So I'm actually a bit excited today. In a little while I'm going across the bay to pick up the final sound mix for Washington Interns Gone Bad from my new sound designer! That is one of the last few steps needed to get this thing released. Now there's just a bit of legal paperwork and getting the video mastered. I'm also getting myself involved with another upstart film festival, but this time I made sure that my involvement is directly tied into my film being shown. It occurred to me today that both reasons for my involvement in the other festival have fallen through and now I'm just grudgingly finishing my obligation to them. I'm not one to put in a large amount of work for very little money unless it's either something that I really believe in, or if I am going to get something out of it. The only reasons I agreed to do any work for this festival was to get my film shown and to have some nice print portfolio work. My film was rejected and the centerpiece of the print work, the program, has been changed by others in a direction which I do not really approve of and through unprofessional means which will make it lose much of the resolution (and basically waste the hours and hours I spent laying it out the right way). Miscommunication has been a constant issue. And I don't even really want to bother going to this festival now. How can I network with other filmmakers when I couldn't make the cut? There's only one film there that I even have any interest in seeing. While the rest of the films are probably great, I will not be able to see them without the perspective that somebody considered them to be better festival fare than Washington Interns Gone Bad. I realize that sounds incredibly egotistical, especially considering that it's a no budget film done by a bunch of first timers and it's at times quite rough around the edges. But when I think of the sort of film festival I would want to attend, I'd much rather see a program that takes risks rather than going for such standard festival fare. What's the point of trying to be just like every other film festival showing the same kinds of films? San Francisco already has festivals like that. Having different kinds of films than typical filmfest stuff is what made Barebones so cool. That's what will make the new festival that I'll be working on cool. And I suppose the silver lining in this cloud is that I'll be able to bring this experience to the next festival knowing what NOT to do.