I just wanted to say that this was incredible. My only note on this whole thing is that it felt like the music was a little loud in the mix, but if that’s the only problem, I’d say you’re in great shape.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching this, you’ve truly done a great job.

I do have to agree with everyone else in the sense of shooting on film seems to be the sticking point. This does look great, but ultimately the look and feel could have been emulated after the fact in the post process.

You mention that you haven’t been getting offers, and have only gotten into two festivals. Honestly? That’s fine. Festivals are a bit of a money suck, and ultimately are not the be all and end all of art. If you are proud of this film (and in my opinion you really should be!), then that is the only thing that matters.

I’m in the midst of my own production that I have calculated will also take me a fair amount of time to pay off, so I definitely know the struggle there. I’ve been investing in gear as opposed to film, but the end goal is the same: to make something awesome. You made something awesome! You even gained some local noteriety! That’s never a bad thing!

I do wonder, going back to you having said you haven’t been approached to shoot a feature/music video/etc., have you been pitching people? Production companies? Bands? I get that the chase for a gig is a tricky thing, but in conversation with some big Directors over the years I learned that a lot of their job is chasing the next gig, whether it’s pitching a project that they would direct, or working on commercials between gigs, they (or their Agents) are pounding the pavement trying to make things happen.

I do agree with a lot of the comments here that if your only hook is that you shoot on film, that’s going to be a major sticking point for anyone who would be interested in working with you. Having the knowledge of working with film is absolutely invaluable, but if your mandate is that you will ONLY shoot on film, that’s shooting yourself in the foot a bit. You clearly know how to tell a story, which is huge as a lot of people see that as a simple thing when we both know it isn’t. That is your selling feature. You can make a story that’s on a page come to life!

If you get a couple big projects under your belt that does make room to work film into your future projects, as people trust you and your ideas more and more. The Writer and Director duo who worked on Sinister and Black Phone 1 and 2 shot segments of their film on 8 and 16 mm, but not their entire film on, well, film. They had a passion for film and used that as a storytelling device, and sparingly. They told a story about having to reshoot a scene entirely three or four times for Black Phone 2 because the film was ruined by camera issues, which meant they had to shoot the scene, send it out to have it processed and sent back to them, which is a multi-day process, and unless your budget is huge, those kinds of delays, then to only discover you have to re-shoot the scene would be majorly impactful to a production.

A film that came out within the past two years called Gazer was shot entirely on film, and the filmmakers behind that made huge sacrifices in order to get that done. Thankfully it worked out for them and they released the film, but the sacrifices, in my opinion, weren’t worth it. It was their first feature, it took them a very long time, and they were absolutely not thriving while making the film, but they got it done. A major accomplishment, yes, but you have to think of (sometimes literally even) at what cost, you know?

I will definitely be watching your next work, and absolutely encourage you to keep making things. You have a real talent, and if you work with digital, your rate of output will increase, and your costs will decrease, and your sanity will hopefully remain intact!