Make Sure Your Student Film Will Attract Film Festival Judges

Posted on: 28 December 2016

If you are getting ready to prep your feature length student thesis film, then it is important to plan ahead and make sure it will make it into the right festivals. You will be competing with lots of other film students, not to mention other indie filmmakers from around the country (or even world). So, once you have the script set, it's time for you and the producers to line up the right equipment, cast, and crew to help the films chances with film festival judges.

Cast Professional Actors

The surest sign of an amateur film is bad acting. Many filmmakers on a budget make the mistake of hiring friends to play the parts. While this might save you money in the short term, it is a sure fire sign of losing you respect with the film festival judges. They won't mind if your friends happen to be actors, but they will definitely mind if it's apparent that you cast amateurs who can't deliver the lines with emotion. No matter how great of a director you think you are, you won't be able to get good performances out of people who are not actors, so make the effort of hiring professionals. If you have a limited budget you can offer them a producer credit. Plus, there are lots of great actors who have only been able to land commercials or extra work would would jump at the chance of a big role.

Hire A Good DP

Don't try and shoot your film if you have never worked a camera before. Just because you might have fun shooting little videos on your iPhone, it doesn't mean that you have the ability to shoot a feature film. You will need a DP who is able to light the set, set up the camera settings, and even deal with things such as dolly moves, and tracking shots. All of these things require lots of experience and it's not something you want to try and pick up on the fly.

Rent A Professional Cinema Camera

A good camera will do wonders for the image of your film. If you only have a low grade, entry level DSLR, the it would be worth it to rent a nice, movie quality camera. If your DP has a good lighting kit, but not a decent camera, then this is somewhere that you should spend some money. You should ask your DP as to what type of camera they are most comfortable with and then hit the camera rental shop, like Camera Ready, and schedule a rental for your shooting week.

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