Any chance on faster turnaround this time for next fest? Maybe shorten contest dur?

[lucidz]

I know I'm getting ahead of myself (i'm still in sci fest btw), but I get so hyped up towards the end of these things I am dying to start the next one!

Also, it seems like a TON of people, the vast majority in fact, are completeing their shorts in a month or less.

While having 3 months is great, it seems like most of us used it just to procrastinate. Maybe we could do a poll to see how much time people want/need.

Or maybe we could have smaller fests with not quite as large prizes once a month, and then the mammoth contests in tandem every 3 months.

But uh, I could just be an idjet. :)

[Brandon Rice]

Yeah, I like having a long time. It gives time to come up with a concept, write a script, shoot, and take a good amount of time to edit, and score. I think three months is a great amount of time, and well worth it.

[Barry_Green]

We used to have smaller contests every month. Nobody entered. We had one contest where the prizewinner was, literally, the ONLY entrant. Some months we'd get three or five entries.

Then for zombiefest we gave a three-month time window, and got 80+ entries!

So it seems like the community likes the longer time frame.

I'd like to see some variety thrown in; I'd like to see a one-month time limit on a 30-second film. Or even a five-second film. Or more ideas like the "same script" thing. But we did try other things earlier, and the response wasn't nearly as strong.

[macgregor]

Three months are ok for the people that work and cannot spend 1 month entirely shooting a shortfilm.

[Norm Sanders]

Ditto. I like and NEED the prep time, especially if you want to coordinate a crew, talent, write the script etc. They DO have fast turn around times with other contests ... it's called the 48 Hour Film fest.

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

I need the prep AND recovery time

[Brandon Rice]

I need the prep AND recovery time

Totally agree about the recovery time! :thumbsup: LOL!

[Slice]

I like having more time. I think it leaves room for competitors that want to take things to a more professional level.

[bc5431]

I like the idea of smaller contests (maybe just for the sake of making movies, if the ability to fund that many prizes -- and even then, they should be smaller prizes, clearly, to reflect the smaller contests) with shorter films. The shorter a project gets, the more pressure it puts on the filmmaker to really figure out what it is (s)he is trying to say and how to say it. It's like the old "necessity is the mother of all invention" addage, or the fact that poets being forced to fit into seemingly arbitrary rhymes and meters often find the rules help them find the right word. Basically, what i am trying to say in far too many words is that contests with shorter films (and shorter time to make them) sounds like a great idea, if for no reason other than it gives me a reason to go out and shoot stuff.

[wcs]

Although people shoot their stuff in under a month, mine took all of november just to germinate, and then all of december to write and rewrite.

I guess I make it sound like I did it all in january, but the prior two months were just as important.

Thus, I'm a fan of the longer ones. The contests are fewer, but the extra time helps get the lazy off their butts (the prizes help too).

[Pastaman]

I'd like to see some variety thrown in; I'd like to see a one-month time limit on a 30-second film. Or even a five-second film. Or more ideas like the "same script" thing. But we did try other things earlier, and the response wasn't nearly as strong.


I think the "same script" idea would be fun, kinda like project greenlight.

The 30 sec. to 1 min projects would be good too (usually easier to get done)

[lucidz]

Ok I'm sold on the three months, but the same script Idea murdered my inner child.

Watching the a bunch of different actors delivering the same lines under different context 20 times in a row burned my eye sockets :(

[P!body]

Same Script woudl be real cool. it would be neat if it was 90 pages worth of lines for the script. So everyone chooses their sections to do - maybe. My enthusiasm has left me for the idea, but I'd defintiely still enter.

[P!body]

I forgot to mention. I spent about a week and a half on my entire production with a full time job, graduate school, and working at tech for two theatre shows in rep. I didn't really have the time, but I managed in the short time frame. Although I was really kicking myself for getting started so late in the game.

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

Same Script woudl be real cool. it would be neat if it was 90 pages worth of lines for the script. So everyone chooses their sections to do - maybe. My enthusiasm has left me for the idea, but I'd defintiely still enter.

you guys know they did a One Script to Rule them All contest

it was the same text - but the situation wasn't specific so you could take the text as jumpimg off point and take it wherever you wanted

You can see them in Past Contests section

[lucidz]

i found most of that contest painful to sit through jdanstan

:)

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

ummm ... no comment?

just tellin folk's its been done

although Hero's (which won) was funny and watchable and I liked Lyon's Dens full length cut much better than the contest submission

[P!body]

Even when watching the Project Greenlight Second Season selections, it was neat for a while but after the fifth or sixth one it began to get stale, despite the really interesting things some of the people did.

I think opening it up from that would be really neat- having a little choice in the dialouge chosen.

[EditPhish]

I like the same-script idea (picking a scene from a long script), and the shorter duration idea too... I like the idea of combining the two... a 90 page script you could intepret however you like (try to do an short version, or pick a scene) -- and then get it done in, say, 3 minutes. Seems like a challenging idea.

[P!body]

I concur

[lucidz]

ummm ... no comment?

just tellin folk's its been done

although Hero's (which won) was funny and watchable and I liked Lyon's Dens full length cut much better than the contest submission

I in no way meant peoples submissions were bad! I meant watching the same script regurgitated in 30 different ways made my skull ache.

To be honest, after watching 70 zombie films I started feeling like I was watching the same thing just twisted a bit different, and got totally zombied out. Thats why i'm so looking forward to the sci fest. Man alive, no two are gonna be alike! Just our twisted minds runnin' wild!

lookin forward to it!

I like the "take part of a larger script" idea though.