MicroCineFest FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

MicroCineFest festival director, Skizz Cyzyk, answers some frequently asked questions. These are questions taken from interviews and unsolicited emails. If you have a question, send an email with "FAQ" in the subject line.

To answer the question, "What sort of films and videos are you looking for?", click here.
We have devoted an entire page to explaining what we want and don't want.

Click the links below to skip to a paticular question.

What are the restrictions on applying films (length, budget, etc.)?
What do you mean by underground, substream/psychotronic?
What formats do you accept?
Can I still enter my film if I'm a certain age, or I'm from a certain country, etc.?
My film isn't finished. Can I still enter it?
What kind of soundtracks can you do? I think most fests only take, or prefer, optical sound - is this true?
Do WE (the filmmakers) have to have clearances for music in our pieces? Or does it really matter?
I'm poor. Can you waive my entry fee?
Why do you have to have an entry fee in the first place?

What makes MicroCineFest different from other festivals?
I sent you an email / left you a phone message / mailed you a letter. How come you havenŐt responded yet?
What's the best way to send you something?
What are the average budgets for the films you accept?
What do you consider low-budget?
How does your selection process work?
How many films are accepted into your film festival each year? Out of how many applicants?
What do you have to offer the filmmakers who come to your festival?
Do you have awards? If so, how many/year?
Are there any cash prizes? If so, how much/each film?
Do you offer any financial aid to film production yourselves?
Do you believe that being accepted to your film festival makes a significant difference to short/independent film directors? If so, how?
Do you believe that being accepted to your film festival makes a significant difference to the further distribution of the selected film? If so, how?
If my film gets rejected, should I hold a grudge and bash the festival any chance I can get?
A "Best Of MicroCineFest" show came to my town. What's that all about?

What are the restrictions on applying films (length, budget, etc.)?

We don't have any restrictions regarding length, budget or format. We're mostly concerned with content. Our festival's niche is that we're looking for ambitious, low-budget projects with a substream/psychotronic bent to them. We get plenty of entries that are reality-based dramas with comfortable budgets - we're just not interested in that stuff.

What do you mean by underground, substream/psychotronic?

"Underground" has become a very vague term these days... so vague, in fact, that we've often considered dropping the term from our festival description (but haven't because the term still manages to weed out people looking for mainstream entertainment). But generally in filmmaking, "underground" refers to, or should refer to, daring, cutting-edge, do-it-yourself ethics appreciated by a small, in-the-know audience. "Substream" is sort of like "Subversive" except without all the rebellion and shock-value qualities that are usually associated with subversive works. It's referring to a sense of being "non-mainstream" for no specific reason except that it is what it is and it just happens to not be mainstream. A certain faction of cinephiles will recognize the word "Psychotronic" as the title of a really cool magazine that focuses a lot of attention on cool genres of B-movies. The term has taken on a life of it's own and now tends to represent a genre itself; one that mixes unusual ideas, questionable production qualities, and the potential for cult status.

What formats do you accept?

First, your submission tape must be a half-inch NTSC VHS tape (that's your basic North American videotape for those of you that don't know) or a Region One DVD. Other than that, we welcome projects of any format (8mm, Super8, 16mm, 35mm, video, DVD, etc.). Certain formats cost more to use and as a result, less low-budget filmmakers use them, which means we get fewer entries in those formats. Since we are a low-budget film festival (not just meaning that we show low-budget films, but that we run our festival with little-to-no money), sometimes it's against our financial interests to rent an expensive projector or video deck to screen a small fraction of our programming. In cases like that, we will opt to screen those particular projects in a different format.

Can I still enter my film if I'm a certain age, or I'm from a certain country, etc.?

Absolutely. Anyone who wants to can enter his/her/their work. Just print out the entry form on this website during our Call For Entries, follow the instructions and send it in just like everybody else. Your age, gender, race, nationality, location, etc. are of no concern to us. What we're concerned with is whether or not your work is the sort of thing that we're looking for.

My film isn't finished. Can I still enter it?

Of course. We're filmmakers too, so we know what you're talking about. You still need to send in a videotape, but we understand if it's a bad video transfer of a work print, or the music and titles aren't final, or something like that. Let us know, but don't worry about it - as long as the finished version will be ready in time for the festival in the Fall.

What kind of soundtracks can you do? I think most fests only take, or prefer, optical sound - is this true?

Yes, for a 16mm or 35mm film, most festivals do insist on optical soundtracks. We don't have a reliable dual-system for projecting a workprint in sync with a mag-track yet (that's on our wish list), and synching up a cassette is a hassle for the already-busy projectionist. Usually, when it becomes a problem, we'll just project the video transfer instead.

Do WE (the filmmakers) have to have clearances for music in our pieces? Or does it really matter?

That's a good question, which we get often enough. We (MicroCineFest) do not require you to have music clearances. We do, however, require a signature on the entry form which essentially indemnifies us if any legal problems arise. So if you enter something without having the proper clearances, and we show it, and somebody decides to make an issue out of it, we can't be held responsible. (that's just us covering our tails). I know that sounds a little discouraging. The truth is we get tons of entries from filmmakers who haven't bothered to clear any music rights, and we show many of them anyway, and so far nobody has complained and nobody has gotten in trouble. In fact, the only times I ever hear of anyone getting in trouble over something like this is when their film starts making lots of money or starts getting a lot of attention (in which case, the worse that happens is the filmmaker gets slapped with a Cease & Desist order until an arrangement can be made to "share the wealth"). It does happen, but not very often. Our fest and the films we show are usually too far under the radar for any lawyer to waste their time on.

Q: I'm poor. Can you waive my entry fee?

A: This is one of the most painful questions we get a lot. We know you're poor - that's why we've made our entry fees as cheap as possible, and that's why we give plenty of warning on this website of what we're looking for and not looking for so that you don't waste an entry fee. I wish we could waive everyone's entry fees, but then we couldn't afford to have a film festival. I realize a lot of film festivals are big money-making ventures, and so "it can't hurt to ask" since one entry fee is just a drop in the bucket of an otherwise huge operating budget. But we're not a big money-making venture, and while it may not hurt you to ask, it hurts us to have to say "NO". Despite our entry fees being much lower than the average film festival entry fee, the money raised from entry fees is our festival's main source of income. We need those entry fees to survive.

Q: But I'm not asking you to waive everyone's entry fee, just mine.

A: Waiving the entry fee for one filmmaker simply isn't fair to all the other filmmakers who pay it. So here is our policy on waiving entry fees: If someone from our programming committee has already seen your film and thinks it's something the committee will like, we'll ask that filmmaker to enter and we'll waive the entry fee. We often refund entry fees to fest alum and local filmmakers if our Call For Entries raises a lot more cash than we need. That's one way we're able to give something back to our community and the filmmakers who have supported us in the past. I hope it's obvious that we're not greedy, but I also hope it's obvious that we need money. So please don't ask us to waive your entry fee.

Q: But I don't understand why you have to have an entry fee in the first place? There are other festivals that don't have entry fees.

A: The easiest answer to that is we charge an entry fee so that we can afford to have a film festival. But even more than that, a filmmaker willing to pay an entry fee is a filmmaker confident in his/her work. If we're going to devote the time it takes to process an entry, watch a tape, and mail out a letter, the entry fee serves as our insurance that the entrant is serious enough about his/her work for us to bother. Festivals that don't charge entry fees suffer from having any ol'body enter any ol'videotape because it doesn't cost them anything but postage. Those festivals get swamped with tapes that never get shown. Anyone who has given up all of their evenings and weekends to watch stacks of these kinds of tapes, particularly now that the digital revolution has convinced too many people that "anyone can be a filmmaker", will know exactly what I'm talking about.

What makes MicroCineFest different from other festivals?

As a festival, MicroCineFest tries to keep a certain spirit about itself. We're the film festival equivalent of a D.I.Y. punk show, except we're very concerned with things like presentation, organization and doing things for the right reasons (that way our festival can still be enjoyed by people who would normally have a lousy time at a D.I.Y. punk show). Our audience is encouraged to be a little rowdy during certain programs - as if watching the films at our festival was like watching them in your living room with a bunch of friends. We try to keep the festival as laid back as possible while still having its act together. Our festival is run by filmmakers and cinephiles as a labor of love. Everything about our festival is designed based on what we liked and didn't like at other festivals we've been to. We specialize in showing low-budget works with odd subject matter that most other festivals wouldn't be interested in. We're similar to other "Underground" film festivals, but we manage to differentiate ourselves on a few levels. First and most obvious, we're not in a city known for being a big cultural Mecca. No, we're in Baltimore, MD, a town with a long history (40 to 50 years) of underground & experimental film and music that has gone mostly unnoticed by the rest of the film world (yes, there has been a lot more to Baltimore's underground film community than just the early films of John Waters, bless his heart). But in recent years, Baltimore's film community has EXPLODED! New crops of film students, cinephiles, productions, film clubs, festivals, you name it - Baltimore has a newly increased amount of them all. And MicroCineFest is catering to a particular niche within it all. So we have a built-in local audience starved for culture they won't find anywhere else, AND we're close enough to Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and some say New York City, that our audience isn't necessarily all Baltimorons. Second, our programming steers clear of a lot of what we refer to as the "sex/death/fetish" genre of underground film that other "underground" festivals tend to favor; projects that are underground just because they are shocking , offensive or subversive. We have nothing against those qualities as long as the overall film is entertaining enough that it passes our selection process. But keep in mind that when a film is shocking and subversive just for the sake of being shocking and subversive, and is shown to an already open-minded audience who can no longer be shocked, if it doesn't have high entertainment qualities it's just another boring film, which, therefore, does not belong in our programming (the "Preaching To The Converted" phenomenon). And third, if you take a look at our entry fees and ticket prices, you'll notice that we're obviously not trying to be a moneymaking machine. Instead, we're trying to be something affordable to people like ourselves (despite inflation, we didn't increase our ticket prices until our ninth year, and our entry fees until our tenth year). Film, like theater or any other artform, shouldn't be something that only upper-class snobs can afford. It should be open to anyone interested. And the idea of spending the equivalent of first-run movie admission prices to see low- budget underground films you've never heard of seems sort of risky, if not foolish, doesn't it? In that respect, we're also open to the curious who want to get a taste of what it's all about without having to throw away a lot of money.

Q: I sent you an email / left you a phone message / mailed you a letter. How come you haven't responded yet? That's not very business-like.

A: Exactly - we're not very business-like. That's because MicroCineFest is a hobby, not a business. We don't have set office hours because we're too busy at our real jobs. Sometimes we can go weeks, maybe even months (particularly January thru June) without doing any MicroCineFest-related office-type work. So don't sweat it if you don't get a quick response from us. If you haven't heard back from us after awhile, and your question is still important, feel free to contact us again. (If many months go by and you haven't heard back from us, there's always the chance we lost your message. Your best bet is to hit us up again after June).

What's the best way to send you something?

Aside from sending it to our address (3700 Beech Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21211), we recommend regular mail (U.S. Postal Service) - it's cheaper and we've never had any problems. (Make a note that during our Call For Entries we ask that you send your entry to our PO Box in order to save our mail carrier from having to lug all those videotapes to our door). When sending us something, any delivery service is fine provided a signature is not required at the time of delivery. We discourage you from using UPS and Federal Express, simply because they only deliver to us during the day, which is when we're likely to be at our real jobs, and often times they won't leave packages. So for us to get packages from them, usually ends up being inconvenient and when we finally do get the packages it's usually several days after we were supposed to. Besides, special delivery services cost a lot more money - money you could be spending making films.

What are the average budgets for the films you accept?

The only time we ask for a film/video's budget is if the filmmaker wants his/her project considered for our LOW-BUDGET AWARDS (we give the LOW-BUDGET VIDEO AWARD to the coolest video made for less than $100, and the LOW-BUDGET FILM AWARD to the coolest film made for less than $1,000). Otherwise, we have no idea what a film's budget is. We can sorta tell by looking at them whether or not they had a low budget.

What do you consider low-budget?

Good question. Low-budget is a very vague term in filmmaking, especially since a million dollar budget is considered a low-budget by film industry standards. Personally, a million dollars sounds like a lot of money to me. A "MicroCineFest low-budget" is anything around $0, going as far below that figure as possible, and as high above that figure without becoming unaffordable to the average video store clerk or busboy. Yes, I realize that's still pretty vague, so I'll put it this way; we've screened works that have ranged from anywhere between no-budget to around $200,000, but we have no concrete figure as to what low-budget is. Now don't ask me how a video store clerk or busboy is able to raise $200,000.

How does your selection process work?

The entries arrive and are watched by members of our screening committee. We rate each project on it's content, creativity, originality, ambition, - preferring the most un-mainstream of the bunch. We have frequent screening committee meetings where we get as much of the committee as possible together to watch entries as a group (like a test audience). All the projects are put in order of how they rated in the screening process. Then based on how much screening time is available at the festival, we figure out where to the draw the line. The projects under the line get rejected.

How many films are accepted into your film festival each year? Out of how many applicants?

It varies each year...
In 1997, we didn't have a call for entries at all - it was invite-only. We showed approximately 60 works.
In 1998, we had 150 submissions, of which we showed 120.
In 1999, we had 230 submissions, of which we showed 101.
In 2000, we had 250 submissions, of which we showed 89.
In 2001, we had 365 submissions, of which we showed 89.
Each festival usually consists of around 20 different programs, each running approximately 90 minutes, over the course of 4 or 5 days.

What do you have to offer the filmmakers who come to your festival?

Any filmmaker who comes to the festival gets an all-access festival pass. We can also make arrangements for filmmakers who bring guests. Any filmmaker coming from out of town can make arrangements with us to pick him/her up at the airport/bus depot/train station and put them up with AT LEAST a floor to crash on, if not a couch or bed. We're glad to have you and we want to make it as easy on you as possible. During the festival, we have free activities planned for filmmakers and festival staff - these include trips to some of Baltimore's more interesting museums, a duckpin bowling party, breakfasts & brunches, and parties. After the festival, we send a package to EVERY accepted filmmaker that contains the festival program, press clippings about the festival, and special deals on merchandise.

Do you have awards? If so, how many/year?

This also varies from year to year. We don't concentrate on the awards too much since we don't think film should be a competitive sport, but we still have them since it's just as much fun to give as it is to receive. Besides the LOW BUDGET AWARDS, we have the same awards as most fests: best feature, best short, best documentary, best animation, best experimental, audience choice, etc. We put together a panel of "celebrity" judges each year, and make them watch everything in the festival, and then they decide what gets awards (with the exception of the Audience Choice awards). The judges are free to create any award category that they feel deserves recognition.

Are there any cash prizes? If so, how much/each film?

This also varies depending on who we get to sponsor us. The prizes come from the sponsors. In 1998 Kodak graciously gave us a lot of film to give out as prizes. In 2001, Final Draft gave us scriptwriting software to give to the 1st Place Audience Choice winners. We don't really have any money to give out, but we try to make arrangements to give out donated goods & services. Plus, we make sure all the winners get a framed certificate. Besides that, we have door prizes before each screening that are open to anyone with a ticket stub.

Do you offer any financial aid to film production yourselves?

No (not yet, at least). Our slogan is "Big Ambition On Little Budget" - that applies to the festival as much as the films. We're very careful with our funds because they're very limited. Since we're far from a mainstream festival, or even the typical independent festival, we have a hard time finding sponsors, so we have to carefully penny-pinch. And since we're geared towards the low-budget filmmaker, we make our festival affordable to them ($3 ticket prices, free popcorn, low entry fees). All of that combined means there really isn't much extra to spare.

Do you believe that being accepted to your film festival makes a significant difference to short/independent film directors? If so, how?

I'd like to think that it does. Considering that we're looking for things that other festivals have no interest in, I imagine we're the only festival a lot of these films will ever screen at. So it gives the filmmakers a chance to screen their work in front of an audience and hang out & get feedback from their peers, which should be encouraging to them. Plus, by our very existence, these filmmakers know that there are people/festivals out there who want to see the kind of things they make, and that adds a bit of hope and encouragement as well.

Do you believe that being accepted to your film festival makes a significant difference to the further distribution of the selected film? If so, how?

That depends on how significant the difference is. Our festival is completely un-associated with the film industry simply because industry = money = consumers, and since there are so few consumers for low-budget underground film, the industry would lose money if it tried to make a buck off of it (or they wouldn't make enough of a buck to make it worth their while). So they're not interested in us and we're not interested in them. However, in our program and on our website we include contact information for each work we show, and as a result, many of our filmmakers have been approached by other festivals or screening venues and have gotten their work shown to more audiences. Who knows, out of that they may get picked up for some kind of distribution in which case, yes, it did help that they were in our festival. A distributor may not see your film at MicroCineFest, but other film festival directors will (since we invite them to the festival to be judges or VIPs), and that can't hurt.

If my film gets rejected, should I hold a grudge and bash the festival any chance I can get?

Sure, if you think it well help - it's been done before. OK, I admit it, I made this question up. But believe it or not, it happens. I've never seen a filmmaker make a festival look bad by bashing it, but I've seen some filmmakers make themselves look bad by trying. Before you enter your film you should realize that entering film festivals is a lot like gambling: you might win (get accepted and maybe win an award), or you might lose (get rejected and waste an entry fee). Keep in mind that it's a group decision that determines whether your film is accepted or rejected, and just because you get rejected doesn't necessarily mean that your film is "bad". In fact, most of the films we end up rejecting are rejected for one of two reasons: 1). The film was good but just didn't fit our programming, or 2). With limited screening time available, we can only accept so many films before we have to draw the line. So please, if you enter and get rejected, don't take it personally. I can tell you that I have seen many films get rejected by MicroCineFest over the years, and many of them went on to show at plenty of other festivals - sometimes as a result of someone on our screening committee seeing it and recommending it to other festivals where they might fit in better (remember, our screening committee is made up of people who do a lot more than just watch entries for MicroCineFest all year).

A "Best Of MicroCineFest" show came to my town. What's that all about?

Every now and then we're asked to put together a "Best Of" program and take it to another city (like Atlanta, Georgia; Washington, DC; Park City, Utah; Shepherdstown, VA; or Liverpool, England). It's usually a different program of shorts depending on the city and the expected audience, but it's curated from all the films shown at MicroCineFest since our first year. We're hoping to do more of this in the years to come. If you would like us to bring a program to your town, please contact us.

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