In consideration (cont.)

• Austin
  
• BendFilm (Oregon)
  
• Big Bear Lake (California)
  
• Charlotte
  
• Chicago International
  
• Chicago Underground
  
• Landlocked (Iowa)
  
• Maine
  
• Rhode Island
  
• Sacramento
  
• Sausalito
  
• Stony Brook (New York)
  
• Toronto

First rejection came in the mail last Saturday. Disappointed, absolutely, but this is why I didn't put all my eggs in one basket. There are several baskets with my precious eggs. And by eggs, I mean screeners of Transmissions.

On June 8, I hear from Sacramento, and on June 10, I hear from Maine. If I get up to more than half of my submissions rejected, then I'll start to get nervous and/or extremely depressed.

Now that I'm on the defensive, I remind myself that I never had the intention to get into any festivals when I made Transmissions. The important thing, ultimately, isn't that I get into festivals, but that I made a feature film. Festivals or not, not many people get to do that, and for film grads, that's a pretty big deal.

Today I'm spending some much-needed time proofing a draft of Project 2010 after finishing it a while back and not once looking at it. I was, for whatever reason, waiting to hear back from Stony Brook, as though getting into one festival would give me the confidence that something magically-inspiring would manifest and hint that I'd actually have a bit more money for my next project. But neither matter. As with Transmissions, Project 2010 is about making the sort of film that I want to make.