Submitting to Festivals

I'm back. Here's what's happening.

Just when you think things couldn't get any more complicated, you finish your movie. Then you have to edit it, that's a whole other story. Then after you finish that you now have to not only submit to a festival, you have to be accepted by them.

There are thousands of film festivals out there. Only about 20 in the world are really worth it. And most people say it's easier to win the lottery than to get accepted at any of them, especially when you've made a no budget movie, with no name actors.

So after I've spent money submitting to the expensive festivals, waiting months for a letter of rejection, I decide I at least want to be in some festival. Put a nice award on the ol' resume and the film as well. Live like a rock star for a few days. Have the inside the actors studio experience while being interviewed. And according to other sources it's possible to land distribution deals at the smaller festivals. The smaller the venue the more the movie sticks out.

So I've decided to submit to smaller festivals, but which out of the thousands should I choose. They say to submit where a similar movie made it big, but they're the same big festivals that already rejected me...Now what?

There's a lot of money that goes into this, that I want to use on my next project so I'm being choosy. I've picked out a handful and we'll see where we go.

Finally Done

I finally got a trailer done and finished the final edit of the movie. It took much longer than I ever expected but that's what happens when you don't know how to edit, and don't trust yourself to not screw it up. So I hired my cinematographer to be my editor, since all other editors sucked and he's experienced and knows the whole movie.

Problem is he's in Los Angeles and I'm in Austin Texas. So every time I need him to do something there's a communication error. It takes a long time to rectify. Plus I don't get to learn how to edit because I'm not around him to watch it.

Some say just edit it yourself and consider it practice, but I'm not going to "practice" on a movie I take seriously. On top of that I can't just learn things like color correction and all the other little technical things on top of pacing.


For the record I'll try to start updating regularly. I just haven't had anything worth reporting. I've been getting the movie edited, writing on the new script, blah blah blah. And since I'm not exactly James L. Brooks I've had to work menial day jobs to stay afloat. I could write about that but then it becomes a different blog entirely. If you want to hear about that stuff, I'll do it. But I don't expect many people demanding it, as interesting as it might be. Ha.


By the way, I just finished the first draft of my new script. I'm sure everyone get's excited when they've finished a new script but this my fifth script and I know the difference. This is the best one yet. I'll tell you more soon.



Keep you updated.

Poll Closed

Since the 3rd cut won't be ready for another week and the trailer after that, I thought I'd go into the recently closed poll.

It seems that people know what they're talking about when it comes to movies. The poll has closed and writing takes the honors of first place. Directing made a non-surprising second place and marketing and editing tied for fourth. I think someone felt sorry for editing and voted for it as it had remained unclicked for many weeks.

If anyone wants to see how strong editing can play into a movie watch any of the movies on MST3K(Mystery Science Theatre 3000, for those know in the know) and you'll see how much a role editing can play. Establishing shots that last almost an entire minute. "We get it! They're in a hospital!"

Directing, much like an editing, is important as it can make a bad movie into a decent movie. Though from what I've been told, directing can also be very easy. If you have a great script and cast the right actors. It can pretty much take care of itself. There's an old addage that "90% of directing is casting".

If it isn't a great story that of course it won't be a good movie. Why do you think almost all movies are really just great stories that have already been told on another medium. Look up any movie and it'll most likely be based off of a comic book, novel, or stage play. A great story that's underwhelming in all other aspects is passable. A bad story no matter how great the directing, sound, and visuals is about the same as Dane Cook doing stand up. A strong performer with lots of energy and passion with no material. Would you want to hear a bad story? Then why watch a bad story? Probably a reason there's never been a great movie based off of a video game.

Last is marketing. If you don't think marketing is important then where were you when the Blair Witch Phenomenom was going on? Could you imagine a world without film festivals? People would be travelling around with projectors on the back of their pick up trucks trying to get their word around. Movies spend 2-3 times their budgets on marketing. Hmmm... movie industry or marketing industry?

The only movies I've known to get around by word of mouth are Boondock Saints and Equilibrium. That's not a lot of movies.

So that's it. Which pretty much established what we already knew. I'll set up a new poll soon and see what comes of that.

3rd Edit

As of right now I'm going over and over every scene in the entire movie to make sure that this is the best possible edit. I'll probably do a 4th and a 5th edit as well, but I'm trying to get as much done with this edit as I can. It's just like a rewrite, except you can only cut and paste.

The last edit fixed a lot of big things that were easily spotted. This edit is more about pacing, scene dynamics, and all the other little things.

I'm really cracking down on all the scenes. Anything a scene can do without is gone. Who cares if it was clever or well shot if it drags the pacing down? My goal is to make the entire movie move at a pace that minimizes the amount of times you check your cell phone to see what time it is.

Sometimes it's hard to tell if you should keep something or lose it. Then I remember Robert Deniro from 'Ronin'. "Whenever there is any doubt...there is no doubt."

New Stuff

Firstly, let me apologize for going so long without a new post. When I actually have big news to report I get so busy with it...whatever, no excuses.

What's on everone's mind is when the trailer is coming out. One can only listen to someone talk about a movie for so long without some actual footage. Well, it's not ready yet. But the fact that we're actually working on it right now must put you in good spirits...right?

Next you'll want to know, when you can watch the entire film. Now you actually have something to be dissapointed about. We just recently finished the 2nd cut, we're currently cutting the trailer, then a 3rd cut, then begin submitting to festivals, then decide which distributor we're going to run with, then the movie will be available. So what does all this mean!? It means anywhere from 8 months to a year. Ahhhhhh!

But hey, you can always check back for more updates or do something really spontaneous like attend the festival that holds our world premiere. Wouldn't you be the daring one.

2nd Cut

Apparently the rough cut I sent to SXSW as a placeholder is doing well since we're still in the running. I might get an email any second saying it didn't get accepted but as of right now it's good.

We're working on the 2nd cut and trying to get in as soon as possible. As soon as we finish this cut we'll go straight to cutting a trailer.

2nd Edit

So now I'm in the process of re-editing the movie. I've watched over the first cut many times. The first time I just watched it, then the following times I had pen and paper. After several viewings with and without additional audience I've submitted a long list of things to fix in the future cut. We'll be working on a trailer simultaneously but I expect the 2nd cut to be done first since it's arrival will be deciding factor for my acceptance in SXSW.

My editor is on vacation and won't be ready to start working again until the 6th. I've got a trailer written out so hopefully we'll have one next month as well.