Being invited to a Press Conference arranged by a publicist of a famous filmmaker such as Spike Lee happens rarely and this happened through Commffest. In the popular hotel, Sutton Place which coincidentally is full with other TIFF press conferences, on the 33rd top floor and including brunch and hosted by someone successful and famous, it definitely must be the peak of the pyramid in independent filmmaking. Babelgum Film Festival is an online independent film festival which is in its 2nd year on the internet. Videos, films, movies, commercials, slideshows, animations are being posted for free viewing in video sharing websites such as YouTube, Video.ca, Google, Yahoo, Joost, Foobtoob and Vimeo. Anyone can promote themselves by opening an account. Babelgum is offering big cash prizes and potential contracts to award winners. They are open to submissions internationally under different categories. Advertising is one of the ways they generate revenue. The panel of four spoke about Babelgum and what they are looking for in films and what they offer. Video clips were shown of one of the award winners who got a cash prize and a contract to expand his short film to long feature length and a documentary on the oil industry in Canada. The main producer is from New York and it seems that the New York film industry is more into independent, small budget documentaries, whereas California is into Hollywood big budget fantasy productions. Maybe reality versus fantasy is linked to budget and market. It is good news for independent filmmakers that Babelgum is offering big cash prizes and contracts! A lot of talented filmmakers can start with a short and end up making feature length films if they win. Many film festivals are run by organizers who can only promise to screen the selected films and give publicity, but little money is awarded. Developing a market where the public is willing to pay to see small independent films in old theaters is a big time-consuming task and most film festivals lack the budget and publicity to develop this market, competing with the big Hollywood movies that play in the new theater chains. Edutainment, a mix of education and entertainment, is more apparent in the independent small scene however, so many film festivals persist hoping to convince the public to spend its money on these intellectual films instead. It is also rare to see a star made in these films because Hollywood seems to have that formula as its secret of success. But maybe Spike Lee and other stars will eventually change the independent film scene into a money-making machine. Like how fine artists eventually can become commercial artists if they know what the public wants or can change the public to want them.
