Interview

Interview with: Brian Owens, Artistic Director for Nashville Film Festival

J.G. - Hello Mr. Owens, I hope you are having a good day. Recently, I have been doing research on your particular film festival held in Nashville while in preparation for the one we will be holding this upcoming year. I found on your festival’s website the mission statement, but i wanted to know how you would word your mission and goals for the festival yourself.

B.O. - Well its basically in the mission statement, but for me the primary goal is to make sure we have a program of film that reflects the current state of the world, and from as many different view points as possible. Thats the philosophy I follow when we plan these programs. 

J.G. - So I see that you are originally from Indianapolis, what drew you to the Nashville film festival?

B.O. - Actually this position came available here after i had been running the festival in Indianapolis for about 5 years. And I happened to get it (laughing). That was in November 2008 and now Ive been here for 7 years.

J.G. - Well what would you see is your favorite thing about this festival and also the most challenging that you face?

B.O. - My favorite thing is my audience and the way that they are willing to take the journey with us, and by that I mean that they know that they're not just getting standard cinema so they're looking for something different and ready for it. And the most challenging is probably just being in April, which is a month of a lot of festivals so it takes time to make sure everything is scheduled on time and everything gets coordinated correctly. Thats easily the toughest time.

J.G. - I see that this festival was started in 1969 which was a long time ago, but what is something you wish they would have done differently when starting?

B.O. - Thats hard to say. I don't know if there was anything wrong at the early stages, but i do know that there were some tough transitions in the mid-90s that they faced. That was the transition from being a small 3 day event to a more full length event. So those transitions could've been handled better, but thats the only thing i can say i would change.

J.G. - Going off of expanding, what is your festival’s goal each year for the amount of screenings?

B.O. - Any area between 250 and 300, including shorts.

J.G. - And this past year, how many did you have screened?

B.O. - We had 285 this past year.

J.G. - And out of those, is it usually more features or shorts?

B.O. - It is usually close to half and half. Like out of the 285 last year, there were about 115 features and about 170 shorts. Slightly more so to the shorts because of all the categories. 

J.G. - Does your festival have any short film categories for college students only?

B.O. - Yes we do, we have a conference for just college students with a $500 cash prize.

J.G. - So how far in advance do you try to send out the call for entries for the festival.

B.O. - We actually start in June, it used to be September but since I've been here it is now from June to January.

J.G. - Ok and how do most entries come in, more so early or later?

B.O. - I would say about 40% early and then 60% later is probably the best way i could explain it.

J.G. - Interesting, and going into your pre-screening process, how many pre-screeners do you hire and how do you go about selecting them?

B.O. - We have about 70 volunteer pre-screeners who are paid through festival passes and tickets. Then we have the next level up of more professionals, for example we have a script doctor, a cinematographer and so on. So if a film gets a yes on the first level it will go to the professionals and if they recommend it then it will come to the programmers and ill sit with them and we will then put a show together. And the pre-screeners we bring them in differently, some are long-time members of the festivals and others are film students.

J.G. - Are there guidelines that you set out for them during the screenings?

B.O. - We do its mostly scoring standards with a score of 1 through 10, so if they want it to advance they'd give it a 8 roughly. And yea we tell them to look for original stroytelling— but you know what I've found for the most part, is to tell people to follow their gut instincts because thats what most are gonna do anyways.

J.G. - And going off the volunteers, does your festival have some during the festival itself also?B.O. B.O. - Yes over the running of the festival we actually have over 500 hundred volunteers throughout the event.

J.G. - How many paid employees does the festival have?

B.O. - We have a staff of four of us for full-time and year round. and then that doubles in size from January to May so we bring in four more. Then there is another staff of about 40 people or so that aren't really full time until the time of the festival.

J.G. - On the festival’s website I saw all the large sponsors such as Nissan and Regal group, do you get a good amount of smaller, local sponsors also?

B.O. - Well yea, and in the case of Nissan they are a large corporation but its headquarters are here in Nashville. Then we have a multitude of local companies, universities, art and cultural organizations and so on. We have about 90 partners in addition to the main sponsors.

J.G. - Do you have any advice on how to get a good amount of local sponsors onboard?

B.O. - Well you have to have separate goals with sponsors because the smaller ones won’t have the resources available like others do, and a lot of the times they will be looking for less so much exposure but to entertain fans instead. So you have to individually tailor to the local brands versus the likes of Nissan or Comcast who are looking for big exposure across the city.

J.G. - During the festival offseason, do you guys do any particular community outreach such as events and fundraisers?

B.O. - Yes we do have a couple, we have a big annual fundraiser in the fall that brings in close to $30,000 to $50,000. And we have a membership drive with several free screenings for our members if they're in town. We also partner with our local PBS affiliates for monthly screenings as well.

J.G. - So for the filmmakers that attend the festival, do they pay for registration also?

B.O. - Well if they have a short film get accepted, they will receive 2 free passes. If your feature film gets accepted, you get 4 free passes. But if they're also bringing the cast we do offer discounts for those after the first 4.

J.G. - And does the festival provide any funds for their traveling and lodging, because I have learned they try to do this for everyone here at Visions.

B.O. - We do but in a limited basis. Each year we will have a traveling budget that we will then split up among the filmmakers attending.

J.G. - At our festivals, I believe they try and take the visiting filmmakers through the local city for exclusive activities, does this festival try to do anything similar to that?

B.O. - We have a fleet of staff drivers who when available will take our visitors to downtown Nashville and to Jack White’s famous record store. So there isn't any big, formal tour but the visitors are available to our drivers.

J.G. - Well that is all that I have for you in this interview, I appreciate you giving the time for me and our festival. I was able to learn a great amount from this. 

B.O. - Oh no problem, and yea if you have any other questions feel free to email me and ask.

J.G. - Thank you Mr. Owens.