Film Courage: What are the main reasons someone should make a short film?
Kim Adelman, Author/Filmmaker/Instructor: Here's the great thing about short film making I truly
believe everybody should make a short film if you want to I'm not going to force you to make
a short video to make a short film but there's nothing to stop anybody from making a short film
so if you have something you want to say or make or maybe you just want to experiment and
try to do something because the experimental is also a really fabulous category of short films
go for it nobody ever regrets having made a short film and one of the reasons is it's not
so financially disabling is making a feature feature you put a lot of money in a lot of
people's expectations and it really has to deliver short film short time commitment to make hopefully
very very little money that you put into it so why not go ahead and do it so I always encourage
people to make short films I think often you'll find out festivals the festival people will tell
you too like the people who have the most fun at film festivals are the short filmmakers because
nothing's really riding on it you know it's not like there's a lot of investment you're just there
you've made something you're proud of and you're like hello world here I am I'm now a filmmaker
and that's the great thing about shorts too it's that nice bridge from i'd love to be a filmmaker
to actually being a filmmaker fastest way to do that is to make a short film but having said that
I also don't think you should make it so precious is like I must have the perfect thing before I can
become a short filmmaker I do think and this is also what's kind of nice about film school
you can make a lot of small things to kind of experiment and do stuff and find your voice
that you don't necessarily need to show the world right that it could just be something
for you to experiment and to find what you are as a filmmaker to exercise your filmmaking muscles
it doesn't have to be shared with the world so quite often I teach and a lot of my students
want to immediately put their film out into the film festival or put it on youtube and
that's permanent you know that sends the word your name it's now something on your imdb page
is now something that you're showing people to say this is represents me as a filmmaker and if
it's not something that really is of quality yet there's still just a learning experience because I
always say shorts are a learning experience for everyone if it is truly a learning experience
you can just say that was it I made it and I learned a lot from it but now I'm ready to do my
more ready for the world short film so you know everybody can make a short film I would
always encourage everyone to make a short film I don't necessarily encourage everyone
that everything you make is so perfect that you know your mom's gonna love them all obviously
and your best friend will love it and the people who are in it will love it but doesn't necessarily
mean that the world has to see everything you've made you should be a little cautious
about what you send out into the world well that's a great point how does someone know though because
sometimes we all think everything we do is amazing or or we have the flip side of that problem but
yeah that's true some people do at the flip side but they're super critical and it's like well how
do you know that it's not great until you actually show it to people so you know one thing I do like
is doing private screenings where like you and your friends you can get like five friends all
of whom made something show it at home people now have beautiful tvs you know invite people to your
apartment you know make popcorn have a private screening like a cast and crew screening
and that's a great way especially if you show more than one film to see how it plays with people
people who are obviously on your side but if you have a bunch of different casting crews there
are strangers there who you know aren't related to you and see how it plays see what people do
people do test screenings and features all the time so do a test screening of your short
and see what happens however I will say you know it used to be in the world of like if you build it
they will come like put it up on youtube people will discover it and all of a sudden you'll be
on Jimmy Fallon talking about your short film that made your whole difference there's so many things
going up on youtube now there's so many things that are out there you can't count on like if
you build it they will come it really has to be a concentrated effort to get people to see your film
so if you're worried about it you know do that kind of test screening if you are if you do
want to send it out into the world then you know that's what festivals are for now some people's
shorts are not festival quality shorts and I will also say I know so many filmmakers who like apply
to all these festivals and don't get in don't get in and they're like my film must really
suck it does it's not getting into anything and then finally it breaks for them they get into
one film festival and then they get into another and get into another so you know number one your
film just might not be a festival kind of film and that's totally fine but also it may just
be that you know again ten thousand people made short films that were submitted to Sundance so
don't think that you know because you're one of the ten thousand and you're not getting in it's
because you personally suck i've been on a less short film jury juries and you know at festivals
and I always want to tell people that we're like number like we gave the big prize to film number
a but film number b we debated forever about and we all really liked it just didn't get the prize
and you always want to say I wish the filmmaker knew that you know how much we loved their film
and talked about their film and even though they didn't actually get the prize you know they should
be very very proud of that but you don't hear that all you hear is film number a1 and I didn't
win anything so you know you could honestly be film never be where you've got so much potential
it just didn't happen for you at that time do you advise filmmakers to make a short film from their
screenplay such as like filming a sequence from maybe the first page so a lot of people do that
that they have a screenplay and there's no like they can't get people to look at their screenplay
that's like the hardest thing right to break into Hollywood and get people to look at their
screenplay so people say to them you know well maybe you should shoot a little bit of the film
and the screenplay and then people can see that and see the potential of what this thing could be
so quite often those are like proof of concept shorts that you take either a little scene or
you maybe take one of the characters from it and film something different with that
character just to show that that character has a lot of potential and could be interesting
the hard part is sometimes those don't hold up on their own like that little
scene doesn't really work as a film it works to kind of show what the screenplay could be
but on the other hand you know you if you want to make your film for like 100 million dollars
you're not going to be able to invest that much in a little teeny bit of a short film so that
doesn't give you that you know grandeur that you would get when they actually make the feature so
but it's totally legitimate to make a proof of concept and then you send that little you show
people that bit and they say ah now I understand what the feature could be you know a lot of
features are execution dependent where people just can't see what it would potentially be so if you
put together a little something you're like now you can see what it could potentially be so it's
worthwhile doing that it doesn't necessarily mean that's a festival short it really might be just
truly a proof of concept for that feature script and that's all it is conversely a lot of people
have made short films that got a lot of attention then people like you know there's a feature in
there and then they've written the feature around the short film you know so whiplash is actually
one of the most famous ones that it was a feature script first he couldn't get the attention for it
so he took an actual scene from it and it's on the internet I think it's on the blu-ray of the dvd
it's pretty easy to find of that scene and he had jk simmons as the music instructor but a different
kid not miles teller as the drummer and so he shot an actual scene from it and that's short film
also called whiplash got into the Sundance film festival won an award and then everybody's like
well I was like well here's the feature script so that gave him a lot of momentum by having
showing people what it could be but just to play the devil's advocate for a moment I think
wouldn't there be a little bit of a danger in just shooting one page because there wouldn't
be an arc to the story it wasn't just one page it was one scene so you know yeah exactly you don't
you need to have a beginning middle and end and that's why sometimes people don't do something
exactly from the script they take something out of it and carefully construct it as a short film
and those are more successful because people have the experience doing it also people have done like
little trailers so recently the fresh prince of bel air tv show got remade as just bel air
and how it happened was the filmmaker thought oh I could do this kind of gritty version
of of the fresh prince of bel air now and he made like a little trailer for that
just for fun because he thought it was like a good concept of like let's show the real fresh prince
of bel-air and based on that they were able to develop a tv series so it does work quite often
that you can show something and then people see what it could be and then bigger pieces happen
actually right now too there's another there's two films that are out right now
one film called emergency feature film on amazon prime that was a short film that did very well
in the festival circuit and then people said to them this could be a feature and they're like yes
let's make the feature and then marcel the shell with shoes on that's now a feature film
too and that was a short film originally do most filmmakers realize their short film is a calling
card or almost an online resume see I agree with you that I think that's short films no matter what
are an online resume and not necessarily a calling card of what you want to do for the future but
calling part of you as a filmmaker and that's what they should be this is your chance to do whatever
you want to do that shows your voice like this is who I am this is what I want to do so I know
filmmakers who for example have made comedy shorts they got a lot of success and they were able to
get an agent off of it and they got meetings with people in Hollywood and everyone was like
here's a comedy we'd love you to do and they're like well really what I want to do is drama
I was like well everybody got excited because you could show them your comedy
on a similar note I know a filmmaker who did a short film with a dog and it was just happened
to be that there's a dog in the story but then he got offered all these dog features and he was like
I'm not a dog filmmaker but that's what people can see they're like oh he works well with a dog
we happen to have a dog script we're looking for a dog director dude here we go so you have to be
a little careful that knowing you know you if you want to make horror films you should think about
what your future holds so if you want to make horror films then you should do a horror short
you know you can do a comedy horror short or something like that but you should think
about where you want to go if you want to be a documentary filmmaker I think doing a narrative
short doesn't really help you in any way if you want to you know make really slick kind of things
in the future you should make slick thing as your short film but it also should reflect who you are
too so like for example you know yeah if you're a comedian or something like that you shouldn't
nobody's expecting you to make a drama you know heart rendering drama film and then you know
have you say but what I really this is who I really am it's like well no we always knew
you were a comedian this is weird that you want to do these dramas so you have to think about
who you were where you're going and make something that is true expression of you
so then it's don't necessarily make something just to get in a festival try to establish your
style and what you want to do and not just do it for trends well people always ask for example the
program is at the Sundance film festival it's like what is a Sundance short as if you could do like
if you tell me it's a b and c and I do a b and c then I'll get into Sundance right and they
always say no you know we put together this whole group of different things to put together the
film festival and so there is no specific this is what we want so you can't just say like you know
a clown crazy clown film one last year so if I do a crazy clown film then I'll win this year or
that's what they love they love crazy clown films so I'll definitely get in if that's what I do
really what people are looking for is something unique and special and moving and heartfelt and
you know audience pleasing and they want to feel like there's some talent there and they're going
to nurture this talent and expose this talent to the world so there isn't like a formula that can
that says this is what will be successful and you know some people make a great short film and then
make another short film and it fails terribly depending on what you consider failing you know
it doesn't get reactions from people or people don't think it's as good as their first film
then they make a third film and people are like still not so great or it's amazing so
there's no there's no rules about what makes a good short film or what you should make
there's no definition of what's a failure too and quite often filmmakers will tell you
they had to make certain things before they were ready to make their next film
so those little bits of what some people might consider a failure weren't a failure
at all it was a learning step for them so that they could get up to the next step
so you know that's a great thing about short films there's no there's really no failure it's
as long as you're making stuff and you feel like you got something out of it and it was
worthwhile and you've developed your muscles as a filmmaker then you should consider it a success.