Secret Criteria
We are getting close, my friends. A little under two weeks away, teams are starting to form. We have been getting a lot of posts and questions about the Secret Criteria. As always, the criteria won’t be released until Friday Oct 23. BUT we wanted to get some feed back from you guys (after all, we put this festival on for you) What do you guys want in criteria? What works? What doesn’t work? Any suggestions?
If we get over 25 DIFFERENT suggestions for criteria, we’ll randomly pick one of those to be added to the list!
So now its your turn to tells us what you want!
Let us know how we can better the festival for you.
“What a great opportunity for young filmmakers to show their craft for good causes. Everybody wins!”
“The Wild West Film Fest has been bringing it to the Lawrence film scene. It is one of the best examples of what filmmakers are looking for in a festival.”
“The Wild West Film Fest puts filmmaking back into the hands of the people. It’s indy film in it’s purest, grittiest form. A great opportunity for local filmmakers to get their work seen by audiences.”
How about requiring a cast of at least 5 people?
I like the idea of not only some random criteria (like buttons and ice cream) but also changing it up technically. For example, for the scare fest what if everyone HAD to do a Creature story? Or a Slasher flick? Or a suspense thriller in the STYLE of Hitchcock? Or maybe those should be the themes for this year, take all the different themes within the Horor genre and divy them out among the teams like you guys did with the summer fest…
1)A poorly-lit corridor
2)A cellar door
3)A bloody knife/bludgeon
4)A severed limb/body part (i.e. eyeball, guts, etc.)
5)A creaking door
6)A bat (animal)
7)A smashed Jack o’ Lantern
8)A phone with no service/dead battery
9)A toy
10)Trick-or-Treaters
11)“I’ll be right back.”
12)“If I’m not back in 5 minutes . . .”
13)“Don’t go in there!”
14)Creepy child
15)The moon
16)Wilhelm Scream
17)A clock showing/striking midnight
18)Candy corn
19)A witch
20)Black cat
21)Scarecrow
22)Chainsaw
23)Goalie mask (a la Jason)
24)Axe
25)Eggs
i think just a few simple things for reference so that the contestant can prove they are making it in the 48 hours. I think it might be a little unfair to force a certain kind of horror genre as some of us only have the $25 to enter and that’s it. I like having freedom and not being constrained.
I want to see some creativity, and i think if every movie is either vampire, zombie, or werewolf it wouldn’t be as much fun.
how about it has to be indoors, there has to be a closet involved, some has to say “why would you leave me?”, and no one can use a camera boom cause that’s absolutely ridiculous.
Hey! How about some examples of Criteria from previous years?
make it simple and make it easy…too strict of criteria can limit choices…just make it so it will be hard to cheat so that it will be shot on the weekend the more open we filmmakers have the better.
1) Someone’s (Or Something’s) Shadow.
A Train Horn.
2) Eye Glasses.
3) A Ticking Clock.
4) A Sunset.
5) Falling Leaves.
6) Birds.
7) Scissors.
9) A Running Shower.
10) Children.
11) “Trust Me.”
12) A Corn Field.
13) Black Trash Bags.
14) Barbed Wire
15) “You’ll Never Make It!”
And mark down a vote for the Wilhelm Scream!
“i think just a few simple things for reference so that the contestant can prove they are making it in the 48 hours. I think it might be a little unfair to force a certain kind of horror genre as some of us only have the $25 to enter and that’s it. I like having freedom and not being constrained.”
Agreed.
I agree, I think the criteria should be loose. Some ideas suggested, such as the “clue concept,” has a foul aroma of premeditation. It should be kept open to the horror genre, not to specific horror subgenres. Keep it simple. By doing so it will be the most interesting.