REASONS TO AVOID THE INDEPENDENT TELEVISION FESTIVAL IN MANCHESTER, VERMONT
The ITV Festival in Vermont seems to be a well-produced event allowing TV creators to find new ways to break into the industry, but it’s much more sinister than that. Creating film and television is difficult. Not only is it exhausting to do on its own, but the industry is run by old rich men who have bad taste and consistently create road blocks to anyone who wants to enter it. At one point in the distant past, a couple festivals put on screenings from independent creators, and some representatives and executives saw the screenings. They helped the people move on in their careers, and everyone else in the country realized how valuable festivals could be. However, now most festivals promise help to creators without actually backing up those promises, and the Independent TV Festival is no exception.
Let’s find out the changes the festival could make to avoid that kind of label.
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PROVIDE HOUSING ASSISTANCE TO FESTIVAL ENTRANTS
Travel to and from festivals is incredibly expensive. This causes attendees to have to take multiple shifts at jobs just to make up the cost. Most festivals provide some kind of assistance to this cost for housing. Like finding couches or affordable hotels to put them up at. Instead, Manchester forced its attendees to pay their inflated rates.
PROVIDE FOOD ASSISTANCE
Most festivals provide one or two meals to attendees in partnership with a local business. Because they care about their creators. But ITV Fest does not.
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AVOID BRINGING PREDATORY EXECUTIVES INTO THE MIX
The biggest attractor to ITVF was their promise to set up meetings between creators and network and production executives. Unfortunately, my friend who attended was creeped on during his meeting. The executive wanted him to meet up at night when the executive was drunk so that the creator could “blow his mind”. The executive in question was Steven Adams at Buffalo 8, a production company in southern California.
ITVF is a bad festival, largely indicated by its lack of a reviews section on Film Freeway. Avoid it unless you want to spend a massive amount of money on what is essentially just one long mixer.
