TwoScoops

Satin, BPM and Smoque are my favourites.

Most festivals will ask you for a flat 1920x1080 file for projection so you should prep one of those with the black bars at the top and bottom. Some festivals are sophisticated enough to project in anamorphic but I wouldn't count on it, especially for a short where they're programming things in blocks. Most people will be submitting/projecting 1920x1080 so it's best to have a simple file that they can drop right into the timeline.
As far as which festivals to submit to, it's always a somewhat scattershot process but I'd take a look at what kinds of films they've programmed in the past as a guide. You wouldn't submit a drama to a comedy festival, etc. Each festival has a personality so you should target festivals that look like your film.
The other thing is travel - it's most valuable for your career to be able to actually be there for the screening so you can meet the programmers and festival people. I once won best short film at a festival that I wasn't even there for, so that was a missed opportunity. And that's why it's better to be there. So if you don't think you'd be able to make it to the screening (on your own dime) then that festival might be a lower priority than one where you can. Obvious exceptions are the top tier fests where you'd go regardless... but what difference does it make that your film played the Hawaii Children's Film Festival if you're not there? Ideally what happens is that you get into one or two top festivals and other festivals invite you to submit with a fee waiver - that way you can play Hawaii or wherever without having to pay to submit.
Often programmers from one festival will go to others nearby to scout films and filmmakers. And often programmers will move from one festival to another. So getting to know the people who work at the festival will help your reputation over time as those workers spread to other festivals, etc.
So, to recap, start applying to places you'd like to go, starting with the top dogs. Prioritize places you can get to on your own. As for festival gems, I had a great time at the Milwaukee Film Festival last October. Really well run, strong audience engagement. I wrote a long journal about the experience here. And I've had great fun at the Los Angeles Film Festival (top tier fest, great staff), Blackstar and Urbanworld, (niche festivals that fit my film), and New Orleans (incredible city, met a lot of filmmakers), etc. They're all fun. 
Keep plugging away and good luck.

honestly i watched ten seconds of that video and i was like "hire a supermodel" lol
 

I’m not a Hugh Drone fan either. I enjoyed his earlier work but recently he really started to phone in his performances... and it always seems like he looks down on everybody. 

Or over doing gimbal shots. Or overdoing drone shots. 

I just watched a short film that was 100% drone or gimbal! Why? Because that is what the director had purchased recently...

Besides the quick edits, cool location and amazing model help. Imagine it with a fat chick. ?
Digital Bolex on a shoulder rig would probably give a better version of what this is trying to be. 

There is no "clip quite a bit", in digital sound; it clips or not.
If you have good sound to start with, you do not usually need compressors/limiters in post. It is good to have good quality limiters for extreme sound gathering.
Auto levels are a no-go, dual levels should be sufficient. Limiters in cheap Tascams are very limited, you should set your gain right and conservative. It is not a disaster to add a few dBs later on, but clipping sound is (almost) unusable.
Last night I was doing camera for a live performance, the person(producer) setting the recorder set the gain in the sound test (I told him to be conservative, but he didn't listen/knew), when the band really started playing the sound started peaking. Result? Totally unusable sound. The producer just hopes that the band was recording the performance. 

lol

A7S3 is definitely coming. latest rumors suggest the Venice color science (to match Venice/FS5Mk2 as b-cam), a new BSI sensor reducing RS, even better low-light & faster HFR.
10-bit.. maybe in FHD. highly doubtful in 4k. would love a less compressed codec than the 100mbps XAVC-S.
It's going to be an interesting year at Photokina with FF Canikon's hopefully announced!
 

I don't really post here even though I visit several times a week, so I figured I'd post something I made this winter on the GH5. 
 
If you have any questions I'll be happy to answer (I think k the grade is pushed too hard, director's wishes made it go up to 130%.
 
The video

It seems like the main message here is "If you learn the real skills of cinematography then the quality of your images will far eclipse all the high tech features, megapixels, and technical specs of the modern digital video age."  And it's true - great craft and artistry will win out over tech specs.
But I also think this is message overlooks some obvious realities about the nature of amateur and hobbyist videography - that tech specs often do increase image quality at relatively low cost.  Sure I could spend many months and even years learning great portrait lighting techniques so I can light a interior people shot really well, or I could buy a 50mm f/1.4 lens, slap it on my high-ISO/low-noise full-frame 4K camera, do a basic rule-of-thirds framing with existing ambient lighting, press the touchscreen focus with face detect and boom, I now have a fairly professional looking shot with creamy bokeh and sharp eyes in focus.
So sure it could be a much better image if I go much deeper into learning cinematography, beyond basic and overused techniques like point-of-focus shots.  But the shortcuts and some of the tech specs that enable them can be very high bang-for-buck for us hobbyists and amateurs.  Even more so if you're a vlogger or hobbyist that shoots run-and-gun or only with natural/available light under uncontrolled situations and you don't have the opportunity to do lighting setups or carefully framed shots.
I think Boyle's message is still correct and can even inspire us shortcut-happy hobbyists (I am firmly in this category) to go deeper.  But it does miss the point for a huge chunk of the videography audience, since few of us have the time or commitment to achieve the level of artistry he's calling for.  Technology has enabled us to generate images that make us and our fans/friends happy, often with an investment that matches our commitment or resources.  All of us are trying to maximize our return on investment, whether that's in time, money, or stress/difficulty spent learning a technique or tool, and technology has definitely escalated the return on investment ratio.

Same with my screens.
I do like the second frame a lot too. If you're shooting at 6400 iso, and aren't already doing this, you could add a soft fill over camera axis 2-3 stops under key using a really cheap (low power) light to bring the shadows up a bit just so you have more to work with and controlling the dr a bit more. 

Thank you for putting some perspective into this! Agreed 100%

Satin, BPM and Smoque are my favourites.

Nice job. I thought the best shot was the tracking shot (from car?) at 0:14. The music choice really fits too. 

I rented a Master Anamorphic 50mm for another project on the Helium, but walked over to Chinatown in Chicago with a couple of friends to shoot this little short with the GH5s. All at 3200 ISO.
 

Saw this thread come back up and thought the new post was going to be that someone had devised a hack to get RAW out of the HDMI port or something.
Alas, its just the return of the over helpful spambot.

I watched unsane last night and didn’t think it looked that bad - at the beginning. I actually though that it gave a certain docu style to it, and some parts even looked awesome to my eyes. Of course it didn’t look like a normal Hollywood movie - A bit like an art film, a filmSchool project or like a lot of other indies which have gone on to great reviews. In the last part of the movie it was like the picturestyle fell apart and the limitations of the phone became an distractions to the story.
Tangerine was shot on a IPhone 5s and a Moondog adapter, and it looks great. 
 
To sum up: if you are planning on shooting weeding or the next charter in the Transformers saga then maybe your phone it not the camera you should choose. However, if you are working on an indie story-driven piece then I don’t think a phone is necesarraly the wrong choice. It gives the film a certain autentic look and then it all comes down to the storyline and style and working within it limitations.
In the end, it is all about the story - and if your story isn’t good enough to be told through a phone then maybe one should spend more time improving the story, than thinking about getting a better camera. And if one doesn’t already own a camera the maybe the money is better spend on other movie-related items than on an expensive camera. Better to get a great story told with a IPhone, than not to get it told at all. 

My thoughts too. And throw on a Tiffen satin,  pro mist, or similar to take the digital edge off.

Besides the quick edits, cool location and amazing model help. Imagine it with a fat chick. ?
Digital Bolex on a shoulder rig would probably give a better version of what this is trying to be. 

I tend to agree that phones will eventually take over a segment of filmmaking. And if I remember correctly Soderberg said he would definitely consider shooting more films on an iPhone. I’ve been saying this for a while... future filmmakers do not care about the technical elements as much as we do. If you make your living working on films or videography, your world will change in a few years. 
Hell look that this forum alone... there are an increasing number of posts from newbies asking which camera they should get to start shooting weddings or corporate. People are jumping into this field without much prior knowledge and eventually phones will be more than capable enough to fill those technical roles. Right now I think the question is... which manufacturer will be the first to put a larger sensor into a phone? Apple? Samsung? Red? Hell I think Canon even has some new phone patents... get ready for the inevitable.
I, for one, am excited for this. I want to tell stories, so if that can be done on a phone with a small gimbal and a lens adapter... of some sort... Then why the hell not?

Interesting. Seems he was going all out to do it indy style ?

Well that’s a little unfortunate. Of course, I only watched the embedded video...

It's not just the grade. It's what it was shot on, probably Alexa, F55, whatever, and the way they are lighting it. (i.e. some of those interiors they are likely bouncing a lot of fill,  which obv drops the contrast.)