Film Courage: Have you ever had a filmmaker submit their film to Hollyshorts, have it
get rejected and then come back to you and say “You were right, it wasn’t up to screening
level.”
Daniel Sol, Hollyshorts Film Festival Co-Founder: That really hasn’t happened.
Not that I can recall or a direct story, no.
And that’s something that is interesting.
There are various ways we can do things to help encourage people to come out.
Like if people follow it.
If you send rejection letters, people may not follow up or say anything.
Quite frankly we’re not going to chase them down and say “Hey you should write back
to me or give me a response to my rejection.”
Obviously we’re not going to chase that down.
But many people respond with “Hey, why didn’t I get in?”
Or some people send really nice emails or constructive criticism emails asking for whatever.
Some people are angry and ignore that if it’s really nasty and that type of stuff.
We get all types of responses.
We we often see if people say “We’d like to have a thorough discussion why.
Why didn’t I get in.”
And we will say Hey, here is a discounted pass to screenings.
Come to the festivals, come check out the films yourself.
And you can compare and contrast and see hey maybe this is why my film didn’t live up
to these standards and now I understand why.
But that doesn’t happen.
It’s very rare that filmmakers will accept the pass after that kind of email and actually
come take the pass to the festival.
It does happen some time not very often but as far as the next step as far as coming up
to watch the film and actually having a conversation with us I’ve never had that conversation.
Like just come up and “Hey Daniel I saw the film and I just want to talk to you.
I can’t believe you guys offered this pass to come and check out the films.
It didn’t make it in but I’m here to see and you know what?
I understand or I see, I learned something about this or that or whatever the case.
I don’t think my film is up to par, that doesn’t happen.
Maybe they come in and say “I think my film is better.”
Fine but we can have that conversation and at least they will be at the festival watching
films, attending, taking part.
Being accepted or rejected doesn’t mean you can’t take part in the festival and
buy a ticket and come back.
You can buy a ticket for the general public (the general festival audience) to see films
and see the festival and participate.
That should happen more often.
They talk about it as the film school, they talk about the films that do get in versus
the films that don’t get in.
And students getting disappointed by other students getting in and they don’t get in,
why don’t they come out?
How come people don’t come out and see the films as wells and encourage that?
You should be at the festival and taking the films in and seeing what might not have worked
for your film.
That’s important information and something that should be chased down.
They should be knocking on our door to attend the screenings at our festival.
Not “Oh…forget you guys!
You stink!”
This idea that we stink and it’s your fault not mine or something that’s not the right
mentality.
And that’s what I think is a revealing mentality is that it’s never anyone else’s fault
but ours [i.e., festival programmers].
Not to say that we don’t get things wrong.
I’m not sitting here trying to toot our own horn but it’s true that there are probably
many times that there are reasons why the film didn’t get in and be good.
It would behoof a filmmaker to say “Let me go check these films out and see what’s
going on.
Let me see what they are looking for.
Let me get a little more information.
They don’t even research all the festivals to see what they are submitting to.
It’s just part of the process that you should know.
It shouldn’t be something that you should act blindly to like my film is amazing and
my work is the best and I just believe in it wholeheartedly and so I don’t care about
anything else and I should get in and that’s it because okay I’m right.
Okay well that’s not necessarily real life so it would be good if people would actually
take initiative that way.
And I’d be really happy and pleasantly surprised if that happened but it just doesn’t.
Even offering things like pass discounts and stuff where people encourage to come out and
check it out.
See what’s what and what other films are there and maybe what did or didn’t work
or why didn’t they get in, it’s not something that happens because it should happen more
often and it doesn’t, it’s just rare.
Film Courage: Do you accept rough cuts for submission?
Daniel: Yes we do (for submissions)?
Film Courage: Do you recommend this?
Daniel: I mean I don’t necessarily recommend it, no I don’t.
But I can think of a few off of the top of my head right now.
This one film that made it that was a rough cut that they submitted and it was a giant
rough cut too because there was a whole element missing of a big part of the story missing
with visual effects that would have enhanced…they made it much better when it was done.
But knowing what was there and what was to come I could see how great the story was and
the potential of what the film was and was really enjoying.
I knew that of course I needed to see the final cut to see what that was.
If the visual effects were hideous then that ruins the whole thing but they were great
and it was really good.
I had a feeling it was going to be very good and I loved the movie so it still worked and
it ended up getting in.
So that was a rough cut and it was a big one in the sense that a big element of the story
was simply not even there at that time.
It’s hard to describe without getting into the details of the story and stuff.
So some rough cuts can still make it in no problem.
It’s not some kind of detriment but it can be if how rough are we talking here?
Some films are pretty rough cuts where…okay…I can’t really gauge how good this really
is?
As this stands it cannot compete so I guess what I’m getting is if it’s too much of
a rough cut or there are still too many elements missing it probably is best not to submit
that just for a deadline especially because look I mean we have out deadlines but oaky
‘Early Bird.’
You might save $10 to $15 or something if you submit earlier.
If you submit early you save some money.
Later you have to pay a little more but I’d rather pay more money and have a final cut
if I can and have a chance to get accepted in that way and have my best work forward
instead of saying well I saved a few bucks I’m going to submit that deadline.
I’m so eager to get the deadline.
So if I give any advice I’d say look don’t worry about that.
Spend the extra money.
We’re not talking about a hundred dollars here.
We’re talking about $10 -$15 bucks difference of a deadline.
Wait, get it ready and submit the instead of rushing for that deadline just to submit.
It’s better to submit the final cut if you can.