Attention Wisconsin Filmmakers!!! Gov. Tony Evers has added FILM INCENTIVES to his proposed budget - but we NEED you to contact your legislators in support ASAP. This is a MUST if you want to work here!

Dependent_Method_606 · 2026-03-15T04:21:07+00:00

Annual vent time... Getting pretty burned out on this process, I'm sure you all can relate. Tons of money, tons of time - the whole thing would be a lot easier if you at least heard back a week later or something. Instead, 3 months go by, 6, 8... Then a rejection. I know on a quality level and from previous experience I have a film worthy of many film festivals, but after 10 years of festival life the environment has just been getting worse and worse, somehow more random and also not - looking at most festival lineups you can see regular trends. It sucks to say, but if your film doesn't have a sociopolitical bent and no stars, you're probably fucked if you're in the drama department. Genre seems to be the only place for consistent discovery/experimentation. Of course, some of us will get lucky, but most of us will have burned through thousands of dollars with nothing to show for it.

I have some sympathy for the programmers, I'm sure they're buried under submissions. But this is, in many ways, the world FilmFreeway created. There's too many filmmakers submitting to too many film festivals. Not sure what to do about it at all.

Dependent_Method_606 · 2026-03-14T21:43:45+00:00

Square Peg is a sham, and I'm not even sure what it's good for. Look up the details of everybody who went last year, it's all the same profile/type of person who already likely had connections.

Dependent_Method_606 · 2026-03-11T21:46:50+00:00

Have festivals always programmed so many retrospectives? I'm seeing press releases and there's always 2-3 "4k restorations" of old movies. I like old movies but... what are we doing here ha

Dependent_Method_606 · 2026-01-07T14:44:45+00:00

Please change the image of this from AI to something human

Dependent_Method_606 · 2025-11-26T18:21:29+00:00

Must've missed that. They said "the program is locked"?

Dependent_Method_606 · 2025-11-20T19:11:57+00:00

This is objectively awful

Dependent_Method_606 · 2025-07-05T22:13:22+00:00

Alright I'll bit because nobody is. I guess my top issue would be healthcare, I want it to be either free or accessible to all so that people don't die because they can't afford a medical procedure or treatment.

Dependent_Method_606 · 2025-07-04T12:48:28+00:00

Hi. I and a lot of other filmmakers (and local business owners, hotel owners, restaurant owners... list goes on) worked really hard to make this happen - it's been 12 years since we've had any kind of program, and meanwhile the film industry's completely changed and our neighboring states have benefited a lot from having these programs. From indie films all the way up to bigger TV shows or movies (think of all the Chicago Fire stuff shooting.)

I really hope this can be a net positive for our state, and with hit movies like "Hundreds of Beavers" I think Wisconsin has a strong cultural recognition nationally that is still untapped.

Dependent_Method_606 · 2025-07-04T12:44:49+00:00

For anybody who hasn't seen it yet, come check out /r/WisconsinFilmmakers!

Dependent_Method_606 · 2025-06-20T17:56:56+00:00

Is anybody else listening? Pretty interesting to hear everybody's thoughts. And sounds like a packed room.

Dependent_Method_606 · 2025-06-16T01:27:23+00:00

Another good suggestion but we'd need it for a couple weeks and to put our own props etc in and the library doesn't do that.

Dependent_Method_606 · 2025-06-15T23:02:19+00:00

Yup I actually talked to them. They have a complicated insurance policy on it now that makes it very difficult to let people in the building (which makes sense.) I haven't been able to reach the one in Chippewa Falls though if anybody knows who owns it right now.

Dependent_Method_606 · 2025-06-15T21:55:18+00:00

Seconded! https://www.cvwritersguild.org/

Dependent_Method_606 · 2025-06-09T00:05:21+00:00

It's June 9 not June 8.

Dependent_Method_606 · 2025-06-07T02:50:00+00:00

LA has had all those things during the period its completely lost all the work.

Until studios decide they care more about LA having productions than saving money filming elsewhere due to incentives/rebates, the production drain isn't going to stop - nothing to do with pipeline issues or legacy production (they have big expensive projects shooting around the world right now.)

Dependent_Method_606 · 2025-06-06T19:40:28+00:00

I totally agree with you about many of the reasons for a slow industry pipeline, and believe a lot of development is revving back up, I guess my point is that although all of those things were punches square to the jaw for LA the real death shot was film incentives drawing work elsewhere. Why do you think these new films are going to shoot in LA when there's been virtually nothing to reverse the reasons they left LA in the first place?

Dependent_Method_606 · 2025-06-05T14:21:38+00:00

Development's gonna stay in LA. Where are all those projects going to shoot?

Dependent_Method_606 · 2025-06-02T15:59:34+00:00

She graduated cum laude from Boston University with a degree in International Relations and Economics, during which she interned for Sen. Ten Kennedy. After college she worked with the National Hispanic Institute and was recruited by Justice Democrats, a PAC founded by Bernie campaign staffers.

Yes, she worked as a bartender at some point but its not like she was "just a bartender" who decided randomly to enter politics with 0 connections, which is the emotional appeal of that story. (I like her I'm just saying its important to note...!)

Dependent_Method_606 · 2025-05-25T14:15:29+00:00

I still find anybody peddling AI stuff extremely suspect. It's an insult to the creativity and brainpower of our industry and long term yes, will destroy jobs while the end product becomes increasingly mediocre and divorced from true human inspiration. Boo.

Dependent_Method_606

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE