Has anyone entered their feature as a work in progress into a major festival - meaning it wasn't completed at the time of application - but would be by the time of screening? What was their experience?
Established filmmakers get away with this, and sometimes WIP's are actually screened as such, but it is super risky and here is why- once you start circulating your project, it is remembered... but only a little. If you resubmit later, people tend to make a snap judgement " Oh I have already seen that " and won't watch it again. Obviously this applies to your work submitted to strangers for viewing outside your control- but that's most festival and distributor submissions as a rule.
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Established filmmakers get away with this, and sometimes WIP's are actually screened as such, but it is super risky and here is why- once you start circulating your project, it is remembered... but only a little. If you resubmit later, people tend to make a snap judgement " Oh I have already seen that " and won't watch it again. Obviously this applies to your work submitted to strangers for viewing outside your control- but that's most festival and distributor submissions as a rule.
Thanks Royce, those were my thoughts, too - just not as well articulated - thank you.