A short film that is too short?

Recently, I found out about the Treasure Coast International Film Festival and put it on my watch list since the fees are not expensive to submit films to this festival. However, it seems that some shorts are just too short in the case of Lighten Up.

A notification arrived about one week ago regarding an upcoming deadline for this festival. I checked out the website, went through my inventory of a few Lighten Up DVDs letfover from my initial batch and then proceeded to submit this into the short film category, only to find a warning that Lighten Up is too short based on the film submission requirements of the Treasure Coast International Film Festival. I knew that short films submitted in the shorts category MUST NOT be longer than 45 minutes (or 25 minutes for students, go figure). What I did not know was that shorts could not be shorter than 2 minutes. The comedy, Lighten Up comes in somewhere around one minute and 30 seconds.

So this short, although it falls into the general "short film" classification in the entertainment world is not long enough for all film festivals. Lighten Up falls *short* (how ironic and annoying) of having a chance to screen at a film festival by 30 seconds. It is times like this that I am grateful for all of the online video websites that screen shorts whether they are 2 minutes or 10 seconds. Granted, you have to get through a lot of useless and corny videos to find the good ones but it is still a way to get comedies like Lighten Up out to an audience. By not waiting for film festivals, Lighten Up has been seen on Myspace, YouTube and the IFC medialab.
Thanks to all who have watched it (and extra thanks to those who have left feedback).
Being too short for the Treasure Coast International Film Festival is not a big deal right now. I will just have to make a note that some future short films and videos should at least be 2 minutes in order to take advantage of the opportunities out there on the film festival circuit.

Within the last 2 years, I have learned that short films can actually be too long. Now, I have also learned that they can be too short.

Photo: I know that it is pixelated, so what! That is all that can be posted right now. The Movie is more clear. Watch Lighten Up here.

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Lighten Up finds a home at IFC's Media Lab

After testing the waters on various online video destinations, Lighten Up has officially found a home at the IFC channel's Media Lab. Initially, the one minute short movie attracted a small amount of views. Currently, Lighten Up has been seen by over 600 audience members. It also has a rating of 3½ stars out of 5.

With the IFC Free Film Fest coming to Philadelphia and a few other cities for their summer movie screening tour, it will be a pleasant surprise if Lighten Up is screened before the public in the city where this production took place.

Thanks to all who have watched and voted for Lighten Up!

Lighten Up Switches from ifilm to YouTube

After a little over a month or so, Lighten Up has been moved from ifilm to YouTube. Madlab Entertainment changed the short's online home due to the quality of the video player and a disappointing number of views. While checking youtube after the switch, Lighten Up had about just as many views as it did on ifilm. However, the number of youtube views came within a few days. To me, that is much more worthwhile than having the same low amount for over one month on ifilm. While it is easy for many videos to get lost in the crowd on YouTube, it looks a bit more promising.

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