So most of you know that I’ve just finished my first short film. I’m assuming you know, anyway it turned out to be one of those bittersweet experiences.  That’s a story for another day, but what I’d like to think is that, I learned and will grow from the experience.  So the next step on this journey was to submit More Cake to film festivals.  My original intention was to pick the top 10 and only submit to those, however I received a healthy dose of REALITY when a fellow filmmaker showed me the list of festivals he had submitted to since last year.  He was over the 100 mark and still going. “It’s a numbers game, and you have to develop very thick skin,”  he advised me.  I understood what he meant when the first rejection hit my inbox, the searing pain in my chest caught me by surprise, so did the tears that unexpectedly flowed like a burst dam.  I curled into a ball, pulled the blanket over my head and tried to shut the cruel world away.

That first rejection hurt like heck and I tried to figure out why it was rejected by watching the film over and over until I was actually quite sick of seeing it.  Because to be honest, all I could see were the things that weren’t quite right and deep down I admitted to myself that what I ended up with – although quite good – was not the film I pictured in my head.  So I’m now thinking, do they know about  these other pictures, can they see into my cerebral cortex, do they have a way of miming and comparing.  I know, too crazy. Maybe that can be the subject for my next film.

Anyway I digress. So moving on with my tale, by the time the second rejection dropped into my inbox I’d grown an extra dermal layer, so although it hurt, it was minus the dam and blanket.  I could function, all I felt was the searing pain which lasted about an hour or so, then eased into a dull throb.  I’ve now received a total of 5 rejections, six if I count the festival that didn’t even bother to send a rejection email, and I can honestly say I’m inured.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m still slightly disappointed and will continue to be with each rejection, but the naive expectations that coloured Sade’s World  have flown the coop and I’ve learned to not expect anything.

So my new strategy is for every rejection I receive, I hunt around for another festival to send it to. Sadistic much? Naa. Just filling my life with possibilities, because the truth is, if we have nothing to strive for, to aim for, to dream about – my current dreams centre on winning the lottery or an Oscar, or a BAFTA. Last two are doable for sure – then what is the point of things?

Okay so I’ve digressed a lot.  The title of this post is The Value of Feedback and I haven’t even talked about that.  So I sort the opinion of a professional, a person who has been in the industry longer than I’ve been alive and whose judgement I greatly respect.  They were quite complimentary and had some awesome suggestions on frames, shot sizes and where to put the camera.  However the one thing that they said that still has me puzzled was that More Cake is too intelligent and he had to work too hard to understand.  Can a film be too intelligent?  I guess so, this is one of the big lessons I have learnt, the audience don’t always get the subtlety and nuances a filmmaker layers into their film.  So sometimes it is good to be a little bit more obvious and not assume that THEY see the images that you see.  They certainly do not.  Okay I’m out.