Issue No. 24 | Wanderlust
16 March 2010 1:14pm PST
16 March 2010 1:14pm PST
The 2009 Independent Television Festival
Last Thursday the Independent Television Festival Awards program took place at the Laemmle Sunset 5 bringing to an end a week long run of screenings, panels and parties. The festival aimed at showcasing independently produced television pilots and web series is the only one of its kind in LA, and just one of two in the entire country.
The Thursday before the awards, the ITVFest opened with a very ‘Southern California’ gala red carpet event ie. held outdoors in the courtyard of the Sunset 5 plaza; with not a black tie or tuxedo in sight; and Japanese cuisine courtesy of SanSai restaurant. There was an open bar, hor d’oeuvres provided by Trader Joe’s and music provided by Athena Reich (who’s music was featured in the pilot, Living in Captivity), Jessie Payo and The MakePeace Brothers.
Celebrities gracing the red carpet that night were featured in the festival shows or on panels. Among the crowd: Felicia Day (from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long blog, now hitting it big with her webseries, The Guild). Brittany Ishibashi (who stars in Group) and Eden Riegel (who’s role in Imaginary Bitches has garnered her a special Emmy). Just a few others listed were Samm Levine (Inglorious Bastards), Simon Rex, Jed Whedon and Aaron Staton (Mad Men). Stars or not, all the filmmakers were celebrities that night, walking the red carpet and speaking to the press about their projects.
Most days the festival began around mid-day with a speaker discussing industry topics such as pitching, going digital or marketing shows, while attendees grabbed some coffee to wake them up from last night’s party. Next literally back-to-back screenings and panels followed till late, with the night usually ending with a party/mixer at the Libertine.
The shows were screened in blocks of two or more (most of them were screened twice during the festival) and followed by a Q&A with filmmakers. Budgets ranged from $50,000 to just a few hundred. nAd whole days were dedicated to just Web, Mobile and International shows and panels. Saturday also featured a special Animation screening block.
Lucas Crandles and Timothy Nash from Australia, two of the creators of the animated pilot, Wentworth & Buxbury.
Many filmmakers were from out of town, either international (for example Australia), or from other parts of the country (especially New York). The quality of the work was impressive in terms of production value, acting. There was a lot of comedic faire (expected since comedy works well in this short form) usually done by improv troupes. There was also a large number of the shows made by, and for women, such as MERRIme.com ( picked up by a for distribution on a women’s website). The hit of the festival was no doubt Oz Girl made by nineteen year old Nicholas Carlton, which proved that a good dramatic webisode could be made.
Though associated with festival giant, B-side Entertainment, the ITVFest had the unique stamp of its organizers, A.J. and Jenny Tesler, both of whom always had a smile, seemed genuinely happy to see you and knew each filmmaker by name. They were everywhere doing everything. At the awards ceremony heart-felt appreciation for all their hard work in making the event such a memorable experience for filmmakers was repeated over and over again till A.J. was noticeably embarrassed.
It was the kind of festival that wasn’t so crowded that if you met someone one day you’d be hard put to bump into them again. Rather by the end of the event you’d probably find yourself relatively familiar with quite a few filmmakers and have had long conversations with industry professionals who were on the panels. Facilitating much of this interaction was the pass-holders’ ‘rest’ area located in the patio area of the now vacant Wolfgang Puck’s Café and staffed with a team of extremely nice volunteers (in fact the volunteers throughout the festival were amazing and kudos to them all!) Here one could get something light to eat (provided by Trader Joe’s), grab a beer, power drink or water, and check your email or browse the web on one of the two very-wide-screen computers.
But lest this “mom and pop” feel fool you, this festival had some impressive names associated with it on panels ranging from pitching, development and casting, to getting representation, and developing for the web. Names such as, Mike Rotman (Emmy-nominated writer, producer, & director), Ilsa Berg (Fox TV Studios), Justin Levy (VP Scripted Development, MTV), Monika Zielinska (manager of development, Comedy Central) and the list goes on.
This was also a technically savvy festival with Jenny routinely reminding audiences to twitter that they were at the ITVFest, as well as panels being streamed live to hundreds more via Stickam. The Stickam audience was even able to ask the panelists questions. The ITVFest website, provided by B-side allowed the people to rate and comment on shows so filmmakers were also checking the audience reaction to their shows on those computers set up in the ‘rest’ area.
J.J. Conway and Matthew Mahoney creators of the pilot, David Hammerfist.
The culmination of the festival was when on the final day, filmmakers were given the opportunity to pitch their shows to executives from companies including Comedy Central, Fox Television and Sony. The filmmakers realized that getting their pilots made into a television series is only one of the potential benefits that can come out of the festival. More likely is the notice that they get from television decision-makers – a direct connection allowing them to pitch future ideas; or getting representation and jobs as writers, etc.
With television and internet programming merging as I speak its not surprising that most of the shows screened at the ITVFest began their distribution cycle on the web. The additional distribution avenues available for online content means that the demand for short episodic programming will only increase. In one of the panel it was pointed out that the average length of content that people watch on line is steadily increasing (at 14 minutes about a month ago, up from eight). This bodes well for the future of the ITVFest, which, started in 2006, has grown steadily with a record number of submissions for this year’s event.
via Sunil Rampersad, 15 August 2009 9:25pm | 
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