Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival held its annual celebration this year, with its primary focus being to provide independent filmmakers with a platform for exposure.
The film festival is known for its innovative, groundbreaking focus on showcasing film, media, creativity and evolving technology, according to a Cinequest webpage.
The festival runs from March 11 to March 23 in San José and screens a diverse selection of feature films, documentaries, and short films. All with an emphasis on bold, unique storytelling that might otherwise struggle to find mainstream distribution.
Cinequest has been instrumental in launching the careers of many notable filmmakers, such as J.J. Abrams and Rosario Dawson, according to the same webpage.
On Saturday the panel Cinequest Storytelling Celebration was hosted at the California Theatre Rehearsal Hall and featured speakers from the filmmaking industry that shared their experiences in the field.
Chris Philip, an executive producer for the series “Siberia” shared insight into distributing the end product.
“Distribution is access to all those international players and production … there’s so many facets to the production and I think, at the end of the day, if you all are writers and you have a plan, you have to think like a distributor too,” said Philips. “You have to know the steps involved. And that’s what I do as a producer, I’m involved from beginning, middle and end and I know all the deals along the way.”
Jiauri Guo, the founder of Incandescent Entertainment, shared suggestions on how to get started.
“I’ve been through all that; I do a lot of independent films,” Guo said. “The only suggestion I have for young filmmakers is don’t expect to get that big deal. “You base and seize your work, it means you can have a great career. I always tell my friends to lower your expectations. And that will help you build your career.”
Panelists agreed that starting at the bottom, taking chances, building skills, and having the right team is key to opening opportunities for a career in the field.
Ally Wong, a second-year business student at Cabrillo College shared why she attended the symposium.“I wanted to get a better understanding of producing because right now I am focused on production,” Wong said. “I want to know as a business major how behind the scenes of financing and organizing planning for productions.”
While the festival focused on showcasing the talent of producers, filmmakers and students’ shorts, it also highlighted the changes that artificial intelligence (A.I.) has been bringing in the field and how it is making strides in the film industry.
“I mean like this is kind of crazy because people are using A.I. scripts and my company is just going through an app for A.I. writers' script and all those smaller by A.I. but I really get over a commercial script but a true story my company now, focusing on the development of the IP (address),” Guo said.
The effects of artificial intelligence in the industry have been positive in some aspects but it does have a negative impact on the unforeseen future for the people in the filmmaking industry, according to a June 9, 2024 Raindance article.
Larry Schapiro, a Radio/TV/Film lecturer, expressed his thoughts about the use of A.I. in the industry.
“It’s very scary; I know a lot of people in the business or writing whole screenplays with AI,” Schapiro said. “ I think it’s very dangerous at the same time, I’m hopeful that the human experience differentiates a good screenplay from A.I.”
Cinequest continues to redefine what a film festival can be, it is not just a film festival, it is a movement that celebrates the power of storytelling and the unlimited possibilities of technology.
For Prachee Prabhat, a marketing student at San Francisco State, the event was just more than a panel and celebration but a way to bring people together to build networks and learn more about what it takes to succeed in the filmmaking industry.
“I just wanted to expand my network because my school’s network is pretty limited so I just wanted to branch out a little more,” Prabhat said. “It is beneficial to me and anybody else in general. If you’re starting out, you know everyone needs some way to put their foot through the door so this is one way to start local and then go bigger.”
