LINE ITEMS

Scott Macaulay on making the most of your moments on stage.

How to Do a Festival Q&A

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TAKE IT SERIOUSLY. You may be a modest sort, and maybe the bright lights make you freeze up, but aw, shucks and giggles are not attractive qualities on stage in front of several hundred people. Pierson says one of the biggest mistakes you sees lmmakers make involves their demeanor. They can be beyond self-effacing, she says. They act embarrassed, or they make little jokes, or they say they dont know what their lm means. So remember when you are standing on stage that if you want people to take your lm seriously, then you have to act like you take it seriously too. Own your creativity, Pierson says.

he credits roll, there is applause, and not too many people walked out. The festival premiere of your debut lm is over. You relax, a years worth of stress magically departing your body. Sure, there will be tough times ahead; distribution is difcult. But, for the moment, you congratulate yourself on a job well done. But dont relax too much, warn a trio of festival heads. Your next big job as a director looms sooner than you think. The audience Q&A youll lead in just a minute or two is surprisingly important when it comes to your lms future life. A great Q&A can leave your audience with good vibes that translate into strong word-of-mouth beyond the festival. Devastatingly, a bad after-lm discussion can do just the opposite. The secret magic of lm festivals is that they offer audiences direct communication with the artist, says Sundance Film Festival Director of Programming Trevor Groth. You can denitely elevate the impact of your screening by the way you introduce the lm and handle the Q&A. Explains True/ False Co-Director and Co-Founder David Wilson, A great Q&A can really guide your audience, making them feel better about your lm and have a clearer understanding of your intentions in making it. And a bad one can hurt that initial buzz that all lms depend on at festivals. Having access to you, the director, is what makes festivals special for audiences, agrees SXSW Film Festival Producer Janet Pierson. And the Q&A will affect how audiences interact with your work and how theyll talk about it later. So how can directors ensure that their festival Q&As are as charming, thoughtful and inspiring as possible? Following are tips from these veterans, inspired by having witnessed hundreds of such postscreening sessions over the years.

understand the lm differently. You dont have to put your lm into a tightly wrapped package, but it is still worth talking about the issues behind the question.

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DONT BE DEFENSIVE. Arguing with the audience is what Wilson sees as one of the biggest mistakes lmmakers can make at their Q&As. Its a heady moment for most lmmakers, he says. Youre presenting something for the rst time that youve put years of your life into. But if someone doesnt get it, or doesnt like it, you need to deftly respect and then deect their question. You gain very little from getting into an argument with an audience. Groth remembers one Sundance lmmaker who was a real jerk at the Q&As. I saw this lm not have the life it deserved because of this. He goes on to advise, Especially if a lm contains provocative material, questions can seem aggressive. How a lmmaker handles that is crucial. If you get defensive and combative, it doesnt serve you well. You could say instead, Its interesting you had that reaction, heres what I was trying to get at. Make it more of a give and take discussion. And remember, says Wilson, that ultimately, youve got the mic. You can afford to take the high road because youve got the last word. On a related note, make sure any bad vibes among cast and crew are resolved or placed under wraps by the time you get to the Q&A. Audiences can sense when everyone on stage hates each other and then will want to know why.

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ANTICIPATE THE QUESTIONS AND HAVE ANSWERS. Think beforehand what questions are likely to be asked, and have answers for them, Groth says. Dont be surprised. Indeed, like a political candidate preparing for a debate, you should develop responses for the questions that are asked at every screening, as well as those that may be specic to your lm. Know how youre going to answer What did you shoot on? and What was your budget? says Wilson. And then hopefully you can move quickly past those questions to more interesting things. Its especially important to prepare a response if your lm is something of a head scratcher. A lm with an ambiguous ending will always prompt a What happens at the end? question, Groth notes.

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ANSWER THE QUESTION. Following up the previous entry, Groth offers his number one piece of advice: Answer the question! A lot of lmmakers take the approach of, I want you to interpret it, or, I leave it up to the audience. I do believe that is a valid approach, but Ive seen it deate a room. There can be different ways to approach that question even if you dont want to give an easy answer. You can talk with them about their interpretation, or provide alternatives as to how people might

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DONT BRING TOO MANY PEOPLE ONSTAGE. It slows everything down and tends not to work with the vibe of a good Q&A, says Groth about long lines of cast and crew marching to the stage after a lms premiere. Just bring the key actors and someone who played a crucial role maybe a production designer or editor. Groth admits, Its tricky with producers, acknowledging that many lmmakers feel an obligation to bring every-

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one up. A solution, he says, is to have those involved with the lm stand up for a round of applause, leaving the director and only a few others to actually eld the questions.

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DONT HOG THE MIC. Once you do decide whom to bring up, make sure they get a chance to answer questions. If a lmmaker is getting all the questions and an actor hasnt had any, says Groth, there are ways the actor can be integrated into the Q&A. The director can refer a question to the actor and ask them to address that element of the lm, for example.

We Fight. His Q&A, delivered to more than 1,200 people, was like someone dictating a book. Every answer was a perfect mini essay. Id say that over the course of the 45 minutes, maybe ve people left. And the next day other lmmakers were coming up to me saying, Look, do I have to do a Q&A? I cant follow that. Says Groth, Richard Ayoade, director of Submarine, did the best Q&A Ive ever seen. He could riff on anything and would go on a comedic monologue about each question.

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DONT BE AFRAID TO BE EMOTIONAL. Showing your emotions on stage is great, Groth says. Some of the best Q&As Ive seen have occurred when the lmmaker has opened up about how important their lm is to them and what a labor of love it has been. Helping the audience feel the [lmmakers] emotion about the creative process goes a long way toward shaping their reaction to the lm.

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PREP WITH THE MODERATOR. The moderator plays a crucial role in the Q&A, Groth says. The lmmaker should connect before the screening to work out the logistics. Will there be multiple mics or just one mic? Work it all out so there are not those awkward moments onstage. Wilson suggests a brief conversation with the moderator beforehand to make sure theyve remembered key elements of the lm. He recalls one disastrous Q&A in which the moderator clearly mistook the whole premise of the movie. (I dont like when the moderator monopolizes the conversation, especially when the audience wants to talk, Wilson adds. But how to moderate a Q&A is a subject for another article.)

the most memorable festival Q&As. Recalls Wilson, After our closing night screening of Undefeated at True/False 2012, [director] T.J. Martin politely asked us if we thought it would be okay if he brought out his Oscar, which he won for Best Documentary Feature just seven days earlier. Not only did he pull it out, but he set it on the front of the stage, and we then watched as a parade of kids came up with their cameras to take pictures. Then, when the Q&A was done, the whole audience swarmed forward and, emboldened, began to take pics with it. Eventually, it was getting passed around the crowd. I was a little horried and asked T.J. to see if he wanted me to step in. But, in one of the classiest, wisest moves Ive ever seen from a lmmaker, he just said Nah. Someday Ill have a kid and thatll be a thing worth protecting and guarding. But that statue? Let them have their fun. Tomorrow it will be on 100 different Facebook walls, and Ill have 100 new friends.

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COMPENSATE FOR YOUR SHYNESS. If youre shy, acknowledge and plan for it, says Pierson. If youre shy, bring someone from the lm onstage with you who is not. You can also speak to the festival and ask for an assist. At SXSW, we think a lot about who the moderator is. I remember one strong, bold lmmaker who the distributor said needed me to stand onstage with him. He just needed me there to ground him, and the Q&A became an interactive discussion between the two of us.

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TREAT YOUR Q&AS AS FUTURE ASSETS. We live in an age where we can capture the magic moments, Groth says. Forwardthinking producers and lmmakers should think about capturing their rst Q&As for their DVD release or for their Kickstarter. All of that material [generated] at a festival can be a powerful tool. This advice is especially important, Groth says, if the lm is a doc and the subject is there. I was at the Q&A for Searching for Sugarman, and when Rodriguez came onstage to swelling applause, that was one of those magical moments. I even captured it on my iPhone. Adds Groth, Work out with the festival organizers what you can and cant do with regards to recording while there.

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BE ARTICULATE AND/OR FUNNY. Obviously, this is not advice everybody can just immediately adopt. Still, if you are articulate, funny or both, you have the ability to rock your Q&As. Wilson remembers the True/False Q&A with Eugene Jarecki following his Why

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ALLOW FOR THE UNEXPECTED. Unscripted moments and the lmmakers ability to roll with them can produce some of

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