Film Festivals

I never put much stock in film festivals. Generally speaking, it's easy money for people who put on these events. They aren't promoting really...the films. They're promoting themselves. For the most part.

I entered one in the Washington D.C. area. Not sure why other than it sounded cool. There will be at least two people who actually send you feedback whether it be good or bad or accepted or not. I thought that was a pretty cool twist. The ones for Palm Springs & one in Austin seem...a ton more corporate. I don't hope to network or make money, as much as hear other opportunities to do my next project. Being accepted would be a big deal, since SOMEONE will watch it.

The downside to all of this is that this all comes at a fee. No surprise there. It's been like that since I was in film school over a decade ago. They do need money to operate. And I'm not sure what the logistics are for short films, but people having to sift through a lot of these movies...bless their eyeballs. Especially if you do make movies or want to as a living.

So who judges these things? Most likely film critics. Or local writers. A few may be filmmakers. But I think a lot are parsed out to volunteers. Will they like my movie? I don't know. If you put it into the scheme of the Oscars, there was a lot of industry push to get some people to watch their movie. "Birdman" isn't a best movie of the year. In fact, it's not even in the top ten. It's just seen as a unique movie (which I've contended already it's not). But that doesn't mean the bandwagon doesn't move. It takes that one odd push to shove it into the spotlight. Maybe my short does the same. Where someone sees it, and it's so much different then what they're use to, it's hard to not champion it.

Who knows? All I know is that I have to keep my targets to a minimum. The fees for this gets big. Especially the bigger name ones.

I just like that my movie is out there now. Somewhere.