Things you don't want to be known for

Palm Springs FF director Darryl Macdonald in indieWIRE's dispatch from Palm Springs:

"We have an adage at film festivals--I probably shouldn't be saying this for your outlet--but the smaller the film, the bigger a pain in the ass the filmmaker's going to be. It's not a generality, and it seems to bear itself out. Anybody who works at a film festival, either in hospitality or programming, will tell you this, "It's the people who haven't yet tasted success who are the most demanding people to deal with. In general the bigger the star, the easier they are to deal with. It's not always the case, but often enough it is."

"With a certain amount of success comes a certain amount of self assurance. Directors you particularly see this in. Actors less so. They have no demands and if something goes wrong at the screening-- heavens forbid it's the screen in the wrong aspect ratio or the print is scratched or whatever--they tend to be mellower.

"But a first-time filmmaker, who it's his baby up there on the screen in front of an audience for the first time, will just freak out, go ballistic, and think the world has ended.

You don't want to be a festival staffer's war story in years to come -- keep your cool, acknowledge the hard work that festival staff and volunteers do even when mistakes get made, and always express gratitude at just being included in the festival.