I’m premiering my first independent feature ‘Play With Fire’ at the ReelHeART International Film Festival in Toronto, this June. This will be my first festival experience so I’m not sure what to expect. I can see when Zak says it is going to be great for networking and meeting people face to face, but I can also see how Stephanie says it can be a little haywire for meeting people, and you are not guaranteed to get the right audience in front of your movie. Either way, it’s going to be a great learning experience for myself and my producing partner, Soren Johnstone, and we are just going to go in with a good attitude and soak up as much as possible. As long as we can get some press and exposure out of it, great, were happy. The fact that we are going to be able to watch our first feature on the big screen in a 250 seat theater is the cream on the cake. That being said, as we have just recently finished our final cut, we are still developing our strategy for getting our film out. We are thinking about doing a bunch of smaller screenings, in different venues.. keeping it underground, spreading word of mouth that way, and definitely using the internet. We will see how festivals work in to everything.

Im excited to meet the filmmakers of NewBreed, discuss, and read more about their experiences. In the past few months since discovering NewBreed I have already learned quite a bit.

One thing I do want to say regarding festivals, is I am a little bit skeptical of services like WAB, that make it too easy for filmmakers to submit to many festivals. This overloads the festivals with submissions and it’s hard to not think that they might not take all the submissions as seriously. There are obviously some politics involved and it’s all about who you know right.. and I dont know anyone, so does it really help the unknown indie filmmaker with no money.. or hurt them?

CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW THE ENTIRE PANEL DISCUSSION ON “MANAGING EXPECTATIONS ON THE FESTIVAL CIRCUIT”.

MIKE BABIARZ is an independent filmmaker/ graphic designer, based out of Vancouver BC. He is currently putting almost all of his time and energy in to a no-budget indie film with his producing partner and director, Soren Johnstone. Their film is ‘Play With Fire’. It has been a labour of love and hate for the past two years. To pay the bills Michael does freelance video and graphic design work. Although, he would much rather play with his filthy rock & roll band, The Fuckstixx, than pay the bills.