A couple of years ago I was working on a manuscript for a short film. As the manuscript started gaining form, I contacted the regional film fund to get their interest.  I’d been playing with the idea for some time and was excited by the prospect of seeing it to fruition. After looking at it they said it seemed promising and invited me along to a script workshop they were organizing. 

I ended up working with their script consultants over four workshops. After the workshops and two more rounds of consultancy, they encouraged me to apply for funding saying the manuscript looked really good. 

When the application was sent, the entire film was forming in my mind. Excited to fully delve more into the creative process, I received the answer I had not been expecting. “Not granted, not prioritized”. I was dumbstruck, shocked. I felt cheated as I’d worked so closely with them in developing the script. I sent in a complaint. They answered that they had a lot of faith in the project but there had been many applicants this time and they encouraged me to apply for the next round.

So I applied again. By this time I had put a lot more work into the short film and was just waiting for enough funding to move forward. Then the answer came back “not granted, not  prioritized ”. I then applied a third time with the same result. I’ve been working in this business for a few years and I know that funding is not always a given. I understand that there’s not enough money for everyone. However after working with the consultants who encouraged me several times to apply, it feels extra shit to be turned down. 

I think a straight no and a definite early rejection would have been easier to deal with. 

Mixed messages coupled with rejection was harder to handle. Not prioritizing our project is feedback that it’s not good enough, but the feedback they were giving us didn’t give an impression that it wasn’t. This whole process was demotivating, affecting my creative faith. The way this was done, I felt cheated. Good thing I persisted and made the film anyway.