Call for Entries

The Munich International Short Film Festival focuses on exploring and introducing
extraordinary short films from countries all over the world with the hope of
assisting up-and-coming filmmakers on the path to making quality, feature-length
films. From June 17 - 23, the 5th edition of the MUNICH INTERNATIONAL short film
festival will showcase the world's contemporary short films at the historical Gloria
Filmpalast in the heart of the Bavarian capitol.

Deadline: March 14

For more information, please visit http://www.muc-intl.de/

Oscar predictions

The LA Times has some predictions for what is going to win Best Live Action Short Film at this year's Oscars. They're going with Kavi, which they describe as a "mini- Slumdog Millionaire." Personally, I enjoyed The New Tenants, a dark comedy shot right here in New York City over the course of five days. What's your prediction?

Call for Submissions: Young Directors Awards

The Commercial Film Producers of Europe (CFP-E) and Shots magazine announce the opening of submissions for the 12th annual Young Director Award (YDA).

Divided into two sections (European and non-European), the YDA includes 5 categories:
Broadcast commercials
Web films
Branded short films
Film school commercials
Test commercials

You can enter your film online at: www.youngdirectoraward.com

Entry Deadline: April 15th, 2010

For additional information, visit their website, or e-mail Hannes Jakobsen at hannes@youngdirectoraward.dk

Call for Submissions: Aesthetica

Call for Entries: Aesthetica International Short Film Competition

Aesthetica Magazine

The Aesthetica Short Film Competition is now open for entries. Leading the search for filmmakers who are driving the genre of short film forward through inspirational and innovative works the competition provides an opportunity for both new and experienced filmmakers to have their work broadcast to an international audience. All genres of film are being accepted: drama, artists’ film, documentary, music video, animation, satire and comedy.

This award offers winners and runners-up a fantastic international prize package, including:

• Screenings of your film at: The National Media Museum (Bradford, UK), Rushes Soho Shorts Film Festival (London, UK), Glasgow Film Festival (Scotland), Kerry Film Festival (Ireland), Project Space (Leeds, UK) and on the Aesthetica website.
• £500 (apx$800 first prize, £250 (apx $400) runner-up.
• 12 months membership with Shooting People.
• Collection of film books from Wallflower Press.
• Winner and runners-up to be included on a DVD that will go to Aesthetica's readers.

Films should be up to 25 minutes long.

Deadline: 30 April

For more information, visit: http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/film_submissions.htm

More Calls for Entry

Canadian Short Screenplay Competition

Enter your 1-15 minute screenplay (no more than 15 minutes in length). The winning script will be produced by Year of the Skunk Productions.

Visit http://www.screenplay-competition.com/ for more information.

Half-time Deadline is November 30th.
Final Deadline is December 31st.

L.A. Comedy Shorts Film Festival

Submit your short comedic film (under 30 minutes) to the L.A. Comedy Shorts Film Festival. The L.A. Comedy Shorts Film Festival is the largest comedy film festival in the U.S. Moviemaker Magazine's recently named it one of “25 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee.”

Visit http://www.lacomedyshorts.com/lacs2010/about.htm for more information.

Absolute last Deadline: December 18th

Tips: Raising Money for your Short Film

So you had an idea and now you've written a screenplay, but you need money to continue to make your short film.

The good news is, digital technology has made filmmaking a more accessible medium. You don't actually need film to make your film. You can get HD Camcorders at every price point-- some prosumer cameras can be found for as little as $1300. So, although it would be great to have access to one, you don't need to spend $40,000 on a Red kit to make a quality movie.

What's more important is hiring a quality crew, beginning with a knowledgeable and experienced Director of Photography (DP). A skilled cinematographer with a low-end camcorder will always capture much better video than a non-skilled person with the most expensive camcorder. Your DP should be able to help you gather other crew members. But, capable crews cost money. And besides the crew, you'll also need to budget for actors, locations, equipment, editing and postproduction. Indeed, even a low budget film has some budget.

With that in mind, here are some tips for raising money for your film:

Find Investors
You may be able to find people who will front you money to make your film. The best investors will be passionate about your potential film, because they are film enthusiasts or they are personally invested in its subject, or they simply believe in you. If, instead, they are looking for a bottom-line profit, you should encourage them to go elsewhere.

Even those who believe in you most will want to see a clear outline of how you plan to make your short movie. Who is making it? How much will it cost? What is the audience? How will it be shot? How are you trying to distribute it? Jerry Kobler has some excellent pointers for writing a business plan for your independent film in his article on MovieMaker.com.

Then, make sure you involve your investors in the process: ask them if they'd like to be extras in the film. Invite them to preview screenings. Update them about your progress via e-mail newsletters. Thank them. They should feel that they are a part of something important and special, even if it doesn't ultimately generate them money.

And, make sure you are doing everything legally. From Reel to Deal by Dov S-S Simens gives an overview of all of the legal, business and insurance issues involved with filmmaking and provides a list of resources... You may want to call in a favor with a friend who is a lawyer.

And speaking of favors, that brings us to our next tip:

Call in some favors
Funding your short film is not simply about raising money; it's also about saving money. One way you can do this is to cash in on any favors owed to you. Do you know someone with an apartment that would be a perfect set for dinner party scene? Does your friend have a van she'd be willing to let you borrow to haul equipment? Will your brother make some of his fantastic sandwiches for the cast and crew to eat on days when you're shooting? Is your cousin a musician who could provide you with a royalty-free soundtrack? Remind your friends about how you helped them move/ gave them a free place to stay/ photographed their wedding for free/ brought them soup when they were sick or whatever it is you did, and ask them to return the favor. Or, if you haven't been a particularly generous friend, see if you can barter something now for their services: photoshop lessons, office work, and homemade dinners are all valuable commodities. And, remember, give them credit in the film's credits. A thank you on the screen goes a long way.

Still need money? Try to:

Get a Grant
Look for grants that are more specific to you or your projects. Grants can be location-specific, gender-specific, ethnicity-specific or subject-specific. The New York Foundation for the Arts has an amazingly comprehensive directory, NYFA Source, for grants, professional development programs, equipment access, etc.

When writing your grant proposal, as with your investors' packet, clearly define your project.

If possible, contact the granters: request guidelines and inquire about their decision process.

Submit everything so that it is formatted exactly as they ask for it, and make sure you submit on time. Don't give the granting organization a reason to immediately discard your application.

Finally, Don't get discouraged.
Raising the money for your film is one of the most difficult aspects of filmmaking, and even if your budget of $5,000 is small compared with the Lord of the Rings budget of $270 million, that $5000 can still feel daunting when you aren't sure where you're going to get it. Take solace in the fact that if you can get through the fund-raising, you've gotten though the hardest part. The actual filmmaking will be cake.

Good luck!

Tips: Your Short Screenplay

So you have an idea... Now how do you transform it into a short film? The first step is to write a screenplay. But even before you do that:

Map it out.
Outlines and storyboards are key to helping you write your script. You should know your beginning, middle and end before you begin writing. What's more, the elements laid out in the beginning should be clear in the film's ending; they should have purpose.

Now you're ready to write. Make sure you:
Format your screenplay correctly.
There is a particular style that is used for screenwriting. Final Draft is a program that will help you to format your screenplay to the industry standard.

Keep your desired length in mind.
Typically, each page of a screenplay translates to one minute of film. So, the screenplay for a feature film might be 90-110 pages.

But your short film will probably be 5-20 minutes long. It could even be as short as 1 minute! That means that there is no time for subplots and complicated plot twists. This brings us to our next tip:

Create a strong opening scene.
Your opening scene will need to quickly set the story up: it needs to introduce the characters and communicate the conflict. In Bob Giraldi's short film, Second Guessing Grandma, the first line of dialogue is "You shouldn't have told her." This immediately establishes that the son has told his grandmother something difficult (that he's gay), and that this film will deal with the consequences of that.

Now you're into the meat of the story. You'll need to:

Write your remaining scenes. Easier said than done. Economy is integral to writing scenes for a short film, so remember, a good scene is dramatic; it moves the story forward; it reveals something new and important. In short, each of your scenes should be engaging and purposeful.

Don't try to write the shots.
You're screenplay shouldn't be filled with directions like, "Close-up" or "The camera pans out." Instead, describe your action well enough that the kind of shot needed should be obvious, and trust your director of photography to make the right call. He or she might even come up with a shot that you hadn't thought of, but that better serves the story.

Don't write long dialogues, or worse, monologues for your characters.
The actions of the character are often far more meaningful than what they say. One of my favorite short films, Spike Jonze's How They Get There has almost no dialogue. But there's meaningful interaction between the characters that establishes a rapport between them and builds up to the dramatic conclusion. All in under two and a half minutes.

So you have an idea? Well now get to it-- write that screenplay!

The Economy of Short Film

Last night, I met with six of our program's faculty to converse about filmmaking in general, and specifically, short filmmaking. As I listened to the members of the group that included working screenwriters, a film historian, an editor, an assistant director, a director and producer, discuss what made the short film a unique and often particularly challenging genre, the word, "economy" came to mind. That is, the short film requires an economy of words, of shots, of locations, of cuts, and also, in part because of this, the short film also becomes an economic vehicle for the emerging or independent filmmaker.

Thomas Jefferson declared, "The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do." Indeed, the short film's screenwriter must heed this advice. Each page of a screenplay translates to about a minute of film. Furthermore, the attention to time is not the sole responsibility of the screenwriter, but also of the director, the cameraman, and the editor. Not only should each word of dialogue be pertinent, but so too should each second of each shot. Superfluity cannot be afforded.

And, although the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences classifies the short subject as any film lasting fewer than forty minutes, most strive to make shorts that are half or even a quarter that length. Spielzeuglad (Toyland), which won an Oscar in 2009 for best Live Action Short Film was just fourteen minutes. Cutlass, Kate Hudson's short that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival was sixteen minutes. Bob Giraldi's Second Guessing Grandma has a running time of just under ten minutes.

This is especially true today, as the short film has transitioned from elite arthouse fare, whose main method of distribution was through small festivals, to populist entertainment that can be created by anyone with video capability, and is distributed on the internet. In fact, although short film festivals, and categories for shorts in mainstream film festivals are more popular than ever, it is YouTube, the iPhone, PDAs, and PSPs that have made the genre distinctly relevent. These small screens are an ideal viewing place for small films: a viewer can watch a short on his morning commute, or while waiting in line for a coffee. He can easily show it to friends-- there is a sense of immediacy to the short film. Furthermore, as we become increasingly pressed for time and saturated with media, a fifteen, or ten, or five-minute narrative is the limit for many people's meaningful consumption.

Indeed, in an era where every resource, including materials, energy, conversation, time, and money, is valuable, shorter is better.

Information Session

We've just scheduled an information session about the program for prospective students on October 24th. Exact time and location to be determined...