Requesting beta access

FilmScorecard is in a private beta. You cannot open an account for yourself until the address you use has been approved. So instead of a sign-up button, FilmScorecard has three registration forms, one at the foot of each of its pages for festivals, judges and creators.

The page you register on decides what your account is. Register on the Festivals page and you are asking to run a festival. On the Judges page you are asking to judge. On the Creators page you are asking to keep your films and screenplays in one place and follow your festival entries. None of the forms asks "what do you want to join as?", because the page has already answered.

Approval creates your account. When somebody approves your request, the account is made for you, set up for the page you registered on. If it has not been made by the time you reach the log-in screen, asking for a code there makes it on the spot. There is nothing to sign up for afterwards.

This page covers the three forms, the emails they send, and what to do while you wait.

You may not need it at all. If a festival has invited you, as a judge or to help run their festivals, your invitation works during the beta exactly as it always did. Follow the link in the email and see Your judging invitation or Your organization invitation. Do not register here first. A festival's own submission page or scorecard gets you in too, with no approval. On a scorecard you opened with its access code, Keep it emails a code to the address the festival has on your entry and makes your creator account, or signs you into the one that address already has. Save to your account, on either page, lets you make one on any address, through a sign-up screen that skips the beta list. See Keep it, on a scorecard, needs no sign-up at all and Saving a submission to your account.

Already have an account, and want to run a festival of your own? Do not use these forms. If your account belongs to no organization (a judge's or a filmmaker's, say), go to the setup screen, /host/festival, signed in, and press Request host access there. See If your account is not approved yet. If you already help run somebody else's festival, that address takes you to their organization instead, and nothing on your screens asks for host access. Contact us instead.

Which form to use

Creator is the beta's word for a filmmaker. These pages, the forms and the two emails say "creator". Once you are signed in, FilmScorecard's own screens say "filmmaker". It is the same account.

From the home page

The home page, /, has no form. Under the headline Where festival submissions get judged and the words I am here as, it has three doors: A festival, A judge and A creator. Each door has two buttons:

• Sign up as a festival, Sign up as a judge or Sign up as a creator. Despite the label, this does not sign you up. It takes you straight to that page's registration form.
• Learn more, which opens that page at the top.

The Festivals, Judges and Creators links in the top bar open the same three pages.

An old link to /#beta, the address the single registration form used to have (sometimes with ?role=judge in it), now just opens the home page. There is no form there any more, so choose your door.

On each page

Every page also has Log in in its top bar, for people who already have an account. On a phone, the Judges and Creators pages show only Request access in the top bar, and Log in is in the footer instead. Every footer ends in four small links: Help, Terms, Privacy and Contact. Help opens these guides. See The Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy and Contacting us.

From the log-in and sign-up screens

Filling it in

All three forms start and end the same way. Only the questions in the middle differ.

1. First name and Last name, side by side (one above the other on a phone). Both are required, up to 80 characters each. These are the names your account is created with, so use the name you want on your profile.
2. Email. Required. This is the address your account is created on, so use the one you want to log in with. See Which address to use below.
3. The questions for that page. See The Festivals form, The Judges form and The Creators form below.
4. Tick I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The two names are links, and each opens the document in a new tab so the form stays as you left it. Clicking a link does not tick the box. The box is required: your request becomes an account when it is approved, so the agreement is asked for here and carried onto that account. See The Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy for what is recorded.
5. Press the button. It reads Request beta access on the Festivals form, Request judge access on the Judges form and Request creator access on the Creators form. While the request is sending, the button greys out. Its words do not change, there is no spinner, and it cannot be pressed a second time.

Under the button is the promise the emails then keep:

You get a receipt by email now, and a reply within a few days.

On the Festivals form, that line starts with "We approve accounts by hand."

The Festivals form

It is at the foot of the Festivals page, in a dark band:

PRIVATE BETA

Register your festival for the beta

FilmScorecard is open to a small group of festivals while we finish the platform. Tell us about yours, and we will review your request and email you when your account is ready.

Under that paragraph are three lines (hidden on a phone):

• Every request is reviewed by a person
• No card, no commitment
• Seats open in batches

All three are literally true. Nothing approves a request automatically, nothing in this form touches a payment, and accounts are opened in batches because each one is approved by hand. The page's footer sits inside the same dark band, under a thin rule.

After your name and email, the form asks:

The festival name is never checked against anything. Type the one festival you would run first. When your request is approved and you set up your festival, this name is already filled in as your organization's name, and you can change it there. See Setting up your festival.

The Judges form

It is at the foot of the Judges page, under the eyebrow PRIVATE BETA and the heading Request judge access:

Judges join in batches while the platform is in beta. We review every request by hand and email you when your account is ready.

After your name and email, the form asks:

• Private submissions carries a Coming soon badge. FilmScorecard does not offer private submissions from creators yet. Leaving the card ticked tells us you would be interested, and nothing more.
• Your country and how you want to judge are for the person who reads your request. They are written into it and go nowhere else. Neither is copied onto your account or your judge profile, which you fill in yourself after you log in.
• Festivals you have judged for is never checked against anything. A name, a list of names or nothing at all are all fine.

The Creators form

It is at the foot of the Creators page, under the eyebrow PRIVATE BETA and the heading Request creator access:

Creator accounts open in batches while the platform is in beta. We review every request by hand and email you when your account is ready.

After your name and email, the form asks one optional question, What you are working on. It has six cards to tick, as many as apply: Documentary, Feature, Screenplay, Series or episode, Short and Something else. The line under them reads "Pick any that apply. You can add every project once you are in."

On a phone this question is not shown at all. The form is just your name, your email and the agreement box. Nothing is lost, because the question is optional.

Your answer is for the person who reads your request. It does not create any projects. You add those yourself once you are in. See Your projects.

What the person approving your request reads

They see your name, your address, which page you registered on, and what you typed. Your answers to Country you judge from, How you want to judge and What you are working on are written as labelled lines at the top of your request, in the form's own words. For example:

Country you judge from: Canada How you want to judge: Festival calls, Private submissions

The check that you are a person

The form runs a check from Cloudflare in the background to confirm that a person is sending it, and almost everybody never sees it. Now and then Cloudflare needs you to do something first. When it does, its check appears just above the form's button. Do what it asks, then press the button.

The check runs in your browser, so the form needs JavaScript switched on to send a request. With JavaScript off, pressing the button reloads the page at the same form. Everything you typed is still in it, the message We couldn't confirm this was sent by a person. Please try again. is shown above the button, and nothing is sent.

Which address to use

Your account is created on the exact address you register with. The approval email goes there, and so does every six-digit code that logs you in afterwards. If you register on a work address and then try to log in with a personal one, there is nothing waiting on the personal one.

Capitals and stray spaces do not matter: [email protected] and [email protected] are the same address here and at the log-in screen. Anything else about the address does.

A creator should register with the address their festivals have. The first time you log in, the festival entries under that address are waiting on a welcome screen that puts your first project together from them. Nothing is saved until you press Open there. See Your first project. Once you own a project, every festival entry under the address you log in with is saved to your account automatically, with no further step. See Saving a submission to your account.

An obvious typo may be corrected for you. Whoever approves your request can fix the address before approving it. If they do, your account is made on the corrected address, and the approval email and your login codes go there. Nobody can change it after that.

What the page decides

It decides what your account is set up as. This is more than a note in your request: approving it creates a host account, a judge account or a filmmaker account, and the first screen you see when you log in follows from that.

Nobody asks "are you a judge or a festival host?" again. The page you registered on has already answered that question.

It also decides whether you may create an organization. Only an approved Festivals request lets an account create one. A Judges or Creators approval does not. If you are approved as a judge and later want to run a festival, ask for host access from the setup screen. Your request is turned into a host request, and nothing about your judging changes while it waits. See If your account is not approved yet.

So register on the page you mean. If you used the wrong page, register again on the right one, with the same address, while your request is still waiting. A request nobody has decided yet takes the latest version you send, including the page it came from. The latest form replaces the whole request. For example, a Festivals request sent again from the Judges page loses the festival you named, because the Judges form has no place for it. Once a request has been approved, its role is settled. The setup screen's Request host access is the only way to ask again, and only for host.

Registering still grants you nothing on its own. A judge account waits until a festival puts you on a panel, and a host account starts with no festival in it. A filmmaker account starts with no projects. Any festival submission already entered under your address waits for you on the welcome screen the first time you log in, and becomes your first project only when you press Open there. See Your first project.

After you press the button

The form is replaced, in the same card, by a green Request received pill, a heading that names you, and one line:

Under it is a link: Register another festival on the Festivals page, and Register someone else on the other two.

Two things to read carefully:

• It promises a future email, not a past one. "We will email … once your account is approved" means exactly that. Your request has been stored, but nobody has approved anything yet, and no account exists yet.
• Check the address. It is printed back to you because it is the one thing that has to be right. If it is wrong, choose the link under it and send the whole form again with the correct address.

The link empties the card and gives you a fresh form, which is useful if you are registering two colleagues or fixing a typo. On the Judges form, both ways to judge are ticked again.

The emails

Straight away: "We got your request to join the FilmScorecard beta"

REQUEST RECEIVED

Thanks for asking to join the beta.

Your request to join as a festival host is in the queue. A person reviews every request, and you'll hear back from us within a few days.

Three steps follow:

1. Request received: Joining as a festival host
2. A person reviews it: Usually within a few days
3. You get your login: We'll email [email protected]

From the Judges page it says "as a judge". From the Creators page it says "as a creator".

Next comes Want to help us move faster?, a short optional request. You can reply to the email with a little about your festival, your judging, or, as a creator, the films or screenplays you have made and the festivals you have entered. It helps us set you up, and a reply reaches a person. The email ends with a personal sign-off and a few lines about FilmScorecard — for a festival, how you import your entries, open judging to your panel and track scores as they come in; for a judge, how you see the rate before you accept an invitation.

This email is a receipt, not a decision. It never says approved and never names a date, on purpose. The message that says your account is ready is a different one, and it looks different.

If it does not arrive, check your spam folder. Your request is stored either way: a missing confirmation email does not mean the form failed.

A request for host access sent from the setup screen gets no such receipt. The setup screen's own line, "Request sent. We'll email you when it's approved.", is its confirmation.

When you are approved: "You're in: welcome to the FilmScorecard beta"

You're in.

Your account is set up as a festival host, so you can bring in submissions, open judging to your panel, and approve your selections, all in one place.

Your login email: [email protected]

Log in to FilmScorecard (a button to the log-in screen)

There's no password. When you log in, we'll email a one-time code to this address.

Its getting-started steps, under "Getting started takes about 10 minutes", are Create your festival — "Name your organization, your festival and its first season." — Import your entries — "Bring in the submissions you already have." — and Invite your first judges — "Open judging and watch scores come in."

The Judges version reads instead: "Your account is set up as a judge, so you can keep one profile and one queue across every festival you work with, and score each film with the screener, criteria, and your notes side by side." Its getting-started steps are Complete your profile — "That's how festivals find you." — Choose your categories and genres — "Festivals invite judges who match." — and Accept your first invitation — "Each one shows the rate up front before you accept."

The Creators version reads instead: "Your account is set up as a creator, so you can keep your films and screenplays in one place and follow every festival entry made with this address." Its getting-started steps are Add your first project, Fill in its details and Follow your festivals, with the note "Entries made with this address appear on their own."

Below the button are a few words on getting started and an invitation to reply with anything confusing, broken or missing. As with the first email, a reply reaches a person.

Your account already exists by the time this arrives, which is why the link goes to the log-in screen and not to a sign-up form. Type that address, we email you a six-digit code, and the code lets you in. See Logging in.

You may never need this email. After the approval it usually goes out within moments, and within a day at the latest. But if you go to the log-in screen first and ask for a code on that address, your account is made right then and the code is the only email you get. You are already logging in, so there is nothing to tell you. If you have not been approved yet, the Check your email screen appears and nothing follows. It does the same for any address it does not know.

The role it names comes from the page you registered on, and it is what your account has been set up as.

Keep this email if you registered on an address you do not read often. It names the inbox your login codes will arrive at.

The same email can arrive a second time. If it did not reach you, we can send it again to the same address. It says exactly what the first one did.

If that address already had an account

Some people are approved for an address FilmScorecard already knows: a judge a festival invited, somebody who helps run a festival, or anybody who signed up earlier. In that case approval does not make a second account, nothing about the account you have is rewritten, and no "your account is ready" email goes out, because the account already works.

A Festivals approval is the one that sends something. If you are approved as a host on an address that already has an account, you are emailed:

You're approved to set up your festival.

Your login email: [email protected]

Set up your festival (a button to the setup screen)

It means your account may now create an organization, so the setup screen shows the form rather than the request. If your account is a judge or filmmaker account, logging in still takes you to your usual first screen. Press the button once you are signed in, or type /host/festival. See Setting up your festival.

A Judges or Creators approval on an address that already has an account sends nothing. Carry on logging in exactly as you did before. The request you sent does not change your name or what you can reach.

If the answer is no

Nothing is sent automatically. A declined request produces no email, though somebody may reply by hand. The reason recorded with a decline is for FilmScorecard's own records and is never sent to you. Filling in a form again with the same address does not reopen the question. See below.

Registering the same address twice

If you send any of the three forms again with an address you have already used, you get the same confirmation you got the first time. There is no "you have already registered" message anywhere, and the screen looks identical in all three of these cases:

So if you spot a mistake in your name, registered on the wrong page, or think of something you should have added, just send it again while you are waiting. The latest version is the one an approver reads, and the one your account is created from.

The setup screen is different. Once you have an account, Request host access on /host/festival does reopen an approved or declined request on your address, as a host request, waiting again. These forms never do.

Messages the forms can show

A problem with a field appears in red in place of the line under that field. Field problems show when you press the button, then update as you type. Anything else appears in red just above the button. Nothing you typed is ever cleared, so correct the one thing and send it again.

What these forms do not do

So that you are not left waiting on any of it:

• They do not create your account on the spot, and they do not sign you in. The account is created after a person approves the request. That usually happens within moments of the approval and within a day at the latest, or the moment you first ask for a login code, whichever comes first. The second email arrives with it.
• There is no card and nothing to pay. Not here, and not when you log in.
• There is no way to check where your request stands. There is no status page and no "check my request" screen. The approval email is the signal. Trying the log-in screen is a harmless test, though: an approved address gets a code, and one that is not approved yet gets the Check your email screen and no email, which is what any unknown address gets.
• They tell you nothing about your address. The confirmation is identical whether or not that address is already known to the platform. If you think you may already have an account, do not test it here. Go to the log-in screen and try it, which is what Logging in covers.
• They do not keep anything you do in the examples on the pages. The Judges page has a scorecard you can fill in and file, and the Creators page has a judge picker, a scorecard builder and a page preview. Nothing you do in them is saved or sent, and none of it reaches your request. That includes the judges you add in the picker before pressing Continue with 2 judges.
• They do not unlock anything marked Coming soon. Sections with that badge describe things FilmScorecard does not do yet: on the Festivals page, the assistant; on the Judges page, private submissions from creators; on the Creators page, choosing and paying your own judges, building your own scorecard for them, reviewing your work yourself first, the marketing kit, and the pricing shown for scorecards. The project page beside it, marked Free, carries no badge: it is free now. Registering, and anything you tick on a form, does not change that.

Related guides

• Logging in: the screen your approved account is waiting at, and the six-digit code that opens it.
• Setting up your festival: where an approved host lands on their first log-in, and where an account that is not approved to create an organization asks for host access.
• Setting up your judge profile: the four screens an approved judge lands on instead.
• Your projects: where an approved creator lands.
• Creating an account: the sign-up screens, which an approved beta account does not need, and the routes that go around the beta entirely.
• The Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy: the two documents the box on these forms agrees to, and what is recorded when your account is made.
• Contacting us: the form to use if your request seems to have gone astray.
• Log-in problems: every message the log-in and sign-up screens can show.