those materials were useful, but they didn't have any influence on my selection process. On the other hand, when I was the Director of Nominations at the Spirit Awards, and we required Director Statements for the grant awards, not only did they get read, but they were a HUGE part of the submission. My biggest recommendation to filmmakers submitting required statements is that they really read and stick to the instructions from each organization or festival."

Length

You will be given instructions in regards to length. Do not go over, and do not be too brief. Make it quick and easy to read no matter its assigned length. This is not the time to write a scholarly paper.

Attitude

This is always the same, no matter what aspect of your filmmaking career you're in; or no matter what stage of the filmmaking process you're in:

• Be grateful / humble (don't come off as pompous or like God's-Gift to the filmmaking world)
• Take your movie seriously, but don't take yourself seriously (you've made an important, awesome movie, but you're grateful for the opportunity and for all the people who helped you along the way).

These two attitudes, which are intertwined, will help you in all stages of your career. And, by the way, if you are sincere about these two attitudes, and apply them to the rest of your life, you'll be happier.

Monetizing festivals, part two

Festivals are all about love. I've never seen audiences show more affection for movies than they do at festivals. I think it's about the discovery. It's easy to like something knowing that you've discovered it. Now you can tell your friends about this rare gem that only you know about. It's exciting and empowering. For the filmmaker it's wonderful, but also dangerous. I know many a filmmaker who buy into the festival audience's love, and when their film is released theatrically they wonder... what happened? People are much more critical at the multiplex. The whole experience is very different, and much harder.
 
For our movie White on Rice we started to self-distribute theatrically while we were still playing in festivals. A lot of people think this sounds counterproductive. If the movie is in theaters, why would you still show it at festivals? But since we were self distributing, and of course broke, we couldn't turn down the opportunity for great publicity (paid for by the festival) and the buzz generated by the loving festival audiences. I give full credit to our amazing team: director Dave Boyle, and Nguyen Tran of Wave Releasing and Dylan Marchetti of Variance Films.

To make the festival work to our advantage we tried always to release theatrically in the festival city the week following the festival screening. That way the festival had a great promotional hook (a sneak peak screening, just before it arrives in theater), and we got all the buzz from the audience who went home and told all their friends about this great movie they just saw AND that they should see it because it would be in the theater the following week! Normally that buzz fizzes out and by the time you return to theaters, nobody cares. This strategy overcomes that dilemma.

The two cities where we pulled this off most successfully (and it's not easy to be able to pull off, mind you) were San Diego, where we won an audience award at the San Diego Asian Film Festival, and Honolulu, where we had a great screening at the Hawaii International Film Festival. In both cities we had our longest runs.

In these tricky economic times it's important to constantly think outside of the box in this way, and potentially dangerous to simply assume a traditional release, or even a "traditional" DIY release (whatever that could be) will work for you.

WHITE ON RICE-THEATRICAL TRAILER from Dave Boyle on Vimeo.

Monetizing festivals, part one

Film Festivals do many things for filmmakers. Mostly they give them a much needed platform to launch their projects. They also provide a forum for films that may be more "Challenging" than most films that have a better chance at finding an audience in regular theaters or straight to DVD. They provide filmmakers the invaluable opportunity to network with other filmmakers. For the independent filmmaker, film festivals are as important as breathing is to normal humans. However, there is one thing that festivals normally are not... and that is an opportunity to make money.
     It's amazing really. My first film, Big Dreams Little Tokyo, premiered at the AFI festival in Los Angeles, which is a wonderful festival. As filmmakers we worked very hard to raise interest for our film. We hired a very competent publicist (who helped us get into the festival) and went to work making sure the seats were full for each of our screenings. Our film had a sumo-wrestling subplot, so we hired a bunch of local sumo wrestlers to walk around outside the Arclight and pass out information about the film. It was a great bit of promotion and we were proud that our film got more better photo coverage than the Penelope Cruz tribute that was going on at the same time.

Director Dave Boyle, actress Rachel Morihiro and friends on the AFI Fest red carpet.

     The end result of our efforts? More people came to see our film -- which is great. At a festival, however, all ticket sales go to the festival (and venues, etc), but not to the filmmaker. So by spending thousands of dollars on publicity, all we did is line the pocket of the festival a bit. Well, everyone who sees your film is good of course, but there's got to be some way to monetize this thing. Is it worth breaking your bank and back, just so a few more people can see the movie? I would suggest it depends on who they are. If they're industry types, critics, festival programmers, then absolutely. If not, it might be wise to let the festival's publicity team do their job. I've started to concern myself mostly with "Industry-targeted-publicity" for festivals, saving broad marketing for when the dollars come back to me.
     We also discovered that your film never gets more love and attention than it does at festivals. At almost every festival everyone goes in wanting to love it. They're cheering for you because they feel somehow connected to you. They are discovering this new film that no one else has seen. But we found that when you finally release in that same city (six months to a year later), all of that love, as well as any promotion you may have done, is long gone.
     I'll return to this subject in a bit to talk about what can be done.