Conduct some research into the possible outlets for your completed film. This could be looking into film festivals, local opportunities (e.g. Showroom Shorts), charity groups or organizations that may have an interest in the theme of your film or online video hosting platforms.
For the presentation of my film, I am going to look at film festivals which have a large comedy section/ are comedy themed. I will also look at internet hosting platforms such as Youtube and Vimeo as many comedy style videos have done well there before mine. Both of these options have their upsides and downsides and I will go into more detail and research them to find the one that is best.
For my film I think a good place for it to sit would be at a festival that I have attended before, Aesthetica Film Festival, was one that I was keen to send my film off to as I thought that my film would fit in there as when I have been in the past films similar to mine have been shown and I think that it would fit into their comedy showing well. For entry into this festival all entries have to be submitted by the 31st of May and must meet the following technical criteria:
- Quicktime wrapper – Apple ProRes 422 codec.
- Audio Codec – Integer 16bit 48KHz Stereo
- Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Progressive
- Frame rate: 24fps or 25fps
To submit a film to them, you first have to pay a fee to enter, which was paid for me by the college however it is usually about £10, I think this is a good roundabout price for the festival as it does give good exposure and a chance for your film to be on screen and in the official booklet.
When submitting it asks you for some information about the film, along with three print-quality film stills to be used in the festival programme. It is a simple questionnaire and asks about the basic information for your film, such as the title genre etc. This is where it is very important that you present your film correctly and give it an appropriate title so as to give it a better chance of being accepted. For mine, I made sure the title clearly said ‘Robo-Dog” with all the correct information in the right boxes and everything spelled right. I also wrote a short synopsis for my film, using the structure of previous aesthetica comedy films to write it, as this would make it look like the real deal. It also asked for three pictures that could be included in the program if the film gets in. This is quite an easy festival to apply for as if you have edited your film in either Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro then that software will have the right export settings selectable in the final render options, however, if you use any other software which is a little bit left field or less well known that might not have any support or may not have the technical specifications that the festivals ask for. Below is a screenshot of the email confirming my submission to the festival.
Another place I could show my film is at the showroom shorts screenings which take place every third Tuesday of the month at the showroom cinema on patanoster way in Sheffield. This is a screening of short films that have been made in the local area of South Yorkshire and some films that were made elsewhere but have either proved popular with audiences. This is the only exclusively Sheffield/South Yorkshire based screening opportunity that I have come across, specifically the only one in which my film would be eligible for as comedy films made by students tend not to be funny so nobody really has a market for them to thrive. Showroom shorts asks you to email a link to your film to them or send an MP4 to them and they will get back to you if they want to include it. This is very different from the Aesthetica process where you have to fill in a form, I think this is because with Showroom shorts they have the time to go through the entries and can sit and pick out the good ones whereas with a larger scale festival with multiple venues and films from all around the world its much more difficult, another thing with Showroom shorts is that it is free to enter and attend so for a smaller budget film-maker it is ideal.
The last festival I looked at that I could enter my film into was the “London-Worldwide Comedy Short Film Festival” which takes in entries from all around the world. I have never personally been to this festival, unlike the aesthetica festival however from what I could see on their website they seem like a good one to try for. It takes place at Hackney Picturehouse in London with entries needing to be in by September 12, 2018, the actual festival takes place on September 21st so it would be best to get the film in before the final day. The category that my film would fit into in this Festival is the Student Comedy Short 2-10 minute category, which would cost me $9 at this stage to enter. I am unsure as to why the pricing system is in dollars if it takes place in the UK but I can only assume it is because it’s a global festival and US Dollars is a standard unit of pricing. In the rules and terms and conditions part of the website, it gives some legal information, such as how long they will play your film for etc. By submitting and being accepted you give them permission to play the film for up to a year after the festival for promotional reasons, this wouldn’t be a problem for me as getting the film all the exposure it can get will not be a bad thing. There is no technical specifications part of the website so I’m going to have to assume then when you submit the film by signing up with their website it will need to be in a similar wrapper to the other festivals I have looked at on this list. This will not be a problem as my film is already exported in this format and I have it ready and waiting, I think this could be a good choice to put my film into.
The final place I could host the film is on an internet video sharing platform like YouTube or Vimeo. These are both viable options however both have some pros and cons to them and how they run as companies and platforms. YouTube is a bigger company than Vimeo and has more users and much more watch time in hours every day on the platform. Vimeo, however, gets only a fraction of Youtube’s views but it is more of a platform for creators and creative people who make films with it being a less crowded environment with less reactionary content. If I was to put my film on Youtube it is likely that it would not do well as YouTube is suited to either short comedy videos or quick based reactionary content with relation to the current events of the world. YouTube is a place for videos that could go viral or videos that can be shared and commented on easily, although many YouTube filmmakers exist such as Bertie Gilbert and Sammy Paul, they do not get as much recognition for their actual films as other users get for their gaming videos. Taking this into account I have decided to put my film on Vimeo rather than YouTube, as Vimeo is more of a sophisticated environment where the algorithm is designed to allow creative videos to do well, whereas on YouTube its based off of views which a short film wouldn’t get. However, for ease of viewership on this blog, my film has also been uploaded to YouTube, with appropriate tags and descriptions.
In conclusion, I will be sharing my film on three different platforms, those being Youtube, Vimeo and Aesthetica festival. Aesthetica asks for the premiere rights to the film so I will have to wait until I hear back if I have successfully got into the festival before I can submit it to others, however, I can showcase it on the internet before then. This means that once it has been shown at Aesthetica or rejected by them I can then email the Showroom Shorts about my film and see if they’d be interested in showing it. Premiering it at a big festival to then follow it up with a smaller screening and then an internet showing is a good tactic to get people interested in the film because it has a chance to reach a much larger audience than it would otherwise get just being on the internet or in one festival. I have decided to send my film to the London Worldwide Comedy Short Film Festival if it does not get into Aesthetica, as the deadline for the London festival is much longer than Yorks. I decided to do this so it will definitely get into one festival.
Vimeo Link Password: Robo-Dog1
Andrew Exley 
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