Basic Tips for a Better Short Film

Basic Tips for a Better Short Film


Prepare in advance

Have backup plans to your backup plans. Having a solid prep and battle plan will let you sleep well the night before your first day shooting, and give you the confidence you need to do your job. If you’re prepared and you know what you need, you’ll be able to handle it.

Focus on Performance

At the end of the day, the greatest resource you’ll have to make your short successful is a motivated and talented cast. While important, don’t let technical craft and aesthetics distract you from the most important thing you should be worried about: is your actor telling the story the best way he can? Are you giving him the resources he needs to do so? That’s your job. Let your crew worry about the other things, that’s why you recruited people smarter than you in those positions to begin with

Secure a Dedicated Support System

My suggestion is to have, at the very least, one producer that helps you manage the technical/creative aspects of film making  and one to oversee general resource and logistical management. Best way to hire people is on intern-ship  get students from film making school but Make sure you get along with them very well, they’re going to be your emotional and logistical foundation during the entire process. You have to trust your producers, otherwise you’ll be up all night with a worry-ape slugging away at your chest.”

Remember, It’s a Short Film

Know what you’re trying to say, and say it in as concise of a manner as you can. My rule, keep it under fifteen minutes. Ten is better. A short should be, in my mind, under ten minutes and you’ve got to tell a beginning, middle, and end of a story. I don’t see the point in making a short film that’s supposed to tell part of a different story unless it’s episodic. Shorts fail when they treat the medium as a lesser version of a feature. I don’t want to see the first act of a feature film as a 30 minute short. Just get your shit together and make the feature