Interation One – Work in Progress
What's the point of launching the first Iteration of the festival screener at Cannes? Why climb Everest? In your shorts? Because, it's there.
Here's a few links about sending a work in progress. Of course this is a highly competitive festival. But as Shri Fugi Spilt so adeptly pointed out in the podcast, somebody has got to get in, why not DOG?
One consideration a festival has in considering a work in progress is whether the work in progress will be completed by the time the festival happens. How do I know DOG will be wrapped by May?
- What's left to do?
- Who will do?
- Is there an adequate budget?
- Is there an adequate talent and and skill commitment?
- What if I die or am injured?
- Other?
- Is the director famous, track record of completion? For instance, Apocalypse Now
Un Certain Regard, how do features get into that category?
What makes DOG unique among in progress projects?
- Weekly updates on progress via a well established podcast
- Resumes of full time staff and crew committed to completion
- could easily deploy milestones and a checklist
- Open source, WATCH progress happening
With 5 days remaining, I feel like writing a letter to explore my motivation for sending a work in progress from an unknown director to a super competitive festival. Why would I?
The cast and crew of Daughter of God would like to thank the Festival du Cannes for the opportunity to offer this work in progress. Although shot in Canada with an international cast, the Daughter of God was primarily produced in the United States of America and represents an American voice that is not unique, but likely unfamiliar to the world at large. Please standby for an unauthorized transmission from the heart of the Death Star, L’Étoile Noire.
If the Cannes jury is intrigued by Daughter of God but skeptical about the status of the project, then this letter is relevant.
Why then, should Cannes consider Daughter of God, the first feature from an unknown director, that, as of March 6, 2019, a work in progress?
From the festival's perspective, they are likely reluctant to schedule a film that might not be ready in time for the festival, even if the film was exemplary and the director had a history of completed movies. Film making is notoriously unpredictable, even on the eve of completion a project can self destruct.
Written in Palm Springs, California, produced in Brooklyn, New York, shot in Ontario, Canada and all over the USA and finished in Michigan, Daughter of God offers an American voice which is not unique, but perhaps unfamiliar to most Earth people.