DOVER — For Philip Gilpin Jr., getting the annual Independent Television and Film Festival to pull up stakes and come to Dover and Wilmington was only the first part of his challenge.
“This is a one-time chance for the valley to retain this event permanently,” he says. It all has to come together.
ITVFest, which launched in 2006, will bring an estimated 1,200 to 1,500 creators of the moving image (artists, writers, producers, and other film-industry types) and those who appreciate the fast-changing medium to the Deerfield Valley from Thursday, Sept. 26 to Saturday, Sept. 28 to watch 58 films, Web videos, and television shows for their first public screenings, for panel discussions. And, of course, for the awards. And a jazz concert.
The stakes might be high, but Gilpin, the festival's executive director, says there's plenty to instill confidence about the event.
“There's only one professional, artistic, industry festival - and it's this one,” he says, noting that ITVFest has “always had the reputation of being for the artist” - not as a superficial venue for actors flailing for the paparazzi.
The submissions are “not about the budgets; they're about overwhelming passions and great ideas from people who find a way to get these things produced,” Gilpin said.
The event also affords such filmmakers access to other professionals that could help find commercial success for their artistic visions, at a time when the industry is shaken to its core by media convergence. In failing to differentiate among television, film, and Web series, ITVFest embraces that blur.
One such independent filmmaker, Jennifer Weedon, has produced two online video series - “Slummy Mummy” and “Double Leche,” designed to appeal to new moms.
“I'm really excited to showcase the work my partners and I have been doing for the last year,” says Weedon, pointing out that a number of successful commercial transactions have taken place at the ITVFest in years past. “We are truly independent creators - we came up with the ideas for our work personally and are completely self-financed.”
Moving the festival to Vermont
During his days as an HBO business affairs analyst in Los Angeles, Gilpin became friends with the festival's founder, producer/writer/actor A.J. Tesler.
Tesler, busy with a young family, was unable to continue running the festival, so Gilpin suggested that he assume leadership of the festival and move it to the Deerfield Valley.
“He asked me, 'How many theaters do you have there?' and I said, 'None, but it will be great,'” Gilpin recalls saying.
Miraculously, that's exactly what happened. But first, he had to raise $50,000.
The town of Dover's economic development fund contributed $15,000; Wilmington put in $2,000 from its 1 percent local tax. Woodchuck Cider added $10,000. The Wilmington Fund Vt., launched in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene to reinvigorate the region's flood-soaked and moribund economy, chipped in $15,000. And with that show of confidence, Gilpin raised the rest from other area businesses and organizations.
The cost of ITVFest, established as a tax-exempt and tax-deductible, nonprofit arts organization, was originally budgeted at $250,000. Gilpin has whittled that cost to $180,000 with the help of in-kind services and donations. Gilpin and his part-time press assistant, Heidi Carrington Heath, have been operating the festival much as many of the filmmakers have made their work - on a proverbial shoestring.
ITVFest is a perfect fit for the region, and vice-versa, he says. And with the state estimating that one couple visiting Vermont spends $240 per weekend, that economic ripple effect could swell to a $500,000 infusion into the local economy.
Those dividends made it worthwhile to work through myriad challenges - like the venues, which now include not only Memorial Hall in Wilmington, but also three 40-foot-by-80-foot inflatable buildings - the equivalent of six conventional movie theaters - that have sprung up along Route 100.
The festival will offer panels with a full slate of speakers on such topics as “The Great Merging: Teleweb and Weblevision,” “Independent Art in the 21st Century,” “The Business of Acting in the Digital Age,” and “Being Funny to Pay the Bills.”
Among the guest speakers: actor Dylan Bruno, who has performed on TV series such as “Grey's Anatomy,” “Bones,” “Numb3rs,” and “NCIS,” and who played a role in the Academy Award-winning film “Saving Private Ryan.” Also appearing are industry professionals whose names might not mean a whole lot to viewers, like Thom Woodley.
Thom who?
He's the guy who created “the most interesting man in the world” for the Dos Equis beer commercials, according to ITVFest's Twitter feed.
Organizer - and fan
Gilpin speaks with intense, rapid-fire enthusiasm, not only as the event organizer but also as someone enraptured by the art of the motion picture and its possibilities.
“The quality of the comedy and drama coming in is better than what is on most of the networks every night,” he says.
He describes the comedy films as “inventive, fresh, new, edgy, and hilarious.” The dramas? “Amazing stories.” The documentaries? “They'll pull at your heart, make you laugh, make you angry, make you happy.”
He says that in his nightly home screening of the sequence of final films, curated from 176 submissions from 14 countries, he saw “the best two months of television of anyone on this planet.”
“Everyone who comes will find something they will love here,” he says. “Nobody will love everything.”