The SXSW Conference<\/a>\u00a0has once again come and gone, and now we’re left scrambling to figure out what it all means for film fans and filmmakers. The SXSW Film Festival<\/a> saw everything from big-name world premieres (Spielberg’s\u00a0Ready Player One<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and Wes Anderson’s\u00a0Isle of Dogs<\/a>)<\/em>\u00a0to awesome up-and-coming film screenings (John Krasinski’s\u00a0A Quiet Place<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Augustine Frizzell’s Never Goin’ Back<\/em><\/a>) to inspiring discussions (Darren Aronofsky<\/a> and Barry Jenkins<\/a>). It was also a refreshing look at the future, as SXSW Film bucked the recent Oscars trend by\u00a0featuring women-directed films for eight of the 10 Narrative Feature nominations.<\/p>\n For our coverage<\/a>, we\u00a0tried to reach out to as many filmmakers as possible from all levels of SXSW Film programming to compile stats and information on how they financed, shot, and produced their films \u2014 as well as their ideal distribution methods and nifty filmmaking tips and tricks.<\/p>\n After looking into\u00a050+ films, covering everything from Narrative Features<\/a> to Midnighters<\/a> to Independent Episodics<\/a>, we’ve done our best to\u00a0process the data to reveal some film trends that can benefit filmmakers at all\u00a0skill levels.<\/p>\n First off, let\u2019s take a moment to recognize the festival winners and audience favorites from SXSW. For Narrative Features, special jury awards\u00a0went to filmmakers Carly Stone<\/a> for The New Romantic<\/a><\/em> and\u00a0Nijla Mu’min<\/a> for Jinn<\/a><\/em> (for First Feature and Writing recognitions respectively). Thunder Road<\/a><\/em>,<\/i> written, directed and starred by Jim Cummings<\/a>, took home the Grand Jury accolade. (For more about Thunder Road\u2019s<\/em> journey from a Sundance-winning, one-take short to narrative feature, check out this interview from last year<\/a>).<\/p>\n Documentary prizes went to Hao Wu<\/a> for his feature doc People\u2019s Republic of Desire<\/a><\/em> and Charlie Tyrell<\/a> for his short doc winner My Dead Dad\u2019s Porno Tapes<\/a><\/em>. Carey Williams<\/a> won the jury award for her narrative short “Emergency<\/a>.<\/i>”\u00a0Santiago Menghini’s<\/a> disturbingly fun Midnight Short “Milk<\/a>” won its program, while Ben Strang\u2019s<\/a> Beast<\/a><\/em> took home the top prize in SXSW\u2019s Independent Episodic block. (Read more about Beast<\/em> and how Strang was able to film with his camera in motion here<\/a>).<\/p>\n You can check out the full list of Jury Awards here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the Audience Awards here<\/a>.<\/p>\n For filmmakers, cameras and gear are often points of contention. If you\u2019re trying to decide which camera to use for your features, shorts, or other projects (or, simply, which one to invest in for posterity\u2019s sake), the trends don\u2019t look great for your pocketbook.<\/p>\n If we focus on the Narrative Features, Narrative Shorts, Midnighters, Midnight Shorts, and Independent Episodic pilots that we looked at, the trend seems to indicate that the\u00a0ARRI Alexa<\/a> level was the heavy favorite. Of the roughly 25 filmmakers who responded in those categories, over half shot on ARRI Alexas<\/a>, Alexa Minis<\/a>, or ARRI Amigas<\/a> (with the\u00a0RED Dragon<\/a> and Epics<\/a>\u00a0coming in as additional high-end digital preference).<\/p>\n However, that\u2019s not to say you can\u2019t get into SXSW unless you use one of these cameras. After the drop-off among respondents of the ARRI- and RED-level cameras, the trend opened up to include a fairly dispersed mix of Panasonics<\/a>, Canons<\/a> (5Ds<\/a>, C100s<\/a>, 6Ds<\/a>), Blackmagic Ursa Minis<\/a>, and Sony a7Ss<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and some other interesting options.<\/p>\n We also looked at the film genres represented at SXSW. This is a little harder to break down by the numbers, but it’s just as important. If SXSW has a favorite, it\u00a0looks like it’s the horror and experimental genres. This has less to do with preference, though, and more to do with SXSW offering a full block of \u201cMidnighters\u201d features as well as a Midnighters shorts section, which lean heavily toward experimental and\u00a0traditional horror.<\/p>\n If you look at the genres filmmakers assign to their own projects (instead of what you see in the SXSW program), you discover a decent split between multi-genre films and straight genre classics. Here\u2019s our breakdown. (Based off of filmmaker\u2019s terms. For split genres \u2014 i.e. Drama\/Comedy \u2014 we used the filmmaker’s first term as the base, then the second as a sub-genre).<\/p>\n Believe it or not, many filmmakers are not too keen to share their budgets (either for production or marketing), so\u00a0we won’t\u00a0call out any single film\u2019s overall budget. However, budgets are important to consider, and they’re a huge issue that many filmmakers worry about on a daily basis, so\u00a0a bit\u00a0of perspective and scope can be very helpful.<\/p>\n The following is what we discovered (generally) about budgets:<\/p>\n It’s also worth noting that many of these numbers can be skewed\u00a0due to\u00a0grants (which about one-third of the films received), while excluding equipment the filmmakers already own (especially the films shot using prosumer cameras such as 5Ds and a7Ss).<\/p>\n Perhaps the best way to understand the budget breakdown is to look at\u00a0filmmakers’ distribution plans. While many of the headliners already had acquisition deals in place, the narrative and documentary features were, for the most, part all squarely in talks to finalize their post-festival distribution runs.<\/p>\n Based on our survey, the program through which a film\u00a0screened dictated ~99% of the preferred distribution plan.<\/p>\n However, while distribution plans can be similar between projects, the means of securing them are quite varied. For instance,\u00a0Clayton Jacobson\u2019s<\/a> Narrative Spotlight Brother\u2019s Nest <\/a><\/em>(making its world premiere at SXSW) had already found a creative way to get the film financed and distributed in Australian cinemas before production even began. This is a sign of filmmakers shifting focus from post-run traditional\u00a0acquisition methods in favor of proactive marketing and distribution.<\/p>\n As always, SXSW filmmakers did not disappoint with interesting anecdotes about DIY rigs and run-and-gun production tips. In many ways, SXSW Film embodies the upstart production aesthetic over more refined pipelines. Thunder Road is<\/i>\u00a0a great example of a homegrown short film-turned-Kickstarter-turned-breakout feature. But there were plenty more. Here are a few DIY takeaways from this year\u2019s fest.<\/p>\n Gene Graham<\/a> (Director\/Producer,\u00a0This One\u2019s for the Ladies<\/a><\/em>) \u2014 Documentary Feature:<\/p>\n Define your audience, know what you stand for, always have your release\/film paperwork ready to go. If you think your project has commercial potential, get a good lawyer, and partner up with two or three besties that are at least at your experience level or higher.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Sherren Lee<\/a> (Director, “The Things You Think I\u2019m Thinking<\/a>“) \u2014 Narrative Short:<\/p>\n Put things on wheels! The opening of our film starts with a oner that we couldn\u2019t figure out for a long time. The space was small, and we couldn\u2019t fit our Steadicam operator in such tight quarters without screwing up the geography of the place. Finally, our DP had the brilliant idea of putting\u00a0a TV stand and TV on wheels so that a PA could pull the TV stand out just in time for the operator to sneak in there in the middle of the take.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Emily Hagins<\/a> (Director,\u00a0Hold to Your Best Self<\/em><\/a>) \u2014 Independent Episodic:<\/p>\n We used different shooting styles and tricks to convey different character perspectives in our show, and in one instance, our DP created a “star bokeh” effect to make the lights behind one of the characters appear as stars because she kind of saw herself as the ‘center of the universe.’<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Finlay Pretsell<\/a>\u00a0(Director, Time Trial<\/em><\/a>) \u2014 Documentary Spotlight:<\/p>\n Embrace the technological glitches that might occur, and use them to your advantage! These moments can perfectly express\u00a0feeling or emotion that would be difficult to recreate. As you will see in the film, on the coldest wettest day we ever shot (7 hours in the pouring rain from Milan to San Remo in Italy), the water from the back wheel completely distorted and abstracted one of our action cameras; however, the footage looked fantastic and worked perfectly in representing how the world felt at the time.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n James Siewert<\/a> (Director of Photography,\u00a0The Ranger<\/em><\/a>) \u2014 Midnighters Narrative Feature.<\/p>\n One thing we were able to do was use our Movi as a remote head: we had a dolly, crane, and cable cam that we built ourselves. We mounted the Movi at the end of them and were able to get some fairly elaborate-looking setups. Jenn (our director) had an idea that she talked to me early on about [for] pushing in on one of the characters \u2014 dollying down for a reveal and then panning back up to see him scream. It seemed like a technocrane shot at first, but we did it by mounting the Movi to the end of our crane and dolly combo.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Overall, SXSW Film trends show us that while production levels are continuing to\u00a0climb for the more competitive programs like narrative features and shorts (as well as documentary features and shorts), films are also becoming more diverse, more DIY-friendly, and more creatively distributed. SXSW has also expanded the ways you can experience films at conferences and festivals by\u00a0expanding their virtual cinema<\/a> and arts programs<\/a>. Notable examples include Life Underground<\/em><\/a>, a hybrid art installation documentary (which you can read more about here<\/a>) and Beethoven\u2019s Fifth<\/a><\/em>, a cinematic virtual reality experience (which you can read more about here<\/a>).<\/p>\n For more coverage from this year\u2019s SXSW Conference (and conferences past), here are some more articles to check out.<\/p>\n In this roundup, we present everything you need to know about the films and industry trends from the 2018 SXSW Film Festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":100369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3843,715,79,5340,583],"tags":[536,857,5380,105,5031,472],"class_list":["post-class-post-100281","post-class-post","post-class-type-post","post-class-status-publish","post-class-format-standard","post-class-has-post-thumbnail","post-class-hentry","post-class-category-filmmaking-2","post-class-category-industry","post-class-category-inspiration","post-class-category-video-gear","post-class-category-video-production-2","post-class-tag-filmmaking","post-class-tag-industry-2","post-class-tag-inspiration","post-class-tag-news","post-class-tag-video-gear-2","post-class-tag-video-production"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nWinners and Notables<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Thunder-Road-SXSW-pic.jpg\")
\n<\/a>Image via <\/em>Thunder Road<\/a> (SXSW Narrative Feature)<\/em><\/p>\n
\nCamera Trends<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Arri-Alexa-Mini.jpg\")
\n<\/a>Image via ARRI.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/SXSW-Cameras.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nGenre Studies<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/SXSW-The-Ranger-Midnighters.jpg\")
\n<\/a>Image via <\/em>The Ranger<\/a> (SXSW Midnighters).<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/SXSW-Genres.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nBudget Ranges<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/SXSW-Ready-Player-One.jpg\")
\n<\/a>Image via <\/em>Ready Player One<\/a> (not included in SXSW Budget trends)<\/em><\/p>\n\n
\nDistribution Plans<\/h3>\n
![\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/257051994](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Shes-the-Ticket-SXSW.jpg\" "\\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/257051994")
\n<\/a>Image via <\/em>She’s the Ticket<\/a> (SXSW Independent Episodic).<\/em><\/p>\n\n
\nDIY Tips and Tricks<\/h3>\n
![\"2018](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Hold-to-Your-Best-Self-SXSW.jpg\" "\\"2018")
\n<\/a>Image via\u00a0<\/em>Hold to Your Best Self<\/a>\u00a0(SXSW Independent Episodic)<\/em><\/p>\nFilmmaking Tips<\/h4>\n
Production Tips<\/h4>\n
DIY Effects<\/h4>\n
DIY Looks<\/h4>\n
DIY Rigs<\/h4>\n
\nSXSW Analysis and Wrap-up<\/h3>\n
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