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Written by Paul Bruce
A little while ago, Lee at Shore Scripts asked us to pass out the Skinny on what makes festival programmers get to like your films and what kind of things it’s best to avoid, so we put our heads together and by common consensus, we can positively recommend the list here, but there’s no doubt that numero uno on the top 5 things to do is:
1) Check Your File/disc/drive! Seriously, the number of films we get missing bits of the film, is beyond counting, so the golden rule here is, if it hasn’t been checked then it probably won’t play!
2) Make sure your film is as good as it can be. Nothing beats having a really great short. Don’t rush post-production because of deadlines, remember you can always submit it again next year! It’s always worth spending as much time on your film as you can, it’ll pay off when you do finally send it somewhere.
3) Follow the Guidelines as closely as possible- usually there’s a good reason for some seemingly arcane instruction, so if you aren’t sure then it’s always best to ask – just drop the festival an email and they’ll clear up any queries for you.
4) Make sure you have some back-up promo material for your film, stills, posters etc, different sizes and resolutions, or an EPK if you can. We can really use those if you get selected.
5) Select your festival carefully, think about where you’d like your film to play and weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of each festival on your list.
And on the other hand, for Pete’s sake, don’t….
Hope this is useful and good luck!