Impress the Judges: How to Succeed in Video Contests

Movie festivals and competitions are an excellent and effective way to show your productions to large audiences. Winning a video contest can also improve your resume and score you some valuable prizes, but first you have to make sure that your tape will be seen and that it is put together in a way that will catch the eye of the judges.

As a judge of a popular student video contest in New York State, I have a pretty good idea of how judges evaluate movies, so I can offer some advice about entering and winning video contests. We'll look at the sorts of things that might disqualify a tape immediately, how judges react to movies and what sets average submissions apart from those that win contests. Even if you don't aspire to win a contest, the same principles that interest judges will also help you captivate your audiences. Your reputation as a moviemaker will spread from family to friends to an ever greater circle of viewers.

Don't Get Disqualified
The first step to winning a video contest is not getting disqualified. When it comes to entering contests, the organizers might disqualify your tape before the judges even see it for simple, easily avoidable reasons. To avoid that fate: