Short-Film Festival Hopes to Be in It for Long Run

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The HollyShorts Film Festival is all about short films – those with a run time of 30 minutes or less. But as the Hollywood festival enters its 10th year, it’s expected to be bigger than ever.

Organizers said the festival has received a record numbers of film submissions and sponsorships this year, and they’re also expecting the biggest turnout to date. The L.A. firm behind the event, HollyShorts Studios, has also recently expanded screenings to new cities and is starting to acquire films for digital distribution.

The 10-day festival will kick off Aug. 14 at the TCL Chinese Theater with a screening of “Satellite Beach,” a short directed by actor Luke Wilson and his brother Andrew that follows the space shuttle Endeavour’s trip through the streets of Los Angeles from the airport to California Science Center. It’s one of about 400 shorts that will be screened at the festival.

“There’s been incremental growth every single year,” said festival co-founder Theo Dumont. “This is the biggest one ever.”

The festival started in 2005 to give emerging filmmakers a chance to show their work and meet other people in the industry. That year, about two dozen shorts were shown at the tiny Space Theater in Hollywood. Since then, the festival has grown to include conferences, parties and other events. The festival is profitable and makes money from film entry fees, sponsorships, and ticket and ad sales.

Dumont said there were 1,600 film submissions this year, with applicants paying between $20 and $80, depending on the category and date of entry. He expects attendance to be up to 15,000 people this year, compared with 12,000 last year. A day pass for screenings, events and parties Aug. 15, for example, costs $80. Sponsors this year include camera firm Panavision and visual effects firm Method Studios. The festival also awards about $200,000 in prizes to filmmakers.

HollyShorts also does monthly screenings in Hollywood, and this year also began hosting screenings in Miami; Austin, Texas; and New York.

Another twist to the business model this year: HollyShorts is starting to acquire short films that it will either distribute on platforms such as YouTube or license to other platforms.

Drone Tunes

Public radio station KCRW-FM (89.9) is looking to get airborne.

The non-profit Santa Monica station this summer purchased a DJI Phantom drone from Amazon for $479. The idea is to film events such as concerts and post the footage to KCRW’s recently redesigned website.

But before the drone takes off, the station is polling listeners on how it should be used or whether it should go into the air at all.

In recent weeks, the station launched a feature on its website to allow listeners to weigh in on the issue. So far, roughly 100 people have voiced their opinion, and even more have suggested names for the drone, said KCRW Program Director Gary Scott.

“We wanted to start the debate with an audience we think is intelligent,” he said, adding that listeners are “positive, with a critical eye” about the project.

The other consideration is whether the non-profit station could fly afoul of the Federal Aviation Administration, which has a ban on commercial drone use until it comes out with regulations. It’s unclear whether the station’s use of the drone would be considered “commercial.” Scott said there are no plans to sell ads on the videos, for example. The FAA does allow hobbyists to fly drones.

Already, some aerial production companies in Los Angeles are using drones to film commercials, TV and movies. There have also been reports of real estate agents capturing marketing footage from above.

A Los Angeles Police Department officer told the Business Journal last month that the department is not in a position to take proactive enforcement measures on commercial drone users.

The FAA responds when there are complaints, but in general does not have the resources to pursue commercial drone users who are not bothering people, an FAA spokesman said.

Scott said he got the idea to buy a drone after watching aerial footage of the Burning Man festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, thinking that similar shots would be a good way to capture the station’s music events from a new angle.

The station settled on one of the lower-price models, a quadcopter made by Chinese firm Dajiang Innovation Technology Inc. It’s suited to filming with a small GoPro camera.

Comings and Goings

TakePart.com, a website owned by Participant Media of Beverly Hills, hired Eric Noe as editor-in-chief. Noe was previously managing editor of ABC News Digital. … All Def Digital, a YouTube network in Culver City, hired Sanjay Sharma as president and chief operating officer. Sharma joins from Machinima, where he was executive vice president of strategy and business development … The Hollywood Reporter hired Chris Gardner as staff writer.

Staff reporter Jonathan Polakoff can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 226.

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