What to Do with Your Finished Animation
WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR FINISHED ANIMATION
Read on for some hot tips for what to do when you think your film is done! Last updated 2021.
1: Format your Film Correctly
Make sure you make and save your film in a format that festivals, galleries, and online options can show! Talk to Erin before you even start making your animation, and again as you’re exporting.
Recommended:
1920 x 1080
24 fps
AppleProRes HQ
2: Make it a look like a “Finished Film”
For animations that you want to screen in theatres, make sure they contain:
– The TITLE of your animation
– Your NAME
– Other CREDITS (for example: animation by Jill Jiggs, sound by Bill Biggs, etc)
– Include Quickdraw’s name if we helped you out! This isn’t all for our pride and happiness, it’s also because there are sometimes opportunities we can only offer you if your film includes this.
– The YEAR you completed your film
For animations you want screened either in a gallery or in unconventional locations, make sure you still have all of this info together, but you don’t necessarily need to include it in the film itself.
3: Inform Your Community
Let us know you made a cool thing! We will be so stoked! Also make sure our Production Director has a copy of it for our own records, we need this for our own funding and it can also help us find cool opportunities for you in the future. It’s a good idea to send it to our Programming Director too!
4: NEXT! Take over the World!
There are many festivals around the world where you can submit your film, and many of them are free to submit to!! Most festivals will screen your film for up to two years following its completion. It looks great on your artist resume, sometimes you get paid, and it helps every artist in Canada to be putting good Canadian work out there. Seriously! So get the heck on it! You can sometimes even get funding to GO to these cool festivals! But first — you need to submit your film!
Prepare your Submission
Upload your film to Vimeo. It can help you slightly to password protect it for the first year or so it is out, but many festivals will still consider programming your work if it is up online for all to see.
In the Vimeo description, include all the information from your credits. It can also be very helpful to include a brief synopsis and links to your website or other work.
Also, if possible try to make it easy for programmers to search for and find your work online, whether it is an artist website or simply your Vimeo page.
Make sure it is clear how to contact you. Have your email address clearly displayed. Oh, and also please double check all your passwords and links work!
Then do this:
Submit to these festivals FOR SURE:
GIRAF (giraffest.ca)
Ottawa International Animation Festival (animationfestival.ca)
Melbourne International Animation Festival (miaf.net)
GLAS Animation Festival (https://www.glasanimation.com/)
Monstra Animation Festival (https://monstrafestival.com/en/)
You should also look into local and online only screenings like:
Local:
Pulp.Digital.Creator (Medicine Hat, Alberta)
Okotoks Film Festival (Okotoks, Alberta)
CSIF Stinger Awards (Calgary, Alberta)
Gotta Minute Film Festival (Edmonton, Alberta)
Online:
Hellavision Television Network
Other Festivals
Check out all the amazing animation festivals you can submit to around the world. Animation-festivals.com is my favourite site for browsing and a great place to start, but there are many others if you’re feeling inspired. Filmfreeway provides a quick way to submit your film to hundreds of festivals at the click of a button. Sometimes this useful, but it does take away that considerate planning of where and who your film will show. Be weary of festivals that charge a submission fee. Sometimes festivals just charge on filmfreeway to discourage a million bouncing ball submissions other times festivals charge to profit off the artists work.
Distribution
Look into distributing your film through the Winnipeg Film Group! They’ve been distributing Canadian films for 30+ years. I wouldn’t rely on them exclusively, but they are a great support. They do take a 30% cut of your screening fees. I would probably submit to festivals myself the first year (if I had the time), and approach WFG the second year about helping to get my film further.
Another distro to consider is the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre