I recently finished a 25 minute short... it's a comedy shot with NO budget (ok well maybe like a $100 bucks MAX)... it was shot on a $600 Canon HV40 (obviously not exactly "top of the line" camera wise), the lighting varies somewhere between amateur, and occasionally decent (used a real basic lighting kit, but I'M NO LIGHTING SPECIALIST) and the audio is overall decent, but still on the amateur side ... so put it bluntly, it has a definitely has a budget-less look to it.
When I originally was in the writing phase, I always had pictured doing a festival quality short, but as production began (and my wallet cease to exist), and I began seeing dailies/editing I realized making a festival quality short (by which I mean technical quality, not necessarily substance quality) was pretty much out of the question. I like to think I don't suffer from too many delusions of grandeur, so for the remainder of the production and post production I mentally put the film into the "for fun, for practice, to learn" category, and just sorta figured I'd throw it on VIMEO or YOUTUBE and share with my friends etc...
This is where things start getting fuzzy and confusing for me...
So after I finish the film, I decide to hold off posting it online until I show some close friends/all the people that helped make it (this was to make SURE that I wasn't gonna embarrass myself by pushing a really bad movie on the world without realizing it lol)...obviously close friends (and the people involved in making it) will be a bit more bias then a total stranger, however after viewing it, based on the very strong "laughing with the jokes" they did, they all seemed to genuinely LOVE it! Again, although these opinions were a bit bias, it still made me feel REEEAALLLLY good inside! So shortly after I started showing it to 2nd tier friends/co-workers/ anyone that might be into comedy etc etc...
I started trying to push it on people NOT telling them I had made it (to try and gauge a genuine reaction from them)... before i knew it most of the people I was showing it to liked it a lot. now I have friends and acquaintances left and right telling me I should 100% totally enter it into film festivals blah blah blah...
So after weeks of debating what the hell I should do with this thing, I'm totally lost in my own head... so after that overly long introduction I'll make my questions as "bullet to the point" as possible.
1. Do I post it online for all to see AND send it into festivals? (I always thought if you were gonna try the festival circuit you're never supposed to post it for the whole world to see until after the festival run, but again, I'm an absent minded creative type, not the business type...)
2. Do I just throw the short online for anyone to see, risking the wrong kind of exposure (and possibly getting my material ripped off)?
3. Do I avoid posting it online altogether and only try and put it in festivals (which all seem to be a full year away at this point) on the off chance I actually did produce a zero budget gem?
4. Do I use zero strategy and just whore it out to anyone with eyes ears and 25 minutes to spare?
I know many will approach assuming its probably not as good as I hope or think it is, or as good as many say it is... but just imagine for a second that it IS in fact a halfway decent short that just lacks some technical polish.
What would you do? What do you think I should do? I've spent countless eye bleeding hours searching through these forums and the internet in general for some advice to no avail... I'm so burnt out on the project now, but still want it to get its due (weather that be 200 friends on facebook, or 2 billion people around the world)... I just don't know what to do with the damn thing anymore. ANY opinions or advice would be SUPER AMAZING right about now... thanks in advance...
When I originally was in the writing phase, I always had pictured doing a festival quality short, but as production began (and my wallet cease to exist), and I began seeing dailies/editing I realized making a festival quality short (by which I mean technical quality, not necessarily substance quality) was pretty much out of the question. I like to think I don't suffer from too many delusions of grandeur, so for the remainder of the production and post production I mentally put the film into the "for fun, for practice, to learn" category, and just sorta figured I'd throw it on VIMEO or YOUTUBE and share with my friends etc...
This is where things start getting fuzzy and confusing for me...
So after I finish the film, I decide to hold off posting it online until I show some close friends/all the people that helped make it (this was to make SURE that I wasn't gonna embarrass myself by pushing a really bad movie on the world without realizing it lol)...obviously close friends (and the people involved in making it) will be a bit more bias then a total stranger, however after viewing it, based on the very strong "laughing with the jokes" they did, they all seemed to genuinely LOVE it! Again, although these opinions were a bit bias, it still made me feel REEEAALLLLY good inside! So shortly after I started showing it to 2nd tier friends/co-workers/ anyone that might be into comedy etc etc...
I started trying to push it on people NOT telling them I had made it (to try and gauge a genuine reaction from them)... before i knew it most of the people I was showing it to liked it a lot. now I have friends and acquaintances left and right telling me I should 100% totally enter it into film festivals blah blah blah...
So after weeks of debating what the hell I should do with this thing, I'm totally lost in my own head... so after that overly long introduction I'll make my questions as "bullet to the point" as possible.
1. Do I post it online for all to see AND send it into festivals? (I always thought if you were gonna try the festival circuit you're never supposed to post it for the whole world to see until after the festival run, but again, I'm an absent minded creative type, not the business type...)
2. Do I just throw the short online for anyone to see, risking the wrong kind of exposure (and possibly getting my material ripped off)?
3. Do I avoid posting it online altogether and only try and put it in festivals (which all seem to be a full year away at this point) on the off chance I actually did produce a zero budget gem?
4. Do I use zero strategy and just whore it out to anyone with eyes ears and 25 minutes to spare?
I know many will approach assuming its probably not as good as I hope or think it is, or as good as many say it is... but just imagine for a second that it IS in fact a halfway decent short that just lacks some technical polish.
What would you do? What do you think I should do? I've spent countless eye bleeding hours searching through these forums and the internet in general for some advice to no avail... I'm so burnt out on the project now, but still want it to get its due (weather that be 200 friends on facebook, or 2 billion people around the world)... I just don't know what to do with the damn thing anymore. ANY opinions or advice would be SUPER AMAZING right about now... thanks in advance...