These days I have been working on the new Madrid en corto call; many of the short films submitted are in the final stage of post-production. In most of these cases, they are submitted with the work print, better known by the English term: work in progress.
When you are in the final stage of your film’s post-production process, it is advisable to start planning the first festivals and making the first submissions. These are usually made with unfinished copies, where several processes are still pending, such as colour grading or sound mixes, but they allow a viewing experience very close to what the film will be in its final version.
In most cases, you usually start circulating a work print at the first festivals once the edit is locked. In principle, this copy should not undergo major changes.
To start working on festival distribution during this phase, you have to be very careful, as not all festivals accept them and programmers must be prepared to watch them.
Every time I start distributing a new project that is in post-production, I take into account a series of very specific considerations. Here are some of these key tips; I hope they help you if you are in this process now or are about to lock the edit.
#1 Choose your festivals carefully
It is very important that you know well the festivals that accept work in progress. In principle, these are all festivals that require a world premiere. Also, if you submit a work print, you are making it clear that your film is still awaiting its premiere and that you have hardly submitted it to other festivals, which can even be a small advantage.
Therefore, most A-class festivals accept them, and some others where the premiere is valued. In the case of international premieres, it is understood that your film has already been screened in your country of origin; therefore it should be finished, and it is not advisable to submit work prints.
You can also consider them for national premiere festivals in your country of origin, or where this premiere is especially valued—cases such as Medina or Málaga in Spain, which have recently announced their line-ups. Festivals such as Sitges, Gijón or Seminci also prefer to receive the copies and entries as early as possible, so it may be advisable to submit a good work print to avoid entering on the last day.
On the other hand, there are other prestigious festivals that do not accept it or where it is not advisable to submit it, such as Sundance or Clermont-Ferrand.
#2 Make it clear which processes are still pending
For programmers who often watch work prints, it can be very difficult to know which processes are missing: sound mix, colour grading, digital effects, etc. Therefore, make it very clear before viewing.
You can add an opening title card, or an image as a thumbnail on the Vimeo link. This option can help us a lot, as it is the first thing they would see when entering the video:
The idea is to remove any doubt about the work print so that no one gets confused thinking it is a final copy, or that there are errors.
#3 Work with a permanent Vimeo link
The option of using Vimeo links for distribution has been one of the great advances of recent years, especially for submitting work prints.
You can upload the copy and generate a link very early on. From that moment on, you must be careful to always keep this link working. This allows you to start registering your film on submission platforms and make the first submissions.
As you progress with post-production, you can replace this copy, but be careful: always keep the same link. This way you ensure that programmers will always see the most up-to-date copy.
You can do this from the File option in the video settings within your Vimeo account:
As you will see, this is a great advantage for several reasons: you do not have to communicate each update, and you can add subtitles as you have them.
Also, keep in mind that from the time you submit until the copy is viewed, a few weeks may pass—plenty of time to upload a more final copy.
Start planning as early as possible
In summary, the idea is that you start planning the festival circuit very early, if possible from post-production. Review the most important festivals in your segment with premiere requirements and submit the work print with the password-protected Vimeo link.
This will allow you to have the first communications as soon as possible and to validate early the first festival options you have planned.
It is not necessary to have all processes completed to start planning your film’s distribution.
Start as soon as possible.