Interview With Sara Finder, Director of Horrorfest

Okay, you know about Horrorfest, right? The After Dark Horrorfest? 8 Films to Die For? Well, if you don't, you should. The annual film festival has brought a ton of kick-ass horror films to the big screen for American audiences. Films such as: "The Tripper", "Penny Dreadful", "The Gravedancers", "Frontier(s)", "Nightmare Man", "Borderland", "Mulberry Street", "Autopsy", "Perkins' 14" and "Slaughter", to name just a few. Horrorfest debuted in 2006 and it's a one week national film festival that celebrates nothing but horror. In its first year, it became the first film festival to break into the top 10 at the national box office and they've currently distributed over 1.6Million DVD's. To say that they've been a driving force behind indie horror over the last four years is an understatement....

Now, they're back. On January 29th, 2010, After Dark's Horrorfest 4 hits the screens with more of the best in indie horror from around the world. What can you do to prepare? Well, there's a lot of things you can do... however, you can start by reading this exclusive interview that we did with Sara Finder, the Director of Horrorfest. She offers some great insight into how the festival works and offers up some advice for filmmakers...

First off, tell us a bit about yourself, how’d you get in to indie horror and the film scene?

Sara Finder, Director of Horrorfest, I have been marketing Horrorfest since the Horrorfest I DVD release in March 2007. I have been working in the film/tv scene since 1995 holding various positions. Inevitably my jobs led me into the indie horror world & I have never looked back.

Most of readers are well aware of Horrorfest, but for those who aren’t, tell us a bit about Horror fest. When and why did it get started?

After Dark Films, CEO Courtney Solomon had just completed his film American Haunting. Shortly after, Lions Gate sealed a deal with him to distribute his films. His search for the next film to release led him to find several worthy horror films which then developed into the creation of Horrorfest “8 Films to Die For” Horrorfestonline.com. Horrorfest is a one-week national film festival that celebrates all areas of the horror genre.

Tell us a bit about your selection process. What does it take to get picked up by Horrorfest?

We look for films in various ways, including: film festivals, submissions, referrals etc. The door is always open as to how we get our films. In regards to film selection we do not go out with a set idea of what we want to do. Every year is different, so we keep an open mind about which films will make it into our festival.

As a filmmaker, what could I do to make my film more festival friendly? Is this something that you think filmmakers should even be thinking about?

No, filmmakers should not be concentrating on making it festival friendly. They should be concentrating on bringing their vision to life.

What advice would you give to an up and coming filmmaker in the indie horror genre?

Once your film has been completed, never underestimate the power of publicity. Help spread the word about your film as much as possible.

Are there any success stories of note from Horrorfest?

There are several success stories, many of our directors were offered film projects due to the exposure of their films being released nationwide theatrically by After Dark Films. Last year we produced a few of our own films (Butterfly Effect 3, Slaughter and Perkins 14) and brought back a director who had his film in a previous Horrorfest – Craig Singer director of Dark Ride & Perkins 14. We spotlight the indie filmmakers in ways they would not receive if their films went straight to DVD. This exposure is extremely valuable and can definitely get them to their next film opportunity.

So, as a fan… what can we expect out this Horrorfest this year?

Horrorfest 4 will be an incredible festival. So far we have announced the below & two more films will be announced shortly. Make sure you check out Horrorfestonline.com for more information on each of the films including stills & trailers. We are updating the site with new goodies frequently.

Dread
Dread, the second in the Book of Blood franchise is a stylish horror/thriller about three college students working on a documentary for school focusing on what others dread in life.

Hidden
Painful memories arise when Kai Koss goes back to his childhood home after 19 years and inherits his dead mother's house.

Lake Mungo
Sixteen-year-old Alice Palmer drowns while swimming in the dam. After her burial, her grieving family experiences a series of paranormal disturbances in their home

The Graves
Two inseparable sister's visit to a remote mine town turns into a mind-bending fight for survival against menaces both human and supernatural.

ZMD
Life is wonderful for the people in the quiet, island town of Port Gamble....until a zombie virus outbreak!

The Final
A group of high school outcasts takes revenge on the classmates who tormented torment them.

Tell us about the future of indie horror, where’s it at now and where do you see it going?

Indie horror is alive and thriving. I see the future as one where filmmakers have more opportunities to create & make the films they dream of.

What’s next for you and Horrorfest?

Horrorfest 4 coming this January 29th is keeping me busy and will all the way until its March DVD release. Then we start all over again creating and bringing the fans more horror films they truly want to see on the big screen.

Where can people find out more about Horrorfest and how can they support it?

You can find out about Horrorfest 4 on our site at Horrorfestonline.com. Register with us & get the Horrorfest news first hand. As well, follow us on our social networks at: twitter.com/afterdarkfilms, Facebook & myspace.com/afterdarkfilms

A Question For You, plus Fright Night and Horrorfest News

I just wanted to pause for a moment and ask a question... but before I do, I'd just like to stop and explain what Dead Harvey is and what we're really trying to accomplish here. This site is dedicated to the indie horror filmmaker and fan and our mission is twofold. First and foremost, we want to be a resource for the indie horror filmmaker and, secondly, we'd like to do our part to grow this little sub-genre. Lofty goals, I know. We're currently exploring options for a few projects that slide into and compliment those goals, but the site hasn't changed much. So, here's my question and, hopefully, you'll answer. What would you like to see out of the site? We're very interested, so... you talk, we'll listen. Please throw a few comments in there...

I have a couple things that I wanted to mention, but before I do, I just wanted to remind you that you can follow us on Twitter here, join our Facebook group here and I guess I shouldn't forget about Myspace, which you can find here. You get a few extra random, stupid thoughts and content through them. Anyhow...

Fright Night Film Festival - Aug 14 - 16: If you didn't know, one of our favorite fests of the year is the Fright Night Film Festival. So, it shouldn't be a surprise that we've talked with the festival director, Ken Daniels, twice. If you want to hear about the whole indie horror festival scene and what goes on there, you should definitely read those two interviews. You'll find the first one here and the second one here.

If you've read them already or just don't care, I'll just tell you about their latest announcement... and it's that Danny Lloyd, Danny Torrance from "The Shining", will be making his very first convention appearance at Fright Night Film Fest to help benefit Make-A-Wish. He'll be attending the fest and signing autographs on Saturday, August 15th, beginning at 11:30 am. 25% of EVERY autograph goes to Make-A-Wish. Get those Posters, DVD's, and anything else you can think of to get autographed.

After Dark Film Horrorfest 4 announcements: We've recently been added to the press list for After Dark Films, which I find to be pretty cool. All that really means is that they send us press releases and emails when they have something to promote, but I'm a big fan of what After Dark is doing and I'm happy to pass on what they're up to. I recently received a couple of press releases from them: The first one is on "Dread", the Anthony DiBlasi written and directed film, based on Clive Barker's short story from "Book of Blood". It'll be the second film out of the "Book of Blood" franchise, the first being "Midnight Meat Train". The second press release is on "The Graves", which is written and directed by Brian Pulido, who's a well known comic book writer and the creator of such titles as "Lady Death" and "Evil Ernie". Both films have now been picked up for After Dark's Horrorfest 4 and that's why I got the press releases.

So, I was going to write up something on both films, but I thought this may be more interesting... although I'm not sure if it's allowed, I guess I'll find out soon enough. I'm going to put up the press releases on box.net and give you the links to download or read them and here you go: press release for Dread and for press release for The Graves. Not only will the news interest you, but I thought you may be interested to see how a good press release is put together... as it's a good skill to have. Once your film is done, you should be putting together something like this and putting it out there for anyone who cares.

That's all I've got for this week, don't forget to get your drink on over the next few days and we'll see you next week! Oh yeah... and don't forget to add some comments about what you'd like to see out of the site!

After Dark Horrorfests "8 Films To Die For"

I briefly mentioned After Dark's "8 Films To Die For" festival in my post yesterday, but when I looked back at it, I realized that I only mentioned 6 movies... and it's supposed to be 8. Perplexed, I decided to look into it. Turns out that the first film I mentioned, "Slaughter", is actually also part of the fest AND I left out the film "Voices". So, for those of you who are keeping score, the 8 films in the "8 Films To Die For" festival are, in fact: "Slaughter", "Perkins 14", "The Broken", "Butterfly Effect: Revelation", "From Within", "Dying Breed", "Autopsy" and "Broken". Just to mention it again, both "Slaughter" and "Perkins 14" are of particular interest to me, as they're basically collaborative works from amateurs. Anyhow, you can find out more about the festival, each film and all that type of crap on their site, which you can find be clicking here. But I will talk more about the fest...

Let me just start by saying that I love the whole concept of the After Dark Film Fest, which is, essentially, to give nation-wide theatrical releases to films that otherwise wouldn't get a theatrical release, by packaging them all together, creating a marketing campaign for the whole thing, then finding theaters across the country that will play them all for a week. They do a big launch party, plus they do a Miss Horrorfest contest, things like that. It's the whole power in numbers thing. One filmmaker may not be able to get that much buzz or a theatrical release, but 8 of them with a unified mission under one banner, can. It's a great idea... and we, as a horror community, should really support it. Now, with the cost of making 35mm prints for each theater, this isn't something that just anybody can do, there's some serious dough behind all this. However, when they finally figure out who's going to pay for switching all the theaters over to digital systems, this could become something that everyone can do. And much like how I think that gaming consoles and the internets are going to change up the home distribution model, digital cinema is going to change the theatrical release model. Now for some babble...

I think I could write a novel, or maybe just a novella, on how f'ed up this all is... but to sum it up, the theater owners want to pay as little as possible for the rights to show a film, while getting as many people in the theater as possible because they're really just in the popcorn selling business. The studios hold power in that they have the big releases that the theater owners want, BUT the studios also have stinker films and smaller features, so they make deals where theaters need to show certain films for X amount of weeks and they have to accept other, smaller features IF they want to get X amount of prints for the big budget films. Stuff like that. Having said THAT, the theater owners hold power over the studios because they're the gatekeepers in getting the studios the box office numbers that they need because good box office numbers boost their DVD sales, especially in foreign markets. So, they try to manipulate each other, they fight, they collude. It's dirty. ANYHOW, where does this leave indie guys who are looking for theatrical distribution? Not in a good place AND this is where the fight over switching over to digital comes in... the theater owners want the studios to pay for it because the studios will be saving millions in not having to make all the 35mm prints. The studios don't want to pay for it because if the theaters switch over to digital systems, the market will be opened up to smaller players because the cost of getting a theatrical release just dropped to, well... just having to put together a marketing campaign. So, I have no real conclusion on this, but to pull it all together, the model that After Dark is using for "8 Films To Die For" could work VERY effectively and efficiently if theaters were to switch over to a digital platform. When it does, bands of indie filmmakers could get together, market their films as one and get theatrical releases in multiple markets. Then, that would give them some good numbers and media for their press kits, which would boost their own DVD sales, which would be good for indie film, as a whole. Right? That, of course, goes without mentioning the fact that theater owners can change their line up instantly, giving theater goers what they want instead of running those stinkers and films that no one wants to see... so the audience wins, too.

So, anyhow... "8 Films To Die For" gets its one week theatrical run across the US from January 9th to 15th. It's going to be in almost every major market and it's something that you should check out for a few reasons... The main one should be because you're an indie horror fan and you just want to see the films. However, you should also check this out because you're seeing what could be the future for how more indie horror could be making it to the big screen and make you, the indie horror filmmaker, a lot more money.