<p>i think i have a lot of good and unique ec's to do with filmmaking. i haven't ever submitted my work to any contests or anything though. i just do it cuz i love to do it, not really for awards per se. but will that hurt me majorly? a lot of people have said my work is really good and i think i could have won awards if i had actually submitted it to various film fests and stuff, but i hadn't even been planning to apply to the ivies until this year so i wasn't really concerned with awards.</p>
<p>is not winning any national awards a big detriment to me even if my ec's show long-term passion and dedication?</p>
<p>Not having awards is fine. You can write a simple resume with a list of your films, where they were shown, how you learned and developed your talent (teachers, classes, and/or self-taught), others involved in the projects, etc… If they haven’t been shown anywhere, maybe you could arrange that: it would be rewarding!</p>
<p>And then you can just make sure that admissions sees some of your work. One piece of advice on that though: call them to find out how to provide examples of your film work. It can work against you to send too much stuff that takes a lot of time to review. Admissions folks are busy. They can tell you, say if it would be best to send an sample of what you consider your best work, lasting, for instance 3 minutes, 5 minutes, whatever they say. That is just plain considerate and will help you.</p>
<p>I believe that Harvard just added a film major- is that right? You could also ask to meet with someone about that new major, perhaps, or attend a class- although our daughter waited until she was accepted to do that (in another artistic area).</p>
<p>thanks for the advice! :)</p>
<p>i’ve considered sending it a short piece of work as a supplement, but–while i think my feature-length stuff could have won awards if i had tried–i’m not sure my shorter films are like so incredibly amazing that they’d help me. and i’m scared of risking them not liking it or thinking it’s not amazing enough to be a supplement, and that working against me. :-/</p>