One Thing All Good Filmmakers Do

All good filmmakers finish the job.

When I started acting, I flooded myself with student and short film jobs so I could gain experience. I didn't really want to spend money for more acting classes, especially since I wouldn't be making any at first, and I felt like diving right in would be just as helpful.

It was and it wasn't but that's a different story; I do take classes now so take from that what you will.

The point is, out of the many projects I did as an actor, many of them I still haven't seen. I do occasional Google searches for the film titles and the directors but often turn up nothing.

I work hard on my own films but in my view, a lot of these filmmakers I acted for, worked harder. And a lot of these projects used RED or other higher quality cameras so I really don't understand the lack of follow-through; unless it's a technical difficulty as I know the advanced workflows can be challenging and difficult to accommodate.

I understand the possibility of being disappointed in a product and the desire to hide it but, on all film projects, a single person isn't the only one involved. You had crew, actors; all these people want to see the film. And since most of us worked unpaid, it's the least a filmmaker can provide.

Own my own production side, I'm now seven short films in, all of them are on IMDB giving credit to the actors, the crew, everyone involved. And everyone involved has a copy for their reel and a link to the project for sharing. In unpaid work, this is the compensation and your responsibility as a filmmaker. But on a self serving level, that's also what's getting your name out there. People having your work in their hands, spreads your name, your hard work.

For some, the IMDB may be overboard but it's not expensive to attain [submitting to qualifying film festivals] and it provides people with actual credits that perhaps professionals can lookup and peruse without sitting through to the end of short film. That's my thought anyway.

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