Finished a short film: Now what?
One of my most frequent pieces of advice to would-be writer/directors is to make a short film. After all, with the wonders of digital technology, any monkey with a good idea and a long weekend should be able come up with something watchable. Right?
The next step is getting someone to see your miniature masterpiece. That’s where my knowledge comes up a little lacking. Fortunately, my assistant Chad Creasey has just been through the process. He and director Dara Resnik recently made a charming short film called “Great Lengths.” You can read all about it at their website.
Pretty much every weekend this spring, either he or Dara were flying to some festival across the country. With this in mind, I asked Chad to write up advice about short films and festivals. He was gracious enough to reply at, well, great length:
Take it, Chad:
You did it! Maybe you had to destroy your great aunt’s guest cottage and illegally tap into the city’s electric line because you couldn’t afford a generator. Maybe you had to bribe the local sheriff to NOT make his 3:00am rounds in order to get that awesome explosion shot. And maybe you subjected your body to experimentation to cover the cost of the final audio layback. But dammit - you are now the proud owner of a completed short film!
So what do you do with it?
Chances are, you want people to see it. Although the internet offers venues like IFILM with which to showcase your work, nothing beats the rush of the live audience screening. You can always rent a screen at the local multiplex (costly), but most filmmakers prefer to show their work at a variety of film festivals.
The festival circuit
The past five years have seen a tremendous surge in the number of festivals. It seems like every city from Ashland, Oregon to Dubrovnik, Croatia has one now. What’s fantastic is you have literally thousands of places to submit to — but the overall quality of these festivals varies greatly. I’ve been to ones that treat the filmmakers like they were A-list celebrities, and others that made me buy tickets to my own screening.
After going through it, I have a couple of recommendations. (1) Use a registration service
While applying to festivals used to mean filling out application after lengthy application, the amateur filmmaker has found a new ally in Withoutabox. This website is a great tool. Basically, it partners up with over a thousand festivals to simplify the application process.
For around $75 a year, you can input all your film specs to a custom account. (For a few dollars more, you also even add trailers, more pictures, and an online press kit). With a few mouse clicks, you then apply to any of their partner festivals and they will send out all the necessary information. All you need to do is mail each festival a receipt, along with the hardcopy of your film. You can even pay the application fee through the website.
What’s even better, since the service ends up saving the festival organizers a lot of hassle, they usually offer a discount ($5-10) on applications received through Withoutabox. You’ll cover the sign-up fee in no time.
(2) Know thy film and choose your festivals wisely.
Everyone wants to be accepted to Sundance, Cannes, Tribeca or perhaps Slamdance. These and others make up the “biggies” and they receive thousands of submissions each year.
Even if you have a brilliant short, the odds are not in your favor. Festivals have programming needs (which often change year to year) and they have to fill a specific slate.
Some festivals simply won’t accept shorts over 30-minutes long. Some won’t accept films with gratuitous language, sex or violence, while others (horror-themed fests) thrive on that kind of product. A lot of times, however, you have little to no idea what festival programmers are looking for. Great Lengths, the short I wrote and co-produced in grad school, is a teen comedy that ended up being screened with similar films in “Teen Angst” series at two different festivals.
You’ll see this at many festivals where programmers discover they have several quality (or decent enough) submissions that can be packaged together under a catchy name.
(3) Know your goals and choose festivals accordingly.
Do you simply want the live audience experience? Then apply to local festivals within a few hundred miles of where you live so you can easily make the drive. Is your short a calling card to try and land you a Hollywood agent? Then apply to festivals in and around the Los Angeles area because (except for Sundance and the biggies) agents and managers don’t have time to attend screenings halfway across the country.
(4) Know your budget.
Even with the Withoutabox discount, it costs (on average) $30-$50 to apply to each festival. Toss in $3.85 to mail your submission, another $100 shipping fee (if you shot on film), and untold hundreds of dollars for airfare and hotel (if you’re actually accepted) and you see that it adds up quickly. Doing the festival rounds for a year can easily put you in the hole, so unless you really think you have a good shot at Sundance, why not save the fifty bucks and apply to two other local festivals instead?
(5) Finally, know that it’s not you.
Your film will be pre-screened by two, maybe three people who will then toss your baby into the “consider” or “reject” pile. Assuming your film is at least worthy of consideration, who knows what goes through these screeners minds when they watch your film?
Maybe your film is a romantic comedy and Screener #1 was dumped the night before and is bitter. Maybe Screener #2 had a double-bacon cheeseburger at lunch and is distracted by his acid reflux. Great Lengths was rejected by two tiny, Podunk festivals that I thought we were shoo-ins for. But then we went on to be selected for the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival. What made us right for one and wrong for the other? Nothing, except that film is a subjective art form.
The film festival gods will sometimes shower you with sun, but more often than not, it will be with rain. Of course, you can help your odds by knowing the kind of festival experience you’d like to have before the application process even begins.
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August 13th, 2004 at 10:12 am
EXCELLENT advice from Chad! Thanks, man! And congrats on the film! I’m going to check out your site when I’m not at work…as I am now. I’m actually in a “meeting.” At least that’s what I’m calling it. Anyway…
Some other advice I have in terms of getting your short into a festival is as follows…
For instance- many features at festivals clock in way early (say, 80 minutes) or they run say, 90 minutes. I think it’s rare that a film at a festival runs a full 2 hours, especially at a small podunk festival. Super low budget indie films can’t afford it and a films running time is also a big a consideration when programming a festival.
If a programmer needs to fill in a short amount of time, he or she will be looking for a really short short film to do that with.
For instance, when I saw “Going All the Way” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119209/) at a film festival, it was preceded by the BRILLIANT “How They Get There” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0351080/) by Spike Jonze. Jonze’s film was 3 minutes and it was awesome! I’ve seen many, many 10 minute documentaries that preceded a doc feature at a festival as well and honestly, some were downright crappy. However, the feature doc was 70 minutes (or whatever) so the extra 10 minutes gave people their money’s worth and filled some space.
Anyway, my point is, if you can keep it short and sweet, I think you increase your chances.
My second piece of advice in regards to getting into festivals is to buy Chris Gore’s book “The Ultimate Film Festival Guide.” You can look it up on Amazon or go to his website http://www.filmthreat.com and buy it there. It’s chock full of info and ideas you never ever would have thought of.
Admittedly, Chris is a good friend and I write for that site BUT, don’t let that take away from what the book has to offer. I’d say it’s a must have for anyone trying to get into a festival.
I think Chad’s advice is really great too and I’m archiving it for when I start sending my (11 minute!) doc short out next month.
August 16th, 2004 at 7:54 pm
I just finished a short film called “Unsent” which is like a neo-noir pulp type story about a bad housewife and bad mailman. This advice was really worth the read, thanks for posting it.
May 13th, 2006 at 11:00 am
I work in the short film industry and can say that the following festivals are considered the Top short film festivals. Many of these festivals are Academy qualifiers (meaning you have to get a certain award at one or more of these festivals to be considered for an Academy short film award). TOP FESTS: Clermont-Ferrand (France), Sundance, Austin, Aspen, Palm Springs (Shorts), Worldwide Short Film Festival - Toronto (WSFF not just regular Toronto FF), One Reel - Seattle, and Berlin Festival. Tribeca’s shorts fare is improving and a good one to have on the resume. If you want to find out more about Academy qualifying festivals, you can find the list & links here –> http://www.oscars.org/79academyawards/rules/rules_shortfest.html