Find out what festival screeners think

A smart move from the Festivus Film Festival; this series of YouTube videos presents volunteer screeners talking about the films they pulled from the stacks and got through to programming. It's a great way highlight the films in your festival, present yourself as an organization that keeps its filmmakers' interests in mind, and draw attention to your event in the process. There's a bunch of these on the Festivus FF Youtube channel.

Last Day Dream - a 42 second short film

Last Day Dream [HD] from Chris Milk on Vimeo.

Produced for the 42 Second Dream Film Festival.

Watch this: Doc short on managing your expectations on the festival circuit

Seven excellent minutes from filmmaker Zak Forsman on why you want to show up at festivals and what you should work to get out of them. This video starts a "virtual panel session" from filmmakers in the Workbook Project.

Friday Flick: Trevor's in Heaven

This is a great example of what I call "next-level" humor in short films. So many comedies make jokes that only play on the obvious and go in the expected directions. Trevor's in Heaven lulls you into thinking you know what's going to happen next and then slaps you around for a bit, always escalating the humor to the next level. Just watch.

SXSW bids howdy! to Atlanta film fans

A clever bit of marketing from the Atlanta Film Festival -- interviews with indie film insiders (including yours truly) on the streets of Austin during SXSW, singing the praises of both Atlanta and Atlanta Film Fest. Fest director Gabe Wardell and his peeps shot the video using tiny Flip cameras. Festivals often use video to promote their events through film trailers and the occasional "festival trailer," but creative projects like this one really accentuate the fact that there are other ways to use the medium.

And speaking of video projects, I'm long overdue to plug parts 3 and 4 of Mark Potts' series of ads for the Film Festival Secrets book. I'll embed each of them here soon but if you were too lazy to go look for them yourself I didn't want to deny you the pleasure of watching them any longer. Part 4 is fabulously tasteless.

Not one, but two fake mumblecore trailers

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The Dirty Garage - watch more funny videos

For those of you on the outside of this particular in-joke, here's the Wikipedia entry on the mumblecore "movement."

Film Festival Secrets Promo #2

Though most of you have likely torn through all four of these, I feel like parcelling them out one at a time here on the blog. Savor them. Promos by Mark Potts of Singletree Productions.

Creating reminders for film festival deadlines (screencast)

Creating Reminders for Film Festival Deadlines from Film Festival Secrets on Vimeo.

The first of a series of video tutorials on useful tools you can use to make your life on the festival circuit easier. With Sundance and Slamdance announcing their slates, a number of filmmakers are looking into their festival options for the rest of the year -- only to find that the deadlines for many Spring festivals have already gone by.

Don't miss any more deadlines! Use these free web tools to send yourself automated reminders when the dates approach.

This video is available to share on Vimeo and YouTube.

Susan Buice's "Smothered"

Nice to see that Susan is making movies again after all of the effort that went into selling and promoting Four-Eyed Monsters.

I Heart Global Warming - November 12 10 p.m. e/p on Current

Current is establishing itself as a combination web/TV documentary powerhouse, and films like I Heart Global Warming are cementing that reputation. If you're a doc filmmaker and you haven't considered Current as an outlet for your material, tune in to I Heart Global Warming and see what Current is up to now.