AUDIENCE COMMENTS
Night Club Story

Watch the other MODERATION Videos from the AUGUST 2008 Film Festival

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The AUGUST 2008 WILDsound short film festival was easily our best event yet! After 19 festival nights using the FEEDBACK session after the films are screened, WILDsound has found the formula for that exact line between what makes a great festival night to what makes just an average festival night.

It's the art of finding the balance between HONESTY without JUDGMENT!

No one really wants to hear JUDGMENT. It comes from a negative place, plus it's so easy to do. Someone making bold judgments about someone else's work really isn't that productive. The filmmaker really doesn't gain anything from it and the audience and online watchers of these video don't either.

What we try to do is always give honest evaluations of the films that are screened. Mainly how the audience and moderator were emotionally effected by the films that were screened. Sometimes certain moments in a particular film doesn't work, which leads to a great discussion to why it didn't. Then creativity happens all around the cinema as people want to chime in on whether they agree or disagree. But the trick is for our MODERATOR to keep that creative line moving and for the evening to not go into that negative place.

There have been some magical moments in some of these 19 feedback sessions and everyone goes away feeling good. They were entertained, inspired and possibility learned a thing or two. Especially the filmmaker. It's our job to always make each night as magical as this month.

As soon as someone reacts to a film and doesn't come from a creative place, a lot of bad things can occur. It's our job to stop when that happens right away.

One of the underlying themes for this month's event was SELF-ACCEPTANCE! Each main character in the films presented had to go through a journey of accepting their current life and faith. And for most of these characters, this acceptance was an extremely difficult journey for them.

A lot of these films were premieres and seen by audiences for the first time. It's WILDsound's job to make sure they get the best experience they can achieve, and hopefully with the feedback session make them better filmmakers.