ADELMAN

P E R F O R M I N G AR TS / FI LM & V ID EO / D I R EC TI O N & P RODUCTION $ 16.95 USA / $ 23.95 CAN

KIM ADELMAN

Life is short.
— MAKE MOVIES! —

Making

MAK ING IT BIG IN SHOR T S

It Big in
There’s no limit to what you can achieve by starting small and
dreaming big. Updated with new content covering Kickstarter,
Instagram, and new technology, this third edition addresses
the aftermath of the digital revolution, a time when anyone with
a smartphone can be a filmmaker and attract attention.

“Spot-on advice … ÷e can-do spirit jumps off the page.”

—Andrea Richards, author, Girl Director

“An essential guide for anybody who wants to make short films!”
—Bill Plympton, Oscar-nominated animator, Guard Dog
Shorts
“÷e road map for making that short film you’ve long dreamed of.”
—Matthew Harrison, director, Rhythm Thief

KIM ADEL M A N currently teaches Low-Budget Filmmaking at

UCLA Extension. She was honored as Instructor of the Year
ER
in 2014 and won the UCLA Extension Distinguished Instructor SHORT
F A S T E R
Award in 2016. Ms. Adelman is also the author of The Girls’ ER
CHEAP
Guide to Elvis, The Girls’ Guide to Country, and The Ultimate
Guide to Chick Flicks.
3rd Edition

MICHAEL WIESE PRODUCTIONS | MWP.COM

The Ultimate Filmmaker’s Guide to Short Films 3rd Ed
 Praise for
Making It Big in Shorts

“Recommended for anyone about to start their own short film, or who
wants to promote a short they’ve made.”
—Raewyn Alexander, New Zealand Writers Guild

“Adelman has a passion for short filmmaking and a deep commitment to

empowering filmmakers with the skills they need. Her multiple teaching
awards are distinctions [befitting] an exceptional educator. This wise,
practical, and humorous guide is a gift to filmmakers . . . demystifies a
complex process in easily understandable and instantly applicable action
steps.”
—Pascale Cohen-Olivar, Program Director, Entertainment Studies,
UCLA Extension

“A short but powerful guide to everything relevant you to know before,

during, and after making your first short film — or your fifth!”
—Andrew P. Crane, Special Project Programmer, American
Cinematheque

“A no-nonsense, concise, and to-the-point guidebook on how to make

a short film that travels well on the festival circuit. . . . You can create
something that garners the attention of industry pros, colleagues, and
audiences alike, and Adelman’s book is the perfect companion on that
journey.”
—Rona Edwards, film & TV producer; author, The Complete
Filmmakers’ Guide to Film Festivals and I Liked It, Didn’t Love It

“The road map for making that short film you’ve long dreamed of . . .
practical, up-to-the-minute, and chock-a-block with insider tips. Grab
it and shoot!”
—Matthew Harrison, director, Rhythm Thief, Kicked in the Head,
Bystander from Hell, Sex and the City (TV)

“Direct, to the point, and up to date on all the current social media and
marketing trends for shorts. Sure wish we’d known about this book ear-
lier in our filmmaking journey. No sidetracks, no fluff, just like a good
short film. Solid . . . should help anyone make and market their film
more successfully.”
—Tommy G. Kendrick, actor / producer, Somewhere Between Heaven
and Hell
“Kim Adelman has filled the pages of her latest book with every single
step a filmmaker should consider when sharing their work with an audi-
ence. And she does it incredibly succinctly.”
—Destri Martino, filmmaker; founder, The Director List

“Let me be brief: Making It Big in Shorts packs a treasure trove of infor-

mation into a bite-sized book . . . all you’ll ever need to join the big time
in the short film category.”
—Devon McMorrow, reviewer, Mobile Movie Making

“An essential guide for anybody who wants to make short films, which
is great, because I love the short-film format. It’s the best!”
—Bill Plympton, Oscar-nominated animator, Guard Dog, I Married a
Strange Person

“Adelman does a terrific job of surveying the short films landscape with
this thorough and informative guide for filmmakers.”
—Dale M. Pollock, Professor of Cinema Studies, University of North
Carolina; author, Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas

“Forget film school; this book is all you need! Adelman’s spot-on advice
comes from years in the trenches of indie filmmaking; her expertise
breaks down the process of making your film and getting it seen. Her
can-do spirit jumps off the page; she’s the producer we all want.”
—Andrea Richards, author, Girl Director: A How-to Guide for the First-
Time, Flat-Broke Film and Video Maker

“I wish I had discovered Making It Big in Shorts before I made my first

short film! Drawing on her years of industry experience and her deep
knowledge of the short film world, Kim reveals how to make a short
with what you have and how to get it seen . . . the smartest, most liber-
ating approach to expressing your creative vision.”
—Xenia Shin, filmmaker / producer, Women Transforming Media

“Essential reading for short filmmakers . . . employs experience, intelli-

gence, solid information, compelling anecdote, wit, foresight, and insight
to map out the best start-to-finish path for filmmakers. Its no-nonsense
common sense will benefit filmmakers of every kind.”
—Jacques Thelemaque, filmmaker; president, Filmmakers Alliance

“Has it all: Ms. Adelman covers the why, how, and where to get short
films made. From filmmaking to distribution and getting known, this
book is masterful.”
—Dave Watson, editor, Movies Matter
 MAKING
IT BIG IN
SHORTS
THE ULTIMATE FILMMAKER’S
GUIDE TO SHORT FILMS

3RD EDITION

KIM ADELMAN

M I C H A E L W I E S E P R O D U C T I O N S
Published by Michael Wiese Productions
12400 Ventura Blvd. #1111
Studio City, CA 91604
tel. 818.379.8799
fax 818.986.3408
mw@mwp.com
www.mwp.com

Cover design: Johnny Ink www.johnnyink.com

Interior layout: William Morosi
Copyeditor: Ross Plotkin

All photos by the author or courtesy of the author except where noted.

The author dedicates this edition to all my students past, present, and future.
And Lumi and Louis Padilla-Adelman.

Printed by McNaughton & Gunn, Inc., Saline, Michigan

Manufactured in the United States of America

© 2017 by Kim Adelman

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
means without permission in writing from the publisher, except for the inclusion
of brief quotations in a review.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Adelman, Kim, author.

Title: Making it big in shorts : the ultimate filmmaker’s guide to short
films / Kim Adelman.
Description: 3rd edition. | Studio City, CA : Michael Wiese Productions, 2016.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016027963 | ISBN 9781615932566
Subjects: LCSH: Short films--Production and direction.
Classification: LCC PN1995.9.P7 A35 2016 | DDC 791.4302/32--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016027963

Printed on Recycled Stock

 CONTENTS

FOREWORD BY MARK BORCHARDT  vi

INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRD EDITION  viii

¾ CHAPTER 1
S O YOU WA N T T O M A K E A SHORT   1

¾ CHAPTER 2
YOU R SHORT & YOU   13

¾ CHAPTER 3
T H I N K L I K E A SHORT F I L M M A K E R   22

¾ CHAPTER 4
W H A T K I N D OF SHORT SHOU L D YOU M A K E ?   31

¾ CHAPTER 5
SE V E N SE C R E T S F OR S UC C E S S   44

¾ CHAPTER 6
M A K I NG YOU R F I L M   56

¾ CHAPTER 7
L AU NC H I NG YOU R SE L F A N D YOU R F I L M   74

¾ CHAPTER 8
PA R L AY I NG YOU R L I T T L E F I L M I N T O A BIG CA R E E R   92

¾ CHAPTER 9
F I F T Y F I L M M A K I NG T I P S   104

¾ C H A P T E R 10
T E N E S SE N T I A L HOW-T O’ S   114

ABOUT THE AUTHOR  138

v
 INTRODUCTION
TO THE
  THIRD
EDITION

Shooting outside in sunny Southern California

S
horter. Faster. Cheaper. If you take nothing else
away from this book, keep these three words in
mind and you’ll do fine.
Shorter: shorts should be short. If you want to make
something long, make a feature. Even if your short is as
short as you think it can be, believe me — it can and
should be shorter.
Faster: don’t wait. Make your short now. Start your
story fast, end it fast. On the set, be quick and decisive.
Have your actors speak fast. Shoot fast. Edit fast. When
in doubt, value fast over slow.
Cheaper: Rapid advances in technology means filmmak-
ing keeps getting cheaper and cheaper. Celebrate the fact

viii
Introduction to the Third Edition
I ntroduction to the T hird E dition

that you can do a lot with very little money. What counts
most is creativity, not how much you spent on your film.
There’s never been a better time to be a short film-
maker. Hard as it is to believe, YouTube didn’t exist when
the first edition of this book was published in 2004.
Kickstarter wasn’t around when the second edition was
written in 2009. Nor were iPads, Instagram, Vine, Snap-
chat, or Periscope.
Technology continues to give us new and exciting tools.
Today you can shoot a six-second or a six-minute film
on your phone and share it with a worldwide audience
instantaneously. That’s the easy part. The hard part is
getting people to pay attention to your film project. As
a point of comparison, on an average day, 792 film and
video projects vie for funding on Kickstarter. It’s hard to
stand out in a crowd.
Let’s say you make a short and get it on iTunes. Con-
gratulations, you might actually be one of the rare few to
make money off your short. But why should an iTunes
customer spend hard-earned money on your little film
instead of the latest Top 10 song, binge-worthy television
series, or Hollywood blockbuster? What about YouTube
and the 300 hours of media that get uploaded to that
site every minute of every day? How can your short be
singled out?
In this era in which anyone with a smartphone can
be a filmmaker, you can’t invest your time, money, and
dreams of glory in the theory that “if you build it, they
will come.” It’s not enough to know how to make a short.
You need to know how to make a short that will attract
viewers and launch a career.

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M A K I N G I T B I G I N S H O R T S      A D E L M A N

The good news is people still love watching short films.

In the age of short attention spans and media glut, a wild,
weird, and / or wonderful short can cause a sensation.
Because technology continues to change at such a rapid
pace, this book
doesn’t drill down
in great detail on
specifics like what
kind of camera you
should use. Having
the latest, greatest
camera doesn’t
matter as much as On the set of fXM Short Beeker’s Crossing / Director: Robbie Consing /
Photographer: Suzanne Hanover
knowing what to
do with the camera and what to put in front of it. This
book helps you focus on what’s really important if you
want to be a successful filmmaker.
How you define being a “successful filmmaker” is up
to you. It can be as simple as making a film you’re proud
of. It can be getting millions of hits online. Or maybe it’s
making a short that turns into a multiple Oscar-winning
feature (e.g., Whiplash). Anything and everything is pos-
sible. Don’t forget that South Park started life as a short
film — and its creators are millionaires many times over
from the subsequent TV series, movie, and merchandising
deals. Talk about making it big with a short!
When I got my job producing short films for fXM:
Movies from Fox (now called FX Movie Channel or FXM),
my bosses at the cable network stated their goal for the
shorts: get them into the Sundance Film Festival. We were
successful four years in a row.

x
Introduction to the Third Edition
I ntroduction to the T hird E dition

By the way, if your goal

is to get into Sundance, you
should know the odds: in 2016,
8,712 shorts were submitted to
the festival and only 72 were
selected. Every year, I preview
the official selections and pick
five as “must-see” to review for
Indiewire. I can tell you, the bar
is high. However, if you pay
attention to the advice con-
tained within the pages of this On the street at the Sundance Film Festival
guide (some of which comes
directly from the Sundance programmers), you’ll have a
leg up over the competition.
The other mandate at the Fox-owned movie channel
was to pick filmmakers who would go on to work for
the studio. I’m extremely proud that that the directors I
hired have gone on to helm many studio and indie fea-
tures including Juno, Blades of Glory, Winter in the Blood,
and The Night of the White Pants. But it’s episodic tele-
vision where they’ve really made their mark, directing
episodes of Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy, Castle, Parenthood,
American Crime, Burn Notice, The Office, The Carmichael
Show, Casual, and other acclaimed series.
I originally decided to write this guide back in 2004
because after producing 19 short films that played over
150 festivals worldwide and won 30+ awards, I learned a
lot about the short film world from my own experiences
and from talking to other filmmakers.

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M A K I N G I T B I G I N S H O R T S      A D E L M A N

Since writing the first and second editions of this book,

I’ve continued to gather insider information about short
filmmaking. Since 2006, I’ve interviewed filmmakers
and written about short films and festivals for Indiewire.
I’ve attended the Sundance ShortsLabs and moderated
filmmaker panels at countless short film festivals. Not
surprisingly, the panel I moderated with actresses-turned-
short-film directors Jennifer Morrison of Once Upon a
Time and House fame and Karen Gillan from Doctor Who
and Guardians of the Galaxy attracted the most attention.
During the panel, Jennifer Morrison revealed her secret
filmmaking weapon to combat having very little prepro-
duction time: she wrote a detailed director’s statement
that she distributed to her crew before production so
everyone involved in the shoot was on the same page.
This guide is filled
with these sorts of
tips I’ve collected
from other filmmak-
ers over the years.
When I first
started producing,
I realized all the
best information
was passed on from
On the red carpet for the UCLA Alumni short film screening
veteran filmmakers
to newcomers. In putting together this guide, I collected
filmmaker war stories and helpful tips to share with you
as you embark on your short filmmaking adventure.
Although my on-set experience has only taken place in
Los Angeles, teaching filmmaking workshops across the

xii
Introduction to the Third Edition
I ntroduction to the T hird E dition

United States, Canada, and New Zealand has exposed me

to a wider perspective. After years of teaching making
and marketing the short at UCLA Extension, I currently
teach UCLAx’s low-budget feature-filmmaking class.
Every quarter my international students remind me that
the filmmaking experience differs slightly from country
to country but the basics are universal. In so many ways,
filmmaking is filmmaking — whether you’re using a Pan-
avision camera in Hollywood or an iPhone in Hong Kong.
As you’ll see, this book contains ten chapters. The first
four are designed to help you make an educated decision
about what kind of short you should make. They cover
what defines a short film, what defines a good short, and
how a film defines its maker. The fifth chapter reveals
the seven golden rules of successful short filmmaking.
Chapter Six begins with story development and ends with
post-production. In it, you’ll discover the two things that
ruin most shorts (bad acting and bad sound) and the two
things that can cripple your film if you hope to do any-
thing commercial with it (lack of proper paperwork and
unlicensed music). The next two chapters focus on what
to do with your finished film and how to use it to launch
your career. The final two chapters conclude with a handy
listing of fifty tips and ten essential “how-to’s” that every
short filmmaker should know.
“Kim not only taught me the nuts and bolts of short
filmmaking, more importantly she gave me a strong sense
of empowerment,” said Lexi Alexander, who was a stu-
dent of mine at UCLA Extension and went on to direct an
Oscar-nominated short, a Charlie Hunnam–starring fea-
ture, and most recently episodes of the TV series Arrow.

xiii
M A K I N G I T B I G I N S H O R T S      A D E L M A N

“Her words, ‘You are the studio,’ kept ringing in my ear

while I was in the middle of shooting the short that set
off my career.”
Although much has changed since earlier editions of
this book were published, my goal for Making It Big in
Shorts remains the same: to empower you to make an
amazing film that will set off your career.
Let’s get started.

xiv
So You Want to Make a Short

CHAPTER 1

SO YOU
WANT
  TO MAKE
A SHORT

Using the Canon Zoom 250 Super-8 camera

THE ONLY PERSON

WHO CAN STOP YOU
IS YOU

C
elebrating his twelfth Academy Award nomina-
tion (for his performance in About Schmidt), Jack
Nicholson confessed a shocking secret desire in
an Interview magazine profile. Jack Nicholson — of Easy
Rider, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and The Shining
fame — wished he could come up with an idea for a great
short film. Even Jack Nicholson is not immune to the lure
of short filmmaking! Of course, in Nicholson’s case, it

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M A K I N G I T B I G I N S H O R T S      A D E L M A N

isn’t surprising. Sure, he’s a big old movie star. But he’s
also a graduate of the Roger Corman school of low-budget
filmmaking, a longtime reader of O. Henry stories, and a
fan of the student films that play occasionally on cable or
public television.
What’s stopping Mr. Nicholson from making a short?
Certainly it isn’t money. And it isn’t because he doesn’t
have any ideas. Jack’s been around long enough to know
that ideas come to you all the time. No, Nicholson won’t
be making a short anytime soon because he has too much
respect for the format. Acknowledging that making a good
short is something to be proud of, Jack is going to stay out
of the pool rather than recklessly jumping in feet first to
see what kind of splash he might make.

COME ON, IT’S EASY

In this digital era, making a short is absurdly easy. First,
you need to come up with an idea. Easy. Next, you have
to round up the necessary people, places, and things to
turn your idea into a reality. Also easy.
The hard part, as Jack Nicholson wisely pointed out, is
making a short you can be proud of. Almost every film-
maker adds an apologetic commentary when showing
their work: “The sound isn’t quite right here,” or “I wish
I had moved the camera more in this sequence,” or “I
know she’s no Meryl Streep, but my sister isn’t half bad
in this scene, don’t you think?”
Forget about minor disappointments. Think big pic-
ture. Just making a short is a big accomplishment. You’ve
crossed the treacherous bridge that many never traverse.
On one side are those who want to be filmmakers but

2
 S o Y ou W ant to M ake a S hort

haven’t yet made anything, on the other side are those

who have made a short and therefore are filmmakers.
“Just do it. Just pick up a camera and start shooting
something.” That is the advice Titanic and Avatar director
James Cameron gave aspiring filmmakers in an online inter-
view. “Don’t wait to be asked because nobody is going to
ask you, and don’t wait for the perfect conditions because
they’ll never be perfect. You just have to take the plunge
and just start shooting something, even if it’s bad. You can
always hide it, but you will have learned something.”
Adam McKay, Academy Award–nominated director of
The Big Short and cofounder of Funny or Die, gave similar
advice at a DGA symposium in 2016. “Shoot. Shoot stuff.
Put it up online. Don’t wait for your opportunity, don’t
wait for your connection. Grab cameras, there are tons
of them now, they’re cheap. The Internet is an amazing
thing. If you’re in some weird town in North Dakota, start
a film festival. Just shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot. Don’t wait
for it to come to you.”
What’s amazing is there is no one to stop you. You
don’t need an official piece of paper such as a license or
a diploma. You don’t need a “greenlight” from the head
of a major motion picture studio. You don’t even need
to be related to Francis Ford Coppola — although that
never hurts.

EVERYONE IS WELCOME TO GIVE IT

A TRY
Are you very old? Very young? Female? Asian? Disabled?
Gay? Great! While Hollywood may practice ageism,
sexism, or racism when it comes to hiring filmmakers

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M A K I N G I T B I G I N S H O R T S      A D E L M A N

to helm studio pictures, there’s nothing stopping anyone

from directing a short. The resulting diversity is one of
the reasons why the most exciting ideas and groundbreak-
ing work happen in short films. In fact, it even works to
your advantage if you are not a heterosexual white male
because there are countless film festivals around the
world which champion films by women, Asians, kids, etc.
So who makes short films? Everyone!

„„ BIG-NAME DIRECTORS
If you are in this league, the rest of us salute you for bring-
ing attention to the short format. Thanks for reminding
the world that shorts are an art form worthy of your time
and effort. You might, however, not enjoy the experience
of making a short. Many feature directors discover that
it’s easier to do a good job on a big studio picture because
you have the money, resources, and screen time to make
it work. Limited screen time requires completely differ-
ent storytelling
muscles. Compari-
sons to writing a
short story versus
a novel (or run-
ning the 100-yard
dash versus a
marathon) apply.
Publicity still from Hotel Chevalier, courtesy of Fox Searchlight
Some filmmak-
Pictures / Director: Wes Anderson
ers delight in the
format — Wes Anderson comes immediately to mind.
Many feature filmmakers direct commercials or take on
commissioned shorts as a way to keep their skills sharp

4
 S o Y ou W ant to M ake a S hort

while earning a big paycheck. In 2015, Martin Scorsese

directed a 15-minute short called The Audition, which
starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Brad
Pitt, with a budget of $70 million. It was paid for by a
chain of casinos.

„„ FEATURE DIRECTORS
You’d think the endgame would be graduating from shorts
to features, but many feature film directors delight in
making shorts. “Although I plan on making many more
features, I’ll always continue making shorts,” says Darius
Clark Monroe, who was named one of Filmmaker maga-
zine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2014. “I love
working within a confined time limit. Most of my shorts
are influenced by dreams, moments, and feelings. The
short format allows me to explore styles and technique in
an unconventional way. It’s also great practice as a direc-
tor. I’m able to discover new things about my voice and
craft. Shorts also force me outside of my comfort zone.
I’m allowed to play without the numerous pressures of
a feature.”

„„ MOVIE STARS
You’d be surprised by the number of Hollywood A-Listers
who have stepped behind the camera to make a short:
Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Aniston, Brie Larson, and Ben
Affleck, to name just a few. If you’re interested in becom-
ing a hyphenate (actor-director), making a short is the
quickest way to test the waters. Hot off his success in No
Country for Old Men, Josh Brolin directed his young daugh-
ter in a 16-minute drama called X. “To me, the whole

5
M A K I N G I T B I G I N S H O R T S      A D E L M A N

reason you do a short is to understand your strengths and

weaknesses. It’s about the storytelling,” Brolin told a Vari-
ety reporter at the HollyShorts Film Festival.

„„ INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS
Sometimes it seems like everyone who works in Hol-
lywood (aka the Industry) wants to direct. If you’re a
working professional, you have the advantage of invalu-
able connections and favors you can call in. Don’t save
them up for later. If you want to make the transition,
now’s the time to capitalize on all the goodwill you’ve
built up over the years. Remember, your colleagues want
you to succeed so that you can hire them when you’re
directing big money features. They want to help you join
the big leagues. Let them.

„„ PEOPLE WITH NO INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS

The actual number of established directors, actors, or
Industry professionals making shorts is very small. The
majority of people picking up a camera are regular every-
day people with a burning passion to make a film. Don’t
think because you live in Nebraska and don’t know
anyone in Hollywood that you can’t make a successful
short film. If you review the list of filmmakers who get
their shorts into the Sundance Film Festival, you’ll be
amazed by how many of them you’ve never heard of.
Because they’re regular people with no Hollywood con-
nections. People just like you. YouTube and social media
have made the entire exhibition process much more dem-
ocratic, where anyone anywhere can film something and

6
 S o Y ou W ant to M ake a S hort

share it with the

world within min-
utes. Why not join
the ranks?

„„ STUDENTS
Students still make
up a large percent-
age of the short
Students attending UCLA Extension filmmaking class
filmmaking popu-
lation. USC graduate David Birdsell says, “It’s tough to
break into filmmaking, to just decide, ‘I’m going to be
a professional filmmaker!’ If you go to film school, you
immediately are in this little community of aspiring film-
makers. You have access to your fellow students and the
equipment. You’re also learning from each other and
helping each other on projects. So it’s not as lonely and
daunting a prospect.”

THE MAJOR STUMBLING BLOCKS

TO MAKING SHORT FILMS
If it’s so easy to make a film and anyone can do it, why
aren’t millions of shorts being made every year? The
answer is lack of motivation — and money.
Motivation shouldn’t be your problem. You’ve invested
in reading this book, and I have full confidence you’ll
make a film not long after you turn the last page.
Money is a hurdle that you can overcome by making
something that doesn’t require a big cash outlay.
U.K.-based director Ben Aston made a five-minute Chat­
Roulette-based short Russian Roulette for under £50 (about

7
M A K I N G I T B I G I N S H O R T S      A D E L M A N

$72 American) while in preproduction for another film.

“Proof that the best effect your astro-short will ever need
is a smart writer (Oli Fenton) and great actors (Bec Hill,
Stewart Lockwood),” says Aston.
The truth is moviemaking at all levels — from the most
guerilla indie shoots to the most bloated Hollywood block-
busters — requires some funding. Although you will learn
as you make your way through this book that the short
filmmaker’s favorite word is “free,” the inescapable fact
remains that it does cost money to make and market a
successful short film. The good news is it doesn’t take
nearly as much money as it takes to make and market
a feature.
The reality is how much money you need to make a
short depends on (a) the nature of your project, (b) how
much you can get for free, and (c) how much you are
willing to spend. If you can get away with it, don’t spend
anything. Cheap is not a bad word. Beg, borrow, and
steal. Cash in every favor owed. Barter services. Raise
money on Kickstarter. Pass the hat at parties. Do anything
you can do to make your film. After all, you want to be a
short filmmaker, don’t you?

SURVEY THE FIELD

Too many filmmakers cling to the outdated idea that to
be successful they have to make a short that could be
mistaken for a feature film. In their minds, that means 30
minutes (or longer), with Hollywood-quality production
value. Certainly, amazing work has been done in the 20-to-
50-minute range. A film like Sparks — 24 minutes long,
based on an Elmore Leonard short story, starring Carla

8
 S o Y ou W ant to M ake a S hort

Gugino, and directed by

Joseph Gordon-Levitt —
feels like a mini-feature.
When asked at a screen-
ing how he got the
money to fund his
expensive-looking pro- Publicity still from Sparks, courtesy of Wholphin /
duction, Gordon-Levitt Director: Joseph Gordon-Levitt

mumbled, “Well, I was on a sitcom as a kid.”

It’s wrong to assume a “good” film has to be a mini-­
feature. Not only are half-hour pieces financially daunting,
they aren’t necessarily the best use of the format. Before
you begin thinking about making your own masterpiece,
do yourself a favor and check out what other filmmakers
have done. You’ll discover that with a little innovation
and a lot of creativity, you can make a film that will blow
everyone away, and it doesn’t have to be more than a few
minutes long.

WHAT DEFINES A SHORT

Because shorts can incorporate so many different kinds
of filmmaking (narrative, experimental, live-action, ani-
mation, documentary, mixed media, etc.), the best way
to define a short is by running time. The Academy of
Motion Picture Arts & Sciences classifies a short film
as “an original motion picture that has a running time
of not more than 40 minutes including all credits.” The
Sundance Film Festival application spells out a running
time of 50 minutes or less, including credits. The Screen
Actors Guild defines a short to be under 35 minutes and
under $50,000.

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M A K I N G I T B I G I N S H O R T S      A D E L M A N

Practically speaking,
anything over 20 min-
utes is on the long side.
Those films are some-
times jokingly called
“mediums.” For festivals,
online, television, and
even potential theatrical Publicity still from Devil Doll, courtesy of Jarl Olsen /
distribution, shorter is Director: Jarl Olsen / Photographer: Phil Parmet
definitely better.
In my years of reviewing shorts for Indiewire, I’ve real-
ized the majority of shorts that really worked had a running
time of 12 minutes. When I was making shorts for Fox’s
movie channel, we aimed for 10 minutes or less. At that
time, there was an American short that played in competi-
tion at Cannes called Devil Doll — it was 50 seconds long.

SEE FOR YOURSELF

To check out what filmmakers are doing right now, go to
film festivals, local short film showcases, the iTunes short
film homepage, VOD, Amazon, YouTube, Vimeo, Funny
or Die, or anywhere that plays shorts.
As far as festivals go, you’ll discover the longer films
are few and ghettoized in short film programs. The
15-minutes-or-less films are plentiful and sometimes get
to play in front of the star-studded premieres or highly
anticipated competition features.
Many things will happen as you begin to view a wide
variety of films. You’ll see many terrible shorts, which will
inspire you in an “I can do much better than that!” way.
You’ll also see amazing work that will make you aspire

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 S o Y ou W ant to M ake a S hort

to be equally great. On the downside, it’s easy to get

depressed when you realize many filmmakers have access
to more money and better resources than you do. How
can you compete? Easy answer: by making something
unique. Remember, everyone sees top-of-the-line filmmak-
ing every day in feature films and on television series. No
one expects your little short to be in that same league.
What viewers want to see is the unexpectedly wonderful
and weird stuff that they can only see in shorts.
“Twists!” says short film producer Joey Horvitz, who
has been on the festival circuit with a series of shorts
produced by the Lexus car company and the Weinstein
Company. “You see a lot of twists in short films because
the filmmakers only have a little bit of time to deliver a
story.” Australian filmmaker Nash Edgerton is the king
of the twists, with his shorts Spider and Bear piling on
one shocking plot turn immediately after another. Horvitz
cautions filmmak-
ers not to hang
everything on the
twist. “Support that
twist with great
character develop-
ment, great story
development, and
everything else that
a movie needs.” Filming princesses in suburbia

“What I like best about short films is the world that

they take me to,” says Sundance Film Festival Director
of Programming Trevor Groth. “People take chances with
shorts that they can’t do with features. You’ll see stuff

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M A K I N G I T B I G I N S H O R T S      A D E L M A N

that you couldn’t imagine, that you never thought you’d

see on film, and there it is!”
“Shorts can be really weird,” summed up Kung Fu
Panda 3 director Jennifer Yuh Nelson when hosting a
screening of Oscar nominated shorts in 2016. “Everyone I
know wants to make a short.”

RECAP
•• Making a short is something to be proud of. Just ask
Jack Nicholson. The hard part is making a good short.

•• Everyone makes shorts — famous directors, movie stars,

entertainment industry professionals, feature filmmak-
ers, students, and regular folk from all over the world.

•• No one can stop you from becoming a filmmaker. All

you need is motivation and money.

•• Shorts can range from less than a minute to less than 50

minutes. Shorter is better. Twelve minutes seems to be
the sweet spot for festival films. Ten minutes or less is
something to aim for.

•• Pick up a camera and shoot something. Make something

weird and unique. Title the piece. Congratulations, you
are now a filmmaker.

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Your Short & You

CHAPTER 2

YOUR
SHORT &
  YOU

Filmmaker with the poster for her short film at the

American Cinematheque’s 11th Annual Focus on
Female Directors screening

WHAT YOU CREATE DEFINES YOU

E
very year I give a PowerPoint presentation to
soon-to-graduate students at the USC School of
Cinematic Arts during Career Week. The topic:
the difference between “you” and “your short.”
It’s important to remember that the film you make
brands you. Shorts are a way of establishing your persona

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M A K I N G I T B I G I N S H O R T S      A D E L M A N

as a filmmaker. Filmmaker David Birdsell made a short

featuring a pug that got a lot of Industry attention; Hol-
lywood studio executives offered him projects featuring
canines. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t particularly inter-
ested in dogs. He was stamped “makes films with dogs.” I
know another filmmaker whose debut short was basically
a joke put on film. She was dismayed when no one took
her feature drama script seriously.
“If you’re making shorts to get into features, make a
film that is similar in tone and spirit to the feature you
want to make,” says writer-director Amy Talkington. “That
is so incredibly important. I never stopped and said, ‘I
want to do films about young people’ — that’s just what
I did. I made several shorts about teenagers. So that’s
who I am. That’s the kind of projects people bring to me.
Because I’m making films about young people. And that’s
fine. But an intelligent person who is shaping her career
might stop and think about it, and create a short similar
in tone to her first feature script. That’s a problem that
I’ve had with a feature script that I’ve recently gone out
with. They say, ‘Yeah, we see she’s a great filmmaker,
and it’s a great script, but she hasn’t made a film that
really reflects this tone.’ And I just want to strangle them!
Because, look, you can see that I’ve nailed four or five dif-
ferent tones, why wouldn’t I be able to nail this one?! But
that’s what they say. They really need to see it. So ideally
that’s what you go for.”

STOP, LOOK, LISTEN

Before you begin your filmmaking career, stop and make
an assessment of who you are as a person and where you

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 Y our S hort & Y ou

want to go as a filmmaker. Once you know that (and that’s

big!), look at what you actually can do.
First, list five feature films you wished you had made.
What do they have in common? This exercise should help
define your road-
map. If you wanted
to make a film simi-
lar to those films,
what would you
need? If you like
dramatic charac-
ter pieces, you’ll
need a strong story, On the set of fXM Short Birthday / Director: Greg Brooker /
good dialogue, and Photographer: Sylvia Abumuhor
talented actors. If you like war movies, the local army sur-
plus supply store will provide you with a treasure trove
of props and costumes.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YOU

AND YOUR SHORT
Similar to how Dr. Frankenstein and his monster are
so intertwined that most people think the monster is
called Frankenstein, a film and its maker are irrevocably
bound together.

YOU: Have talent

YOUR SHORT: Is a demonstration of that talent
No one will hire you if they don’t know what you can
do. They need to see your work. And good work begets
work. Many years ago Vin Diesel wrote / directed / starred
in a 20-minute short called Multi-Facial that allowed him

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M A K I N G I T B I G I N S H O R T S      A D E L M A N

to show off his acting chops. He credits the short for get-
ting him cast in his big break, Steven Spielberg’s Saving
Private Ryan. Another Spielberg story: A young U.K. film-
maker named James Curran posted his own version of
the Tintin title sequence on Vimeo. “Spielberg spotted it,
called him up, and hired him,” reports Vimeo Festival +
Awards Director Jeremy Boxer.
It’s not just actors and directors who demo their talent
in shorts. Writers get gigs off shorts, as do producers
and crew.

YOU: Have a unique voice

YOUR SHORT: Is an expression of that voice
Don’t regurgitate what you’ve seen before. We don’t
need more Quentin Tarantino or Wes Anderson wan-
nabes. It’s your unique voice (or vision) that will get
you attention.
“We are constantly looking for new talent, new voices,
doing things in a stylistically different way,” says Sun-
dance Film Festival Senior Programmer Kim Yutani. She
uses as an example the web series Drunk History, an epi-
sode of which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
“Try to figure out who you are as an artist and what you
uniquely have to offer the world,” Jay Duplass reminded
filmmakers at a Sundance ShortsLab.
Animators, in particular, need to make their own mark.
Whether it’s the animation style employed or the type
of story told, it’s that “voice” that attracts attention and
future work. Norwegian-born Canadian animator Torill
Kove has both a distinct animation style and narrative
voice, which has resulted in two Oscar nominations (My

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 Y our S hort & Y ou

Grandmother Ironed
the King’s Shirts and
Me and My Mouton)
and one win (The
Danish Poet).
Speaking of being
unique, try to come
up with a unique Board Publicity still from The Danish Poet, courtesy of the National Film
of Canada / Director: Torill Kove

title for your short.

You’re creative, your short’s title should reflect this. It also
helps your short stand out from the crowd. The wonder-
ful thing about short film titles (as opposed to feature film
titles) is there is no fear of having one so long that it can’t
fit on the movie theater marquee — because short film titles
never appear on marquees! Your title can be as long and as
funky as you want. In fact, a unique title sparks interest.
Would you want to see a 15-minute-long short called I Killed
My Lesbian Wife, Hung Her on a Meat Hook, and Now I Have
a Three-Picture Deal at Disney? Probably so. And I didn’t
even have to tell you that Ben Affleck directed it. Not that
your title has to be a block long. It just has to be memo-
rable. Noah Edelson made a short in which a kid spends the
first minute of the film jumping up and down on a manhole
cover chanting “78.” Noah called the piece 78. Andrew Busti
and Sebastian del Castillo made a super cool experimental
film consisting of faces and hands pressed against the Xerox
machine glass. The title deleriouspink (delirious intentionally
spelled wrong) makes that short even more memorable.
Having a unique title also helps with hashtag pro-
motion of your film. For example, I once donated to a
Kickstarter short film project, Snow. I usually tweet about

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M A K I N G I T B I G I N S H O R T S      A D E L M A N

my donation to help the filmmakers spread the word, but

#Snow gets lost in the Twitterverse. Something like, “I
donated to #deleriouspink — won’t you?” makes much
more impact.

YOU: Have a persona

YOUR SHORT: Should be not inconsistent with your
persona
Your short does not have to directly mirror your per-
sona, but it shouldn’t be diametrically opposed. Think
about Spike Lee. Now watch his NYU student film Joe’s
Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads on YouTube. They go
together, right? Watch Tim Burton’s CalArts student films.
You’d expect someone who looks and talks like Tim Burton
to have made those. Sofia Coppola’s Lick the Star, a stylish
14-minute black-and-white film about a clique of school-
girls, reeks of the woman who is Marc Jacobs’s muse.
Again, your film doesn’t have to reflect exactly who
you are. You can be a biker chick who makes Star Wars
parody films. Just be aware that people viewing your
film will have preconceived notions about you based on
your film.

YOU: Have a certain buzz as a filmmaker

YOUR SHORT: Creates or amplifies that buzz
Every year I co-program an assortment of female-directed
shorts for the American Cinematheque. In 2013, we
showed shorts by Julie Delpy, Ondi Timoner, Jill Soloway,
and Brie Larson. Soloway had not yet created Transparent,
and Larson was three years away from winning her Oscar
for Room. Did their shorts grease their way to their sub-
sequent success? They were both working professionals

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 Y our S hort & Y ou

before making their

shorts. But having
their shorts debut at
Sundance certainly
didn’t decrease their
profile.
All filmmakers
have a certain level
of buzz about them.
Before you make Filmmakers at American Cinematheque’s 8th Annual Focus on
a film, you have the Female Directors screening
buzz of potential. Your future looks bright — until proven
otherwise.
Students also have a bright future ahead of them, with
the added endorsement of an institution selecting them
over many other applicants and devoting resources to edu-
cating them. In Los Angeles, the Industry showcases of
USC, UCLA, AFI, LMU, CalArts, and Chapman student
films are packed with executives and agents scouting the
next generation of filmmakers.
Students’ profiles can be raised higher if their film wins
a Student Academy Award. John Lasseter, Pete Docter,
Robert Zemeckis, Trey Parker, and Spike Lee all first made
their mark that way.
Film festivals selecting your short gives you and your film
a resounding stamp of approval. Someone besides your mom
thinks you’re talented. Make sure to share your good news
with everyone. This is how buzz grows. You win an award —
any award from any festival — you have now escalated to
being an #AwardWinningFilmmaker. Take a victory lap and
spread the word around all your social media accounts.

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YOU: Know what you want to do next

YOUR SHORT: Not necessarily tied to what you want to
do next, but it should help people understand what you’re
capable of doing with your next project
Some people make shorts with the intention of making
the feature version of the short next. What you want to do
next doesn’t have to be directly tied to your short, but you
do need to have something you want to do next. People
will see your short, appreciate your talent, and want to
help you on the next step in your career. If you don’t have
a vision for what you want to do next, it’s hard for that
to materialize.
“Everyone’s going to ask you what you’re working
on next,” says Sharon Badal, who is the short film pro-
grammer for the Tribeca Film Festival. “They want to
know what you have ‘in development.’” Jim Cummings
made a single-shot comedy, Thunder Road, which won
the 2016 Sundance Grand Jury Prize. He used the format
as a proof of concept, and a
company called Full Screen
paid him $150,000 to make
half a dozen more shorts in
that style.
It may take longer than
you expect to get to the stage
where you get to make the
kind of films you originally
listed out as “I wish I made
these.” At least you’re doing
everything you can to set off Filmmaker with her director of photography and
her film print at the American Cinematheque’s
on the right path. 3rd Annual Focus on Female Directors screening

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 Y our S hort & Y ou

RECAP
•• Work begets work. By making a short, you are making
opportunities come to be.

•• Your work brands you as a filmmaker. Make sure it’s a

brand that helps you rather than hinders you.

•• Everything about your short should reflect your creativ-

ity, especially the title.

•• Having a unique voice will attract notice.

•• Even before you make a film, you have a level of buzz

as a filmmaker.

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