This year I had the opportunity to serve as Assistant to the Director at the Greater Lehigh Valley Film Festival in Bethlehem, PA. Part of the job included being on the panel of judges that determined which submissions made the cut, and which submissions were, well, cut.
Of the films that got the axe, there was one grievance that came up as much as or more than any other - not just for me, but for the whole panel.
“This is too long.”
Other complaints were common too, such as “uninteresting characters”, “no stakes”, “poor acting”, “poor production quality”, etc. But surely all of these flaws are not by design; no one sets out to make a film with boring characters. My point is, all the common complaints about works by indie filmmakers are downfalls that they (rightly) try to avoid.
Except for length. Length is not widely seen as a bad thing.
But it should be.
As much as I hate to use a cliche, it is 110% true when it comes to filmmaking: less is more. The films that did the best in the Greater Lehigh Valley Film Festival utilized every moment of screentime efficiently. One of the most widely-liked films of the day was two measly minutes long. That filmmaker knew how to cut dialogue, shots, or scenes that didn’t contribute in the most efficient way possible to his story, a process called killing your darlings (because film people are very macabre).
Consider why films like Titanic and Avengers: Endgame worked. The former had a script written by James Cameron, a veteran writer who spent decades learning how to create compelling characters and drama, along with performances by masters of their craft, Leo DeCaprio, and Kate Winslet. The latter was the ultimate climax of twenty-one huge-budget action films that audiences had been engaging with for over a decade. The average up-and-coming filmmaker just doesn’t have anywhere near this level of mastery or resources.
So, to make the best impression on an audience, use only the best cards you’ve got in your deck. Every moment of your film needs to engage, so films with long runtimes need to work extra hard to do so. Now, it’s time I take my own advice and end this Irishman of a blog post.
What other common mistakes do you see by up-and-coming writers?
-John Wrigley