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How to Make a Successful Short Film

A practical and inspiring panel discussion on how to make movies that get noticed

PRICE
$20 ($15 for )

SYNOPSIS
Four filmmakers who cleaned up on the festival circuit reveal how they made their short films and moved on to write and direct great features.

You'll hear how they solved real-world problems like:

- getting a movie made on a beg-borrow-and-steal budget
- motivating the best people to work for food (really)
- writing when the well is dry
- dealing with feedback from everyone from deep-pocketed producers to well-meaning family
- creating structures that will help you produce work
- establishing a network without going to film school
- figuring out how long your short film should be to get maximum exposure

DATE OF PANEL
December 13, 2007

Speakers

Helen Kaplan (moderator)
screenwriter/director. Her short Return to Sender has been screened at over 20 festivals.		 Sabrina Dhawan
 screenwriter, Monsoon Wedding, 9.11.01, and Cosmopolitan. Her short film Saanjh (As Night Falls) was named "Best of the Festival" at the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films and "Most Original Film" by New Line Cinema.		 Rona Mark
screenwriter/director of the feature film Strange Girls. Her short film Finbar Lebowitz was a finalist at The Student Academy Awards and winner of the Filmmaker Magazine Audience Choice Award and "Best Comedy" at The Polo Ralph Lauren Film Festival.
 
Shira-Lee Shalit
director of feature film A-List. Her short film Full Cycle was a finalist at The Student Academy Awards. She was a contestant on Fox's reality film directing competition "On the Lot."		 Dave Silver
 writer/director of the feature film Corn. His film Gasline won first prize for "Best Short" at the 2002 Sundance Festival.		  

Table of Contents

Sections Length Size
PREVIEW
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Crib Sheet (PDF)
Download this outline and use it to take notes. Includes resources and other information.		    
1.

Introductions
The panelists discuss the writing process, where ideas come from and how to shape them, and what a short film needs to accomplish to launch a film career today.

The big question: How long should a short film should be?

13:24 53 MB
2. Writing
The writing process: dealing with feedback; discipline, deadlines, and community; avoiding insanity. 		12:11 48 MB
3. Casting
More on writing: overcoming writer's block. Finding a cast and crew. Should you work with casting directors? How to get people to work with you when you don't have any money.		 15:36 62 MB
4.

Financing and the Future
How to finance short films and different approaches to raising money: hitting up people you know, sticking to a budget, self-producing vs. working with a producer, financing features vs. shorts.

Is the short still the required calling card to the film industry? What happens when your short is finished and how to leverage it to advance your career.

15:26 61 MB
5. Q&A
How to network in the film business if you haven't gone to film school; how to make a living; welcome and unwelcome surprises. What the panelists wish they had known before they shot their short films.		 14:22 57 MB
6. Final Thoughts
Final pieces of advice. Why are you making films? Where are there paying jobs? How big of a role does luck play? Budget nuts and bolts.		 12:01 48 MB