7/29/2019 1204 Flm Fest Festival-q A

1/2

76 FILMMAKER FALL 2012

1TAKE IT SERIOUSLY. You may be a mod-

est sort, and maybe the bright lights make

you reeze up, but aw, shucks and giggles

are not attractive qualities on stage in ront

o several hundred people. Pierson says one

o the biggest mistakes you sees filmmakers

make involves their demeanor. They can be

beyond sel-efacing, she says. They act em-

barrassed, or they make little jokes, or they say

they dont know what their film means. So re-member when you are standing on stage that

i you want people to take your film seriously,

then you have to act like you take it seriously

too. Own your creativity, Pierson says.

2ANTICIPATE THE QUESTIONS AND

HAVE ANSWERS. Think beorehand what

questions are likely to be asked, and have

answers or them, Groth says. Dont be

surprised. Indeed, like a political candidate

preparing or a debate, you should develop

responses or the questions that are asked

at every screening, as well as those that may

be specific to your film. Know how youre

going to answer What did you shoot on?

and What was your budget? says Wilson.

And then hopeully you can move quickly

past those questions to more interesting

things. Its especially important to prepare

a response i your film is something o a

head scratcher. A film with an ambiguous

ending will always prompt a What happens

at the end? question, Groth notes.

3ANSWER THE QUESTION. Following up

the previous entry, Groth ofers his number

one piece o advice: Answer the question! A

lot o filmmakers take the approach o, I want

you to interpret it, or, I leave it up to the au-

dience. I do believe that is a valid approach,

but Ive seen it deflate a room. There can be

diferent ways to approach that question even

i you dont want to give an easy answer. You

can talk with them about their interpretation,

or provide alternatives as to how people might

understand the film diferently. You dont have

to put your film into a tightly wrapped pack-

age, but it is still worth talking about the issues

behind the question.

4DONT BE DEFENSIVE. Arguing with the

audience is what Wilson sees as one o the

biggest mistakes filmmakers can make at

their Q&As. Its a heady moment or most

filmmakers, he says. Youre presentingsomething or the first time that youve put

years o your lie into. But i someone doesnt

get it, or doesnt like it, you need to detly

respect and then deflect their question. You

gain very little rom getting into an argument

with an audience. Groth remembers one

Sundance filmmaker who was a real jerk at

the Q&As. I saw this film not have the lie

it deserved because o this. He goes on to

advise, Especially i a film contains provoca-

tive material, questions can seem aggressive.

How a filmmaker handles that is crucial. I

you get deensive and combative, it doesnt

serve you well. You could say instead, Its in-

teresting you had that reaction, heres what I

was trying to get at. Make it more o a give

and take discussion. And remember, says

Wilson, that ultimately, youve got the mic.

You can aford to take the high road because

youve got the last word. On a related note,

make sure any bad vibes among cast and

crew are resolved or placed under wraps by

the time you get to the Q&A. Audiences can

sense when everyone on stage hates each

other and then will want to know why.

5DONT BRING TOO MANY PEOPLE ON-

STAGE. It slows everything down and tends

not to work with the vibe o a good Q&A,

says Groth about long lines o cast and crew

marching to the stage ater a films premiere.

Just bring the key actors and someone who

played a crucial role maybe a production

designer or editor. Groth admits, Its tricky

with producers, acknowledging that many

filmmakers eel an obligation to bring every-

The credits roll, there is applause, and

not too many people walked out. The

estival premiere o your debut film

is over. You relax, a years worth o stress

magically departing your body. Sure, there

will be tough times ahead; distribution is di-

ficult. But, or the moment, you congratulate

yoursel on a job well done.

But dont relax too much, warn a trio o

estival heads. Your next big job as a direc-

tor looms sooner than you think. The audi-ence Q&A youll lead in just a minute or two

is surprisingly important when it comes to

your films uture lie. A great Q&A can leave

your audience with good vibes that translate

into strong word-o-mouth beyond the es-

tival. Devastatingly, a bad ater-film discus-

sion can do just the opposite.

The secret magic o film estivals is that

they ofer audiences direct communication

with the artist, says Sundance Film Festi-

val Director o Programming Trevor Groth.

You can definitely elevate the impact o

your screening by the way you introduce the

film and handle the Q&A. Explains True/

False Co-Director and Co-Founder David

Wilson, A great Q&A can really guide your

audience, making them eel better about

your film and have a clearer understanding

o your intentions in making it. And a bad

one can hurt that initial buzz that all films

depend on at estivals. Having access to

you, the director, is what makes estivals

special or audiences, agrees SXSW Film

Festival Producer Janet Pierson. And the

Q&A will afect how audiences interact withyour work and how theyll talk about it later.

So how can directors ensure that their

estival Q&As are as charming, thought-

ul and inspiring as possible? Following are

tips rom these veterans, inspired by having

witnessed hundreds o such postscreening

sessions over the years.

How to Do a Festival Q&A

LINE ITEMS

Scott Macaulay on making the most of your moments on stage.

7/29/2019 1204 Flm Fest Festival-q A

2/2

77FILMMAKER FALL 2012

one up. A solution, he says, is to have those

involved with the film stand up or a round o

applause, leaving the director and only a ew

others to actually field the questions.

6

DONT HOG THE MIC. Once you do decidewhom to bring up, make sure they get a

chance to answer questions. I a filmmak-

er is getting all the questions and an actor

hasnt had any, says Groth, there are ways

the actor can be integrated into the Q&A.

The director can reer a question to the ac-

tor and ask them to address that element o

the film, or example.

7PREP WITH THE MODERATOR. The mod-

erator plays a crucial role in the Q&A, Grothsays. The filmmaker should connect beore

the screening to work out the logistics. Will

there be multiple mics or just one mic? Work

it all out so there are not those awkward

moments onstage. Wilson suggests a brie

conversation with the moderator beorehand

to make sure theyve remembered key ele-

ments o the film. He recalls one disastrous

Q&A in which the moderator clearly mistook

the whole premise o the movie. (I dont

like when the moderator monopolizes the

conversation, especially when the audience

wants to talk, Wilson adds. But how to mod-

erate a Q&A is a subject or another article.)

8BE ARTICULATE AND/OR FUNNY. Obvi-

ously, this is not advice everybody can just

immediately adopt. Still, i you are articulate,

unny or both, you have the ability to rock your

Q&As. Wilson remembers the True/False

Q&A with Eugene Jarecki ollowing his Why

We Fight. His Q&A, delivered to more than

1,200 people, was like someone dictating a

book. Every answer was a perect mini essay.

Id say that over the course o the 45 minutes,

maybe five people let. And the next day other

filmmakers were coming up to me saying,

Look, do I have to do a Q&A? I cant ollowthat. Says Groth, Richard Ayoade, director o

Submarine, did the best Q&A Ive ever seen. He

could rif on anything and would go on a co-

medic monologue about each question.

9DONT BE AFRAID TO BE EMOTIONAL.

Showing your emotions on stage is great,

Groth says. Some o the best Q&As Ive

seen have occurred when the filmmaker

has opened up about how important their

film is to them and what a labor o love ithas been. Helping the audience eel the

[filmmakers] emotion about the creative

process goes a long way toward shaping

their reaction to the film.

10COMPENSATE FOR YOUR SHYNESS. I

youre shy, acknowledge and plan or it, says

Pierson. I youre shy, bring someone rom the

film onstage with you who is not. You can also

speak to the estival and ask or an assist. At

SXSW, we think a lot about who the modera-

tor is. I remember one strong, bold filmmaker

who the distributor said needed me to stand

onstage with him. He just needed me there to

ground him, and the Q&A became an interac-

tive discussion between the two o us.

11ALLOW FOR THE UNEXPECTED.Unscript-

ed moments and the filmmakers abil-

ity to roll with them can produce some o

the most memorable estival Q&As. Recalls

Wilson, Ater our closing night screening

o Undefeated at True/False 2012, [director]

T.J. Martin politely asked us i we thought it

would be okay i he brought out his Oscar,

which he won or Best Documentary Feature

just seven days earlier. Not only did he pull itout, but he set it on the ront o the stage, and

we then watched as a parade o kids came

up with their cameras to take pictures. Then,

when the Q&A was done, the whole audi-

ence swarmed orward and, emboldened,

began to take pics with it. Eventually, it was

getting passed around the crowd. I was a little

horrified and asked T.J. to see i he wanted

me to step in. But, in one o the classiest, wis-

est moves Ive ever seen rom a filmmaker,

he just said Nah. Someday Ill have a kid and

thatll be a thing worth protecting and guard-ing. But that statue? Let them have their un.

Tomorrow it will be on 100 diferent Face-

book walls, and Ill have 100 new riends.

12TREAT YOUR Q&AS AS FUTURE ASSETS.

We live in an age where we can capture

the magic moments, Groth says. Forward-

thinking producers and filmmakers should

think about capturing their first Q&As or

their DVD release or or their Kickstarter. All

o that material [generated] at a estival can

be a powerul tool. This advice is especially

important, Groth says, i the film is a doc

and the subject is there. I was at the Q&A or

Searching for Sugarman, and when Rodriguez

came onstage to swelling applause, that was

one o those magical moments. I even cap-

tured it on my iPhone. Adds Groth, Work

out with the estival organizers what you

can and cant do with regards to record-

ing while there.