Uploading to Youtube/Vimeo disqualifies from festivals/comps?

C

CrackDown

Member
Hi all,

I've recently finished my first short, and want to 'get it out there', but people have told me that if I upload it to youtube or vimeo, then it can be detremental to your chances with festivals/competitions, as a lot of them say you can't enter films that have been screened publicly (ie. on youtube). Is that true?

Thanks
 
If your short was not created for a specific fest that has specific rules against showing it prior to that fest taking place, in general I think you'd be OK putting it up on vimeo. I wouldnt go with youtube.
 
If it's "freely available" on the internet, many even most festivals don't want it. For shorts they generally don't care as much about "premiere" status as they do with a feature, but they do very much care if anybody who wants can watch it on the internet (be that vimeo or youtube). They are charging people to watch the films at their festival. Why would people want to pay if many of the films could be watched for free on the web? I have a short I finished almost 6 months ago now and it's still not on the web and won't be for another 3 months or so for that very reason.
 
Most small-to-medium sized festivals don't have a problem with your short being online. Don't do this for features and larger festivals.
 
kylevant said:
Most small-to-medium sized festivals don't have a problem with your short being online. Don't do this for features and larger festivals.
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Even most mid-tier care in my experience. If the programmer googles your film and there it is online. It certainly isn't going to HELP your chances.
 
gonzo_entertainment said:
Even most mid-tier care in my experience. If the programmer googles your film and there it is online. It certainly isn't going to HELP your chances.
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Well that's just in my experience. Went through about 500+ Withoutabox festival listings and many of them declared that they don't have a problem with it.
 
I never went to THAT extreme in festival research, but have entered around 100 with 3 different films and gotten into 25 or so. Also talked to a lot of festival directors. The majority, in my experience, care. They don't care about premiere generally (though some do want a regional premiere even for shorts), they do care about it already being on the web.

If it was me, and a festival run for the film was part of my plans, I wouldn't risk it. Not unless I was going to limit myself to festivals that explicitly state they don't care. That's just going to make for a fairly short list. In 9 months or a year when you're done flogging it on the festival circuit, THEN put it online.
 
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