Thanks all for the input, it's great to hear folks taking an interest in objectively improving their films, vs throwing Something at the wall and wondering why it doesn't stick. One thing i would like to add, is that disappointments will happen no matter what, but you should take any disappointments as an opportunity to look critically at what you have, and force yourself to see it from an audience's perspective. Film On!

Hi Darren. Thank you for the video, ironically my name is also Darren and I'm a filmmaker from Australia. I really enjoyed your video. I'm one of those filmmakers who had to learn the hard way. I recently managed to get my hands on good equipment, but for a while, out of film school, I was just acting as a one-man film crew and using a Handycam as I had the belief that a camera is a camera and story was key. I had to rely heavily on my camera's microphone as just being out of film school you can expect that I didn't have a lot of money and hence didn't have any audio equipment. My films weren't getting into festivals and I didn't know why as I felt they were festival-worthy, but obviously they weren't, I guess you can say I learnt from those mistakes that you mentioned even though it has cost me roughly $1000- $2000 which looking back now could have gone on equipment. In saying that though, I have had success as I have won festivals in L.A and one of my films was distributed in the U.K but I experienced mostly rejection. I'm about to make my first film after two years and I am looking forward to getting back into the art that I really enjoy. This time, I will be extra careful in the way I do things. Anyway. Sorry for the long story, I just wanted to share my experience with festivals and maybe someday someone will read this and can learn from my mistakes. Respect from Australia.

Motivating truth. Had a debate with a filmmaking colleague because I brought up certain issues that you mentioned and they said the film is fine and they felt I was being too negative. Smh. I’ll send them this video

Thank you. I went to film school, and they never hit these points.

Very accurate. The storyline, pacing, and audio(score included) is where most fell short. I loved viewing the films, writing the reviews and scoring via film freeway and withoutabox. The programmer really depended us on viewing the films in its entirety.

Great Tips Thanks Darin !! I’m working on a short right now and this is very useful !! Hope to see you at the Festival one of this days!

I wish all festivals would be selecting films that objectively.

Thank you! Hopefully this will stick to mind while filming my short tomorrow!

Thank you so much for your extremely informative and helpful video. I just liked and subscribed. Please keep up the good work.

Insider advice is always appreciated!

Thank you, much valued advice.

What a pleasant and instructive video, Thanks Darren! Flmmaking is so complex and implies so many aspects and Arts put together, patience and precision, and above all: Love That you are helping Us not to kill the baby before even been delivered. Great Tips!

Thank you Sir! Ps: For some reason I can't enter into the Submission form, it saids and I quote: "There is a problem with the resource you are looking for, and it cannot be displayed."

Thanks for this video, great info!!

Wow this was very to the point glad I found this it explains alot of my questions is there a way that I can attend film festivals? And where do I get the dates for them at?

Thanks for the insight!

Thank you for making this.

Great tips!!

nice! I have always been wondering what the requirements are to win a festival.

Thank you brilliant advice :)

I subscribed when he turned to his phone and said shut up. I don't know why I thought that was so funny. Also super helpful thank you.

THANKS FOR THE TIPS

Excellent video

What's wrong with jump cuts? I think they can be nice sometimes, when done well.

To me music is key. The festival in my city is pretty lenient, but do you think I can use certain music without going through the tiring process of getting the rights? My film is short, character driven, and meant to advertise the city itself.

could i get a link to that video you speak of at the end with the criteria for the judging of the film festival?

Hi Darren, do you have any tips for putting on a Film Festival. I would like to start one up in my city Thanks

How to know if you have been accepted into a film festival since I received a submission confirmation email then before the 1st round winners announcement I received a regret notification email that I wasn't selected for this year's edition so I was confused if whether was I initially accepted but later never made it to the 1st round or was I never accepted at all?

I've seen people submit Vlogs assuming there was a short film in there somewhere.

very informative. thanks.

great advice.

Thank you so much :)

Hi Darren, thanks for the video. Didn’t see an email so I figured i’d comment. Have you noticed any bias in the festival circuit towards certain genres or types of film? Thanks!

Does your festival support feature length films?

Is this how to become a directer for making a TV series someday because when I grow up I want to be a TV director

Is submitting earlier gives better chance? I tend to believe that I've been refused a couple of times cause I was at the very last minute and the selections have already been made. Possibility?

Can i apply from pakistan

I’m only 14 I’m gonna go to a film school to know if I can do this

That's some really good advice on how to make a good movie, and how to enter in your festival, which is amazing BTW. However, I suggest that people check out Darious Britt series on how he entered over 50 festivals with his feature Unsound, and got rejected by major festivals (Sundance and Berlin notably) even doh he ended up racking aways from second-tier festivals... Let's take Sundace for example : You have 12 000 subscriptions Over 3000 subs are feature length movies so let's consider that cause I'm ain't gonna risk a short in Sundance and I feel most of us won't invest so much for a short film (although I may be wrong). So they're are 120 slots. Out of that 120, 60 slots are documentaries so screw that. Out of that 60, 30 slots are foreign feature films so, we have 30 slots left to compete for. Out of those 30 slots, 10 of those are celebrity status and will get featured because they get an A-list actor in there. So you're actually competing for 20 slots at Sundance when sending an American indie feature-film, unless you can have an a-list actor which might (or not) get you more chances of getting in, depending on how many other Indie features get an a-list actor on their cast... you might actually compete for 10 slots instead of 20... So all in all great advice in general for movie-making and for your festival, but, that's unfortunately not how it works for most first-tier festivals. Still cool man!

where is the email? How can we send an email Sir... Please guide

super informative. thankyou very much. - LIKE - SUBBED

Quick question, if your film gets an official selection, does that make it an “award-winning film”

How to know if you're accepted but just never won?

good tips 4 realz

I am currently working on my first screenplay (zombie horror) and I believe it to be coming along extremely well. I don't not know how to edit or add visuals but I will not stop until I see my vision played back to me. If anyone has recommendations on who to go to, I will highly appreciate it.

Hey...!! Darren, Hope you are doing good. I got a few queries, how can I contact you, If it's mail, what is your mail ID?

I'll put it this way. I don't judge sound that much compared to pace and story. Why? Because if the sound is not good I won't even watch your movie. I'll watch your shitty image quality movie, but I refuse to watch bad sound movies. And most viewers think exactly the same way. Sound is where the plot becomes clear.

I find it funny, how you take a political stance, by going against other film festivals taking a political stance. Although a general rule is to keep politics out, and avoid conflict. So I do agree... It's just ironic.