# Creating an account

> From FilmScorecard Help: https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/creating-an-account

Most people never need this page. Read
[Logging in](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/logging-in.md) first if someone has already told you your
festival is on FilmScorecard.

**If your beta request has been approved, you never need this page either.**
Approval creates your account for you, so there is nothing to sign up for: go
to the log-in screen with the address you registered and a code lets you in —
and if the account has not been made yet by then, the log-in screen makes it.
See [Requesting beta access](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/requesting-beta-access.md) and
[Logging in](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/logging-in.md).

**Sign-up itself is in a private beta.** The screens below still exist and
still work, but an address with no approved beta request is turned away at the
moment you press the button. Anybody arriving from an invitation is unaffected:
the invitation is its own permission, and the beta never stands in its way.
Neither is a judge arriving from the **Apply to judge** button on a festival's
public page while its judge call is open — see
[A festival's public page goes around it too](#a-festivals-public-page-goes-around-it-too)
— nor a filmmaker arriving from **Save to your account** on their own
submission page or scorecard — see
[A submission's access code goes around it too](#a-submissions-access-code-goes-around-it-too).
And a filmmaker pressing **Keep it** on their scorecard never meets a sign-up
screen at all — see
[Keep it, on a scorecard, needs no sign-up at all](#keep-it-on-a-scorecard-needs-no-sign-up-at-all).

## Who needs to sign up, and who does not

**Do not sign up** if any of these is true:

- **You sent in a submission** to a festival that runs on FilmScorecard and only
  want to fix its details or read your scorecard. The link and the code in the
  festival's email are all of that, with no account. **A festival entering your
  film does not create an account for you**; if you want one, press **Keep
  it** on your scorecard, or **Save to your account** on either page. See
  [Keep it, on a scorecard, needs no sign-up at all](#keep-it-on-a-scorecard-needs-no-sign-up-at-all)
  and
  [A submission's access code goes around it too](#a-submissions-access-code-goes-around-it-too).
- **A festival invited you** as a judge or as staff. Your account was created
  with the invitation. Log in with the address the invitation arrived at.
- **Your beta request has been approved.** Your account is made for you by the
  approval, set up for the page you registered on — Festivals, Judges or
  Creators — if not before you reach the log-in screen, then the moment you ask
  for a code there. Log in with the address you registered.

Signing up in those cases only creates confusion: the account already exists,
and the name and role you would type on the form are ignored. The log-in screen
puts it this way: "If a festival invited you, your account is waiting, so log
in with that email." Sending in a submission does not make an account, so
unless you made one yourself, logging in with your submission's address sends
no code.

**That leaves almost nobody.** During the beta the sign-up screens are what
invitation links, festivals' public pages and **Save to your account** use,
and little else: an address with no approved request is refused, and an address
with an approved request already has an account waiting on the log-in screen.
The rest of this page describes them as they stand, for invitees, for judges
applying from a festival's page, for filmmakers saving a submission, and for
the day the beta ends.

Judges a festival already invited should still log in rather than sign up:
your account exists, so use the address the invitation arrived at.

## The beta list, and what happens if you are not on it

Both sign-up screens carry a note under the form, headed **This is a private
beta**:

> Approved beta accounts are created for you, so log in with the address you
> registered. **Request access** if you have not yet, or **log in** if you
> already have an account.

On the sign-up screen, **Request access** opens the home page, where you choose
**A festival**, **A judge** or **A creator**. On the host sign-up screen it
opens the registration form on the Festivals page.

**The check happens when you submit, not before.** You can fill the whole form
in; the address is checked at the moment you choose **Create account**.

### The refusal

An address with no approved request gets one message, in amber, and stays on
the screen:

> This address is not on the beta list yet. **Request beta access**, or log in
> instead if you already have an account.

- **Nothing is sent.** No code email goes out, and you are not moved on to the
  **Check your email** screen. Nothing about your account, if you have one, has
  changed.
- **Request beta access** is a link. It takes you to the registration form for
  the card you chose: **Festival Host** to the Festivals page's form, **Judge**
  to the Judges page's, and **Creator** to the Creators page's. On the host
  sign-up screen it always goes to the Festivals page's form. See
  [Requesting beta access](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/requesting-beta-access.md).
- **Everybody refused gets this exact sentence.** Somebody who has never been
  here and somebody who already has an account get the same words, in the same
  order — and so does an address a festival has on a submission. It is not a
  hint about which of these you are: FilmScorecard never reveals which
  addresses have accounts, or which have entered a festival, on this screen or
  any other.

So if the message surprises you, work through both halves of it:

1. **Try logging in** with that address at `/login`. If the account exists, a
   code arrives and you are in. Sign-up was the wrong screen, not the wrong
   address.
2. **Check the address.** Your account is created on the one exact address your
   request was approved for. If you registered on a work address, log in on the
   work address.
3. **Register** if neither of those is it — or, if you are a filmmaker a
   festival has sent a submission page or scorecard to, use **Keep it** on the
   scorecard, or **Save to your account** on either page, instead.

### An invitation goes around the gate entirely

If you reached the sign-up screen from an invitation link — from a judging
invitation, or an invitation to help run somebody's festivals — **the beta list
is never consulted.** The festival or organization that invited you is already
in the beta, and their invitation is the permission.

You will notice two other things about that version of the screen: the role
question is not asked, because the invitation already settled it, and the
address the invitation was sent to is filled in for you. The agreement box
described below is still there, because you are still creating an account.
See [Your judging invitation](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-judging-invitation.md) and
[Your organization invitation](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-organization-invitation.md).

**An invitation does not let you create an organization of your own.** It puts
you in the inviting festival's or organization's world and nowhere else. To
run a festival yourself, your address needs its own approval as a festival
host — see
[If your account is not approved yet](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/setting-up-your-festival.md#if-your-account-is-not-approved-yet).

### A festival's public page goes around it too

A festival that has switched its public page on, with a judge call open, is
treated as having invited whoever presses its **Apply to judge** button. That
button takes you to the log-in screen, whose **First time here?** note then
offers **Create an account**; choosing it opens a version of the sign-up screen
that **does not consult the beta list** either.

- **The account is created as a judge account.** There are no role cards to
  choose from.
- **Your address is not filled in** — nobody sent it to you — so type the one
  you want to use.
- **The note under the form is different**: "Already have an account? Log in
  with that email instead." The private-beta note is not shown, because it
  would not be true here.
- **After the code**, you answer the four
  [judge profile](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/setting-up-your-judge-profile.md) screens and land back on
  the festival's application form.

**It holds only while the call is open, the festival's page is on and its
organization is not suspended**, and it is checked again when you press
**Create account**. If any of the three has changed in between, the screen
behaves as the ordinary sign-up screen and you get the refusal above. And it
only works from that button: typing `/signup` yourself gets the ordinary
screen. See
[Applying to judge from the page](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/public-festival-page.md#applying-to-judge-from-the-page).

### A submission's access code goes around it too

A festival that sends you your submission page or your scorecard has vouched
for you, and the nine-character code in its email proves it. **Save to your
account**, on either page, uses that proof: signed out, it takes you to the
log-in screen, whose **First time here?** note then offers **Create an
account**. Choosing it opens a version of the sign-up screen that **does not
consult the beta list**.

- **The account is created as a filmmaker account.** There are no role cards
  to choose from.
- **Your address is not filled in.** Type the one you want to log in with; it
  does not have to be the one on the submission.
- **The note under the form reads** "Already have an account? Log in with that
  email instead."
- **After the code**, you are taken back to the submission's page, and from
  there to the screen headed "We set up *Title* from your entry", where
  **Open** *Title* makes your first project from the submission. Nothing is
  saved to the account until you press it. See
  [Your first project](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-first-project.md).

**It holds only in the browser where you typed the code, and only while that
code is still the submission's current one**, and it is checked again when you
press **Create account**. If a new code has been sent in between, the screen
behaves as the ordinary sign-up screen and you get the refusal above: go back
to the page, type the new code and press **Save to your account** again.
Typing `/signup` yourself gets the ordinary screen. See
[Saving a submission to your account](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/saving-a-submission-to-your-account.md).

### Keep it, on a scorecard, needs no sign-up at all

A filmmaker reading their scorecard without being logged in, after typing its
access code, sees a bar offering to keep it, with **Not now** and **Keep it**.
**Keep it** goes straight to the code screen: no sign-up screen, no name, no
role cards, no box to tick, and **the beta list is never consulted**.

- **The code goes to the address the festival has on your submission**, not
  to one you type. The **Check your email** screen shows it partly hidden,
  such as `n••••@studio.co`, and has no **Change email** link.
- **Under the code boxes** it reads "By entering the code, you agree to the
  Terms of Use and Privacy Policy." The two names are links, each opening in a
  new tab. See
  [The Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/terms-and-privacy.md).
- **If that address has no account, the account is made as a creator
  account.** If it already has one, the code logs you into it and nothing
  about it changes. The screen reads the same either way.

It works only while the code you typed on the scorecard is still current. If
the festival has sent a new one since, **Keep it** takes you back to the
scorecard to type it. Where you land after the code is in
[Where you land after logging in](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/logging-in.md#where-you-land-after-logging-in).

## Creating an account

The sign-up screen (`/signup`) is headed **Create your account** and reads
"No password to choose. We send a code instead."

1. Enter **First name** and **Last name**. Both are required.
2. Enter your **Email address** — **the address your beta request was approved
   for**.
3. Under **I am joining as**, choose **Judge**, **Festival Host** or
   **Creator** (the card for filmmakers and writers). Nothing is selected to
   begin with — the line underneath
   reads "Nothing is selected yet. Pick one to finish." and **Create account**
   stays greyed out until you pick one. Once you do, that line tells you what
   happens next:

   | Card | The line under the cards |
   | --- | --- |
   | **Judge** — "Score films and write feedback on a panel" | A judge account stays inactive until a festival adds you to a panel. |
   | **Festival Host** — "Run a festival, invite judges, set the season" | Next you'll set up your festival once your host access is approved. |
   | **Creator** — "Keep your films and screenplays, and follow your festival entries" | Next you'll add your first project. |

4. Tick **I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy**. The two names are
   links that open the documents in a new tab. See
   [Agreeing to the Terms and the Privacy Policy](#agreeing-to-the-terms-and-the-privacy-policy)
   below.
5. Choose **Create account**. The button reads "Creating your account..." for
   a moment.
6. You land on the **Check your email** screen. Enter the 6-digit code we
   emailed you and choose **Log in**. See
   [Entering the six-digit code](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/logging-in.md#entering-the-six-digit-code).

Logging in with that first code is what activates the account.

**Choosing Creator here does not get you past the beta.** The address still
has to be approved, as for the other two cards. The ways a filmmaker opens an
account without approval are
[Keep it on a scorecard](#keep-it-on-a-scorecard-needs-no-sign-up-at-all) and
[a submission's access code](#a-submissions-access-code-goes-around-it-too).

**Choosing Festival Host here does not get you an organization either.** The
sign-up screen lets in any approved address, whatever role it was approved for,
and the Festival Host card takes you to festival setup. But only an address
approved **as a festival host** is shown the form there. An address approved
as a judge or a creator is shown "Your account isn't approved to create an
organization yet." with **Request host access** instead — see
[If your account is not approved yet](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/setting-up-your-festival.md#if-your-account-is-not-approved-yet).

**If you were approved for the beta, use the log-in screen instead of this
one.** Once your account exists — set up for the page you registered on — the
role cards here cannot change it: a code sent from this screen logs you into
the account you already have, and the name and role you typed are ignored. But
if the account has not been made yet, this screen makes it from what you type
*here*, not from your registration — so a host who picks **Judge** on this form
gets a judge account. The log-in screen makes it as the role you registered
for. See
[What the page decides](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/requesting-beta-access.md#what-the-page-decides).

## Creating a host account

Most hosts never need this screen: choose the **Festival Host** card on the
ordinary sign-up screen and you are in the same place. But a separate
email-only screen for festival organizers does exist at `/host/signup`, headed
**Create your host account**. Nothing links to it — reach it by typing the
address.

1. Enter your **Email address**. That is the only field — there is no plan to
   pick, no tier, and no card.
2. Tick **I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy**.
3. Choose **Email me a code**.
4. Enter the 6-digit code on the next screen and choose **Log in**.

**This screen is gated too**, and it has no invited version, so an address
without an approved beta request is refused here exactly as it is on the
ordinary sign-up screen. An approved host does not need it either: their
account is created from the approval, and the log-in screen leads to the same
place.

You land on festival setup. **With a festival host approval**, the **Set up
your festival** form is waiting, where your organization and your festival are
created together. **With an approval for another role** — your address was
approved as a judge or a creator — the account is still made, but the setup
screen says "Your account isn't approved to create an organization yet." and
offers **Request host access**. The whole journey from here is covered in
[Setting up your festival](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/setting-up-your-festival.md).

The other way to the same place: **on the ordinary sign-up screen, choose the
Festival Host card** rather than **Judge**. Its help line reads "Next you'll
set up your festival once your host access is approved." — with a host
approval you go to the setup form; without one, to the request for host
access.

**Neither screen is linked from the home page or the Festivals, Judges and
Creators pages during the beta**, and the approval email does not link to them
either: it sends you to the log-in screen, because by then your account exists.
Those pages end in registration forms instead. The home page's **Sign up as a
festival**, **Sign up as a judge** and **Sign up as a creator** buttons go to
those forms, not to these screens.

## Agreeing to the Terms and the Privacy Policy

Both sign-up screens, in every version, carry one box above the button:

> **I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy**

**Terms of Use** and **Privacy Policy** are links. Each opens in a new tab, so
the form you have half filled in stays where it is; clicking a link does not
tick the box. Tick it by clicking the box or the words around the links.

**Press the button with the box unticked and this is all that happens:** one
amber sentence appears under the box, and nothing is sent.

> You need to agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy to continue.

No code is emailed, you are not moved to the **Check your email** screen, and
the beta list is not consulted; that check comes after this one. Tick the box
and press the button again, and everything you typed is still there.

Once you are through, the agreement is recorded with your account: the moment
you pressed the button, and the version of the documents you agreed to. That
happens at the first press, not when you enter the code, and **Resend code**
on the code screen never asks again. What is recorded, what it means when the
documents change, and what the documents contain are covered in
[The Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/terms-and-privacy.md).

The log-in screen has no such box. Nor does the code screen, or the **One
question left** screen below: none of them creates an account. The one code
screen that does carry the agreement is the one after **Keep it**, as a line
of text rather than a box — see
[Keep it, on a scorecard, needs no sign-up at all](#keep-it-on-a-scorecard-needs-no-sign-up-at-all).

**Under the form on every one of these screens** sit four small links,
**Help · Terms · Privacy · Contact**: these guides, the two documents, and the
[contact form](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/contacting-us.md), which is where to write if you are stuck.

## The "One question left" screen

One short screen, headed **One question left**, asks the role question on its
own. **Almost nobody meets it now.** It appears only when your account exists
but has never answered that question — which today means an account created
through Google before the beta began. An approved beta account never sees it:
the page you registered on is the answer.

1. Check the name and address shown at the top. If it is the wrong account,
   choose **Not you?**, which logs you out and takes you back to sign-up.
2. Choose **Judge**, **Festival Host** or **Creator**. Nothing is preselected
   here on purpose; until you pick, the screen reads "Nothing is selected yet.
   Pick one to finish." and the button stays greyed out.
3. Choose **Finish and continue**.

Invited judges and festival staff never see this screen, and nor does a
filmmaker who created their account from **Keep it** or **Save to your
account**. What they
are was settled when the account was made.

## What choosing a role does — and does not do

Choosing a role here, or the page you register on for the beta, decides which
screens you get. It is not a permission: nothing on either sign-up screen
grants access to anything.

- **A judge account does nothing on its own.** Choosing **Judge** takes you
  straight into a short profile — formats, genres, a few words about you, and
  how much you can take on. See
  [Setting up your judge profile](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/setting-up-your-judge-profile.md). Filling
  it in does not put submissions in front of you: judging appears only after a
  festival adds you to one of its panels, and until then your judging home
  says exactly that. You can apply to a festival's
  [open call](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/open-calls.md) yourself once the profile is done.
- **A host account has no festival attached to it.** Creating the account and
  creating a festival are two different steps — the second is covered in
  [Setting up your festival](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/setting-up-your-festival.md) — and the second
  needs your address to be approved as a festival host.
- **A creator account lands on Your projects**, where you keep your own films
  and screenplays. A festival submission reaches it only when it was entered
  under the address you log in with, or when you prove its access code with
  **Save to your account**. Until the account has a project, nothing joins it
  by itself: a waiting submission is shown first on the screen headed "We set
  up *Title* from your entry", and joins only when you press **Open** *Title*
  there. See [Your projects](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-projects.md).

None of the three gives you access to another festival's submissions, scores or
submitters.

## If the address already has an account

You cannot end up with two accounts on one email address. If you use a sign-up
screen with an address that already has an account, the code we email you logs
you into the existing account — and the name and role you typed on the form
are not applied to it, because that account already exists. Nor is the box you
ticked recorded against it: the agreement is recorded only when an account is
created, so an account that has none on file does not gain one this way.

**An approved beta account is this case once it exists**, which is why the
approval email sends you to the log-in screen: the account is made from your
registration, and the sign-up form has nothing to add to it.

During the beta you will usually not get that far anyway: an address without an
approved beta request is refused before any code is sent, whether or not it has
an account. **If you think you have an account, log in rather than sign up.**

If you do get in this way and FilmScorecard still does not know what you do
here, you will be asked on the **One question left** screen.

## Changing your role later

Once the role question is answered — on a sign-up screen, or by the page you
registered on for the beta — FilmScorecard stops asking, and there is no screen
for changing the answer yourself yet. If you picked the wrong one, use the
**Contact** link at the foot of any log-in screen, which opens the
[contact form](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/contacting-us.md), and tell us which one you meant.

**Wanting to run a festival is the exception.** Signed in with the account you
already have, open `/host/festival` and press **Request host access**. Your
account stays exactly as it is while the request waits, and once it is approved
the same address shows the form that creates your organization. See
[If your account is not approved yet](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/setting-up-your-festival.md#if-your-account-is-not-approved-yet).

If a festival later invites you as a judge, coordinator or administrator, that
invitation decides what you can do — it does not depend on what you picked
here.