GENERAL RULES & ETHOS - 2023
Please read carefully.
Entry to the Nightpiece Film Festival is considered as follows.
Section A.1
GUIDELINES FOR THE CURATED PROGRAMME (ALL SUBMISSIONS from 2021 onwards)
All Entry Categories
1. From 2021 your short film can be submitted with no restriction on screening status;
simply enter the right category UK or Europe/Rest of World to help us with programming.
2. Short Films must be between 1m00s and less than 15m00s in length.
3. Your film or production company is expected to run it's own respective Social Media campaign for the film. Acknowledgement of your film's inclusion in the programme is an essential process of our marketing campaign and should be a priority for your film too. We reserve the right to de-select your film if you do not make basic efforts to promote your work.
4. For general guidance, films should align with the following statements:
- Be of a rating that roughly aligns with ‘BBFC’ Classifications e.g. PG / 12A / 15 / 18
- Be of clear narrative construction.
- Be of a technically screenable quality.
- Be made after Summer 2019.
5. We reserve the right to de-select your film if it falls a basic Quality Control (QC) review. Poor quality audio - where dialogue is unintelligible or overly processed with noise-reduction - is usually the biggest reason for a rejection on this basis.
6. Our preferred specs for the screener are as follows:
Resolution: 1920x1080 16:9, HD (2k)
3840x2160 16:9, UHD (4k)
Audio: Stereo
Format: Quicktime ProRes 422 (HQ)
Frame rate: 23.98fps
Try not to submit odd aspect ratios (e.g.1920x806). If the ratio is odd put your finished film in a 1920x1080 HD or 3840x2160 container.
If selected, please supply films as soon as possible or set 'downloads enabled' on a private Vimeo link.
7. If picked as an early selection, we need an excerpt of your finished film for the trailer before 1st June 2023. (These dates subject to change year on year as per Festival requirements)
8. The early selection is usually announced early June to coincide with EdFringe Programme launch day, however additional selections are made beyond this point up until the latest deadline advertised. (These dates subject to change year on year as per Festival requirements)
9. We expect to see a direct acknowledgement of your acceptance of the film into the programme no more than 14 days after the selection notification from FilmFreeway. In the case of 'late' selections we need confirmation within 48hrs. If you DO NOT acknowledge your film's inclusion it is unlikely we will screen your film.
10. Please include a LOGLINE and or SYNOPSIS in your FilmFreeway application.
11. We reserve the right to reject short films that do not meet the key criteria as detailed above.
Section B
OVERVIEW GUIDANCE
By submitting to the festival the contributor declares that he/she has obtained all necessary rights and permissions to present the film at Nightpiece Film Festival.
The filmmaker must own or have cleared copyright of all aspects of the submitted film. This includes all music and images used. Nightpiece Film Festival accepts no responsibility, financial or otherwise, in regards to clearing copyrighted material.
By submitting a film for consideration to Nightpiece Film Festival the filmmaker/production company grant NFF the right to screen the film throughout the duration of the festival in any capacity and to use the material submitted for promotional purposes prior to the festival.
Section C
FILMMAKER ATTENDANCE
1. Covid-19 has changed the World. We now simply assume Filmmaker attendance is impractical for most. In previous years we endeavoured to provide 1 complimentary filmmaker ticket for each selected entry, however, in the hands of EdFringe, box office ticketing is often beyond our control so this is not guaranteed. Full details will be announced closer to the event in 2023.
Section D
PRIZES & INCENTIVES
1.Unless specifically announced, no travel or accommodation expenses, incentives
or prizes of any form are offered to Filmmakers participating in the Nightpiece
Film Festival.
Section E
COVID-19 CONSIDERATION
1.We expect the Covid-19 Pandemic to influence our daily lives for the forseeable future.
Should the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe be cancelled contingencies/change of venues etc. will be announced as the situation unfolds, however, we still managed to run the 2020 event and the 2021 event so our efforts will always be on focused on presenting a live event. As per our experiences of recent years, we will inform filmmakers of difficulties as we face them.
SECTION F
DATELINES
1.The 2023 datelines indicated are subject to change or revision.
NIghtpiece Film Festival (Revised October 2022)
Festival Director, Al Carretta
