Useless, stupid, out of context idea. It started as a joke. This is no merit for art. This is ridiculous, and I'm sorry you wasted time making a video and writing up about it. This is about as helpful as saying "Everything you need to know about how many chairs to have in a film".

Yeah, and how far do you think he would have went if he sucked ass at writing and directing? One movie, maybe two, that no one would watch twice or care about. Who you know only gets you so far - it's a lame excuse people need to drop, and focus on themselves not why other people are succeeding and saying they had it easier.

I was hanging out with Carl Gottlieb all weekend (writer of Jaws). Picked his brain about this topic. He mentioned studios just don't take risks anymore for anything fresh and commercially successful. After a few re-writes they realized making the shark the main character was key. (they took out a love affair that was in the book, and there's a rendition where the mob is running the town too). Great article, guys.

I honestly think, of all the things a film festival selection is, it's not a 'luck of the draw' type of thing. It's not a lottery or a coin toss. They have a selection process in place for a reason.
If you entered 100+ festivals with no success maybe you shouldn't be blaming the festivals. Maybe the short is too long, too many slow parts, bad acting that can't be forgiven. I doubt over 100 festival programmers are all wrong. Just saying.

Gotta love a video essay where you cell phone goes off in the background... and he doesn't bother to re-shoot another take lol

That's not that close at all. There are macro lenses that show the hairs on a fly's leg.