This year’s American Film Market (AFM), which will be held in Santa Monica from November 6 to 13, is offering the 8,000-plus participants expected to attend even more information sessions and networking opportunities than in the past.<\/p>\n
The main hub of the market will be the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. The International Pavilion, which houses sales companies from outside of North America, will be next door in Le Merigot Hotel.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s new this year is the Producers Forum, set up in response to the ever-growing needs of the indie filmmaking community.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the number of producers and filmmakers who come to the show, they find so much value in meeting with all the industry professionals from all over the world,\u201d says Jonathan Wolf, the executive VP of the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA) and managing director of the AFM. \u201cBut as more and more come to the show, somewhat like Disneyland having to build more rides, we really have continued to improve the value of what we offer to the filmmakers, and that goes beyond access to senior industry executives. A couple of years ago we started the Conference Series and this year we started the Producers Forum.<\/p>\n
The Producers Forum narrowly targets producers who have experience (they\u2019ve made a film in the last five years) and brings them together both for education and for networking\u2014the networking part is very key,\u201d continues Wolf. \u201cWhen you go to an event with 8,000 people, you really like some structure that facilitates meeting others. And that\u2019s what this is, every day there are four sessions concurrently and then there is a happy hour for the group afterward.\u201d<\/p>\n
There will also be a Conference Series, which this year will take place in the Fairmont Miramar Hotel and will focus on key issues. \u201cThe Conference Series is really meant to cover the five topics that are of most interest to filmmakers, starting with pitching,\u201d explains Wolf. \u201cThe Pitch Conference is probably our most fun, [and is] different from some other events you might see. This is all about critiquing the pitch, not actually making the pitch in a speed-dating manner. We have a panel of three experts. We usually have about 700 people in the audience and about 20 or 25 people come on stage and our three experts, who have heard thousands of pitches, critique the pitch\u2014what worked in the pitch, what didn\u2019t, how well the person presented it\u2014and the audience is learning how to pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen the Finance Conference gives a macro view of what is going on in film financing,\u201d continues Wolf. \u201cWe\u2019ve done this almost every year for nearly a decade since financing of independent film is a constantly evolving process; there is something new every year. And then we have the three stages of bringing a film forward: Production, Marketing and Distribution\u2014a half day for each. We select topics each year that are timely to what is going on, for example, as part of the production conference, one of the sessions will be on crowdfunding. But something that I think a lot of people will find interesting the following day is part of the Marketing Conference; we\u2019re doing a session on crowdsourcing your audience, unrelated to crowdfunding. And we\u2019ll talk about festivals, specialty releases and VOD throughout these last three days, hopefully giving the filmmaker a great five-day education.\u201d<\/p>\n
The major concerns for the main constituencies of the AFM\u2014producers and distributors\u2014remain pretty much the same this year. Producers are always concerned about finding the money they need to make their films. \u201cYou can go back to the days of Orson Welles,\u201d says Wolf. \u201cHe spent 5 percent of his time making films and 95 percent of his time hustling. So for the independent producer finding the great story and then finding the funding\u2014that is the eternal challenge. They will just have to continue to adapt to the changing marketplace both in terms of global consumer tastes as well as evolving distribution platforms and business models.\u201d<\/p>\n
The distributors are actually facing very similar challenges, in addition to dealing with the declining DVD market and the growing VOD revenues. \u201cOur role is facilitator,\u201d says Wolf. \u201cThe more we can do to facilitate their success, the better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This year’s American Film Market (AFM), which will be held in Santa Monica from November 6 to 13, is offering the 8,000-plus participants expected to attend even more information sessions and networking opportunities than in the past. The main hub of the market will be the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. The International Pavilion, which …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-events","category-profiles"],"yoast_head":"\n