Edinburgh

I’ve just applied to my first festival for this film, the Edinburgh International Film Festival. It’s very reassuring, in a world where film festivals crop up like toadstools after a rain, to submit to one that has been in operation since 1947.  I have some history with the city, not only having visited but having a grandparent (my paternal grandfather, who died when my father was a young boy) who was  Edinburgh born and bred.

Scots are unmoved by tourists who come to Scotland for ancestral reasons; they think it’s silly. I understand, being generally unsentimental, yet I always feel a bit of ethnic pride when I’m north of the border. I hope I have an excuse to go to Scotland this summer.

Me and my Canon HDXL1

About me

My name is Hope Anderson, and I write, direct and produce documentary films. My new one, “Under the Hollywood Sign” is my third. Besides the above-listed tasks, I do research, the paperwork and office chores usually relegated to an assistant, some camerawork and all equipment purchasing and rentals. I also cook the crew meals and take production stills on the days we shoot. Now that Kate, the editor, and I are putting the finishing touches on the film, I’m mainly working on marketing, which has involved completing the giangantic film festival application on Without a Box and making a press kit. I’m also choosing festivals to apply to, ordering screeners and planning the poster art.

While I’ve been to festivals before (for my first film, “Jim Thomson, Silk King,”) things are different this time around. In the 8 years since my first outing, the festival world has gotten much bigger and more sophisticated. You can apply online now, but you also need an online press kit and a much more sophisticated marketing plan.  As much as I was dreading this phase, I’m beginning to enjoy it. The tasks are so different from the writing, editing and archival research that have occupied my time for so long. I’m also looking forward to the festivals themselves–and especially to meeting new people after 2 1/2 years of constant work and limited social life. As much as I’ve dreaded selling the film (and myself), I’ve taken an unexpected pleasure in launching my work into the public realm.

hollywood sign