Short Films a shortcut to Hollywood?

Super interesting article sonny, thanks for sharing!

I wonder, District 9 aside, how viable a strategy this is for people who don't already have connections in ze hollywoodz...
 
H.Z. said:
Super interesting article sonny, thanks for sharing!

I wonder, District 9 aside, how viable a strategy this is for people who don't already have connections in ze hollywoodz...
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Good point H.Z.

I think a number of people are trying to do this, but it becomes a big piece of who you know as much as what you know IMO.

Still good article. Another example this would be the Animated film "9", that too started out as a film short.

There's hope for Delivery Day yet! ;) Now if I can find someone to sneak it in the backdoor of a studio....:D
 
Jared Hess made a nine minute movie called “Peluca” in Preston, ID
for $500. It play at Slamdance in 2003. He then found investors to
put up a little over $200,000 for a feature length version. That’s
“Napoleon Dynamite”

Martin McDonagh made a 27 minute movie called “Six Shooter” which
played at two small festivals in 2004. He managed to beat the
catch-22 because of that excellent short and got name talent and
financing for a feature length version called “In Bruges” which
was made without a distributor attached and played at Sundance in
2008. He got an Academy Award Nomination for Best Original
Screenplay.

Paul Thomas Anderson made a short video (and edited VCR to VCR) in
1988 called “The Dirk Diggler Story” It was five years before he
made his next short (on 16mm) and those two, finished shorts got
him the job writing and directing “Sydney”. When he had the clout,
the first film he put together was an expanded version of his 1988
short called “Boogie Nights”

James Wan wrote and directed a nine minute short film and a
feature length script called “Saw”. How the script was discovered
and financed By Gregg Hoffman is a great story.
 
H.Z. said:
I wonder, District 9 aside, how viable a strategy this is for people who don't already have connections in ze hollywoodz...
Click to expand...

The point of the article is about how these latest crops of unknowns, with no connections to Hollywood, got in the front door by invitation because of their shorts.

Wes Anderson went to Sundance with a short film called BOTTLE ROCKET and got to remake it on 35mm as a feature.

John Carpenter won the student Academy Award in 1971 before embarking on feature films.

This year's Oscar's did a vignette on shorts winners who went on to make features.


The key I think is in the marketing and USING these opportunities to scale the walls and create demand. A lot of the examples had millions of views for their shorts online, a verifiable amount that showed executives that people are interested in the story and movie idea. They aren't interested in a good movie no one wants to see. If you make a movie and it "goes viral", as in millions of people show they like it by watching online, then you are not as much of a gamble with their money.

Creating something that goes viral and hits with mass audiences is still the key and not a guarantee.
 
Haha, okay I see that the answer to "how well can this work for unknowns" is "very." I was just initially curious because a several of the people mentioned in the article - (sort of) Barbara and Andres Muschietti, Rodrigo Blaas, and expecially Ricardo de Montreuil - had industry connections/worked in film, even if their previous work would not have enabled them to get a feature made prior to the short.

I agree with you about creating demand sonnyboo, I really do think that's one of the major advantages of the internet for indie filmmakers. Although how exactly to get a video viral still seems to be something of a sphinx's riddle... :)
 
sonnyboo said:
The point of the article is about how these latest crops of unknowns, with no connections to Hollywood, got in the front door by invitation because of their shorts.

Wes Anderson went to Sundance with a short film called BOTTLE ROCKET and got to remake it on 35mm as a feature.

John Carpenter won the student Academy Award in 1971 before embarking on feature films.

This year's Oscar's did a vignette on shorts winners who went on to make features.


The key I think is in the marketing and USING these opportunities to scale the walls and create demand. A lot of the examples had millions of views for their shorts online, a verifiable amount that showed executives that people are interested in the story and movie idea. They aren't interested in a good movie no one wants to see. If you make a movie and it "goes viral", as in millions of people show they like it by watching online, then you are not as much of a gamble with their money.


Creating something that goes viral and hits with mass audiences is still the key and not a guarantee.
Click to expand...

It's interesting. With online accessablity and all the problems with intellectual properties, it is also a way of getting people to see your stuff and exposure. I've had about 60 people watch my Delivery Day. Yea it may not sound like a lot, but it didn't cost me anything to upload it, and 60 people have watched it (It's got an average of 3.5 star rating at this point. That and sites like this offer the opportunity. Maybe there IS hope for those without the connections. I've next next to no promoting (other than mentioning on this site and a few friends) because it's a rough cut.

Now, having said that (cynicism alert)-I do wonder how many people do "go viral" because a PR manager somewhere has "convinced" sites like Yahoo and MSN to advertise "See the big hit everyone is watching!" And that's where I get a little sour on it, although it could be seen as another way of promotion, so it's a personal preference I guess.

I do think though that Hollywood is looking for new ideas for the younger generation, my kids generation is probably the most media saavy yet-and it seems they are wanting new fresh material.

I guess in that way, there is no better time to get our stuff out there and see who we can impress :)
 
This is not the complete strategy, but is in the back of my mind with my current film. It could be fleshed out into a feature very easily. In fact it was difficult to to tell the whole narrative in a short. Include all the back story on both characters I had to cut from the short and it's instantly feature length.
 
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