Short films: Purpose?

Hey every one,


I'm new to the forum and relatively new to film making as well. I've seen a lot of people on here mention creating short films for their first few projects. I've also seen some amazing shorts in the Showcase section of the forum that were made on unbelievably low budgets (according to the creators).

Are shorts created to develop a portfolio for a film maker who could use them to show prospective studios and producers?

Or are shorts created to pitch an idea, that the film maker is trying to raise money for or sell to a producer or something along those lines?

Or is it something else?



I'm sure this is a newbie question and I appreciate any help I can get.


Thanks,
Zain
 
"Yes," to your questions about portofolio and pitching.



1) Not every idea I have is 110 pages long. Sometimes a quick short will get my point across.

2) Practice! Better to fall on a short (or several of them), before jumping into a feature.

3) Money. Shorts can be done for free or cheap. In other words, people don't mind working for a day or two, however, commiting to a month or two on a feature is hard to do for free.

3a) Features usually cost money to buy a DVD or download. Shorts are usually free to watch.

4) Festivals/film meetings. A bunch of filmmakers get together for 2 hours. Does it make more sense to show shorts of everyone's work, or one person's feature?

5) YouTube, Vimeo, online video revolution. There are people making shorts (THE GIFT, PANIC ATTACK, THE RAVEN, etc.) who are posting impressive shorts and getting Hollywood deals.
 
Back during the 30's and early 40's you would spend an afternoon or an evening at the movies. There would be a newsreel, (no TV news, so that was the only way to see the news), a cartoon and a couple of shorts, as well as the feature. There were even theatres that showed nothing but cartoons, newsreels and shorts; they were usually near train stations and bus depots in the big cities. This eventually gave way to the double feature when TV came along.

Shorts were a big part of TV in the early/mid 50's. Shows like "The Twilight Zone", "The Outer Limits", "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and many others were, in essence, weekly presentations of short films, albeit each series had its connecting theme. It just so happens that tonight TCM is airing episodes of "The Directors Showcase", where famous Hollywood directors chose and directed a short - and usually cast their favorite film actors.

In the digital age the cost of shooting and posting material has gone way down. For a few hundred dollars it's possible to create a very wonderful short piece. It's also a way to hone your skills and to create a calling card that could possibly attract budgets and attention.
 
"Yes," to your questions about portofolio and pitching.



1) Not every idea I have is 110 pages long. Sometimes a quick short will get my point across.

2) Practice! Better to fall on a short (or several of them), before jumping into a feature.

3) Money. Shorts can be done for free or cheap. In other words, people don't mind working for a day or two, however, commiting to a month or two on a feature is hard to do for free.

3a) Features usually cost money to buy a DVD or download. Shorts are usually free to watch.

4) Festivals/film meetings. A bunch of filmmakers get together for 2 hours. Does it make more sense to show shorts of everyone's work, or one person's feature?

5) YouTube, Vimeo, online video revolution. There are people making shorts (THE GIFT, PANIC ATTACK, THE RAVEN, etc.) who are posting impressive shorts and getting Hollywood deals.

Couldnt agree anymore.Thats precisely the purpose of short films.
 
Yeah, all of the above.

It's a good opportunity to practice your filmmaking skills without the time/money commitment of a feature.
They are resume builders.
Some ideas aren't feature ideas, they are better suited to a short.
The short form has it's own merits. I'm personally trying to revive the "featurette" or "one reeler" with shorts in the 25 to 40 minute range.

For me it's all building towards a feature. It would be MUCH harder to try and talk people out of the 25K to 30K (I'd prefer about 10X that, but we'll see how it goes) I consider the absolute bare bones, bottom of the barrel budget for a feature with nothing to show you have the ability to finish a high quality project (even if it's of a shorter length) on time and on budget.
 
Most everything has been covered already and I agree with the points. Shorts mean different things to different filmmakers. Shorts help hone filmmaking skills and help you work out the kinks and they help showcase your talents.

I personally believe short form is the best way to go for filmmakers at this point because of the technology and social media opportunities to show and promote your work. Especially a web series format that can bring people back and help develop a following. I recently switched from the feature format to "web series" as I think it's the best avenue to get my work out. I'm doing a "horror anthology series" called The Dead Hour where each episode is basically it's own "short". I stream the episodes on our site at www.thedeadhour.com and then use FB/Vimeo/Flickr/Tumblr/Twitter to try to promote the work that is easily accessible to people who want to watch. I know there are alot of other filmmakers doing this as well.
 
Are shorts created to develop a portfolio for a film maker who could use them to show prospective studios and producers?

Or are shorts created to pitch an idea, that the film maker is trying to raise money for or sell to a producer or something along those lines?

Or is it something else?

I'd say yes to all of the above.

Shorts develop a body of work, something to prove to investors or producers that they can direct "a" movie, albeit a short one.

They can also be ideas that are representative of a feature as a whole. There's an entire contest on Openfilm.com dedicated to showing shorts that are meant to be developed as a feature. I've done that exactly twice now for 2 feature films.

As for other reasons, the "else", a short can be a learning tool. Why invest the time and energy into producing a feature length when you haven't mastered the short form? As I wrote in another thread, think of short films as the scrimmage to the big game of feature films. Making a feature without making a short film first is akin to trying to write an entire symphony without trying to write a simple melody first.

And lastly, some stories aren't feature length. Much like a short story, some ideas aren't meant to be novel length.
 
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