The
Recent Rise of Independent Television Festivals
The television industry is on the brink of a revolution.
The Internet—society’s great equalizer—enables anyone
with an idea and a digital video recorder to write, produce and post
their own webseries. In many ways this mirrors what happened within
the music industry at the dawn of the current decade when musicians,
including established artists, started to bypass record labels and began
producing their recordings on their own and then distributed them directly
to the fans.
Even before
that music revolution, however, there was one in the motion picture
industry. From Robert Rodriguez to Kevin Smith, there are numerous stories
of would-be film directors finding innovative ways to raise the funds
needed to produce their own movies. The advent of Miramax and the Sundance
Film Festival in the early 1990s only served to legitimize these indie-directors,
and the motion picture industry has never been the same.
Television,
meanwhile, had been “stagnant” for so long that it is in
the unique position to borrow and benefit from the transformations those
other two entertainment industries have already experienced. Not only
are there independently produced webseries already available on the
Internet, but the last few years has also seen the rise of independent
television festivals, primarily in Los Angeles and New York. Los Angeles
actually held two during a one-week period back in July—the inaugural
LA
TV Festival as well as the second Independent
Television Festival (ITVF)—while the New
York Television Festival (NYTVF) held its third
conception this past August.
Although
the LA TV Festival primarily consisted of round-table discussions by
industry insiders offering insights and advice to would-be producers,
both the ITVF and NYTVF followed the more traditional format of an independent
film festival. Submissions were accepted in various categories, such
as drama, comedy and reality, and a select few were shown over multiple
nights with winners then announced for each category (all trophy-awarded
entries are currently available for viewing online). And just like with
any festival, there were hits and misses at both.
The
King Kaiser Show, written, produced and directed by Stephen Burrows,
took home both the Best Alternative Pilot and the Audience Award at
the ITVF. The episode, about a late night comedy show based out of Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, and the politically-incorrect shenanigans of its host, starts
out promisingly with Kaiser and a station manager previewing a skit
about gay priests that the manager argues could never possibly be aired.
From there it moves into a montage of comedic scenes: the opening monologue
from the fictitious late night show, an interview with Kaiser by the
local PBS station, a meeting of the staff writers, etc. But instead
of evolving into the next Larry Sanders Show or even The
Office, King Kaiser digresses into a series of skits with
no unifying plotline to give it much needed structure. While Burrows
may have been going for a Benny Hill or Robot Chicken
approach, an examination of the conflicts the titular Kaiser has with
station management, coupled with a Michael Scott-like non-understanding
of why people question his obnoxious behavior, would have made for a
more satisfying experience.
The NYTVF
likewise produced a dual winner, Dear Harvard, which won for
Best Drama Pilot and was also the recipient of the TV Guide
Audience Award. Created by Anne Jarmain, the show centers around teenager
Honor (Ella Rae Peck) as she enters a prestigious high school in New
York. Although the premise is reminiscent of both Gossip Girl
and the early years of Gilmore Girls, Dear Harvard
does offer a few new twists: Honor must deal with her father being arrested
for securities fraud, her lifelong best friend Caroline abandoning her
because of it, and the boyfriend she had at the age of five, whom she
hasn’t seen since, reappearing as the current boyfriend of new
best friend Zelda. With this storyline of innocence lost and potential
rebirth, the series shows promise and the legs to sustain itself over
a long haul.
The success
of Dear Harvard at the NYTVF opened doors for creator Jarmain,
who was signed by the Creative Artists Agency two weeks after the festival
ended and has met with numerous television executives in the aftermath
as well. “I had wanted to get into TV, and I thought the festival
would be a great opportunity as a young writer to have my work seen
by many people in the industry,” she recently told the New
York Times (October 11, 2007).
Which,
of course, is the whole point of these festivals: to open doors and
give exposure to fledging TV producers who might not otherwise have
such opportunities. And the industry is not only taking notice, but
giving support as well. The NYTVF, for example, is co-sponsored by ABC,
FOX, NBC and TV Guide, among others. ABC even used this year’s
festival to preview Pushing Daisies, as did NBC with its new
show Chuck. And the first ITVF featured a panel discussion
with the cast of FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
The series co-star/executive producer, Glenn Howerton, told The
Hollywood Reporter (August 1-7, 2006) at the time, “When
we wrote the original show, we shot it on our own. It’s kind of
the spirit of what this festival is about…a way for people who
don’t have ins within the industry to get seen.”
Kevin Smith
sold his comic book collection, maxed out various credit cards, dipped
into his college fund and spent insurance money for a car he lost in
a flood so that he could film the movie Clerks; Robert Rodriguez
submitted his body to various medical research studies in order to raise
the money to make El Mariachi. Despite their obvious level
of commitment, the sacrifices they made would have gone for not if it
wasn’t for the exposure they received from independent film festivals.
Although Burrows and Jarmain did not go to the extremes that Rodriguez
and Smith did, they have likewise benefited from a similar independent
movement nonetheless, a movement that will no doubt grow stronger over
time.
The television
industry is indeed on the brink of a revolution—and, yes, this
one will be televised.
November
19, 2007
