Day 5: Montage: Distribution

Watch your films!

So today, the main event is to watch the films that you made this week. This is all about the learning so whatever you worked on, we'll check it out and give you a lot of props for making a film. It's hard work as we've seen. From development to post-production, you have to learn how to come up with an idea, create a structure for that idea, plan how you're going to shoot it, shoot it with always changing conditions and then edit it all together. That's a lot.

Also, here's a reminder of the feedback rules:

Feedback rules

1. The filmmaker sets up their goals for the project.

It's important for the audience to know what the filmmaker is trying to achieve so that they can give good feedback that will help the filmmaker in that goal. Sometimes, audiences project their own goals and then the feedback process can go wrong.

2. Start with the positive.

You need to help encourage the filmmaker. You want to see the good in their work. It could be the potential for good or a good idea. It’s always about supporting the filmmaking.

3. Be specific.

Try to not just say, that’s good. But what about it is good. They need to know if they are going to replicate that.

4. Limit the improvements to the most important elements.

What step or steps can they take to make their work better? It’s not as helpful to give then a long list of areas they can improve, but try to cut to the most important area they can grow in.

5. Filmmakers choose the feedback that helps them.

It's up to you what you want to go with. It's your film!

Distribution

Distribution is basically getting the film to an audience. So distribution can look different depending on who your audience is and your means for delivering to an audience. Here are some of the ways distribution looks:

+Showing the film to a friend or family on your phone or laptop.

+Emailing the video for others to be seen.

+Putting it up on YouTube or Vimeo.

+Sending it to a film festival through Filmfreeway.

+Having the film distributed through TV studio or Movie studio.

+Having the film distributed by a streaming platform like Netflix.

It's crazy how many different ways to distribute your film. I'm going to show you a few examples from our classes here at Athenian...

YouTube channels

Probably the easiest way to get your videos to audience is YouTube. We have started our own YouTube channel where if you're okay with it, we'll put your films on here. And with your parents' permission, you could also start your own YouTube channel. To be honest, YouTube belongs to a younger generation like you all and so I'm curious what YouTube channels you're into.

Here's our YouTube channel. And short trailer for our program.

Also, there's a video on how to start your own YouTube channel for your reference.

Our own Athenian Film Festival

So the good news is that all of the films you make these two weeks will be automatically entered into the Athenian Film Festival Middle School Category. Unless you don't want the films to be entered. Just let me know and I'll take them out of the running. But if you don't care, why not? If you win the film festival, you get an award and the pride in winning a film festival! So that's fun and maybe it'll encourage you to make more films. So to help you understand what the types of films we have had so far. We're going to do an activity...

Activity: Be a judge on a film festival

So to help you understand how film festivals work. We're going to do an activity where you are the judge of a film festival. We are going to show you three films that received 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in our first Athenian Film Festival (Middle School category) and we'll see if you agreed with our judges.

So let's watch all three of the films and afterwards, you'll let us know which one you would have picked for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

The films are:

Leafy Boi

The Zombie Experiment

Cheesy Chads Revenge

Bigger film festivals

And there are bigger film festivals for middle school students. Here's one of our favorites. The All American High School Film Festival actually has a middle school category. Let's take a look at their trailer which shows you what it's like.

Example of a winning film

So if you're wondering, could I get into the All American High School Film Festival? Well, the good news is that they post the winning videos on their YouTube channel so you can actually get a sense of what they are looking and also what the competition is like. Here's their YouTube channel and a link to one of the Middle School winning films.

Appreciations and Lessons from this week and Requests for next week

So at the end of the class today, I want to go around and see what appreciations and lessons that folks have for this week. And then if they have any requests for next week.

Owinn

Kate

Eva

Evan

Individual meetings

If anyone wants to talk about distribution or about the next project or anything film related, please stay in the chat room and we'll talk.

Bonus Content

So if you are ready to get your film out there already, here's some information that will be very helpful. Most amateur filmmakers use this website to get their films to film festivals. and that includes middle school filmmakers. Check it out. Next week, we'll go over how to use Film freeway but feel free to get started early.