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Halloween
Horror Picture Show 2013 Review Sections
01. Forward
recap: The demise and the rise of the support of independent film in Tampa
Bay.
02. The
Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and Shelby McIntyre’s UnBanned. Propaganda?
03. Supporting
independent film in Tampa Bay.
04. Halloween
Horror Picture Show 2013 Review.
05. Meet
and greet at the film festival Lobby for the Halloween Horror Picture
Show 2013.
06. The
Halloween Horror Picture Show 2013 Film Festival Event Scorecard.
Halloween Horror Picture Show 2013
Forward recap: The demise and the rise of the support of independent film in Tampa Bay.
A
Tampa Bay Film exclusive!
Words and pictures by C. A. Passinault
Additional content credited to supporting contributors with permission
and full promotion.
The opinions expressed in this film festival review are those of C. A. Passinault and may not necessarily be those of Tampa Bay Film, the organizers of the film festival event, the venue of the film festival, or anyone named or photographed therein.
Forward recap: The demise and the rise of the support of independent film in Tampa Bay and the Halloween Horror Picture Show.
Rick Danford’s flagship
film festival, created in the midst of the four successful (and legendary,
I may add) Saints and
Sinners Film Festivals in 2003, the Halloween Horror Picture Show had
a great run, lasting several years and many events, until 2008. After
that, everything went dark.
The Halloween Horror Picture Show film festivals were film festivals for
the independent horror film fan, and one of the last of a dying breed
of film festivals catering to, and supporting, independent film. Did I
say dying? It was not quite that bad, but these types of independent film
festivals seemed to be in decline, and when the economy crashed in 2008,
they became very, very rare.
Around 2006, opportunists in the Tampa Bay area saw what the independent
film festivals were doing and decided that there was gold in movies and
film festivals. They, in my opinion, wanted to cash-in, and it is also
my opinion that it was at the expense of independent filmmakers. So, large,
well-organized film festivals such as the Gasparilla International Film
Festival (GIFF), the Sunscreen Film Festival, and others started up and
began to flood the Tampa Bay market. The original independent film festival
inspiration could not compete, mainly because they were labors of love
by the fans of independent film and were not designed to be commercially
marketable, and some of them were even swallowed up by the large film
festivals. Indeed, I even pointed out in the review for HHPS 2008 that,
while it was not absorbed into the Gasparilla Film Festival, that branding
for the Gasparilla Film Festival was dominant, and that the average patron
would not have known that it was the Halloween Horror Picture Show, and
assumed that it was some horror fan sideshow of the Gasparilla Film Festival
(Soon to be up-branded the Gasparilla International Film Festival). Although
I have to give kudos to Andy Lalino for his clever play off of the Gasparilla
International Film Festival with his GASP horror film festival event,
a one-off independent horror film festival which Tampa Bay Film was unable
to attend, allowing a larger sponsoring event to overtake your branding
is a final nail in the coffin of any film festival. Sure, you could get
away with playing off of the other brand, just like Andy did, but once
it overtakes your original branding, it hurts you. Just like it hurts
a business to make cuts in marketing and advertisement, once you downplay
your branding, you diminish the value of your brand, and short-change
what you are trying to do.
So, while the 2007 Halloween Horror Picture Show at Channelside was ambitious
with its larger Halloweenapalooza scope, personal issues with many of
the people in the independent film scene caused many to ignore it, which
was wrong because it was a great film festival to attend (and thanks go
out to Jeff Strand for allowing Tampa Bay Film to publish his film reviews,
because Tampa Bay Film was unable to see most of the films and review
them for HHPS 2007). As a result, Halloween Horror Picture Show 2008,
held the following year and the last of that series until now, was scaled
back and dominated by Gasparilla branding. While the venue for HHPS 2008
was excellent, being held at the Beach Theater in Saint Pete, the film
festival itself almost seemed like an afterthought, and the writing was
on the wall.
So, in 2009, with the Gasparilla International Film Festival and the Sunscreen
Film Festival reigning, with more of a focus on mainstream movies and
playing “let’s pretend that we are pretentious Hollywood players
with faux red carpet events, mainstream movie premiers with celebrities,
expensive elitist ticket prices, spread out venues and multiple days diluting
and fragmenting the audience and the film festival event experience, snobby
fundraiser events and workshops that have little relevance to independent
filmmaking because we only teach the Hollywood way, and most aspiring
filmmakers can’t afford, and do not have the resources to, make
movies that way”, the independent film festival went away, if only
for a few years.
It would be a long hiatus, and a cold winter for not only independent
filmmakers, but their fanbase, as well, because the large film festivals
did not give them priority, and treated independent film like an afterthought,
as well as something not worth any respect or headlining. Indeed, the
Gasparilla Film Festival was started by Krista Soroka, who was the Tampa
film commissioner at the time, and a team that she had set up. It is my
opinion that the emphasis of that film festival, and the other film festivals
which seem to follow the lead of Gasparilla, was to market the Tampa Bay
area as a location for outside production companies and Hollywood to make
movies here, rather than support independent film and work on exporting
movies from local filmmakers. It is also my opinion, also, that Paul Guzzo
and Pete Guzzo, independent filmmakers who teamed up with Krista, sold
out the filmmakers who looked up to them, and became the token independent
filmmakers and the film commission’s puppets on the advisory panel
instead of looking out for the interests of independent film here in Tampa
Bay. Then again, perhaps that is what they wanted all along, because undermining
support for independent film here strengthens your hand when you stand
to benefit, and it cripples your competition. Way to go, Guzzo!
What do you suppose happens to independent film in Tampa Bay when people
sell it out, and the large film festivals market the Tampa Bay area as
a location to the competition of independent filmmakers, which would be
outside companies with deep pockets? What do you suppose happens when
these large film festivals are used as marketing platforms for filmmaking
workshops which have little relevance for independent filmmaking, and
are more like a cash-in way of making money from aspiring filmmakers instead
of actually helping and supporting them?
How many independent filmmakers have benefitted from Gasparilla and Sunscreen?
Really? You HAVE to ask yourself this, and bragging rights that you were
screened there do NOT count! Isn’t the point of a film festival
to show films, films without distribution, to audiences to expose them
to independent films which they are not able to see anywhere else? Ladies
and gentlemen, may I present to you the faux film festival, which may
claim that they support independent film, but in reality are overblown,
pretentious, expensive, drawn-out snob fests which support the competition
of independent film, instead! Hey, actions outshine words, and when the
actions betray the words, then you have a serious problem.
Don’t even get me into the ticket prices for Gasparilla and Sunscreen.
Hey, I’d love to spend $150.00 for a full festival, V.I.P. pass
over five days to take out time out of my schedule, for most of a week,
and watch mainstream movies which I will see in the theaters and on DVD
months later. Oooooh...... I get to meet C and D-list “stars”,
and the occasional B-lister, all of whom have NOTHING to do with independent
films in Tampa Bay, and all of whom could really care less about the “fans”!
Whatever...... Overpriced, inconvenient, redundant, and not at all what
a film festival should be? You bet! That’s why I don’t care
about those film festivals, and the organizers can keep them. They don’t
speak for me, they don’t speak for Tampa Bay Film, they have little
to no relevance to independent films that I am planning on doing, and
I don’t think that they support independent filmmaking.
I don’t need them, either, and it is my opinion that independent
filmmakers would be better off without them. Soon, most of them will wake
up and realize this.
NEXT: The Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and Shelby McIntyre’s UnBanned. Propaganda?
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