IMDB vs. the Independent Film

[Julie Ivanovich]

As most of us know, IMDB is the leading source of finding professional films in this country. If you're not on IMDB, your film isn't considered professional. People look at it as a fun little project you did with no clout in the filmmaking community. But here's my question: What is considered professional?

From my own experiences with IMDB, a professional production is not one that has been showcased in a film festival or won an award. It is not based on the quality of the final film, or the acting, writing, directing, sound... you get the picture. It doesn't matter if you have the biggest star in the world or have a never ending resume.

No, IMDB judges professional based on two things: the amount of money you spent and how many people worked on your film.

Now, I may be the only person who sees a problem with this judgment. But in my personal experience, I have seen films that have large crews that have spent thousands or millions of dollars... that aren't any good. I have also seen films that are amazing that employ a small crew and knew how to budget. But according to IMDB, the larger film is more worthy of their attention.

I have done research into the IMDB process by trying to submit our first film, "Master of Destiny", into their system. IMDB does recognize The Place Called Sacramento Film Festival as a legitimate festival and in fact, there are numerous Place Called Sacramento Films listed on IMDB. But our film can not get reviewed. After 3 submissions, I gave up.

See, what IMDB does is they review the largest films first, then go down the list that way. So what would happen is that our film would be put last on the list every time I submitted it. And every time, I would read their updates and they would mention that all submitted films were reviewed except for one -- which I knew was ours. Every single time. We made the film for $250 and had a crew of about 6. Which means our film is not "professional" enough to qualify for IMDB. But there are films that spent a lot more money and had large crews that showed with ours last year that are listed. Even winning the "Producer's Choice Award" at the festival didn't put us up on the list.

I'm not saying our film deserves to be on IMDB any more than anyone else's. I just find it interesting that all these independent film companies (IMDB, the MPAA) claim they do not favor studio productions over independent ones. But I think their policy speaks of the opposite. I believe that filmmakers who are able to strategize and budget their spending should be given equal footing with those who spend freely. A quality production should not be based on dollar signs or large crews, but by the end product and the ingenuity of the filmmakers. Since when is being resourceful considered wrong? Apparently in the film business, until we can make a change.

[Jason Borroel]

Frank, I think you give great hope to the film community of Sacramento. If you can do it, anyone can do it! For any festivals to pick up "Beatrice and the Bike Thief" or "11 Bravo Diaries" is a miracle in itself. WAVE awards? WOW! What an accomplishment for Community Access Television. You must be proud! You see, nobody takes your films seriously. You whined and complained because you didn't win any awards at PCS last year, but it was with good reason. You complained about the judges at PCS not being competent, and I can agree with you on that point. A Place Called Sacramento, in my eyes, is a complete and blatant joke! Best Screenplay: Play Day? LMAO! Seriously? You should be happy that "11 Bravo Diaries" won best ensemble acting. That was a pity award from the judges just like "Play Day" was. Take what you can get. The acting in "11 B Diaries" was tragic. Anyone with any good sense can see that. I will only comment on "Beatrice and the Bike Thief minimally. The late 80's sitcom score, the cinematography, the editing, reminded me of a high school beginners course in television. The last time I shut you up and you called me a Jerk, you said I lit a fire up under your ass to make a feature. Well here we are almost a year later and you have done nothing but promote "Beatrice and the Bike Thief". Now you're going to make an extended version of "11 Bravo Diaries"? I offer you this challenge Frank. I made 3 films this summer and one of them was an Iraq war film. It is still in post production and will be finished by the end of the year. We will show them side by side, that is if you ever really finish yours, and we will let the people decide which is better. I am an amateur and you are a professional. You should have no problem humiliating me and showing me what a professional does to amateurs, unlike what we did to you at last years PCS. We were nobodies Frank. We're nobodies now. So I offer you this challenge. Let's see where we stand against a professional like you, Frank. I would also like to personally invite you to our 30 minute short film on Saturday Nov. 13th at 5:30 in Folsom. I want you to see how real acting happens on a set and how a real film looks like. You will be my personal guest. The bad acting in both "Beatrice" and "11 Bravo" falls on the Director's shoulders. I'm not blaming you Frank, I'm blaming the Director who said that those takes were good. I hope you accept both of my invitations. I look forward to you accepting them and not being a coward and dodging my invitations. Hope all is well with you.

Jason Borroel
Borroel Entertainment

[Julie Ivanovich]

Yeah.. think you're missing the point, Frank, and being incredibly insulting. A Place Called Sacramento is a RECOGNIZED film festival in IMDB.. in fact, both of your films "Beatrice and the Bike Thief" and "11B Diaries" are both featured. Two films that showed with our film at the same festival, same year. So don't talk about fair with me and use this as a way to brag. That's the difference btwn.you and me. I'm merely raising a point and experience I found interesting. Just because you spent lots of money on yours and had a huge crew does not mean your film is more professional than ours. So next time you wanna lecture, do it to someone who respects your work.

[Frank Casanova]

Well Julie... I think you're picking up on some of life's great lessons. Number One is Life is Not Fair. And for that matter, neither is IMDb. They are part of "The Industry", and as such your little film is a bother to them... because you are not part of the industry in their eyes. They will take other movies that may be much less than yours, BUT have been accepted into a RECOGNIZED film festival (such as many of mine). Their reasoning is if someone else (we sort of trust) "accepted" the movie into their film festival (we recognize), then it must be OK for us to put it into the database. When that's not the case (as seemingly yours is), they don't want to have to do a lot of work to have to watch your movie, review it, etc. and then decide whether or not to include it. It's much easier to say, if it's in a recognized festival, that's good enough for us. I have a bunch of movies that have never been in a festival and I didn't even bother trying to get them in IMDb for that very reason. It's not about "how professional" your movie is... Sorry, but that's the way they work.