withoutabox - lets hear your experience? - Page 3 - IndieTalk

Dreadylocks · 03-01-2012, 01:03 PM

Cool. Thanks, Gonzo

DeJager · 03-09-2012, 03:29 PM

Quick question.

That Scamfest individual stated that once you click submit (using withoutabox), you lose all the rights to your film.

Is this remotely true? I just read the fine print on WAB and from what I could understand, it's not even close to being true.

Gonzo_Entertainment · 03-13-2012, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeJager

Quick question.

That Scamfest individual stated that once you click submit (using withoutabox), you lose all the rights to your film.

Is this remotely true? I just read the fine print on WAB and from what I could understand, it's not even close to being true.

Yeah, I think he overstated it. Each submission comes with a "Terms and Conditions" for that festival where you give them CERTAIN rights.

DeJager · 03-13-2012, 05:29 PM

Okay! I would think that... if it were true... nobody would use WAB.

cinephage07 · 03-13-2012, 10:10 PM

great tread!

i readed and maybe miss something:

1. do anyone have finaly get a festival selection with WAB ? (i mea really, not hear about that)

2. have we some details about : "once you click submit (using withoutabox), you lose all the rights to your film. "??

thank you

Gonzo_Entertainment · 03-14-2012, 08:43 AM

I've had films in about 16 festivals all but two of which (I was invited to two by the programmer) I submitted to through WAB.

Gonzo_Entertainment · 03-20-2012, 09:24 AM

Wish the WAB message boards hadn't been taken down so I had a place to bitch...

Fresno Film Festival, notify date was 3/15, no notification, no response to emails. This is why I have bagged the festival circuit for shorts and am moving to the web. The number of festivals run really badly outnumbers the ones run well.

They still have a place if you have a feature you're trying to get distributed, but I've done my festival circuit time thanks.

Fraught · 05-24-2012, 06:04 AM

I have to be honest, my experience of WAB hasn't been great.

I've only entered 3 festivals via the site, and my entries just dissappeared into a black hole! No comments, no emails, nothing.... I just see it as money down the drain!

I've entered lots of festivals around the world, and have had plenty of successes. But going through WAB has done nothing for me. I may try it one more time, and if the experience doesn't improve then i'll probably never use it again.

Gonzo_Entertainment · 05-24-2012, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fraught

I have to be honest, my experience of WAB hasn't been great.

I've only entered 3 festivals via the site, and my entries just dissappeared into a black hole! No comments, no emails, nothing.... I just see it as money down the drain!

I've entered lots of festivals around the world, and have had plenty of successes. But going through WAB has done nothing for me. I may try it one more time, and if the experience doesn't improve then i'll probably never use it again.

I think that's the festival more than WAB. Some fests are awesome with communication, some you don't know whether you got in or not until they release the program on their website. I have gotten IN a fest before and didn't know until I saw my film listed in the program.

Fraught · 05-28-2012, 06:42 AM

True. But i think maybe WAB needs to ensure that any festival that uses them to provide them with entries must insist on good correspondance. It's only polite at the end of the day, and when you spend your £30 (or whatever the cost of entry is), you want atleast something back at the end of the day... even if it is just a thanks but you weren't successful this time and here is the reason why... etc.

I enter festivals that charge nothing to enter, and get better responses from those that charge a small fortune...

Gonzo_Entertainment · 05-29-2012, 08:39 AM

I'm over it personally. I've had films do very well on the festival circuit, I've had films do almost nothing. When I have a feature I'm trying to get distributed I'll be back, but the process of making festival shorts in the rear view at this point. It's largely a racket and full of the kind of bad treatment you're talking about.

Cracker Funk · 05-29-2012, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fraught

True. But i think maybe WAB needs to ensure that any festival that uses them to provide them with entries must insist on good correspondance. It's only polite at the end of the day, and when you spend your £30 (or whatever the cost of entry is), you want atleast something back at the end of the day... even if it is just a thanks but you weren't successful this time and here is the reason why... etc.

I enter festivals that charge nothing to enter, and get better responses from those that charge a small fortune...

I agree, wholeheartedly. There should be some form of accountability, at the very least maybe a rating system.

I got an actual rejection-letter, once. Not a generic mass-email, but a letter. Somebody took the time to write my name on an envelope, and sign the letter. Though it was a rejection, it actually put a smile on my face, and gave me a positive impression of that specific festival. I will submit to them again in the future.

Noctophilia · 06-30-2012, 02:13 PM

I have just started using this site and my advice is to avoid it like the plague.

Let's start with the so-called Discount Bundles. In a lot of words it says that after A HUNDRED entries you will save A DOLLAR EACH. I supposed if you are going to enter your project into everything you see that may be useful but otherwise the possible 25-100 dollar savings are hardly worth giving these people a free cash advance.

As an accountant, that leaves a bad taste in my mouth right off the bat. Shame on you, IMDB, for taking advantage of aspiring filmmakers who have more dreams than bookkeeping sense. Granted the buyer should beware but some brands should be able to be trusted. I am certainly not saying that all artists are easily duped so please don't jump on my case like it is, but the left brain/right brain strengths cannot be denied and while to my husband this sounded like a bonanza to me it sounds like I loan them money that they credit toward something they don't have to pay and that is not worth it to my bottom line if there aren't enough viable festivals to enter. We are aiming for AFI & Sundance, not Bob's Backyard BBQ & Film Festival! (I made that up so if there is one by that name, I'M SORRY, it isn't personal.)

Moving on to site functionality.... It has been down for over 12 hours and we are approaching a deadline that we can only make through the WAB site (side note, the inability to do this through another venue breaches on being a monopoly and really irks me. Either accept late entries or do not but don't use a crappy capitalistic site as the ONLY place to submit them.)

Since yesterday, there have been approximately SIX different error messages up so they are working on the wording of the error message as we speak. PHEW, I feel so much better knowing they can write a good error message, which, by the way, blames everything on severe weather wherever they host their server. How twenty first century, can you say BACK UP SERVER?!?! Interestingly, they didn’t admit this for the first six hours so for a while it said it was down for system maintenance. Shortly after I emailed to ask how long system maintenance normally takes it was changed to severe weather as follows :

“Withoutabox is currently unavailable

Withoutabox is currently offline due to weather-related power outages. We are working to restore functionality as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.

Sincerely,
Team Withoutabox”

Where is your server exactly?

So there is no number to call, of course, they are above customer service calls. There is an email address and hours after you write to them you may get a form reply saying something like "In the event that you miss a deadline, please get back in touch with us when the site is back up, to obtain a deadline waiver. We cannot issue waivers until the site is up." Not that they can tell you WHEN that will be so I get to spend my Saturday sitting here hitting refresh until this ridiculous travesty of greed is up and running so I can find out about this waiver that I shouldn’t have to do to begin with

Why do I already have this dreadful feeling that they are going to say something like
I have to PROVE to them that their site was down?

mlesemann · 06-30-2012, 02:29 PM

I suggest that you find the email address for the relevant festival, and email (or call ) about the problem.

They might be willing to give you an extra day or 2.

I use WAB regularly with very minimal problems. But it's best not to wait until the last minute, and not just because of this....you're catching the judges when they may well have pencilled in most of their schedule already.

Good luck!

Alvarop · 08-07-2012, 02:53 AM

I suscribed to this service and it's kind of weird, but I never found a festival that would "fit" into the kind of films that I make.

I'm more into video art / experimental cinema and I have participated in many festivals this year. Never found one on withoutabox. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, I don't know.