G= interviewer (Grace)
J= interviewee (James Schultz)
G: I've read your mission, and researched
your website, but how would you personally describe the mission/goals of your
festival?
J:
The thing
is that it is an international festival so we interact with most of our
filmmakers through the Internet. On the local level, we are really trying to
encourage and foster film appreciation, understanding, and criticism. So that’s
the angle we are trying to come at. Most youth festivals are about grabbing a
cell phone and making your own ‘thing’. This [Take21 Film Festival] is more
about talking about film and fostering that passion.
Our
jury program, which has been recently introduced, allows the youth to have more
participation in the festival that is for young filmmakers. I would want to
have more young filmmakers to take a larger role in the programming the
festival.
G: Now, can you describe your jury program
more? Why did you introduce it?
J: We
made a major rebrand this year and a soft launching of the actual event. So the
website you saw was actually not quite up to date, so we’ve changed the name of
the festival and its direction. It was great in terms of the content of the
films and its international aspect, but it didn’t really encage with the local
community, which is the way a film festival really can be special or get any
kind of growth. We also felt that the main audience was private school kids and
did not represent the diversity of Toronto. So, we wanted to change that.
The
jury is made up of nine kids, half girls and half boys that are under [the age
of] 21, which is also a requirement for our submissions. Some members of the
jury are already enrolled at a University for film and some are still at high
school, but this doesn’t make a difference in terms of their film studies
knowledge. They can be from anywhere in Toronto and they just have fill out an
application with general questions (such as what is a film that you love that
everyone else hates?) that show an intelligence about film. Then, we have them
come in and watch all of our submissions.
G: Regularly, how many submissions does Take21
receive each year?
J: We
got almost 1,000 submissions. We don’t force the jury to sit through all of
them. We try to treat them like V.I.P.s and we do this at the event as well. They
are much better faces for the festival than we [adults] are. Our submissions
coordinator, Andrea Kay, makes sure the film submissions are all eligible. She
will put together a group of eligible films and the jury will decline any they
think are not a good fit for the festival.
Out
of those 1,000 films, Andrea will narrow it down to 60 or 70 films for the long
list. Then our jury will narrow that down to 21 films. So 21 is sort of the
magic number for us, for branding reasons. We call the festival Take21, which
is the new branding. The festival screens 21 films by filmmakers under [the age
of] 21.
G: What drew you to want to work at this
festival?
J: I’ve
actually been to it a few times just as a viewer and I knew a lot of the people
who were involved with it. And this was back when it was still the Toronto
Student Film Festival. The film selections were fantastic but the presentation
and branding was less than what is to be desired. I work in the film industry
as my day job, so this is a passion project since no one gets paid. So, I
wanted to see if I could bring something to the festival with my experience in
the film industry. One of the first suggestions I offered was changing the name
from Toronto Student Film Festival because it was not standing out among of the
other film festivals in Toronto.
G: Do organize your screenings into film
blocks?
J: We
encourage the jury to pick their favorite 21 films, but we also have awards to
give out, which are not really the purpose of the festival. We have a Best
Animation, a Best Canadian, a Best International, a Jury’s Choice, and a
Celebrity Filmmaker Choice award. In terms of programming, that is the only
programming that we have. We are aware of the awards we have to hand out
because sponsors have given us a package here and a package there. However, I
would like to cut down on that [the importance of awards]. We only screen those
21 films. The jury also decides on the order in which the films will be
screened because that is just an important. They usually screen a group of
animations, then documentaries, and then a spectacular piece to conclude the
festival.
G: Does the jury decide on the awards or is
there another judge?
J: The
jury decides on all of the awards except the Filmmaker’s Choice award. An
invited guest (under the age of 40), who has professional experience in the
film industry, decides on this award. This is a decision that is made in the
moment after the screenings. There is also an Audience Choice award. It is a
nice way to have the audience engage with the festival.
The
awards are quite substantial as well. Some are up to $500. That can make a big
difference to somebody who is trying to make more film.
G: How far in advance do you announce entry
calls?
J: We
are registered at a number of websites. One is called Film Freeway and the
other is called Withoutabox. By registering with those, you are listed in some
categories. So filmmakers just go on there and submit to festivals that they
are eligible for. Because we are registered on these websites, we are basically
accepting submissions from almost right after the event [film festival] ends.
We want to get as many as we can in. The more films we get, the better
selection we will have. One reason why we get so many submissions, which is
something that we are really proud of and something we cannot do anymore, is
that we were not charging for submissions.
It
was a great idea, but in the end they [the websites] are $1,500 a year and
that’s the discounted price. So now we are going to charge $5 for each
submission. This is good because it might make less work for Andrea [the
submission coordinator]. It will separate filmmakers that are not as serious
and shot a short film over lunch with some friends. For certain regions for
where it might be more difficult to pay internationally, we might not make them
pay. The fee is more to say, “Hey. Be serious. Don’t waste our time”.
G: What community outreach do you do outside
your festival season to keep your event on the public’s radar?
J: We
do a few things. That’s something where I think we could really improve. We do
a lot social media, but for a local event I don’t know if that’s the only way
to go. There’s so much noise on social media that it’s hard to break through.
So I’m really interested in quality over quantity. Next year, I would like to
be able to get into a few local arts papers. Toronto has a lot of them. I know
it sounds old-fashion, but I want the public to read the traditional media and
talk about it on social media.
G: Do you give out swag bags to visiting
filmmakers? Presenters? Guests? If so, what type of items do you include in
those bags?
J: Any
filmmaker, celebrity guest, jury members, or sponsor that comes to the event
get a swag bag that is filled with whatever award they won, their check, and
also lots of little things from sponsors like a gift certificate. The gifts
always change because we get new sponsors. And we will have T-shirts and things
like that.
G: Do you have a lot of local sponsors? If you
do, how do you get them on board? Any advice for us?
J: Almost
all of our sponsors are local. We have a few national sponsors like the CBC and
a documentary channel, but they were pretty distant and hard to get in touch
with. But we have a lot of fun with local sponsors. There is this artisanal
popcorn company in the city [Toronto] that provided fun popcorns (like
jalapeño-flavored) for the event. And then we had the people who owned our
location say, “You can’t bring those into the theater”. That was kind of a
bummer. But that’s the kind of thing I like to do because it says, “We would
like help in any way you can provide”. Eventually what I would like to do is
get one of the big banks to sponsor us, which is not quite as hard as you would
think. Bank’s get huge tax breaks for sponsoring artistic events. I would also
like to get a relationship with a major sponsor that you don’t have to keep
going back to them begging for money, but have an agreement to cover our basic
costs each year. Whether it is a private or corporate sponsor.
G: Do filmmakers pay registration to attend?
J: Filmmakers
are comped and all of the VIPS are comped as well. In terms of tickets, we do
‘pay what you can’ with a suggested price of $15 and we often get more than that.
Packing the theater is our greatest priority, more than our outreach and
sponsors. This year we had it at a university lecture hall. The Toronto Film
Festival uses it. Next year, we are going to use a second-run theater from the
40s and 50s to get it that ‘cool’ factor that makes everyone come to us.
G: What “perks” do your filmmakers enjoy at
your festival? What else do you encourage them to do while they’re in town?
J: We
used to have a VIP area at the event that had cake and stuff. This past year,
we had a dinner the night before for the filmmakers, the celebrity filmmaker,
management, the committee, and some sponsors who could attend. It was great and
way to get people back. Once you feel like you’re in a community, the guests
feel more connected to others involved with the festival.
G: Do a lot of people who have worked on the
festival before return?
J: Yes.
It is great because they are the people you can trust and know their potential.
What we are doing now is reaching out to our jury from the previous year and
saying, “How do you want to help this year?” I think one of them is going to be
our Student Director. That’s a way we are reaching within a group.
G: Are there any ideas or advice that we
haven’t thought to ask about?
J: The
main thing I learned the hard way is that it is much better to have a small
group of people who really care and who are really good at what they do than a
large group with people who are not passionate about the festival.
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