Tips for the Student Apple Insomnia 24 Hour Film Festival

The Apple Insomnia Film Festival is probably one of the most memorable collegiate experiences you will ever have. It is 24 hours of sheer madness and fun all wrapped around making a short film in the shortest amount of time possible. You have to write, score, shoot, cast and edit the film all in under 24 hours. Don't worry. Your end product only has to be 3 minutes long. But if you want to be successful, here are some tips:

Just so you know, I'm not just making this up. I placed 16th place nationwide with my team last year. So follow this advice, and you should do well this year.

1. If you are just messing around, don't expect to be taken seriously.

We saw some heated individuals take offense to content submitted that should not have been viewed as legitimate entries. If you have only yourself and a buddy wearing a super-hero costume and you run into trees and fall down, you probably won't do very well.

2. Remember you are competing against film students.

There are some others who are taking these short films as serious additions to their resumes. Don't forget that the quality you need to submit, if you are going for the prize, needs to be comporable to theirs or at least have a compelling enough storyline to carry you through to the end.

3. There are no wrong answers (or films).

Be as creative as possible, and you will be surprised at how much talk your piece may generate.

4. There are ten elements provided by Apple. You only have to use three. So, only use three.

Don't think that using all 10 elements will give you an edge on the competition. If you use the minimum, which I believe all the top 25 films did last year, you will be taken much more seriously among competitors.

5. Don't base your story around any of the ten elements.

When they released the name Robin Darjeeling as a character name last year, for some reason, it was the most utilized element provided by Apple. And, unfortunately for the teams who thought it would be a good idea to name their film 'Robin Darjeeling's Adventures' realized that their title was eerily similar to about 200 other submissions. Again, be creative. The Apple elements were not meant to be creatively inspiring, but merely a restriction-based system in order to ensure participants really created the content during the 24 allotted hours.

6. Find a versatile team

If everyone on your team is a good writer, or a good producer, or good directors... good luck. Instead, try and get one of each, or at least assign roles to individuals in order to be successful as a team.

7. Want to win? Make a comedy or drama.

The most successful pieces of film that emerged last year were highly comical or dramatic pieces. Chances are, your D-level zombie movie will not quite make the cut. Romance flicks won't really make it very far either. But if you want a real challenge, try making a musical!

8. Research the judges.

You need to make a film that will appeal to the director and writer of 'Crash,' Hiro from 'Heroes' and Jason Bateman to name a few. Research what they like. If you make it into the top 25, you need to feel out what will attract their attention.

9. Market your film.

There was a lot of angry people last year once they saw that some videos recruited hundreds of votes and others merely had 30 or 40. The difference? Marketing. Complaint upon complaint was filed last year against teams who were marketing their films and soliciting votes. Come on people, you are complaining to Apple, one of the best marketing companies in the world. Now, marketing is officially part of the competition. Apple says so. Do it. Recruit hundreds, thousands of votes. The competition isn't over after the initial 24 hours. You actually have 2 weeks more to get your film out there on YouTube and direct people back to Apple's page to vote.

10. Have fun, and think of the prizes.

If you do well, you get resume bullet points for eternity. If you win, you get that AND free MacBook Pros, Final Cut Studio 2, Shake, and more!

You have 24 hours. Let the fun begin!