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Five Reasons Why Short Films Are Still Essential
(l-r) Rachel Myers, Warren Pereira and Kate O'Grady on the set of Salt and Silicone (2011). Photo courtesy of Warren Pereira.
I wrote and directed my first short film, Lacking Lewis, in early 2005. The supposed “final” cut, ready later that year, was awful. So I rewrote, re-shot, re-color corrected, re-edited, re-scored and re-sound mixed it more times than I care to admit.
By 2007, the film was better. It got into some festivals and even won a few awards. I was told that I was ready to make a feature and that any more time spent making short films—especially the amount of time I’d spent on Lacking Lewis—would be a waste.
Over the next four years, I made four more short films with the same meticulous work ethic as my first. The shorts garnered me multiple festival selections and awards, Oscar qualification, critical praise and even distribution. They connected me with amazingly talented artists whom I respect and who have taught me a lot.
For anyone who thinks that making a short film is just an easily-ignored pit stop on the road to feature film stardom, I offer the following five reasons to make a short film:
1. Short films protect you from over-investing too early in your career. Now that shooting and editing in HD is so inexpensive, many first-time directors jump right into a making a feature without first developing their craft. Their goal is to make a breakout feature and hit the big time on the first go, but instead they end up spending more time and money than anticipated and are often left with only a poorly-made feature film, frustration, debt and a bunch of congratulatory Facebook wall posts to show for it.
If you make a short film and screw it up it will be, quite simply, a shorter mistake—and one that you can probably afford to throw away. You can go back to your failed short at a later date and make it again (but better), or you can use the lessons you’ve learned to make something brand-new.
I highly recommend making your first couple of short films as inexpensively as possible. Then, once you’re confident in your skills, increase your budget a bit and make a few more shorts that look more like features.
No matter how affordable image acquisition has become, the extended run time of a feature makes all the associated costs—hiring a crew, renting equipment, etc.—exponentially higher. A lot of people have a micro-budget HD feature they made a few years ago that’s probably going nowhere. Why not be the one person who has made a polished short film and is now ready to make a solid feature that will go somewhere?
Mark Ruppert, creator of the 48 Hour Film Project, which challenges moviemakers to create an entire short film in just two days, says that a well-made short “can serve as a calling card, showing future funders or partners what you can do.”
2. Short films give you
valuable film festival
experience. When you’re navigating the festival circuit with a feature, the end game is usually to sell it, which can add a lot of pressure. That’s simply not the case with a short.
I enjoyed screening my short film, Salt and Silicone, at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, and I even discussed a few distribution offers. But I felt minimal pressure to secure a deal. On the other hand, everyone with a feature at Cannes felt enormous pressure to sell it. I was able to learn from the feature moviemakers—and their publicists and sales agents—without feeling that pressure myself.
3. People want to see—and invest in—short films. “As a new filmmaker, your number one goal should be to get in front of as many eyes as possible,” says Jeannie Roshar, director of the L.A. Comedy Shorts Film Festival. “You’ll have an easier time getting one million hits on YouTube than you will cramming one million people into a theater. Of course, nothing beats a live audience. Short films win there too, because film festivals can schedule a lot more shorts than features.”
Shorts are the sideshow at most festivals—excluding those devoted exclusively to shorts, like the L.A. Comedy Shorts, D.C. Shorts and CFC Worldwide Short Film Festivals—but audiences still come out to watch them, because festivals program several shorts together in one screening block. Most moviemakers bring their family, friends, cast and crew to the screening, so each short benefits from being seen by a larger audience.
Once you’ve proven yourself with one short, you’re more likely to attract investors to another. “Making a short is not about making money,” says Roshar. “It’s about showing what you can do so someone will fund the next one.” An investor commissioned me to make my fourth short, Lovely Coffee, in exchange for ownership points, a producer credit and a role in the film. Since he was able to act and produce—and since I didn’t have the money to make the film on my own—I said yes. If you are serious about making a film and have an interesting story to tell, it doesn’t matter if your film is 90 minutes long or just 15; there’s money to be found through grants and private investors.
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by Pat on 11/01/11 at 11:25 pm
Nice article! Well written with real insight in the short format.
- Comment by Dr. K on 11/03/11 at 11:38 pm
Well written article, well organized and articulate. It brings up some great insights into being a film maker and it points out some the precise benefits to the short film.
- Comment by Stephen Felt on 11/04/11 at 3:12 pm
Great article and something I wish more indie moviemakers would read and take to heart. I have seen so many bad feature films at festivals and often wondered if the producers ever made a short film to work out the bugs. I’ve made a few shorts, several commercials, and a web series and now producing and directing my first feature film with the knowledge I gained from making a few shorts. I am even writing a book about making short films, web series’, and other short content videos about myu experiences and the experiences of other producers in my network.
- Comment by VIP on 11/11/11 at 5:14 pm
Very insightful article with personal perspective on independent filmmaking. Useful information on many aspects of making short films.
This story was published in the Guide to Making Movies 2011 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
Keep It Short! / Five Reasons Why Short Films Are Still Essential
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