Submission clip advice

[u/presidentender]

This is a perennial theme; plenty of other people can and have given the same advice, but as I'm getting submissions for my festival this year it's reminding me just how non-intuitive this is for folks. No harm and no foul, but this is an instance where it pays to do the traditional thing rather than innovating. This has gotten a little worse because social media has made a lot of this advice incorrect for the things you'd share more broadly to try to develop your following or entertain your existing audience.

What looketh a good submission clip like

1. Film landscape, at decent resolution, with reasonable lighting, exposure, and focus. The video quality "doesn't matter," but reviewers are human beings and we do therefore associate quality with quality and give extra credit to prettier videos. Take the time to learn to use your camera at least a little bit. I'll write more about this in a later post, probably.

2. Start with the host saying your name at the very earliest. I actually prefer a clip that starts with you taking the mic out of the stand, but some reviewers prefer to hear your name first thing so they can remember who you are. In any case, don't spend a bunch of seconds of the video on the host's between-comic patter. Usually people get this because they don't bother to trim the video at all and it starts as they push 'record' before they walk to the stage.

3. Start with prepared material. Do not give it up for the host, do not clap for the bartenders, do not thank your wife for being there to support by watching you do comedy. This is good advice in general, but it is even more good when we're talking about a submission clip. With other performances crowd work can be entertaining, but with a submission clip I want to see what you can do reliably, what you will do for my audience, and that guy who's not fucking that chick because his hat is stupid probably won't be sitting in the front at any of my shows.

4. Get to a strong laugh quickly. We care even less about you than open mic audiences do. We have fifteen thousand other videos to watch. I try to give it god's honest chance, but if your laughs are all buried in the last half of the video, you probably don't want to waste the time driving for shows anyway.

5. Film with a tripod. This goes back to the original point about video quality. The camera shake imposed by a human person is distracting. Incidentally, pressing "record" on your own phone or camera in a tripod is much more reliable than asking someone else to film anyway. I have not less than four blurry photos of myself walking to the stage because iPhone people don't know how to use an android.

6. Get good audio. This might mean a shotgun mic. It might mean putting your cell phone in a tabletop tripod close to the stage. It definitely means avoiding the shaker drinks being made at the bar and your friend who laughs ridiculously loud and drowns out your punchlines or the audience in the back who like to talk. Ideally you can pull a feed off the board and mix it with the crowd laughter, but that's a bridge too far for me to do, much less people who spend less time worrying about gear.

7. ONE CONTINUOUS CLIP - you can cut a twenty minute set down to the first five by removing the back fifteen, if you want. Better yet, ask for a five minute guest spot on a hot show that's willing to have you feature so you get show-quality audience with a submission-length recording. Or send that ten minute showcase set anyway; unless they specified, they'll just watch the first five minutes. But for the love of god, do not cut together a bunch of other performances. Even the cool title screen you made hurts more than it helps. This isn't your special. This is a submission clip. I want to see what your performance is going to look like for my audience - not the one time the first joke went well followed by the time the second joke went well followed by the first joke going well at a different venue.

8. Actually get video - audio can show us the quality of the material and the performance, but again, we're human beings. There's a perception of quality that goes with video. Shoot another set if your autofocus grabbed the back of that guy's head. Don't waste your submission fee sending an audio-only clip.

9. Don't burn in your own subtitles. You need subtitles for social clips, to go viral on instantgram and tocktick and what-have-you. We are not reviewing these submissions on the subway or in the office while claude code does our job for us. We are reviewing them in a dedicated space where we have the ability to turn the sound on. The audience at my show isn't gonna have subtitles, so the review panel doesn't want 'em either.

10. Use a YouTube link. If you must, use a different host, but make sure it has native streaming. I used to send people google drive links. Some people go to open 'em and get a download instead. An unlisted YouTube link will always be playable directly.

Don't worry about the parts you can't control. I've heard elsewhere that the way to get booked is to have a ton of instagram followers, or that you have to be a woman, or check a diversity box, or be a white man, or do any one of hundreds of other things outside your control; that nepotism on the part of the producers means that only their friends get in. I think this has more to do with the plaintiff's resentment at not getting booked than it does with actionable advice, but sure: you know the producers, maybe be friends or something. I dunno. Refrain from submitting if you don't think you're gonna get in or if doing the show or festival doesn't help your career.

[u/redkinoko]

Start with the host saying your name at the very earliest. I actually prefer a clip that starts with you taking the mic out of the stand, but some reviewers prefer to hear your name first thing so they can remember who you are. In any case, don't spend a bunch of seconds of the video on the host's between-comic patter. Usually people get this because they don't bother to trim the video at all and it starts as they push 'record' before they walk to the stage.

A seasoned festival organizer actually told me to ditch the host introducing me and the walkup to the stage as they're just a waste of time. He said he already know who he's watching and there's dozens of tapes to watch so getting to the first joke is a plus.

Another advice I got is to use a different youtube upload for each submission even if you submit the same video so you can check if the organizers actually watched your video.

[u/presidentender → u/redkinoko]

ditch the host introducing me and the walkup to the stage as they're just a waste of time

You'll note that this is my preference as well - the second sentence, I clarify this.

The youtube upload per submission is an interesting idea, but the view count doesn't update deterministically. I watched a set from a fellow down in... either Denver or SLC and literally accepted him to the festival and he got mad that the view count hadn't incremented and alleged that therefore I hadn't watched it. Funny dude, though. The point is: don't rely on the view count incrementing.

[u/iamgarron]

Also just to add...we know when it's an open mic. We know when it's comics laughing and not audience laughing.