SFL Design System GCFF Director Pitch — live page, edits are local until saved
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Jul 25 · 16:00 UTC· $10,000 Awarded
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STRIKE FIGHTER LEAGUE GUN CAMERA FILM FESTIVAL MMXXVI The community chose the story — now it needs a director

Do you have a vision?

Do you think you can tell this story in a way no one else can? This is your pitch. We will walk you through it the way a studio would: section by section, question by question. Answer honestly, in your own voice. Short and sharp beats long and vague. Three directors will be selected to make their film.

The story you'll be pitching
The Honcho
Somewhere over the Yalu, the best Sabre pilot of the war meets the only man who won’t run, and follows him across a line nobody is supposed to cross.
F-86 Sabre vs MiG-15 · Korea, 1952 · MiG Alley · Full story packet
Pitches closeFri 9.11 Directors announcedMon 9.14 Production9.25 – 11.7 Runtime3:00 or less
Gun Camera Film Festival pitch window officially open
The rubric

How your pitch is judged

Storytelling40

Do you understand this engagement, and can you make us feel it? Structure, emotional through-line, a point of view that is yours.

Execution25

Can you actually deliver it? Craft, pipeline, and a plan that fits the production window.

Authenticity20

Respect for the pilots and the truth of the engagement. The real story, told right.

Voice15

The thing only you would do. The choice that makes your film unmistakably yours.

Entry

Submit your pitch

01Who you are

Before the vision, the roster. Who is behind the camera?

Selection and production comms run through Discord.

Enter your squadron's name, or "N/A" if you fly solo.

If you are a squadron (up to five artists total, including you), list each member and what they own: DCS capture, edit, sound design, color. Solo directors: skip this.

02Your titleOptional

The SFL title for this story is already chosen: The Honcho. But directors see things differently. If your film had its own title, what would it be?

03Your logline

A logline is your whole film in one or two sentences: who is in the cockpit, what they are up against, and why it matters. Think of it as the sentence a studio executive repeats to the room after you have left. If you cannot say it in two sentences, you do not have it yet.

04Storytelling

You have read the story packet. Now retell it through your point of view. Do not summarize what we gave you; show us what you would do with it. This is the heaviest-weighted section. Take your time here.

Walk us through your film in three movements. Where do you open? What turns in the middle? Where do you leave the audience? A few sentences per movement is plenty.

Every director gets the same packet. What do you see in this engagement that nobody else will? Whose eyes do we watch it through?

Three minutes is not enough time for everything. That is the point. What do you zero in on, and what do you deliberately leave out?

Describe two or three key sequences the way you would shoot them in DCS. Camera placement, movement, what we are looking at and why.

What should the audience feel at the start, and what should they feel when the screen cuts to black? What carries them between the two?

Roughly how does your three minutes breathe? Where is it slow and heavy, where does it hit full afterburner? A simple beat map is perfect.

05Vision

Storytelling is what happens. Vision is what it looks and sounds like. Help us see your film before a single frame is captured.

What is the visual idea that runs through the whole film? Long patient orbits or violent handheld energy? Scale or intimacy? What does the camera love in this film?

All sound design is yours. Get specific: engines, canopy audio, breathing, radio texture, silence. What does your film sound like at its loudest moment, and its quietest?

Warm or cold? Rich or drained? Does the grade shift as the story turns? Name a look if it helps. We would rather hear it in your words.

06The details

The working questions a studio would ask before green-lighting. Answer what you can: honest beats impressive.

Two or three films, sequences, or creators that share your film's DNA. "X meets Y" is allowed.

If we froze your film on its very first frame, what are we looking at?

You will have access to the interview archive and actual engagement comms where they exist. How do the real voices live inside your film: spine, texture, bookends, or not at all?

Selected directors get access to the Bleeding Fingers Extreme Music Library. How do you hear the score working: wall-to-wall, sparse, absent? Where does music stop and sound design take over?

What tools do you cut with? How do you capture in DCS? Production runs 9.25 to 11.7 with films due Saturday 11.7. How confident are you in that window, and what is your plan if life gets in the way?

Links to anything you have made: DCS films, edits, shorts, reels. Unlisted links are fine. No portfolio? Say so; the pitch is what is judged.

Optional, but it is often the answer we remember. Why this story? Why you?

07The 60-second pitchOptional

If you would rather pitch us face to face, do it. Record up to 60 seconds of you selling your vision (unlisted YouTube, Vimeo, or Drive link). No production value required. Conviction is the production value.

08The fine print

Check each box to confirm. These are the conditions every selected director flies under.

Read the full terms.

Pitches close Friday 9.11. The three selected directors are announced Monday 9.14. One pitch per director or squadron.

DISCLAIMER: Every frame will be flown and captured inside DCS World; where DCS holds no equivalent airframe or terrain, the nearest available will stand in, and every substitution will be declared.

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