3
The Short Answer

As I mentioned in the introduction, there are lots of reasons to write and make a short film. Perhaps the most obvious reason is to gain access to audiences. It’s much easier to get lots of people to see your short—particularly if you post it online in open forums like Vimeo or YouTube. We’ll talk more about venues later.

A short film is a great calling card that can showcase your talent to lots of people who don’t have long attention spans, and sadly, that’s most of us. We’re all movement junkies. As a culture we have trouble keeping still. We’re always looking for the next thing—for newer sights and sounds. We’re always looking for stimulation, and this search for constant jolts drives us to do “unnatural things,” like checking our smart phones every few minutes and gorging on YouTube videos.

Canadian columnist McLen Greaves writing in Zoomer Magazine, July 2015 tells us that according to Statistic Brin Research Institute, our average attention span has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to an anorexic 8 seconds in 2013. The average attention span of a goldfish in comparison is 9 seconds.

He reported that college age kids now own an average of 6.9 devices and have subconsciously responded to information overload with speed. Facebook research shows that updates are getting shorter (Twitter has a 140-character limit) and sending email has been leapfrogged by messaging apps like WhatsApp, KIK, Messenger, and Line. And young Internet users are often foregoing words for pictures, fueling the rise of photo-sharing messaging apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and the Twitter-owned Vine where videos are limited to six seconds!

The bad news is that this creates some major problems in the way we all think, particularly in those with what I call “jolt addiction.” Greaves (2014; p. 30) writes that

Pretty daunting!

Those of us interested in reaching vast audiences to relay our messages are forced to vie for attention in this jolt-seeking world—a vast and glowing market that demands continuous entertainment. But given the speed at which people tend to like moving, that entertainment has got to be short, quick, and easy. As I already mentioned, a variety of platforms have been designed specifically to satisfy that addiction. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, etc., all deal with the explosion of images and fast facts, the sharing of media jolts, that document lives and ideas.

Years ago, Marshall McLuhan defined and predicted “Blip Culture.” He was talking about the way people like to get their news. He predicted the obsolescence of print and the dependence on electronic media and described how we’ll all increasingly get our information in sound bites. But wait—what about an art form like film?

Unfortunately those who have been raised on film as a traditional art form are discovering that film has taken on a new meaning and direction. Film is more disposable and quick. Certainly, it’s more efficient, and it’s not even “film” any more but a series of pixels—pointillism gone wild—entirely digital and extraordinarily popular.

Independent filmmakers are realizing they no longer need be bound by the idea that movies must be long and expensive. In fact, the current marketplace eschews long and yearns for short.

Even in the industry, people aren’t wild about reading 120 pages. Spec scripts aren’t selling well and have to go through an intense vetting gauntlet just to get the “right” people to read them. And even then, they’re often not read. If you want someone to get a glimpse of your work, there’s no better way than to send that person a 5- to 7-minute short that demonstrates what you can do with story. That short can also demonstrate your sensibility and how you approach dialogue. That means you’ll have to make sure that the short you write is produced well with great actors and good production quality.

In my interview with Marshall Nord of Shorts HD, he said he’d

Nord goes on to say that he

That, of course, doesn’t mean that shorts have no structure to them. They very much do, but the structure is simple and doesn’t have the very particular structure confines of a feature. The short film mirrors the structure of a feature without the subplot and the spikes that propel plot points. We’ll see how this works in a later chapter when we break down a feature and reimagine it into a new-entity short film. But for now, know that as long as your short film has a beginning, middle, and end (three acts essentially), it can be as loose or as “experimental” as you choose to make it.

Keep in mind though that if your goal is to eventually make commercial features (and by that I mean films that can be distributed for larger audiences), your short films shouldn’t be so freeform experimental as to turn audiences, distributors, and investors off. You want to make people believe in your vision and your story-telling ability in a marketplace that is highly demanding on all levels. And there are lots of opportunities to make money and showcase your talents at the same time by making short films for that marketplace. For example, on April 10, 2015, The Los Angeles Times featured a front page Business Section story describing how JW Marriott hopes its short movies will draw younger travelers.

Other companies and institutions are jumping on this very lucrative (for filmmakers) bandwagon broadening the possibilities for new filmmakers to get their work seen and earn some money doing that. Because of the explosion of new platforms, it’s possible to actually get a job making films that doesn’t involve beating down the doors of impregnable studios or production companies. That means having a short film as a sample of what you can do is a powerful tool that trumps any resume.

This kind of magic happened to one of my students, Gregory Hansen, back in 1993. He wrote and directed a short called 7 Souls, and it was so good it got snapped up and made into a feature called Heart and Souls starring Robert Downey, Jr. Greg got to write the script, and this launched him on a screenwriting career. Many now famous directors started their careers making short film or industrials or music videos.

Noah Pisner (July 2015), writing on the site Arts.Mic, put forward 16 short films that launched the careers of famous directors. Here’s some of what he had to say about several of them.

1. ■ Benh Zeitlin, Glory at Sea (2008)
   In 2012, Zeitlin’s debut feature Beasts of the Southern Wild swept the festival circuit, winning top prizes at both the Sundance and Cannes film festivals before ultimately picking up four Oscar nominations. Funding for the film wouldn’t have been possible, however, had Zeitlin not won an award at South by Southwest in 2008 with the premiere of his precursor short, Glory at Sea. Rendered in post–Hurricane Katrina grief with an overwhelming sense of magic realism, the short offers a much tighter encapsulation of Beasts, but with equally epic aspirations.
2. ■ Michel Gondry, Human Behavior (1993)
   Gondry—like Spike Jonze and David Fincher—entered into feature film making via music video production. In 1993, the style of Gondry’s early videos for his own band Oui Oui caught the attention of Björk, who asked him to direct a video for her song “Human Behavior.” In the production, Gondry shows off his trademark style: a stop-animation-esque approach depicting dreamlike mechanizations and the glitchy imagery of soaring meteors.
    The neosurrealist aesthetic catapulted Gondry into the top tier of music video auteurs, setting him off producing videos for the likes of Radiohead and Beck before bringing him to the attention of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, whom he would go on to collaborate with on his first two feature films, Human Nature and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
    The one other short that was essential to Gondry’s rise to fame was his Levi’s 501 “Drugstore” commercial back in 1996. According to the Guinness World Records 2004, this spot holds the distinction for “Most Awards Won by a TV Commercial.”
3. ■ Sophia Coppola Lick the Star (1998)
   Coppola wrote and directed Lick the Star, a 14-minute film that premiered on the Independent Film Channel. The film shows the beginnings of Coppola’s unique cinematic style: Sharp cutting, stark compositions and rock ‘n’ roll music all help frame the downfall of the most popular girl in high school. The film prefigures themes and images of many of Coppola’s later works. The opening scene shows the lead actress being driven in a car—a running trope that has remained in almost every single opening scene in her features since: The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation and Somewhere.
4. ■ Jared Hess, Peluca (2003)
   Before Jon Heder played the titular character in 2004’s breakout indie hit Napoleon Dynamite, the actor starred as the same character (only going by the name of Seth) in director Hess’ student short film Peluca. The short was made for only $500 on black-and-white 16-mm film stock in Hess’ hometown of Preston, Idaho, over the course of two days. After being shown during the Slamdance Film Festival in 2003, Hess was encouraged by a producer to adapt the short into a low-budget feature. Napoleon Dynamite came out the following year, enabling Hess’ rise as an indie director and Heder’s rise as a comedy star.
5. ■ Gary Gray, “It Was a Good Day” (1993)
   Gray was relatively unknown when Ice Cube hired him to make the video [for “It Was a Good Day”]. Its success then prompted the rapper to ask Gray to direct the film he was co-writing. Made for only $2 million, Friday, starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker, grossed $30 million, paving the way for several sequels. Over the next decade, Gray proved his versatility with films like The Negotiator and The Italian Job. Recently, it was announced that he had beaten out John Singleton (Boyz n the Hood) and George Tillman Jr. (Notorious) for the chance to direct the 2015 NWA biopic, Straight Outta Compton, with Ice Cube, nominated for best screenplay at the 2016 Academy Awards.
6. ■ Paul Thomas Anderson, Cigarettes & Coffee (1993)
   The critically adored director of There Will Be Blood and The Master owes his career to a big break at Sundance in 1993. Anderson spent his college fund and some gambling winnings to make the short, Cigarettes & Coffee, which tells the story of five people all interconnected through a $20 bill. On the strength of the short, Anderson was then invited to the Sundance filmmakers lab, where he worked on adapting the short into a feature. The film became Hard Eight, which premiered at Cannes in 1996, launching one of the most important cinematic careers of the past few decades.
7. ■ Tim Burton, Frankenweenie (1984)
   In 2007, Disney signed Burton to direct a stop-motion animated remake of Burton’s own 1984 short film Frankenweenie. Right out of CalArts, Disney commissioned Burton to make the original live-action short to precede the 1984 re-release of Pinocchio in theaters. The film’s bleak tone didn’t meet the studio’s expectations for a family film, however, so Disney decided to shelve the project and fire Burton. Luckily, around the same time, Paul Reubens was looking for a director for a film idea he had been developing. Stephen King had seen Burton’s short, and strongly recommended it to Reubens. Reubens arranged to meet with Burton and offered him his breakout opportunity, directing Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. The full-length animated version of Frankenweenie was released in 2012 and received nominations for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.
8. ■ Wes Anderson, Bottle Rocket (1994)
   Anderson’s original 1994 black and white version of Bottle Rocket has likely done more to launch its director’s career than any other short film ever. The making of the film has almost become apocryphal: In 1992 Anderson and Owen Wilson met in a playwriting class [at] UT Austin. The two wrote a script together, which followed the exploits of three clueless would-be criminals, who would be played by Robert Musgrave, Wilson and his brother, Luke. During the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, Bottle Rocket received little attention from critics and attendees, but managed to catch the eye of producer James Brooks, who funded the duo’s debut feature based on the short.
    The difference between the 13-minute short and the 92-minute feature are mostly cosmetic—the narrative was expanded, and color photography was used. The feature also ditched the short’s jazzy soundtrack for a new score from former Devo member Mark Mothersbaugh. Upon release, the feature quickly gained cult status among critics and cinephiles. Martin Scorsese named the film one of his 10 favorite movies of the decade. The accolade prompted Disney to finance Wilson and Anderson’s next film project, Rushmore, which ushered in a cast of recurrent collaborators—Bill Murray, most notably—who have ardently worked to help Anderson make many of the films that have defined modern cinema: The Royal Tenenbaums, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom. And most recently The Grand Budapest Hotel that in 2015 won 4 Oscars with another 141 wins and 153 nominations.” (Pisner, 2015)

If you go to the Art.Mic site you can see these films and the others that Posner names. These are only a few in the vast pantheon of shorts that launched careers and even Oscars. (Think Whiplash, the short made in 2013 that two years later ended up as an Academy Award–nominated feature!)

So now that you’ve seen how short films can help you move your career along and even make you money, you’re ready to think about how to craft your story to make it into a powerful short.

References

Bottle Rocket. Dir. Wes Anderson. 1994. Short film.

Cigarettes & Coffee. Dir. Thomas Anderson. 1993. Short film.

Frankenweenie. Dir. Tim Burton. 1984. Short film.

Glory at Sea. Dir. Benh Zeitlin. 2008. Short film.

Greaves, McLen. 10 Reasons Why Almost All Internet Articles Are Lists. Zoomer Magazine, September 2014, p. 30.

Human Behavior. Dir. Michel Gondry. 1993. Short film.

It Was a Good Day. Dir. Gary Gray. 1993. Short film.

Lick the Star. Dir. Sophia Coppola. 1998. Short film.

Marriott, J. W. Room for Films. Los Angeles Times, Friday, April 10, 2015, p. 1 C.

Peluca. Dir. Jared Hess. 2003. Short film.

Pisner, Noah. 16 Short Films that Launched the Careers of Famous Directors, Arts.mic, July 15, 2014, https://mic.com/articles/92951/16-short-films-that-launched-the-careers-of-famous-directors#.xD1jOJBUK. Accessed 18 November 2016.