Below are the questions we’d like you to ask while you’re producing your movie for submission. They are the same questions the judges will ask when critiquing your movie, providing feedback, and determining award winners.

Meet the Judges here.

Getting By (2005). Directed by Joe Bell, Waukesha West High School.

Content Criteria

• Did you remember a title sequence?
• Does the content of the movie, whatever the category, tell a story?
• Did you create or document characters, in settings, with some sort of conflict or problem or goal?
• Does your story offer a new way of seeing or relating to the world, not a cliche one?
• Is your story accessible to a wide audience?
• Is your story interesting and relevant to our culture and society?
• Did you remember a full and detailed credits sequenece? (link to example)

Emotional Response Criteria

• How do you want the audience to feel?
• What do you want them to remember after the credits roll?
• How will you challenge the audience’s beliefs and perceptions?

Cinematic Criteria

Shots

• Will it be clear to an audience that you planned out your shots?
• Did you compose each shot to focus the audience’s attention on the action, the emotion, and the intended meaning of each scene?
• Did you keep the background simple and meaningful?
• Did you avoid anything distracting in the camera’s view?

Camera movement

• Did you stabilize the camera with a tripod or a steady hand?
• Did you choose camera movements, or lack of movement, that will enhance the action, emotion, and intended meaning of each scene?

Editing

• Did you organize the shots to tell the story?
• Did you choose smooth transitions from shot to shot, scene to scene?
• Did you edit the length and pacing of shots to reflect the action and emotion and meaning of each scene?

Lighting

• Did you shoot with enough light?
• Did you avoid shots that are backlit (either by the sun, a window, or a bright light)?

Sound

• Did you keep your subjects close to the camera?
• Did you try to eliminate background noise (crowds, talking, wind, etc.) as much as possible?
• Did you balance, in the editing process, the audio tracks?

To boil it down: Did you make intentional choices of shots, movements, transitions, lighting, and sound in order to tell a story?

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