Film Festival Season is kicking into high gear… are you ready to throw your film into the fray, show up at screenings, and maybe do a few Question & Answer sessions from the front of the audience?

If you’re a filmmaker, cast member, or member of the crew, it would behoove you to have a think about what you’ll say with an audience is in front of you… they’ll have questions, you’ll hopefully have interesting answers. Yikes?

IMHO, having a plan for a film festival Q & A session is as important as planning your shoot. Folks will want to know about your film, your process, and YOU. What to say? You, as the filmmaker, would do well to be inspiring, charming, thoughtful, insightful, even interesting.  Key stuff, this is. Here’s an opportunity for you to avoid a Q & A train wreck, with the insight of veterans (and their years of experience) to bolster you. Read this article at Filmmaker Magazine. Get skooled, be cool; you’ll have a plan. Following are a few pithy quotes to introduce the sort of know-how that awaits at Filmmaker Magazine.com;

Sundance Film Festival Director of Programming Trevor Groth has this to say concerning film festivals; “The secret magic of film festivals is that they offer audiences direct communication with the artist; you can definitely elevate the impact of your screening by the way you introduce the film and handle the Q&A.”  See? Help the audience get to know you.

True/False film fest Co-Director/ Co-Founder David Wilson adds, “A great Q&A can really guide your audience, making them feel better about your film and have a clearer understanding of your intentions in making it. And a bad one can hurt that initial buzz that all films depend on at festivals.”

“Having access to you, the director, is what makes festivals special for audiences” agrees SXSW Film Festival Producer Janet Pierson. She adds; “And the Q & A will affect how audiences interact with your work and how they’ll talk about it later.”  Great Q&A’s may equal great buzz for your film. Always a good thing.

Important that you get out there, show up at as many screenings/ festival appearances as you can, and by all means, have a plan for the Questions & Answers sessions following your screening, no matter how small (or large, lucky you) that audience may be. Jump over to Filmmakermagazine.com for the complete article– and share this with a film friend.

Have something to add? Kick start the conversation with a comment.    Excelsior!  -M

(Original Article: Scott Macaulay, Filmmaker magazine.com)